Page 31 - What's In A Name - The Barry Pipes Canon

WHAT’S IN A NAME? The Barry Pipes Canon • 2005 - 2018 The Gardeners’ Fantasia 059-2013-May-Set&Link
At the outset, let me admit that I had barely heard of this dance out of RSCDS Book 46 until I saw it included in the West Toronto Ball program for
May 11, 2013. Throughout my adult life, I have masqueraded as a gardener of sorts, which over the years in southern Ontario has
presented plenty of problems, usually weather-related. So when this three-couple strathspey known as The Gardeners’ Fantasia surfaced as a program selection, I was hooked.
As I guess many of us may know, “fantasia” seems to have been a coined word used by the Walt Disney organization to celebrate a film by the
same name launched in the 1940s. The film was an animated presentation (Mickey Mouse and all) of quite a number of well-known classical music works played by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Leopold Stokowski. I am given to understand it had a mesmerizing effect on its audiences, and although it was never awarded an Oscar, did receive a great deal of special accolades...a fantasy indeed.
But a gardeners’ fantasy? And/or a connection to Scottish country dancing? Beats me! The dance was devised by a lady or gentleman named P. Cook, and I’d be grateful if someone somewhere could enlighten me as to the full identity of Mr., Mrs., Ms, or Dr. P. Cook. Just for the record, you know!
From Set&Link, newsletter of RSCDS Toronto
Meanwhile, while any amateur gardener in my neighbourhood can grow busy lizzies a.k.a. impatiens in their back yards, my fantasy leans in the direction of trying to grow the more complex varieties of perennial — hardier versions of which are now available from local nurseries.
All that said, however, devisor Cook may in this dance simply be referring to family friends who go by the name Gardener, which throws my whole column on to the composting heap.
Wait! I do have a final thought. As I
investigated this dance, I came upon
an intriguing new method of
demonstrating SCD on YouTube. It’s called DancieMaetion. No, that is not a typo! DancieMaetion is a process to create animated characters that perform Scottish country dances along with a voiceover. There is an animation for The Gardeners’ Fantasia. I recommend you check it out. You might well like it! ◼︎
[ Danciemaetion animations are created by Linda Mae Dennis of RSCDS Southwest Washington State. Visit:
http://danciemaetion.imaginationprocessing.com/DM2.php ]
Under the Queen
Mother’s guidance, the
castle and its gardens
were vastly improved
— to the point that the
Scottish Tourist Board
ranks it as one of the
most attractive locations for visitors. It enjoys a consistent Five Star Rating. The Queen Mother also changed the castle’s name back to Mey. Perhaps she wished to be known as “Queen of the Mey” (groan!) There is a village of Mey close by, although I can find no information about its derivation. Maybe rather than Gaelic, Mey is Norse in origin like the inhabitants of the nearby Orkney Islands.
As we may well remember, The Queen Mother, who died a centenarian in 2002 at the age of 101, is more closely associated with Glamis Castle near Forfar in Angus, but she should always be recognized for bravery in the 1940s by publicly refusing to leave London with her children during the devastation of the wartime “blitz”. As she said at the time... “The children won’t go without me. I won’t leave the King. And the King will never leave.”
Well, that’s it, folks! I’ll be back in September to share more WHAT’S IN A NAME? stories with everyone. ◼︎
The Castle of Mey 060-2013-June-Set&Link
Participants at last month’s West Toronto Ball would have had the pleasure of dancing one of the six dances included in the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Book. By name, The Castle of Mey, this 32-bar reel, was devised by John Walton of RSCDS Hamilton, Ontario. Commencing with Inveran reels, this is a neat little dance of which we are sure John is justifiably proud.
The gardens and castle of Mey
John Walton
The Castle of Mey is now the most northerly inhabited castle on the British mainland, located just west of John o’ Groats. HM Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, visited the castle while she was mourning the 1952 death of her husband King George VI, and later decided to purchase the estate which was at the point of being abandoned. Built in the 1500s, seemingly as a holding of Clan Sinclair, the castle’s name was changed from Mey to Barrogill.
Of interest to me was that the castle of Mey itself, actually had
more to do with Queen Elizabeth II’s mother. In the several years that I have been subjecting Set&Link readers to geographical stories in WHAT’S IN A NAME?, spreading outwards from my early review of Niedpath Castle in the Border country, I have only once before ventured as far afield as Caithness. That was a couple of years ago when I covered The Ferry Louper, about mainland non-Viking visitors to the Orkneys.