Oran luaidh agus Puirt a Beul

dance rhythms: strathspey 4/4, Reels 2/2 and Jigs 6/8. The tune was often a pipe or fiddle tune.

Fast and hard to sing

At that time instruments were rare and dear so people would dance to people singing.

They are still sung today normally with a backing of musical instruments.

When they would take the cloth from the loom, it was unlucky and needed a song.

People believed the words that the weaver said/thought had an effect on the cloth itself.Cloths were sung into being in a spiritual sense.

A lot were • sung at work e.g. when waulking cloth. Mostly sung to the rhythm of the cloth.

there is still a substantial amount still sung today as they were passed down through work therefore survived.

Sung as a normal part of the Gaels life until as early as the 20th cen..The trad stopped, at a great level before the second world war, uist

They would hand the cloth clockwise round the table singing as they went.Different people sing different verses then the chorus together

’s fliuch an oidhche ‘n nochd ’s gur fuar i

far am bi mi fhein (drunken piper) / Brochan lom (orange and blue)