The Longest Story Ever Told in Western Europe

On the 29th of January 1949, Calum Maclean began to record the longest story ever told in Western Europe from the recitation of Angus Barrach MacMillan. Maclean noted in his diary in Scottish Gaelic but here given in translation:                               

Around eight o’clock, I went over to Angus MacMillan’s house and I decided to record a story from Angus MacMillan tonight. I haven’t recorded anything yet since coming back. We began on Alasdair Mac a’ Cheàird (Alasdair, son of the Caird), a story about a lad that a drover purchased from the cairds. I’ve never heard this story at all before. And it’s quite long. We recorded seven cylinders worth of it in any case…

 

Then on the 2nd of February, a further instalment was recorded:

 

We began on the story, Alasdair Mac a’ Cheàird (Alasdair, son of the Caird) and we recorded another ten cylinders. The story isn’t even half-way through yet. Angus was in a good mood tonight. He’s keeping well these days but I know that he isn’t working as usual. It was nearly midnight by the time I got home.

 

Three days later, on the 5th of February yet more of the story was recorded:

 

Angus and I began on the story Alasdair Mac a’ Cheàird (Alasdair, son of the Caird). We recorded another eight cylinders and it now consists of twenty-five. The story isn’t finished yet.

 

The next day, after attending Mass, Maclean made his way as usual to Griminish and a further instalment of the story was then recorded:

 

Angus and I were in the living room and we had a big night of stories. He began Alasdair Mac a’ Cheàird (Alasdair, son of the Caird) again and he recorded another dozen cylinders tonight. It now consists of thirty-seven cylinders.

 

And on the 8th of February the final instalment of the story was then recorded:

 

Tonight Angus finished the story Alasdair Mac a’ Cheàird (Alasdair, son of the Caird). This is the longest story he has so far told. We spent five nights on it, a while each night. I don’t believe he has another story as long as that. The story itself is good.

 

Back in Raasay, it took Calum over a week to transcribe the story which is around 68,000 words in length. Hitherto, the longest story to have been recorded was Leigheas Cas Ó Céin (The Healing of Kane’s Leg) standing at 30,000 words. This portmanteau story was collected by John Francis Campbell and Hector MacLean in 1871 from the recitation of an Islayman, Lachlan MacNeill, a shoemaker and fiddler then staying in Paisley.

Maclean began the laborious task of transcribing on the 22nd of March:

 

I began on the Angus MacMillan’s long story, Alasdair Mac a’ Cheàird (Alasdair, son of the Caird). This is the longest story that Angus MacMillan has yet told. It consists of forty-four cylinders.

 

For the next fortnight Maclean continued to transcribe the story until he finally completed it on the 6th of April (NFC 1155: 243–306; 309–408; 411–486):

 

I began transcribing this morning around ten o’clock and worked on Alasdair Mac a’ Cheàird (Alexander, son of the Caird). I continued working on that until around four o’clock in the afternoon when I finished the story. This story consists of two-hundred and forty pages, the longest story that I’ve written down yet from Angus MacMillan, the longest story I’ve ever transcribed.

 

Maclean knew better than most that transcription was sheer drudgery and understandably at times he grew very tired of such a mundane task. He knew, nonetheless, that the fieldwork he was undertaking would be beneficial for it allowed a permanent record of fast-dying traditions to be kept for future generations. The recording was contained on forty-four wax cylinders and so roughly speaking there were 1,500 words recorded on each one. MacMillan recited the story at around 126 words per minute. Interestingly enough, publishers recommend talking books to be voiced between 150 and 160 words per minute. It took Maclean around 103½ hours (or 6183 minutes) to completely transcribe the story and so his transcription rate was around 660 words per hour and therefore he was transcribing this particular story at around 11 words per minute.

 

Reminiscing to Alan Lomax about Angus MacMillan and one of the longest tales that he had ever recorded, Calum Maclean had the following to say:

 

Old Angus MacMillan was a storyteller with whom I worked in Uist for three years. I thought I would kill him before I’d finish with him, but he went nearer to killing me before he finished with me. I sometimes recorded stories from him: I’d start at four in the afternoon: by midnight I’d be exhausted but Angus MacMillan would show no signs of exhaustion. The longest story he told took nine hours to record. We started on Monday night and did two hours. We had to break off for the night. We continued the story on Tuesday night and did two further hours. On Wednesday night we did another two hours and on Thursday we did another two hours again and we finished the story on Friday night. It took us an hour to finish the story. It took me fifteen days to write that story: it was the longest story I have ever written and I think it was really the longest story that has ever been recorded in the history of folklore recording. If I had sufficient stamina Angus MacMillan would have continued the story uninterrupted for nine hours. I remember someone telling me that an old woman disappeared one night to the well to get a pail of water. It was seven o’ clock on a winter’s evening. By midnight she hadn’t reappeared so a search party was sent out. They finally discovered her in a house where Angus MacMillan was telling a story.

 

Maclean then gave Lomax some rather tongue-in-the-cheek advise not to visit MacMillan in the small hours:

 

Sometimes he’d start….he’d say that…he’d threaten to start that he was going to tell a story about midnight and everybody would…implore him not to tell a story because they’d never get home that night. So it was very difficult to prevent him from telling the story. However he has told his stories and will continue to tell his stories and if you go there Alan, go there early in the morning, not late at night.

 

When Angus MacMillan passed away in 1954 Maclean was unable to attend his funeral as he was then in Morar and couldn’t get back to Benbecula in time. In an article that appeared in the Gaelic periodical Gairm, written shortly after MacMillan’s death, Maclean recollected one memorable evening:

 

In 1948 we spent one winter’s night recording a long story until completed around four o’ clock in the morning. That night was dark, cold and showery due to stormy weather coming in from the southwest. As I was leaving, Angus saw me to the big door. I can still recollect that large, burly frame of his that blocked the light from inside.
 

On parting, he said: “Come early tomorrow night, my dear laddie. I have remembered another long, long one.”

 

References:

Calum Maclean, 1979. ‘Calum Maclean on Aonghas Barrach’, Tocher, vol. 31 (1979), p. 64

Calum I. MacGilleathain, ‘Aonghus agus Donnchadh’, Gairm, air. 10 (An Geamhradh, 1954), pp. 170–74

NFC 1155: 243–306; 309–408; 411–486 (transcription of Alasdair Mac a’ Cheàird)

NFC 1300: 39–42; 50–51; 58–60; 63–64; 128–44 (Extracts from Calum Maclean’s fieldwork diary)

Image:

Angus MacMillan, Griminish, Benbecula, recording on the Ediphone for Calum Maclean in 1947. Courtesy of the National Folklore Collection / Cnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann, University College Dublin.

A Letter from Lomax

Dated the 12th of July 1951, and typed on an official BBC letterhead, Calum Maclean received a letter from Alan Lomax. The renowned American ethnomusicologist arrived in Scotland to collect material earlier that year. Having met with Hamish Henderson to discuss how best to go about collecting, Lomax was put into contact with the MacLean brothers, Calum and Sorley. Calum, who had just arrived back from Ireland, became the first collector for the School of Scottish Studies in January 1951. For the past six years Maclean had recorded extensively in the Southern Hebrides as well as on the mainland Highlands and everywhere he went he seems to have acquired a nose to track down the folk from whom he could collect the best materials. Lomax benefited greatly from Maclean’s extensive knowledge, experience and assistance as he duly acknowledges in the following letter:

 

Dear Calum

 

Your introductions and contacts in the Hebrides provided me with the most enjoyable and fruitful recording trip in years. I have never met a set of people I liked as well anywhere and the astonishing number of beautiful tunes that came pouring into the microphone completely astonished me. If all the rest of the tunes of the world were to be suddenly wiped out by an evil magician, the Hebrides could fill up the gap without half trying.

 

Everywhere people spoke highly of you, asked to be remembered to you and your name was an Open Sesame. I made about ten hours of recordings, only a small number of which I shall be able to use for [the] BBC and in my album. If you have any interest in the material, a list of which his enclosed, I shall be glad to have your suggestions about its disposition.

 

Please give my regards to Dr. Erixson and Dr. Campbell and consider me eternally in your debt.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Alan Lomax

Calum MacLean, Esq.

c/o Dr. MacIntosh

EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY

 

A selection of Lomax’s recorded materials was made into an album which appeared as a Scottish version of the World Albums of Folk and Primitive Music and was issued by Columbia Records. Maclean’s generosity in assisting a fellow collector was not shared in this instance by John Lorne Campbell who turned on his friend which led to a bitter if short-lived feud between the two. The two main issues of contention between Campbell and Lomax came down to folklore research ethics and the (subsequently misunderstood) commercial exploitation over copyright issues with regard to fieldwork recordings. Maclean through no fault of his own was caught between the two. 

 

Reference:

Letter from Alan Lomax to Calum Maclean, dated 12 July 1951. Courtesy of Cailean Maclean. 
 

Image:

Alan Lomax

Collecting With Alan Lomax and Calum Maclean

Following on from a recently published blog, Maclean noted down in his diary entry for the 18th of July, 1951, the details of a fieldwork trip to the Isle of Skye along with Alan Lomax:

This morning, Alan Lomax and I left Speanbridge and made our way to the Kyle of Lochalsh. We were on our way to the Isle of Skye. Allan MacDonald’s name was suggested to Alan Lomax and we’re going over to Uig where he stays. I intended to go home for a day or two to see my mother. When we were near Cluny we gave a lift to a traveller. We thought that he might have a song or something but he only had a few ditties that he had made up himself or had heard from Harry Lauder. Alan Lomax was not best pleased with him at all. At any rate, when we reached Eilean Donan Castle Alan wanted to go up and see the castle itself. The traveller did not wish to do this at all and so we got rid of him. We went up to visit the castle. It was empty apart from someone who offered a tour throughout the castle. Nobody stays here now. We then went on to the Kyle of Lochalsh. We were there until about three o’clock in the afternoon. Then we travelled through the Isle of Skye until we reached Portree where we met Dr Allan MacDonald. We spent a while drinking the Royal Hotel. We then went over to Uig. It turned out to be a beautiful night by the time we got there. We were made welcome at the house. Allan’s wife and children were present. Allan has a nice, young daughter who is going to sing at the local Mod in Portree tomorrow. At any rate, we began recording the songs and we worked until about one o’clock in the morning. Allan sang two psalms before the night was over. Lomax gave his opinion of Allan that he was as good as any man he had so far met. We left Uig around two o’clock this morning. Without a shadow of a doubt it was a beautiful morning. We only have one intention now and that was to get some sleep.

Despite such a long night recording it proved to be a profitable visit for a number of songs were put down on reel-to-reel tape including a very good version of the still popular Òran an t-Saighdeir (‘The Soldier’s Song’, an early nineteenth-century composition):

(Sèisd):

’S hill ò, thug òroinn ò,
Hì rì hò rò, mo fhèildeadh,
Hì rì hill ò, thug òroinn ò.

Air madainn dhomh ’s mi sràidearachd

A-mach air bràigh Dhùn Èideann,
Cò thachair orm ach saighdear
Is gun d’fhoighneachd e mo sgeul dhìom.

’S cò thachair orm ach saighdear

Is gun d’fhoighneachd e mo sgeul dhìom,
’S thuirt e, “Gabh san t-saighdearachd,
’S bidh aoibhneas ort na dèidh seo.”

’S thuirt e, “Gabh san t-saighdearachd,

’S bidh aoibhneas ort na dèidh seo.
’S bidh airgead na do phòcaidean,
Is òr nach cuir thu feum air.”

“’S bidh airgead na do phòcaidean,

Is òr nach cuir thu feum air.”
’S gun tug e don taigh-òsda mi
’S gun do dh’òl sinn slàint’ a chèile.

’S gun tug e don taigh-òsda mi

’S gun do dh’òl sinn slàint’ a chèile.
’S gun tug e bho mo mhàthar mi
Leis an àrdan nach do rinn feum dhomh.

One morning as I strolled

Out over the braes of Edinburgh,
Who did I meet but a soldier
Who asked me about myself.

Who did I meet but a soldier

Who asked me about myself,
He said: “Take to soldiering
And you’ll be forever joyful.”

He said: “Take to soldiering

And you’ll be forever joyful.”
And you’ll have money in your pocket
And gold that you’ll not spend.

And you’ll have money in your pocket

And gold that you’ll not spend,
And he took me to the tavern
And we drank to one another.

And he took me to the tavern

And we drank to one another,
He took me away to my mother
With pride that was of no use to me.

References:

Calum I. Maclean, The Highlands (Inbhir Nis: Club Leabhar, 1975)

Recordings made on this trip are available on the Culture Equity website:

http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-ix.do?ix=recording&id=172&idType=sessionId&sortBy=abc; and Òran an t-Saighdeir: http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=2963

Image:
Uig, Isle of Skye

When Alan Lomax Met Calum Maclean

Some three months before the formal foundation of the School of Scottish Studies, at the University of Edinburgh, Alan Lomax (1915–2002) arrived from America in order to gather material for the World Albums of Folk and Primitive Music which Columbia Records were then sponsoring. Lomax is undoubtedly one of the most influential American ethnomusicologists of his generation and much of his work can be heard and seen on the extensive Cultural Equity website. Lomax has also been the subject of a recent biographical study entitled A Biography of Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World (2010). He conducted interviews and made fieldwork recordings with the likes of American folk music luminaries such as Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly and Muddy Waters. Based in London between 1950 and 1958, Lomax turned his attention to the British folk music scene, and after being in Ireland, he then naturally turned his sights on Scotland. His first thoughts might have been to whom he could turn to in order to open up the riches of Scottish traditions and, in particular, of Gaelic song. By initially contacting Hamish Henderson, Lomax was introduced to Sorley and Calum Maclean, both of whom were more than happy to help the young American in his enterprise to record the Gaelic music of the Highlands and Islands.

On the 16th of July 1951, Maclean wrote in his diary that Lomax had made contact:
 

I began transcribing this morning and I today worked on the material I recorded from John MacDonald. I kept on transcribing all day today until about ten o’clock at night. I received word on the phone today from Alan Lomax, the American, who had made a great collection of songs. He said that he was in Edinburgh and that he was coming up to see me tomorrow. He’ll be welcome, if he gets here.

 

The very next day, Lomax arrived and was made more than welcome. Both collectors then went to record songs from a Moidart woman then living in Onich, Nether Lochaber:

 

It was very wet this morning. Before I left the house, I received word from Alan Lomax that he was down in Inveraray. He was coming up from Glasgow but something went wrong. He told me he would meet me in about four hours’ time. It was raining very heavily when I went to Mass in Roybridge. I saw John MacDonald and I told him that Alan Lomax was coming tonight. John said that he would come next Sunday and that he had six or seven other stories to tell. After I returned home, I began transcribing and I spent an hour or two at this work. About five o’clock in the  afternoon Alan Lomax, a big, heavyset man, arrived. He pleased me exceedingly. He told me that he had recorded songs from Calum Johnston and Flora MacNeil in Barra. I heard that there was a woman, Mrs MacKellaig, down in Onich and I decided that I’d go to visit her and see if she would give us songs. There was heavy rainfall when we got down there. A young, handsome lassie let us in and asked us to stay until her mother appeared. She was quite busy – according to what the lassie said. We didn’t need to wait terribly long before the housewife herself appeared. She was a small, beautiful woman. She belonged to Moidart. She had songs and she sang them well. She sang six or seven songs that she heard from the old folk in Moidart, especially those from her own mother. Alan Lomax was terribly pleased with these songs. At any rate, I was happy with that. It was about eleven o’clock at night when we returned home. We stayed a while in John MacDonell’s house.

On the 18th of July they then made their way from Speanbridge to go and do some further fieldwork collecting on the Isle of Skye and which also afforded Maclean the opportunity to go back home to visit his mother on the Isle of Raasay.

Reference:

Calum I. Maclean, The Highlands (Inbhir Nis: Club Leabhar, 1975)

 

Image:

Alan Lomax