ABSTRACT
The accents of the thumping coincide with the accents of the music to start with, but many of the tunes are cunningly constructed with an extra beat to the last bar to throw the accent on the off-beat the second time round, like a Gaelic ‘rock-and-roll’ rhythm, a feature that adds spice to the music and the performance. Gaelic scholars are not agreed about the age or period of composition of the waulking songs. Besides being an example of a reaping song, the song is a fair and interesting specimen of the Gaelic flyting song. Sometimes the Gaelic lullaby prophesies great deeds for the infant when he grows up. Gaelic song refrains are to be found in a multiplicity of forms of from one line to six or eight or more.
