Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Alasdair Mitchell
This score video is provided for educational (non-commercial) use only, using the edition produced as part of Mitchell's 2002 doctoral thesis at the University of Edinburgh (era.ed.ac.uk/items/2c0225b8-226a-4764-ae87-5e5e89a0cc4b).
John Blackwood McEwen (1868-1948) was a Scottish composer and educator, most notable for his decades-long tenure teaching composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London. For more information about McEwen, see my score video of his fourth string quartet: youtu.be/Dvk6pWg_VAc
"Grey Galloway", written in 1908, is the third and final work of McEwen's collection of tone poems "Three Border Ballads". Mitchell describes it as " a tone picture of the Galloway district of Scotland", with no other program unlike the first two pieces of the collection, "Coronach" and "The Demon Lover" - both also available as score videos, linked in the pinned comment. Unlike "The Demon Lover", it was premiered in 1909 and apparently was recorded and broadcast with some regularity in subsequent years, although today it is as unknown as the rest of the collection.
Perhaps the lack of literary association in "Grey Galloway" freed McEwen up more to use Scottish folklore as a musical source as well as a programmatic one; it certainly contains the most clear references to Scottish folk music of the "Three Border Ballads", whether in the continuous modal melodies that open and persist through the piece or through rhythmic evocations of, for instance, the well-known reel form. The detailed and spacious textures of the middle section illustrate how the contemporary music of France, a country to which McEwen regularly returned, also influenced his works.
London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Alasdair Mitchell
This score video is provided for educational (non-commercial) use only, using the edition produced as part of Mitchell's 2002 doctoral thesis at the University of Edinburgh (era.ed.ac.uk/items/2c0225b8-226a-4764-ae87-5e5e89a0cc4b).
John Blackwood McEwen (1868-1948) was a Scottish composer and educator, most notable for his decades-long tenure teaching composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London. For more information about McEwen, see my score video of his fourth string quartet: youtu.be/Dvk6pWg_VAc
"Grey Galloway", written in 1908, is the third and final work of McEwen's collection of tone poems "Three Border Ballads". Mitchell describes it as " a tone picture of the Galloway district of Scotland", with no other program unlike the first two pieces of the collection, "Coronach" and "The Demon Lover" - both also available as score videos, linked in the pinned comment. Unlike "The Demon Lover", it was premiered in 1909 and apparently was recorded and broadcast with some regularity in subsequent years, although today it is as unknown as the rest of the collection.
Perhaps the lack of literary association in "Grey Galloway" freed McEwen up more to use Scottish folklore as a musical source as well as a programmatic one; it certainly contains the most clear references to Scottish folk music of the "Three Border Ballads", whether in the continuous modal melodies that open and persist through the piece or through rhythmic evocations of, for instance, the well-known reel form. The detailed and spacious textures of the middle section illustrate how the contemporary music of France, a country to which McEwen regularly returned, also influenced his works.
