What is a Scottish Waulking song?

What is a Scottish Waulking song?

Waulking songs (Scots Gaelic: Òrain Luaidh) are Scottish folk songs, traditionally sung in the Gaelic language by women while fulling (waulking) cloth.

What does Waulking the tweed mean?

Waulking is an essential part of the production the woollen fabric known as tweed. What it does is raise the nap (making the fabric slightly “fluffy”), set the dye and shrink the fabric (giving it it’s characteristic feel and enhancing its waterproof qualities).

What is Waulking the wool?

Waulking is another word for fulling, a step in woolen clothmaking that refers to the practice of cleansing the cloth to eliminate oils, dirt, and other impurities. Fulling involves two processes, scouring and thickening, and is one of the steps in creating melton cloth.

How old are Waulking songs?

They were recorded all over Scotland and the earliest items date back to the 1930s.

How do you pronounce Waulking?

Starts here0:57WAULKING – HOW TO PRONOUNCE IT!? – YouTubeYouTube

What song is played at the end of a Scottish party?

“The Parting Glass” is a Scottish traditional song, often sung at the end of a gathering of friends.

Why does tweed smell of urine?

The downside of wet tweed is the odd smell it gives off. (This odd smell has an interesting back story – sheep’s wool needed chemical help to hold the dye and the traditional chemical used was human urine – hence the smell!!)

Why did they soak wool in urine?

In Roman times, fulling was conducted by slaves working the cloth while ankle deep in tubs of human urine. Urine was so important to the fulling business that it was taxed. Stale urine, known as wash, was a source of ammonium salts and assisted in cleansing and whitening the cloth. It was used in conjunction with wash.

What is a Scottish folk song?

Mary, my Scots bluebell. Probably the most famous Scottish song ever, due to it being sung traditionally at New Year around the globe. Auld Lang Syne started life as a poem “borrowed” by Scotland’s national bard, Robert Burns, who confessed that the bulk of the words were passed on to him from an old man.

What is a waulking song in Scotland?

Waulking song. Waulking songs ( Scots Gaelic: Òrain Luaidh) are Scottish folk songs, traditionally sung in the Gaelic language by women while fulling (waulking) cloth. This practice involved a group of women rhythmically beating newly woven tweed against a table or similar surface to soften it.

Is waulking still practiced in Nova Scotia?

Although in Scotland women waulked cloth, in Nova Scotia both men and women took part in milling frolics. The practice continues as a cultural celebration today. The act of waulking, complete with a song, was showcased in Season 1 of Outlander.

What is the chorus of waulking songs?

The chorus to many waulking songs consists of meaningless vocables, serving a function similar to ‘tra la la’ or ‘hey hey hey’ in other song forms. Some waulking songs have a strict verse-and-chorus structure. In other songs, the vocables are sung at the end of each line of a verse.

What is waulking wool in Outlander?

The act of waulking, complete with a song, was showcased in Season 1 of Outlander. As Claire Fraser travels the MacKenzie lands with her husband Jamie’s party to collect rents, she spends time with a group of women who are waulking wool.