A cornkister is a

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

song, generally a comic song, written during the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries, in the tradition of the

bothy ballad Bothy ballads are songs sung by farm labourers in the northeast region of Scotland. Bothies are farm outbuildings, where unmarried labourers used to sleep, often in harsh conditions. In the evening, to entertain themselves, these bothy bands s ...

s. The name refers to the (corn chest) used to measure oats sufficient to feed a plough horse on the farms of Northeast

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

at that time. The reason for the association was that it was assumed that the singers—or one of the listeners—sat on top of the while singing and kicked their heels against it in time to the music. Nowadays most cornkisters are known via recordings made by entertainers of the 1920s and 1930s such as Willie Kemp, G. S. Morris or by later imitators such as Andy Stewart. While there is some overlap with the bothy ballads, in that they both often have the topic of farm life in the Northeast of Scotland, and that singers of one will generally also sing the other, there is a difference in that the cornkister was more likely to be written for the

music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...

or for recording purposes, with the Beltona record label in particular recording many pieces. The most famous cornkisters are: * ''McGinty's Meal an Ale'' by George Bruce Thomson * ''MacFarlane o the Sprotts o Burnieboosie'' by George Bruce Thomson * ''A Pair o Nicky Tams'' by G. S. Morris but many others exist.

External links

Bothy Ballads
Centre for the Scots Leid Scots language History of agriculture in Scotland Scottish songs Culture in Aberdeen Aberdeenshire Banffshire Moray Scottish folk music {{song-stub

See also

External links