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My earliest memories of playing the original orchestral version of Sir Malcolm Arnold's Four Scottish Dances include the bassoon solo being described as a little drunk. In fact, I still have the programme notes from 17th November 1976 when the Edinburgh Secondary Schools Orchestra played the dances in the imposing Usher Hall in Edinburgh, Scotland. They read, 

"The second movement is a reel, starting in the key of Eb Major, but rising up in semitones, until we reach G major, when a very drunken bassoon section stagger their way through a rather unsteady version of the reel tune. The clarinets, however, are quick to sober up the proceedings, back in the safety of Eb Major…"

Well that was the interpretation we were taught in this Scottish youth orchestra playing Scottish Dances. Surely that must be the correct way. Well … let's check it out.

Perhaps the best starting point is to listen to a recording where Sir Malcolm Arnold conducted the work. In 1968 he recorded the Four Scottish Dances with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. You can listen to it here on the LPO's YouTube channel.

How do you hear it? It doesn’t sound drunken to me - it sounds plodding and tired. Anyone who has been to a Scottish ceilidh knows that feeling at the end of the night when you struggle to find the energy to dance the final Orkney Strip the Willow!  What do you think?

Do we have any evidence of the composer writing in a drunken style elsewhere? Yes, we do. The first movement of the Three Shanties for Wind Quintet is widely regarded as portraying an increasing level of intoxication. It is a colourful arrangement of the folksong, "What Shall we do with a Drunken Sailor?", so we would expect it to sound drunk.  In the Shanties it is implicit in both the movement title and the music itself. However, in the Four Scottish Dances there is no title, so we only have the music to go on. 

The second movement bassoon solo of the Scottish Dances is shown below.

Arnold slows this section right down from Vivace (160 bpm) to Meno Mosso (112 bpm). The bassoon solo has grace notes that slide up or down between melody notes in the reel tune; sometimes diatonic, sometimes chromatic. Whether they represent the behaviour of a drunk is open to question. If I were writing this to be performed in a drunken way, I would annotate the part to that effect or I might mark it ‘con rubato’, to allow the player to pull the tempo around. There is nothing in what Arnold writes which says it should be played anything other than straight and in tempo. In fact, there is real precision to his writing here (note lengths, articulation, dynamics etc.).

Furthermore, from rehearsal mark F it is very stable and straight. This looks more plodding than drunken in my opinion and that is how it was played by the LPO under the composer’s baton in 1968.

What do others say? I approached the Malcolm Arnold Society (https://www.malcolmarnoldsociety.co.uk/) and corresponded with David Dunstan, who edits their newsletter and has edited books on the composer such as “A Malcolm Arnold Musical Companion”. He wrote,

“This is an interesting question. There is nothing in the score to suggest the bassoon solo should be played drunkenly but some performers like to do it that way (sometimes they overdo it). They also tend to take it very slowly - slower than the marking Meno mosso (crotchet=112) would suggest. Also when talking about the piece, people often talk about the "drunken" bassoon solo. But listening to Arnold's recording of it (the classic Everest recording from 1968 with the Third Symphony), he plays it fairly straight. In his notes, he just says the bassoon plays the tune "at a greatly reduced speed". So I think the "drunken" idea was not in the composer's mind - it's just something that people have repeated from each other. In my
opinion, the music should be performed straight, and it should be left to the listener how he interprets it.”

In conclusion, we can say that there is no evidence from the composer's words, his recording of the work, or in the score, that this famous bassoon solo should be played in a drunken or comedic way. However, it must be said that it does work well when interpreted in that way! If that is how you as a performer see it, then that is your choice – just make sure you don’t overdo it 😊. What do you think. Please comment below.