William Dixon Manuscript - The Music

The Music

In this manuscript was found a large body of music, of considerable sophistication, readily playable on either Scottish Smallpipes or Border Pipes. The musical style is very different from Highland pipe music, despite the many common features of the instruments. In particular, there is no explicitly prescribed ornamentation anywhere, only an occasional direction to ornament certain notes. In contrast, Highland pipe music usually specifies complex patterns of grace notes in detail. Further, the Dixon music tends to avoid repeated notes, and to move predominantly stepwise or in thirds rather than in wider intervals.

The tunes form a substantial and varied repertoire. Some of them are known in other versions in the Northumbrian and the Lowland Scottish traditions - but some of the tunes are not known elsewhere, and all the Dixon versions are distinct from their known parallels. Besides one short minuet, and one song-tune with a pair of variations, there is a selection of dance-music in different rhythms. These include

• 13 reels, rants or common-time hornpipes, in 4/4 or 2/2,
• 10 jigs, in 6/4,
• 6 triple time hornpipes, in 3/2,
• 9 tunes in compound triple time, 'slip jigs', in 9/4.

The time signatures are not given explicitly, but can be deduced from the melodic patterns and bar-lengths. In the manuscript most of the triple-time hornpipes and some slip-jigs are misnotated, with bar lengths of respectively of 4 or 6 crotchets, when 6 or 9 would follow the melodic patterns. The time signatures have been corrected to 3/2 and 9/4 in the transcription. Such misnotation was fairly common at the time, perhaps for ease of reading. The rhythms are not always straightforward - the 3/2 hornpipes show the characteristic syncopation of the form, generally across the second beat in even numbered bars. As in most other Northumbrian examples of 3/2 hornpipes, the syncopated note is not tied, but a pair of repeated notes. Some strains in tunes of other types, such as 6/4 and 9/4 jigs, are also syncopated.

Dick Hensold has argued that the collection can be split into two distinct parts, one family consisting of the single octave tunes, many corresponding to known Northumbrian smallpipe tunes, or similar in style to known examples of these, while the other, somewhat larger, group contains tunes which use the full nine-note melodic range of a nine-note chanter, with its greater harmonic possibilities. In particular, these use the subtonic chord, G major in Matt Seattle’s transcription. Most of the tunes in either group have strains based on two chords, typically G major and A major for the nine-note tunes, but several, notably "Dorrington", are significantly richer, with one of the two chords varying from strain to strain.

One tune from the smallpipe group, Gingling Geordie, has been placed online at the Dragonfly Music website, at http://www.dragonflymusic.co.uk/tunes/gingling_geordie.pdf. It is a good illustration of the style and inventiveness of the Dixon tunes, and it compares well with later versions. Several of these, and two 17th century versions, can be found on the FARNE archive; more modern versions, since its use as an election song in 1774, have been known as Wylam Away. It is worth briefly discussing the musical form of the dance tunes - they are all (except for a single minuet) 'long variation sets'; sets of four or more strains, based on the same underlying harmonic pattern as the first, (typically only 2 chords), and all variations ending in a common melodic 'tag'. The tags of different tunes are clearly recognisable, and the most important feature of the harmonic scheme is how the underlying chords fit with the drones, and the rhythm of the resulting concord and dissonance. As an example, in Gingling Geordie, typically for smallpipe tunes, the underlying chords are the tonic, A major, and supertonic, B minor - the latter is dissonant against drones sounding in A, and here each strain reaches this chord at its midpoint.

Melodically, strains are constructed from simple standard motifs, maybe repeated, in Gingling Geordie these lead into the supertonic at the end of the first 2-bar phrase, and the tag in the tonic at the end. It should be stressed that in some tunes the harmonic pattern is shifted, so the tonic chord does not necessarily fall at the end. A lot of the melodic motifs are 'floating' in that they are used in several different tunes - perhaps at different pitches to fit a different harmony. The importance of this structure to the player is that these motifs lie well under the fingers on Border Pipes, so the music is technically not as difficult as it sounds, either to play or to learn. The effect for the listener, though, is one of structured improvisation.