Woodwind Ensemble,Woodwind Quartet Bassoon,Clarinet,Flute,Oboe - Level 3 - Digital Download
SKU: A0.956672
Composed by Traditional Scottish. Arranged by Catriona Melville-Mason. Celtic,Concert,Standards. 12 pages. C Melville-Mason #6867581. Published by C Melville-Mason (A0.956672).
A traditional fiddle tune from Scotland's Shetland Isles, arranged here for 4-part mixed woodwind combination of 2 flutes, oboe and either clarinet in B-flat or bassoon. This piece makes a lively addition to general repertoire, or can be used in a recital programme either as a light-hearted interlude or an upbeat encore. Although classed as 'intermediate', the difficulty level depends very much on the speed at which the piece is played!
The title of The Merry Boys of Greenland appears with many subtle variations – ‘the’ is sometimes replaced by ‘da’, ‘of’ by ‘o’’ and ‘merry’ as ‘merrie’ or ‘mirrie’.
It is believed that the ‘Merry Boys’ of the tune may have been recruited from the Shetland Isles (the northernmost island group off the coast of Scotland) to form the crew for whaling expeditions to the seas between Greenland and Canada.