Ian Muir – Music Director

Ian Muir (As pictured above) – Music Director

For the past six years Ian Muir has been doing one of the most demanding jobs in the RSCDS. Like all the volunteers who take on Society positions, he has put a tremendous amount of time and effort into his work – most recently and memorably, hosting the weekly podcasts for Dance Scottish at Home. Here he describes how he started playing for Scottish country dancing and his time as Music Director.

When I became Music Director of the Society in 2014, I always intended to write a piece about what the job of the Music Director entailed as it was the one question that I was always asked. Little did I know that it would be such a full-time job and that I would finally find the time to write my article as I was about to leave the post.

I was born in Hammersmith, West London, and spent all of my formative and schooling years in Heston, Middlesex. My two brothers, sister and I were all encouraged by our parents to learn musical instruments although, funnily enough, all had very different interests musically so we never actually played together! Having failed the 11+, I was lucky enough to go to one of the first of the then new Comprehensive Schools where there was a very strong folk-dance tradition. This was my making. Not being ‘fleet of foot’, I was side-tracked by being encouraged into learning the accordion with the comment from the teacher in charge, “he’ll never stick at it!”

Ian as a young lad playing with McBain's Band

Ian Muir, Summer School, St Andrews, 2019

photo by : Iain Struthers

First gig

We soon had our own English folk-dance band and I remember our first gig, and trying to the find the hall where we were to play in the dark during the power-cuts associated with the miners’ strikes of the winter of 1972. I was so lucky that, despite his initial views, Charles Pegram sought every opportunity for me to gain experience in playing. It was in these early days that I first met Alan Humberstone, the pianist in McBain’s Scottish Country Dance Band – London’s premier Scottish dance band at that time, with a playing history that went back to the mid-

1940s. It was through Alan that I was invited at the age of 17 to join the band and there started my passion for Scottish dance music. Over the years McBain’s had had several notable Scottish musicians – Willie Hunter and John Ellis from north of the border, and Nan Fleming-Williams and Pat Shuldham-Shaw, who were great exponents and collectors of Scottish dance music from south of the border. Although they had all played before I joined the band, they had left a legacy which Alan encouraged me to explore and cherish. It was Nan who first got me into teaching musicians about playing for dancing when the Cambridge Branch of the RSCDS ran its very first musicians’ Day School. Nan and I were to jointly deliver, but tragically her husband had died a couple of weeks before and she withdrew from all playing leaving me, a rather inexperienced leader of such an occasion, in charge. I remember that day vividly and the feeling in the evening when the full dance floor acknowledged the experience of dancing to 20+ musicians all playing together. It was magic. Two of those musicians were none other than my future wife, Judith, and her brother Ian Robertson, both at that time in their late teens.

Early influences

Asked whether I have favourite musicians who have influenced me, that is a difficult question to answer as I have so many. I would have to say firstly McBain’s band and in particular Alan, and then Bobby Crowe, Jim Johnstone, John Ellis, Iain MacPhail and Jim Lindsay. They have all had a big influence on me for a variety of reasons. I stayed with McBain’s for 15 years full-time and that presented many challenging but exciting opportunities: two Take the Floor broadcasts, playing for the Junior Royal Ballet School at Covent Garden and of course many, many Scottish dances all over the Home Counties of England. During this time I had trained to be a teacher and secured a job in Basingstoke teaching music. It soon became apparent that although I loved playing with McBain’s, I needed to strike out on my own and create my own sound. Initially, I was able to dovetail the two sets of gigs, but as my band’s engagements blossomed, I soon had to give McBain’s notice that I was going to leave. A difficult decision!

Birth of Craigellachie

The Craigellachie Band existed before it eventually chose its name. It was formed around December 1985 when Angus MacAulay in Newbury decided that the Newbury Caledonian Society would run bi-monthly hops in a local church hall. Various musicians joined in, including pupils from school, with Alan Humberstone from McBain’s Band as the resident pianist. These were great evenings and it was not unusual to have 6 or 7 people in the band. Angus would record the evening and these early recordings invariably got shared around. This led to our first official dance in Sherborne in Dorset. In 1987 the Bath Scottish Dancers invited what was by then a trio – myself together with Judith and Ian Robertson – to record an LP for them and the invitations to play for dances all over the country steadily rolled in. We were soon joined by Graham Hamilton on drums. Since those early days personnel have changed, as they do and Judith re-joined the band in 2005 on piano – originally, in the very early days she had played accordion. We have been lucky enough to play literally all over the world and it has proved what a great passport Scottish dance music can be and over the years we have made so many good friends. The band is still going strong some thirty five years after it was first formed.

Teaching career

My teaching career continued. I eventually headed up the Creative Arts Faculty in the school, but after 22 years in the same school I felt that if I did not make a change in my career it would never happen. On a whim I applied to become the ICT advisory teacher for Reading Borough Council, so left music teaching behind and started a new direction in education working as an adviser, initially focused on Information Technology but eventually becoming the Senior Schools Adviser, heading up the advisory team working across both primary and secondary education in the town. Five years ago I decided to take the opportunity to retire early as education policy moved away from the principles that I believed in. Coincidently, as I planned my retirement, the post of Music Director came up. I was persuaded to apply and was surprised to be appointed.

Aims as RSCDS Music Director

There were many areas in which I hoped I would be able to develop and bring my experience to bear:

-try to bridge the gap between the RSCDS and the rest of the world of Scottish dance music

-develop the Summer School Music Course at St Andrews

-with the development of the website make available resources which raised the profile of the music in relation to dance and provide downloadable resources for teachers, musicians and dancers

- encourage the RSCDS to make its recordings more marketable by widening their appeal, making them available as digital downloads and giving the bands who recorded for us the opportunity to include their own material

One other area emerged as one where the Society needed to do some work and that was around copyright and permissions.

Six years in post

Over the six years I have been in post I have really enjoyed all of the aspects of the role, but perhaps the one I am most proud of is the development of the Summer School Music Course which now sees around 30 musicians taking part each year, plus the addition of a Class Musicians’ Course which is run separately. We have had attendees from all over the world and have really encouraged young people to take part. I had to apologise in my first year for having been a teacher! I expected the musicians to work hard – they did and have done ever since! I have been fortunate to have been joined by some great tutors: Judith Smith (fiddle), Gillian Stevenson (fiddle), and latterly Bill Ewan (piano). The other musicians and teachers who have been on the staff at Summer School have also shared their talents and expertise without question, for which I am very grateful, and I have made some great friends amongst them. The Saturday night dances which are the ‘final fling’ of the course have always been special; the atmosphere is always electric and the expression on the faces of those new to band work, particularly the youngsters, as the dancers respond enthusiastically to the music, will always hold a special place for me.

Ian teaching the Musicians’ Course at St Andrews

photo by iain struthers

Society recordings

I think the move to make the Society’s recordings more marketable has been a positive step in the right direction. I have been lucky to work with some great bands and musicians. Jim Lindsay, Ian T Muir, Scott Band, Luke Brady, James Coutts and DUK have all released recordings for the Society during my time in office and it has been a real privilege to be present at their recording sessions. The move to digital downloads has also been a wise business move as there is now a regular monthly income from these products.

De-mystifying

I have also tried very hard to de-mystify some of the ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ around Scottish dance music. There are, in fact, far more ‘dos’ than ‘don’ts’ and I passionately believe that what dancers want is inspirational music that makes them want to dance and dance well. So if an original tune doesn’t do that, then it can be discarded and something similar but more suitable substituted. Muriel’s article in the Spring Issue unpicks much of this. I have heard so many bands ‘crash’ through an unplayable original because they think that is what dancers really want and then change into a tune that they know inside out with the contrast being so obvious. The change from the unplayable, often unfamiliar and, sadly, badly played original into the secure, danceable and inspirational just highlights my question of what does the dancer really want – un-inspiring and mundane or inspirational?

Making it distinctly Scottish

Asked whether there have been any frustrations with the job, it would be wrong to answer ‘No’. One aspect of the role which I have tried hard to protect is the music itself. What makes it special? What makes it distinctly Scottish? How do we promote these characteristics worldwide without watering it down and changing it so that it loses its Scottish roots and identity? Not everyone has shared that belief.

Issues of copyright

The other area which has given me some concern is around copyright and permissions. There is much recording, videoing and posting of music and musicians on social media which takes place without the right permissions being sought and sometimes without the musicians even knowing. It is not helped by it being a very grey area but, hopefully, I have at least raised the profile of this and have tried to give the Society some guidance around it.

Favourites

I am often asked whether I have a particular genre that I enjoy playing most or whether I have favourite tunes, or even tunes that I dislike. The answer is definitely ‘yes’, but they change as the years progress. I love playing strathspeys, although I am not keen on those dances that use slow-airs or pastoral strathspeys. That’s not to say that I dislike the tunes but most were never intended to be played ‘in strict tempo’ and they lose much of their original character and opportunities for interpretation. I am fascinated by harmony, particularly jazz harmony, and this drives my tune choices sometimes and that doesn’t necessarily mean modern tunes. Some of the old masters present great opportunities for looking at the harmonies underlying their melodies in new ways. Some of my current favourites would be the jigs Cleveland Park by Ivan Drever and Elizabeth Cole’s Reel by Robert Mackintosh; strathspeys – North of the Grampians by Captain Simon Fraser and Studland Park by Michael Philip; and reels – Kingussie Flower and Mumbai by Marie Fielding. Next year there will be new tunes both old and new that I get passionate about I am sure.

The challenge of Covid

The Covid-19 pandemic has been both a great challenge and opportunity. Like every other band leader and musician, Craigellachie’s gig diary evaporated in March over the space of about 72 hours and at the time of writing is not showing any signs of picking up with any certainty. Yet the opportunities that the lock-down presented had to be embraced with enthusiasm. Little did those of us who have become the Dance Scottish at Home production team realise just what a lifeline the Newsletter, Podcasts and Summer Celebration would be for dancers worldwide, or how it would take over our lives. I am sure that readers do not underestimate how much planning and preparation goes into the Newsletter and Podcasts. For the latter there is about three days’ work for just 50 minutes of podcast and the newsletter is very much the same. On several occasions it has been a close thing to get the podcasts ready for the Friday release. My technology, ever creaking at the seams, has reminded me on several occasions who the real boss is! As for the Summer Celebration I was staggered at the response to the Musicians’ Workshops from around the world. At the time of writing this article the total viewing of all of the resources is around 2,268 which has exceeded way beyond any expectations that we had. It has been so encouraging to receive emails from musicians, both experienced and those that have never played a note of Scottish dance music before, dancers and teachers telling us how much the workshops have provided encouragement and insight into playing for dancing. We were so lucky that other Scottish musicians were so willing to share their time, expertise and materials, in particular Ian T Muir, Cameron Muir, Maureen Rutherford, Scott Band, Susan MacFadyen, Gillian Stevenson and Graham Berry. If you haven’t had a look at these resources then please do:

www.rscds.org/events/dance-scottish-summer-celebration

Certainly Dance Scottish at Home has presented the Society with some opportunities for further developing its communication with its members and it will be interesting to see how this develops.

New Music Director

Luke Brady takes over in November and I wish him well. Asked what advice I would give him I would say “be careful”. The role can be all-encompassing and makes a work-life balance difficult at times. I was lucky that I had retired and I have a very understanding wife. I would also encourage him to continue to bridge the gap between the RSCDS and Scottish dance music per se and defend the characteristics of the music that makes it Scottish and therefore unique. I once heard someone say – the clue is in the title – and that has stuck with me ever since!

Lastly, I would like to thank all the officers of the Society who have supported, encouraged and guided me during my time in office, the members who have contacted me, asked for advice, told me of something that they think we should develop, and to the musicians who have been so willing to give of their time and expertise. I cannot sign off without thanking my wife, Judith, for her unstinting encouragement and support. I know that she sometimes felt that the RSCDS was taking over my life but she never faltered in her support. Thank you Judith.