SKU: CN.R10183

The music of War, Women and Witchcraft is a web with strands of magic, a romantic impression of the Scottish landscape and the sounds of battle using fanfare-like figures and drum effects, and a lovely melody near the end when everyone lives happily ever after.

The titles comes from a book by the Scottish poet, author and composer James Hogg, known as The Ettrick Shepherd. It is the subtitle to his wonderful book The Three Perils of Man. I was commissioned to write a wind band work of this title for the Borders Festival in 1991. The book weaves fact and fantasy togethers around the Scottish Borders in the thirteenth century. I have used a note row based on some of Hogg's melodies and also created my own mixture representing Master Michael Scott, the Black Magician, and his wild adventures, the battle for the castle at Roxburgh and the prize of the Princess' hand to the winner of the battle. The music is a web with strands of magic, a romantic impression of the Scottish landscape and the sounds of battle using fanfare-like figures and drum effects, and a direct quote of a Hogg Strathspey melody near the end when everyone lives happily ever after. -BF.