Slow airs

Slow airs can be either instrumental tunes in their own right, or melodies borrowed from songs. Slow airs can be played on many instruments and are particularly suited to the fiddle with its sustained bowed sound. There are no special rhythms associated with the slow air; they are simply slow melodies.

When bands and solo musicians are making music that is not for dancing to, they often put together 'sets' of tunes of different types. In bagpipe music, a common combination is a march, strathspey and reel, and sets often also start out with a slow air before embarking on the livelier dance tunes, usually building up in speed to an energetic finish.

There are many, many slow airs from all around Scotland. Here are some examples of well known and favourite airs.

The 'Cradle Song', or the 'Forres Cradle Song' was written by the famous 19th-century fiddle virtuoso James Scott Skinner after seeing a sick child being cared for by its mother in a hotel in Forres.

---

The Scottish Fiddle Orchestra play their version.

'Forres Cradle Song' performed by Scottish Fiddle Orchestra

From Serenity, RECD546, Track 12, REL Records

---

The 18th-century Perthshire fiddler Niel Gow wrote a beautiful slow air which we know as 'Niel Gow's Lament for the Death of his Second Wife', although the 'wife' was actually Niel’s fiddle.

---

Duncan Chisholm, Bruce MacGregor and Iain MacFarlane, are three fiddlers who were students of the Highland piper and fiddler, Donald Riddell. They recorded this air because it was a favourite of their old teacher.

'Niel Gow's Lament for his Second Wife' performed by Duncan Chisholm, Bruce MacGregor and Iain MacFarlane

From A Highland Fiddler, SKECD20, Track 8, Macmeanmna

---

Other popular slow airs include 'Roslin Castle', 'The Rowan Tree', 'The Bonnie Lass O' Bon Accord', 'The Flower O' the Quern', and 'The Flowers O' the Forest'.

---

Blair Douglas is an accordion player and pianist from the Isle of Skye. He plays 'A' Bhean Ionmhuinn', a slow air he wrote for a friend who died tragically young.

'A' Bhean Ionmhuinn (Blair Douglas)

From A Summer in Skye, SKECD09, Track 5, Macmeanmna

---

The melodies of songs are often played as slow airs and also as waltzes, especially in Gaelic music.

---

Image credit: Painting of Niel Gow, violinist and composer (1727-1807). © Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk