Das Slockit Light -- a Shetland Island aire.

[Bernie Daniel]

Das Slockit Light is a beautiful and poignant tune composed by Tom Anderson of the Shetland Islands.

As I know the story the tune was conceived one evening while Mr. Anderson was walking on a trail still grieving the recent and untimely death of his wife. Looking down on his home town the city lights were being turned out one by one and this seemed to reminded him of things in his own life that had gone, or were going, out.

The words “slockit light” meaning slow extinguishing lamp came to his mind and the lead him to this lovely tune.

I think the tune is not so well known in the USA but it is widely played in the UK as well as in the Canadian Maritime provinces. “Da Slockit Light” has been used as the slow march introduction to fiddle tune sets by several well know Cape Breton fiddlers, Buddy MacMaster, Carl Mackenzie, and Karen Beaton to name a few.

I am playing along with a recording of Buddy MacMaster (fiddle) and Joey Beaton (piano) of Cape Breton. Turn the volume down a bit as the fiddle picked up too well when I recorded it -- the piano is OK.

I created a TablEdit file of the tune that I made from an midi file and put on my blog site -- link below. And there is a pdf of the file attached here.

Link to .tef file:
http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/bl...php?do=newblog

[JeffD]

It is an extraordinary tune. Its somewhat popular here in upstate NY, ever since it appeard on Curt Osgood's hammered dulcimer album.

[Shelagh Moore]

Yes... it's a lovely tune and a favourite of mine. We do this, in a slightly different setting, most weeks at our local session.

[Bernie Daniel]

Yes really great tune. That link to the tab is wrong. I re-posted it on my blog spot. I don't know what went wrong I posted several things at that time and they are all gone? BTW I can only see four pages of this tune of the week section -- that can't be all there is?

[Dave Hanson]

It's Da Slockit Light, not Das, it's Shetland dialect, it means the fading light, Tom Anderson was an insurance man and on his collection rounds he saw the lights going out in northern Shetland which signified the gradual de-population going on.

Dave H

[Bertram Henze]

ABC for that can be found on thesession.org:

X: 1
T: Da Slockit Light
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Dmaj
FE|D3F A2d2|fedc d2A2|B2d2 A2d2|BAGF EGFE|
D3F A2d2|fedc d2A2|B2G2 AGFE|D4- D2:|
g2|f2a2 e3c|d3e dcBA|f2a2 e2^g2|a4- a2=g2|
f2a2 e3c|d3e dcBA|B2G2 AGFE|D4- D3g|
f2a2 e3c|d3e dcBA|B2d2 A2d2|BAGF EGFE|
D3F A2d2|fedc d2A2|B2G2 AGFE|D4- D2|]

I think it is funny to call it a reel, but you don't want to believe the automatic classification you see on thesession.org.

[Scott Tichenor]

I've played this tune for years. Wonderful piece of music. I took that ABC and turned it into a TablEdit and added it to our TablEdit database.

[Bernie Daniel]

It's Da Slockit Light, not Das, it's Shetland dialect, it means the fading light, Tom Anderson was an insurance man and on his collection rounds he saw the lights going out in northern Shetland which signified the gradual de-population going on. Dave H

I agree "Da" makes more sense that is -- and what I used to call the tune but changed it recently because I was thinking mostly I saw noted as "Das" -- but that now seems wrong so I'm going to change it BACK!!!

I thought Buddy MacMaster had "Das Slockit Light" on his "Judique on the Floor" CD but I went back and found the CD and he has "Da" so I'm changing mine back.

Thanks for clearing that up!

I presented the meaning of the term, "slockit light", and a slightly different historical context for the tune in the OP. I'm sticking with my description as the inspiration of the tune. Here Tom Anderson's own words on the subject:

Here are Tom Anderson's own words on the subject: "I coming out of Eshaness in late January, 1969, the time was after 11pm and as I looked back at the top of the hill leading out of the district I saw so few lights compared to what I remembered when I was young. As I watched, the lights started going out one by one. That, coupled with the recent death of my late wife, made me think of the old word 'Slockit', meaning, a light that has gone out, and I think that was what inspired the tune."

As noted you can download a pdf or a .tef of the tab on my site.

[Dave Hanson]

Compare the title with one of Tom Andersons other great tunes, ' Da Old Restin Chair ' and if you can find it, a long playing record from a long time ago ' Dancing Hazards ' by a group called Black Donald, Dagger Gordon playing a very fine version of this tune.

Dave H

[Don Grieser]

I take it this is not the same tune as "Da Light Socket."

[Bertram Henze]

I take it this is not the same tune as "Da Light Socket."

No, nor is it "Socks Alight"

[Don Grieser]

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

This is a beautiful melody--thanks for posting the abc for it.

[mandocrucian]

I think it is funny to call it a reel, but you don't want to believe the automatic classification you see on thesession.org.

The categorization for the the ABC is a result of the limited options in relation to the meter of the tune. They don't have a "march/processional" category in the search function. I'd categorize the tune as a "processional", but that's my take.

The Shetland stuff is the gateway (for many) from the Irish/Scottish into the Scandanavian material. Shetland tunes have a tendency to be as much Nordic in nature as the UK, and "Da Slockit Light" certainly has a Nordic feel.

Incidentally, to really bring out the most in Shetland tunes, one needs to pay attention to the internal phrasing (fiddle bowing/slurring) of the tune. If you play all the notes with the pick with a consistant even volume, you end up losing a lot of the flavor. Also, though usually not notated, there's a lot of incorporation of adjacent open string drones below the moving line. (something which also comes into play with real old-time Appalachian fiddle). Tom Anderson's Ringing Strings tunebook collection has bowing markings (standard notation only). If you want these tunes to sound "right", imo, you really need to incorporate hammer-ons and pull-offs to replicate the fiddle's phrasing.

Mandcrucian's Digest #8 featured an excellent, informative interview by Jenny Edenborn (actually, she editted out all her questions, so it reads like a Bain iseminar) of Shetland fiddler Aly Bain and included three trad. tunes as they were notated in Ringing Strings: "Da Galley Watch", "Da Black Reel" and "The Full-Rigged Shipped" with the bowings (and also w/mando tab.)

Niles H

[Tosh Marshall]

I'd recommend Tom Anderson's book 'Ringing Strings' which contains Da Slockit Light as well as a few other 'Da' tunes...... http://www.footstompin.com/products/...g_strings_book

[Bertram Henze]

I have taken te liberty to open a thread for this tune in the Song-a-Week group, hoping we get some more renditions from the Cafe community.

Thanks Bernie for the heads-up!

[Bernie Daniel]

Thanks for all the additional information. It really sounds nice on the octave too.