Betsy Whyte talks about storytelling, story transmission, an...
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1978.126
Original Tape ID
Summary
Betsy Whyte talks about storytelling, story transmission, and the need to be relaxed with the audience.
Even as a child, Betsy Whyte told stories to younger children. This helped to fix them in her own mind. She comments that she has to be relaxed with her audience, and preferably amongst Travellers, to tell her stories in a lively way, using her own words, including cant. When she first met Peter Cooke, she thought he was just a young student, and included bawdy passages that she would now omit.
Betsy remembers the stories as she heard them. She finds it emotional to tell her late mother's stories to her own children, as if her mother's voice becomes hers. Unlike stories, the wording of songs is fixed, unless she forgets the words and has to improvise. Travellers lived happily in extended family groups.
Item Subject/Person
Whyte, Betsy [Whyte, Bessie]
Recording Location
County - Midlothian
Parish - Edinburgh
Village/Place - Edinburgh
Language
English, Scots
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good