Scotland.

1. Introduction.

Any account of music in Scotland must inevitably be halting and fragmentary, not only because of the ravages of time and the lack of sources but also because of powerful and even destructive political, religious and social factors. In the Middle Ages music appears to have developed peaceably in church and court until the 13th century. The 14th century was disrupted by English aggression. The 15th and 16th centuries marked another period of flowering in both church and court music. In the mid-16th century Scotland was saddled with an anti-musical national church, and in the 17th century was abandoned by a fugitive court, its music consigned to limbo. The tradition was revived by the Scottish aristocracy in the 18th century but lapsed into English-orientated provincialism in the 19th, to be reawakened by resurgent nationalism and its aftermath in the 20th century.

2. Early developments.

The earliest surviving traces of music in Scotland are of the late 13th century. The Celtic Church had been established as long ago as the 4th century, the Roman rite introduced only in the 8th and a solid feudal monarchy established by the 11th century. Ensuing Anglo-Norman and Gothic influences contributed to the foundation of great ecclesiastical centres (incorporating song schools) such as Dunfermline, St Andrews, Glasgow and Elgin. Two 13th-century sources of plainsong may preserve alongside Gregorian/Sarum material some of the repertory of the Celtic church: the Inchcolm Antiphoner contains what is probably much earlier music in honour of St Columba, as does the Sprouston Breviary of music for St Kentigern. One of the earliest surviving records of polyphonic music in Scotland (Wolfenbüttel manuscript D-W 677, associated with St Andrews Augustinian Priory) contains some of the early 13th-century Notre Dame repertory of organum and conductus, as well as some other music perhaps of more local origin. The 13th century was also the time when a distinctive Scottish literature began to emerge, but the only song with music to survive from the period is the Latin hymn for the wedding of Princess Margaret of Scotland in 1281 (see Elliott, 1985).

The 14th century witnessed Scotland's struggle for independence, England's persistent attempts at appropriation and the consolidation of Scotland's alliance with France. There are few references to court music, but, in spite of the destruction of the great Border abbeys, provision for music is recorded in some contemporary church statutes. Some fragments of 14th-century polyphony survive in Wolfenbüttel manuscript D-W 499. The three older Scottish universities – St Andrews, Glasgow and Aberdeen – were founded in the 15th century: in all three music played an important part in chapel services, if not as a subject for study in the medieval Quadrivium. Mid-century fragments in D-W 499 and inscribed slates from Paisley Abbey are all that survive from that period today. The founding of collegiate chapels increased during the 15th century and during the reigns of James III and IV the most important of these, the Chapel Royal, cultivated, besides Scottish music, English compositions in the decorative style, music by the Burgundian DuFay and Netherlandish-inspired polyphony of the later century, all contained in the early 16th-century Carver choirbook. The development of the imitative style of the high Renaissance can be observed in Scottish music of the early 16th century. The masses and motets of Robert Carver (otherwise decorative), also in the Carver choirbook, show it in an early stage; an early motet of David Peebles is transitional; while in the works of Robert Johnson (most of which admittedly were written in England, where a parallel stylistic development took place) it is fully developed. Secular music at the Scottish court reflects the interests of English and French factions, the latter dominating when James V twice brought a French princess home to Scotland to be queen in 1537 and 1538, and French culture flooded into the country. The chanson style, developed by Claudin de Sermisy in the second quarter of the century, found expression in Scotland in a number of songs for four voices to texts by John Fethy, Steill, Scott and others, that subscribe to most of the structural and songlike features of French chansons of this period.

3. The later 16th and 17th centuries.

With the Reformation in 1560, Lutheran chorale melodies and French and English psalm tunes were adopted by the Scottish Reformed Church. Scottish composers such as David Peebles, Andrew Kemp, John Angus, Andrew Blackhall and John Buchan set them chordally or imitatively according to current European practice, composed some new tunes and set psalm texts as imitative anthems in syllabic style. The first printed Scottish psalter (tunes only) appeared in 1564; but without any adequate provision for music in the service, composition and performance of church music lapsed, and by royal decree song schools were made the responsibility of the burghs. Music at the Chapel Royal and court under Mary Queen of Scots fared somewhat better, the French influence and the Roman tradition being represented by French-inspired instrumental consorts and Latin sacred music. From the reign of Mary's son, James VI, we have Franco-Scottish ‘chansons’ of the Castalian Band (a group of poets and musicians led by the poet Alexander Montgomerie) and music in English keyboard and Italian madrigal styles. Among the musicians were Thomas Hudson, William Kinloch, James Lauder and Andrew Blackhall. Even after the departure of the court in 1603 attempts were made to keep the Chapel Royal going, but James VI's and Charles I's leanings towards episcopacy eventually brought about a violent reaction in Scotland: a narrow Presbyterianism triumphed, though it just managed to produce several printed psalters with part-music; and an interesting but retrospective psalter inspired by the Chapel Royal was printed in 1635, edited by its director, Edward Millar. The most characteristic Presbyterian church music of the age was a handful of all-purpose Common Tunes, which remained staple fare throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.

Despite the fragmentation of court culture in the 17th century the Scottish musical tradition managed to survive for a time among the musical amateurs of the northern castles and in one or two burgh song schools such as those of Aberdeen and Glasgow. At the latter the composer Duncan Burnett produced keyboard music in sombre Jacobean style in the early decades of the century. But in general native musical composition declined, and although works by foreign composers circulated, Scottish music was represented either by favourite pieces of an earlier age or by that other Scottish musical tradition, the native air or folksong. It was during the 17th century that folk music first began to be recorded, although as a tradition it must have existed for long before that. The music is arranged for instrumental performance on mandora (the Skene Manuscript), cittern (Edwards, MacAlman), lute (e.g. Wemyss, Balcarres), harpsichord (e.g. Edwards), lyra viol (e.g. Leyden) or violin (e.g. Panmure) – indeed, few song texts seem to have been written down at this time (see §II). After the Restoration some of the song-tunes of the Scottish courtly repertory belatedly reached print in Forbes's Songs and Fancies (Aberdeen, 1662–82), the first book of secular music ever printed in Scotland. But after a century torn by civil war and religious strife that tradition was fading rapidly. The last songbook to contain samples of its music dates from the closing years of the 17th century, just at the time when a young musician from a prominent Scottish family, John Clerk of Penicuik, was studying composition with Corelli in Rome. Clerk's career as composer of cantatas in later Baroque style was promising but unfortunately short-lived, due to traditional family constraints and public duties.

4. The 18th and 19th centuries.

Musical composition in Scotland began to revive in the more stable social and economic conditions of the 18th century, and the growth of musical societies and concerts in the major cities attracted many foreign and especially Italian musicians such as Francesco Barsanti and Domenico Corri. Throughout the century native composers such as William McGibbon, Charles McLean, James Oswald, David Foulis and Thomas Erskine, 6th Earl of Kelly, wholeheartedly adopted the prevailing international styles of Baroque, Rococo and Classical in their songs, sonatas, concertos and symphonies. But events leading up to and following the Union of 1707, when Scotland lost its parliament, also coincided with an upsurge in national feeling that was reflected in a whole series of publications of folksongs (see §II). James Watson and Allan Ramsay, and later David Herd and Robert Burns, began to collect, edit or rewrite texts, and such song collections as Orpheus Caledonius (1725–33) and The Scots Musical Museum (1787–1803), while serving contemporary needs, could also be said to extend and develop the 17th-century aristocratic taste for arranged folk music. Some Scottish composers cultivated both styles, but this dualism of interest was eventually to produce an unfortunate division of loyalties between those champions of the so-called ‘true’ Scottish (i.e. folk) music and those of the so-called ‘foreign’ importation (i.e. art music). Even men of the Age of Enlightenment in Scotland failed to realize that music need be no less Scots for being European. But folksong, once the novelty of an aristocracy without a court, proved to be the hardier survivor and even achieved a European currency with the collections (1793–1841) of George Thomson, who turned to composers such as Haydn and Beethoven for his harmonizations. With the collapse of aristocratic patronage at the end of the century, the remarkable flowering of music in 18th-century Scotland came to an end and a period of relative stagnation in composition once more ensued. Ironically this flowering of creative activity could only have existed because of the equivocal ‘Union’, but tragically it could not sustain itself due to the lack of an international Scottish identity.

In the second quarter of the 19th century composition was revived briefly in the songs, chamber and dramatic music of John Thomson, which show elements of early German Romanticism. Throughout the century national song received much attention from collectors, arrangers and imitators – some of it worthwhile but much of it in doubtful taste. Manuscripts of early music began to draw the interest of antiquarians; such was the climate of opinion, however, that commentators doubted the value or even genuineness of court songs simply because they contained no traces of folk music. The national church (which had hardly progressed beyond the 12 Common Tunes during the 18th century) now fostered the publication of a flood of largely worthless books of psalms. It retained its 300-year-old hatred of the organ until the end of the century, although some attempts were made to improve standards of choral singing from about the 1860s. It was the Episcopal (and to a lesser extent the Roman Catholic) Church that since the previous century had provided some sort of musical standards in taste and performance. The new interest in choral singing was paralleled about the mid-century by the formation of choral societies, with their attendant orchestras. These were to develop and become important features of the Scottish musical scene that have continued to the 20th century.

4. General characteristics.

5. Later developments.

Towards the end of the 19th century a group of nationalist composers began to emerge on to a musical scene lately dominated by Anglo-German interests, and laid the foundations for important later developments. All of them showed an interest in large-scale forms and displayed considerable skill in handling the orchestra. In the cantatas and oratorios of Alexander Mackenzie, the native idiom of folksong is blended with the cosmopolitanism of the German style. The national idiom is even stronger in the choral and orchestral works and operas of Hamish MacCunn and Learmont Drysdale, both working at the turn of the century; while the music of William Wallace, a late Romantic exponent of the Lisztian symphonic poem, and of J.B. McEwen, a composer of delicate post-impressionist chamber music, is more individual in character. Some subsequent 20th-century Scottish composers, such as Ian Whyte and Erik Chisholm, could almost be said to have developed individuality to the point of eccentricity; whereas Francis George Scott transformed obsolescence into individuality – a rarer achievement. In the work of later composers a wide range of 20th-century techniques of international currency may be found. Composers such as Robin Orr, Cedric Thorpe Davie and Ronald Stevenson retain leanings in a more or less marked degree towards traditional tonality in neo-classical, folksong revival, even late Romantic terms; Iain Hamilton, Thomas Wilson and Thea Musgrave have cultivated the more recent developments of serialism and aleatory technique; while David Dorward, Sebastian Forbes and Martin Dalby represented a younger group of Scottish composers whose work was significant for a developing musical culture. Among composers who have settled in Scotland for a considerable period of time are Kenneth Leighton, Peter Maxwell Davies and Lyell Cresswell. Native Scottish composers working today in many different musical styles include John MacLeod, Edward Maguire, William Sweeney, Judith Weir and James McMillan. Among a younger group of composers there is a growing interest in the new techniques of electro-acoustic/computer music.

Taking a more general view of the contemporary musical scene in Scotland, however, it may be observed that the 200-year-old dualism of Scottish music still operates today in many quarters. It is obviously a much more complex phenomenon than 19th-century nationalism. Attempts to treat folk music in the 20th century have ranged from well-meaning transformation of folksong into art song, idiomatic absorption into a musical language, sensitive arrangement, commercial tartan-and-bagpipe image-making (the persistent curse of Scottish music at the international cultural level) to neo-primitive popular styles. But since the mid-20th century there has been a remarkable growth in every sphere of Scotland's musical life. The 20th-century patrons – the BBC, the Saltire Society, the Scottish Arts Council, the McEwen Bequest and, more recently, the Edinburgh Contemporary Arts Trust – have encouraged composition and performance of new music and have also stimulated interest in the music of Scotland's past. Orchestral music, opera and ballet are regularly presented on a national basis by the Scottish National (since 1990 the Royal Scottish National), Scottish Chamber and BBC Scottish orchestras and by Scottish Opera and Scottish Ballet. Among a wealth of smaller professional groups making regular appearances are Cappella Nova, the Scottish Early Music Consort, the Chamber Group of Scotland and BT Scottish Ensemble. Festivals have proliferated: apart from the long-established Edinburgh International Festival, perhaps the most notable are the St Magnus Festival, Mayfest and the Perth Festival of the Arts. The teaching and fostering of music in schools, music academies and universities are firmly established, and an ambitious project to document Scotland's music has been under way since 1968 at the Scottish Music Information Centre (formerly the Scottish Music Archive), Glasgow.

See also Aberdeen; Edinburgh; Glasgow.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

W. Dauney: Ancient Scottish Melodies, from a Manuscript of the Reign of King James VI (Edinburgh, 1838)

J. Johnson: The Scots Musical Museum, 1787–1803, ed. D. Laing and W. Stenhouse (Edinburgh,1853)

N. Livingston, ed.: The Scottish Metrical Psalter of A.D. 1635 (Glasgow, 1864)

C. Rogers: The History of the Chapel Royal of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1882)

D. Baptie: Musical Scotland Past and Present (Paisley, 1894/R)

H.G. Farmer: A History of Music in Scotland (London, 1947/R)

M. Patrick: Four Centuries of Scottish Psalmody (London, 1949)

I.B. Cowan: Medieval Religious Houses: Scotland (London, 1957, rev. 2/1976 by I.B. Cowan and D.E. Easson)

K. Elliott and H.M. Shire, eds.: Music of Scotland, 1500–1700,MB, xv (London, 1957, 3/1975)

K. Elliott: Music of Scotland, 1500–1700 (diss., U. of Cambridge, 1959)

H.M. Shire: Song, Dance and Poetry of the Court of Scotland under King James VI (Cambridge,1969)

D. Johnson: Music and Society in Lowland Scotland in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1972)

C. Wilson: Scottish Opera: the First Ten Years (London, 1972)

K. Elliott and F. Rimmer: A History of Scottish Music (London,1973)

J.C. Ottenberg: ‘Musical Currents of the Scottish Enlightenment’, IRASM, ix (1978), 99–110

C. Thorpe Davie: Scotland's Music (Edinburgh, 1980)

D. Johnson: Scottish Fiddle Music in the 18th Century (Edinburgh, 1984)

K. Elliott, ed.: Ex te lux oritur’: Wedding Hymn of Margaret of Scotland and Eric of Norway, 1281) MS, Scottish Music Information Centre (Glasgow, 1985)

M. Everist: ‘From Paris to St Andrews: the Origins of W₁’, JAMS, xliii (1990), 1–42

K. Elliott: ‘The Musical Slate Fragments’, Paisley Abbey: Investigations, 1991, ed. P. Johnston and S.T. Driscoll (Glasgow, 1991), 25–9

J. Purser: Scotland's Music (Edinburgh, 1992)

B.M. Ross: Writings about Scotland's Music: an Annotated Bibliography (diss., Claremont Graduate School, 1993)

D.J. Ross: Musick Fyne: Robert Carver and the Art of Music in Sixteenth Century Scotland (Edinburgh, 1993)

I. Preece: ‘W₃: some Fragments of Scottish Fourteenth-Century Polyphony’ [unpubd paper given at 22nd Annual Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies: Glasgow 1994]

K. Elliott, ed.: Musica Scotica (Glasgow, 1995–) 8

Scotland

II. Traditional music

1. Introduction.

2. Sources and research.

3. Function and context.

5. Song.

6. Instrumental music.

7. Education.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Introduction.

Traditional music in Scotland includes locally-made music, whether of known authorship or not, and whether extant in written or recorded form or not, which has had a significant life in oral tradition. The notion of traditional music belonging to amateurs cannot be rigidly applied in the case of Scotland, as professional musicians have played an important role in traditional music since at least the 17th century. Traditional music in Scotland includes a wide variety of styles, many related to linguistic and/or geographic influences. The three main languages of Scotland (English, Scots and Gaelic) are all represented in traditional song; instrumental traditions, especially those of piping and fiddling, are closely related to these worlds of singing. Scotland has significant populations descended from South Asian, Cantonese, Polish and Italian immigrant groups, but their music-making in Scotland has been little studied and is not included in this article.

The ‘Highland line’ is conventionally regarded as dividing Scotland into two major areas of language and culture: the north and west being predominantly Gaelic and the south and east principally Scots. The line has shifted further to the west as Gaelic has declined and in the 20th century, has become less distinct as far as music is concerned. By the end of the 20th century there were no monolingual Gaelic-speaking areas left but Gaelic continues to be culturally important in the Western Isles and the Highlands. Owing to internal migration from rural areas, the largest number of Gaelic speakers is in and around the city of Glasgow.

2. Sources and research.

Scots is considered by some to be a distinct language, while English speakers not educated in Scots often include it as a dialect of English. This distinction has had important ramifications for traditional song in Scotland as some editors and collectors, particularly during the 18th and 19th centuries, have ‘corrected’ Scots-language texts for English readers. 20th-century field recordings of ballad singing have all but eliminated this notion in modern publications of Scots song.

Traditional music in Scotland is unusual among European folk traditions in that there is a long history of mixed oral and literate transmission of melodies, tunes and songs, and in that much of what is accepted as folk music in Scotland is of known authorship. This is because much of the early song poetry, although of known authorship, began to be printed only in the early 18th century, and until then was transmitted solely by oral means. For example, many of the songs of the Gaelic poet Mary Macleod (Mairi nighean Alasdair Ruaidh, b c1615) have survived for centuries in the repertories of singers without having been written down. Some of their tunes were first printed in 1911, in Tolmie's collection of Gaelic songs (D1911); others are still being recovered. Similarly the chief composers of pìobaireachd, notably the MacCrimmons, are known by name, though only a few of the earlier pìobaireachd can be ascribed with certainty in individual composers.

Significant publication of Scottish song and fiddle tunes began in the mid-18th century, while the Highland Society of London encouraged staff notation of pipe music beginning in the early 19th century (see Bibliography: C). Although many traditional musicians today also use written musical sources, aural methods continue to be the primary means of disseminating repertory, including both personal contact and mass mediated sound recordings. The internet is primarily used as a means of advertising for professionals and of discussion for computer-literate amateurs rather than as a source of musical sound or notation.

Despite a few 17th-century sources (notably the Skene manuscript of lute music), there is little direct contemporary evidence concerning traditional music in Scotland before the 18th century. Heroic poetry in Gaelic became one of the first examples of spurious publication when Ossianic lays were presented by MacPherson. Little contemporary evidence of this music and song exists (but see Angus Fraser manuscript, Bibliography: A n.d.) but much pipe music and song has been collected from later generations of musicians (see Mackay, E1838; Tolmie, D1911).

Recent research in traditional music in Scotland has concentrated on collection of items of music, with the most important repository of sound archives being at the School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh. Two major areas for research have been on historical aspects of the tradition, especially in piping, fiddle music and Gaelic song, and on performers at the margins of Scottish society. Researchers associated with the School of Scottish Studies have worked with travelling people since the 1950s to collect a large repertory of music and song from a solely oral tradition.

Other recent research includes musical ethnograpies of Shetland and Galloway that have produced significant conclusions about the relations between population groups, social life and traditional music; more studies of this kind covering other areas of Scotland are needed. Studies of important individual performers (e.g. the traveller singer Jeannie Robertson, the Fisher family) have led to further work on the importance of individual life histories and psychology in the creation and performance of traditional music in Scotland. Study of traditional music and the mass media has led to a broader perspective on the workings of this mixed oral and literate tradition.

3. Function and context.

Traditional music may be heard at a variety of events ranging from the most intimate and informal to the most highly organized and public. Pipers are in demand at rituals associated with the life-cycle, especially weddings and funerals. Wedding parties also include traditional dancing usually with live music, as do parties celebrating significant wedding anniversaries.

Hogmanay is the main point in the calendar year at which traditional music is indispensable. This includes music at home during first-footing and, starting in the 1990s, outdoor amplified music at large urban street parties to bring in the New Year. At these events, traditional musicians are placed in a physical context originally designed for rock musicians. At Stonehaven, pipers accompany the march of fire-throwers on Hogmanay, while Shetland's Up-Helly-Aa festival has its own repertory of song to accompany fire rituals.

Burns Suppers, held in January to celebrate the life of the poet, song collector and editor Robert Burns, include piping to accompany the ritual entrance of the haggis, singing of Burns's songs, and music for dancing. All of the above events are usually ended with community singing and dancing of Auld Lang Syne.

Traditional music has little place in most formal religious worship, the exception being psalm singing in churches of the Gaels (see §5 (iii)). Popular psalm singing and playing of psalm tunes on the fiddle represent a paraliturgical role for traditional musicians.

Beyond these ritual functions of traditional music in Scotland is the prominence of traditional music at civic celebrations and important events. Pipe bands are used for parades of all kinds, while concerts and céilidhs are held to welcome and honour important guests. For example, the opening of the new Scottish Parliament in 1999 included the traditional singer Sheena Wellington performing Burns's A Man's a Man for A' That.

Traditional music also forms an essential part of a lively group of dance traditions in Scotland. A standard ensemble of accordion(s), fiddle, piano, bass and drums developed in the mid-20th century to accompany Scottish country dancing. Since the 1980s, a more eclectic type of band, often featuring bagpipes, fiddle and electronic accompanying instruments has developed for a new youth céilidh dance movement. Solo pipers are the norm for Highland dancers and, along with solo fiddlers, some are involved in the late-20th century revival of step dancing in Scotland.

The traditional Céilidh is the most important informal context for music-making. Although rooted in Gaelic culture, céilidhs can be found at homes throughout Scotland, including travellers’ camp sites.

The earliest known patronage for traditional musicians was in the Gaelic courts of clan chiefs, where musicians had important roles: pipers led men into battle and played at funerals and other important occasions. Bards and harpers provided entertainment and homage to important guests. The 18th-century break-up of clan society meant that the original context for this music disappeared; the harp was largely supplanted by fiddle and bagpipe by this time, and the bagpipe repertory was preserved away from establishment centres following the Jacobite rebellions. In the Lowlands, town pipers were employed, and in the 18th century it became fashionable to have a tune by a prominent fiddle composer named after members of the upper classes (e.g. Lady Charlotte Campbell). In the 20th century, mass media organizations have become important patrons and supporters of traditional music. BBC Radio Scotland provides regular traditional music programming, while both the BBC and commercial television stations have important though sporadic coverage.

Another important context for traditional music is the folk club. Developed largely in the 1950s and 1960s, most of these clubs meet weekly to hear an outside, paid performer and to give a platform to local musicians. The inclusive nature of folk clubs may be related to the same ethos at céilidhs of all descriptions, and is an important feature of the Scottish tradition of music-making.

Folk festivals, many of them emphasizing local music making, can be found throughout Scotland. Most Scottish folk festivals are small and local but in the 1990s a new kind of festival aimed at large audiences hearing star performers has evolved, notably the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow. The smaller festivals may include formal concerts, dances, pub sessions, workshops and competitions. This last area, the competition, is also prominent at the Highland Games and is one of the main platforms for performance of some traditional forms (especially pìobaireachd). The role of competitions has been controversial in that, along with encouraging performance and providing a meeting place for far-flung musical friends, competitions impose standards that may tend to ossify a musical tradition.

Traditional music in Scotland exists alongside mainstream forms such as Western art music and popular music. Despite the use of traditional music for significant civic and personal celebrations, the wealth of traditional music is sometimes hidden from the general population. Those seeking traditional music find it easily, but it is also easy to avoid it through total immersion in mass-mediated global popular music. The devolution of Parliament may begin to change this through both practical support and positive identification with Scotland's traditional music.

4. General characteristics.

Although many musicians and writers on music emphasize the differences in musical styles in different areas of the country, traditional music-making in Scotland has an underlying unity featuring a common repertory of melodies; these are sung and played on virtually all the instruments of traditional music. Other unifying characteristics are the participation in traditional music and dance by all social classes, regardless of geography, language or period of history, and a nurturing attitude to young musicians along with an inclusive approach towards performance; this results in the traditional céilidh, in public performance opportunities such as at folk clubs, formal céilidhs and concerts, in pub session playing, and in informal teaching.

Prominent musical characteristics found in the traditional music of Scotland include pentatonic modes, double-tonic tunes, cyclical melodies, and the Scotch snap. Pentatonicism in Scottish traditional music is regarded by the outside world as a cliché. Study of Scottish pentatonic melodies reveals that, in Gaelic song, six pentatonic modes can be identified (see Gilchrist, D1910–13) all involving anhemitonic scales. Pentatonic songs in Scots include a greater number of five-note scales (e.g. C–D–E–F–G) in addition to pentatonic scales with a wider compass. Songs and tunes from Scotland also include hexatonic and heptatonic melodies, and Collinson (F1966) has pointed out Hebridean songs of four notes only (ex.1).

Another important modal feature of traditional music in Scotland, particularly in pipe tunes, is the double tonic. Double-tonic tunes feature a melodic phrase, usually based on a major triad, which is stated, then repeated a tone lower, and often repeated again at the original pitch. This effect suits the nine notes of the Highland bagpipe chanter, and the changing relationship to the fixed drone pitch accentuates the effect of a double-tonic figure. The use of double-tonic effects in tunes played on other instruments creates a bagpipe feel to the performance and, when well executed at speed, creates a feeling of wildness.

Some Lowland song-tunes are characterized by a dual modality, where the melody apparently begins in one mode and finishes in another. One of the best-known examples of this is in Green grow the rashes-o ( ex.2), which may be described as beginning in the major key and ending in the relative minor (i.e. a mixture of Ionian and Aeolian modes). Sometimes the mode seems ambiguous because the tune ends on a note other than the tonic. For example, Roy's wife of Aldivalloch and The Campbells are coming both end on the third of the scale; Tullochgorum (ex.3), Jenny dang the weaver and other songs end on the second degree of the mode. These may all have been cyclic dance-tunes. Final cadences on the fifth of the mode are almost commonplace, particularly in Gaelic songs. However in pìobaireachd the theme of the piece is often deliberately restricted to the notes of the pentatonic scale, even though the pipe chanter has a range of nine notes (an octave plus one). The MacCrimmons wrote their pìobaireachd compositions almost exclusively in the pentatonic scale.

The Scotch snap is a rhythmic cliché of Scottish music that has been misunderstood by composers elsewhere in Europe. Most closely associated with the strathspey, this two-note dotted rhythm consists of a emphasized short note on the beat, leading to a longer, off-beat pitch (see ex.8). The snap is also used for special effect in reels and is characteristic of pipe marches. Correct speed and emphasis in the Scotch snap is a marker of traditional performance style, as is the placement of snaps within heavily dotted-rhythm genres.

The modal aspects of traditional Scottish melodies, as outlined above, present difficulties for accompanists. Musicians are known to have experimented with harmonizing these tunes according to current norms of mainstream musical styles since the first flush of fiddle tune publications in the 18th century. More recent efforts have included the standard common-practice harmony used by Scottish country dance bands, harmonic experimentation inspired by jazz musicians, and imitation of bagpipe drones in effects produced by electronic instruments.

In addition to harmonization of traditional melodies, there have also been frequent attempts at more extended arrangements according to the norms of current European art and popular music. The first evidence of this are fiddle tunes arranged in 18th-century variation sets in the style of Corelli. More recently, a marriage of bothy bands and the swing music of big bands in the 1930s and 1940s led to dance bands able to play for both Scottish country dances and for ballroom dances such as the foxtrot and various quicksteps. At the end of the 20th century, cross-over musics involving traditional melodies include jazz, Western art music and rock, along with experiments in electronic sound. The maintenance of traditional repertory and style in the face of constant experimentation and interchange of specialist traditional musics with more mainstream musical styles is one of the distinguishing features of traditional music-making in Scotland.

5. Song.

Scotland has a singing culture, with a repertory that may be classified by its source, language and musical style.

(i) Ballads.

Scotland is perhaps best known as the source for a large body of narrative song kept alive in oral tradition throughout the 20th century. The Scottish muckle sangs (lit. ‘big ballads’) form one of the most important European collections of sung tales, with many having cognate forms throughout northern Europe. F.J. Child (B1882–98) collected manuscript versions of the texts in the late 19th century, while in the mid-20th century, B.H. Bronson (B1959–72) collected and classified tunes sung to these texts (ex.4). Child was unaware that the repertory, which he classified into what are now known as the Child ballads, was still being sung by Scottish travellers. In the era of magnetic tape recording following World War II, several important collectors, starting with Hamish Henderson and Alan Lomax, recorded great traveller singers such as Jeannie Robertson and the Stewarts of Blair performing these tales of love, loyalty and often murder, in a unique, powerful and highly ornamented style.

Traditional singing in Scots also includes songs associated with calendar customs (the best known being Auld Lang Syne), children's songs and occupational songs. Of the latter, bothy songs concerned with the life of 19th- and early 20th-century farm labourers are the most important, both in numbers and in widespread dissemination and popularity. Many bothy songs describe actual events and were composed not long after they happened.

During the early to mid-18th century, large collections of Scots song were collected, composed and published by figures such as Ramsay (F1802) and Oswald (Bc1761–2). These especially emphasized lyric songs and led to a boom in composition in a pseudo-traditional style by Romantics such as Walter Scott, Lady Nairne and Robert Burns. This body of song, with texts composed by and for the upper classes to tunes either newly composed or ‘improved’ from oral tradition, are often identifiable by musical traits making them more difficult to sing (e.g. large range, long lines, big leaps). In spite of these traits, many of these songs have entered oral tradition and form an important part of the Scots heritage of song.

Bawdy song has been a somewhat hidden tradition, not much highlighted within officially sanctioned Scots song due to the bowdlerization of texts prepared for publication. Bawdy songs have been present in oral tradition regardless of the sensibilities of those able to purchase published books of song and an increasing number of bawdy versions of well-known ‘clean’ songs have been published and recorded in the late 20th century. This is particularly true of some well-known Burns songs (e.g. John Anderson My Jo, Dainty Davie).

Comic song moving into and out of the music hall forms another significant strand of the repertory of songs in Scots. Performers at the turn of the 20th century such as Harry Lauder and Will Fyffe built careers in music hall using material closely related to traditional song, as well as composing new songs. Some of this repertory has also been taken up in oral tradition.

Songs in English should not be left out of any account of song in Scotland. These range from Scots songs which have been anglicized for reasons similar to those for bowdlerization, loans from other English-speaking countries, and local songs composed in English. One of the most popular of the loan categories is the Country and Western repertory imported from the USA. These are especially popular with groups on the margins of Scottish society, either literally, as in those from the islands surrounding the mainland of Scotland, or figuratively, as in socially marginal groups such as the travelling community.

Writers on music have conventionally regarded the singing style of Scots song, particularly the ballads, as both impersonal and straightforward. While the higly ornamented singing style of some travellers may be an exception to a generally simple and clear singing style, the notion of an impersonal approach to singing is ill founded. Scottish singers want their audiences to understand their texts and strive to make a personal statement in their songs; for example, some singers may interpret Ca' the Yowes as relating to sheep while others would treat this metaphorically and associate the text to the subject of personal relationships. This approach is augmented by the telling of the tale of a ballad before it is performed, or in relating the personal significance of a song in introducing it.

(ii) Gaelic song.

Gaelic musical culture was exclusively oral until the early 18th century. The notation in manuscript or print of Gaelic songs began a great deal later than that of Lowland Scots music, but examples of Gaelic song can be found in oral circulation whose origins predate anything from Lowland Scotland.

Most Scottish Gaelic poetry is intended to be sung. Like Irish Gaelic poetry, it has evolved from the ancient bardic court poetry. Some of the Scottish bardic poetry was written down but unfortunately none of its associated music survives in its original form. The verses were in syllabic metre, i.e. with a fixed number of syllables to the line but without any regular stress-pattern, following instead the natural stresses of the language. A later, more popular and vernacular form of syllabic verse has survived with its music in the Heroic Ballads. These tell variously of the deeds of Cú Chulainn in the Ulster Cycle, of Fionn and Ossian in the Ossianic Ballads and of the Knights of the Arthurian legends. Of the latter only one example, Am bron binn (‘The sweet sorrow’), has been found; it was recorded in the Hebrides in the early 1950s (ex.5). These songs originated in prose folk legends of an early period, and were put into ballad form with music in about the 12th century.

As Gaelic poets have always tended to use existing tunes for their songs, the tunes of the Heroic Ballads may well incorporate melodies belonging to the older court poetry. Some of them, too, may have been borrowed from ecclesiastical chants, for they possess features resembling those of plainchant, and it is not impossible that at least some of them may retain unaltered parts of their originals. The Heroic Ballads are still sung today.

After the era of the Heroic Ballads, there is a gap of several centuries from which very few examples of Gaelic folksong have been found. Fewer than half a dozen datable songs survive from a period spanning 300 years. Among them are the Lullaby for Coinnich Oig (b 1569), and a song about the battle of Carinish in North Uist (1601). This period without song records coincides with one of extreme political confusion in the Highlands and Islands following the breakdown of the Lordship of the Isles in the 15th century. The upheaval seems to have caused a definite change in clan tradition.

In the late 17th century, a new type of song developed, the òran mòr (great song) in praise of the Highland chiefs. These songs were in a verse form not previously used, having stressed metres. One of the most notable composers in the new style was Mary MacLeod (see §2 above). Though many of the earlier songs in stressed metre retain much of the rhythmic freedom of syllabic verse (e.g. the songs of Iain Lom), the rise in popularity of stressed metre can be said to represent a new stage in Gaelic song, one that was to lead eventually to the rhythmic type of Gaelic song as we know it today.

It is probable however that songs with regular stress and rhythm existed long before this, in the form of labour songs. Such songs are an important and extensive part of Gaelic folksong. Though few of them are now used for the tasks for which they were originally intended, they are sung for pleasure throughout Gaelic Scotland. They include songs formerly used to coordinate regular movement and exertion, in such communal tasks as rowing, waulking (i.e. cloth-fulling), reaping and corn-grinding with the quern (a job for two people), as well as songs used to lighten solitary tasks, spinning, milking, churning, and nursing an infant or lulling it to sleep.

These songs, particularly the waulking-songs, are characterized by stereotyped series of non-lexical vocables in the refrains, such as hao ri ri, o ho lebh o, hò ró eile, etc. (see ex.1). These would appear to have the mnemonic, quasi-notational function of enabling the singer to recall the melody. The technique is somewhat akin to that of pipers’ canntaireachd (see §6(i)). They have their own rules of construction; only certain consonants and vowels are used, and these only in selected combinations. Though the same refrain syllables recur throughout the labour songs, a sequence of syllables constituting a complete musical phrase is almost never duplicated in different songs. The syllables are in fact used like the words of a language.

Some of the older Heroic Ballads have been adapted as waulking-songs by addition of such refrain syllables. Many of the tunes of the waulking-songs may be older than their words; and a number of the song texts may originally have been extemporized to known tunes at the waulking-board. Some scholars have suggested that extemporization of words to existing tunes is common practice of the Gael.

The old custom of singing waulking-songs (fig.1) while shrinking the web of newly woven cloth (soaked in urine) has now practically ceased; but groups of young women in parts of the Outer Hebrides, notably in the Isle of Lewis, now sing the songs as a form of communal music-making, going through the movements of pounding the cloth on the table with a web of dry cloth already machine-shrunk. Waulking-songs are also popular on the concert stage. The memory of the cloth being passed from hand to hand by singers still lingers among the Gaelic Scots in Canada, although many of their ancestors left Scotland 200 years ago. They sit in a circle holding between them a scarf or other piece of cloth which they gently swing inwards and outwards towards the centre of the circle as they sing Gaelic songs (for a full analytical account of waulking and waulking-songs see Campbell, F1862, and Collinson, F1966).

Puirt-a-beul, or ‘mouth-music’, instrumental dance-tunes sung to words, is also a popular form of folk music in Gaelic Scotland. Port (plural puirt) means ‘a tune for a musical instrument’; puirt-a-beul therefore implies the substitution of the voice for an instrument. Puirt-a-beul exist for all the common dance forms (strathspey, reel and jig) as well as for the sword dance Gillie-Calum. Other rhythmic measures sung in puirt-a-beul, sometimes with interesting cross-rhythms, are not identifiable as known dance-tunes. They may be the tunes for dances now forgotten in Scotland, such as the step-dances performed around lighted candles on the floor by the Scottish Gaels in Canada.

While theoretically for dancing, puirt-a-beul is more often sung alone, as an entertainment in itself and for the opportunity it gives the singer to display vocal and rhythmic expertise, amounting sometimes, in the fast tempo of the reel, to a tour de force. The words are often of the nonsense-rhyme type, and sometimes sharply satirical. There are examples of refrains with meaningless syllables, such as huradal, huradal, a ri um o, pihili-ho-um hum-am-im-bo, etc.

An account of Gaelic song would be incomplete without reference to the fascinating ‘fairy songs’, which according to tradition are the work of ‘fairy composers’. The songs are concerned both with the ‘little people’ of diminutive human form, and with supernatural creatures such as the water-horse (each-uisge) which takes human form to entice and woo a maiden. The each-uisge is usually personalized as the singer of the song. The theme of nearly all the fairy songs is that of a love affair between fairy and mortal (ex.6).

(iii) Gaelic Psalms.

The unaccompanied unharmonized singing of Gaelic versions of the psalms of David is a striking feature of Protestant worship in the Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland because of the unusual and highly ornamental style of performance. The psalms were introduced after the Reformation, but it was not until 100 years later, in 1659, that 50 of the psalms were printed in Gaelic. The texts were in ballad metre, presumably so that they would fit the tunes already in use in Lowland Scotland. Because of the scarcity of texts and because few of the worshippers could read or write it was ordained that each line of text should first be read out and when necessary its meaning explained. Precentors were therefore appointed for leading the singing and ‘reading the line’. This is still normal practice in Gaelic-speaking areas. Texts are generally sung in Gaelic but the practice also take place using English. The precentor intones musically the words of each line (except the first, which is read by the prayer leader) before being joined in singing the line by the main body of worshippers whether in family or congregational worship. Performance is unconducted and slow, and in some areas (notably the Isle of Lewis) the tunes are so highly embellished by each singer in his own way that the result is rhythmic and melodic heterophony.

In 1844 Joseph Mainzer published several transcriptions of ornamental psalm singing. They were later given the label ‘long tunes’ by the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, which included further examples of the ‘old long tunes’ in several editions of its Gaelic Psalmody. Nevertheless Gaelic congregations tend to sing all their small repertory of psalm tunes in the same style whether the tunes are ‘old’ or of more recent introduction. Knudsen's studies (F1968) provide valuable illustrations of this style based on the highly ornamental singing of one Lewis family. Mainzer's version of the psalm tune ‘French’ is sung in harmony each year at the close of the National Gaelic Mod.

(iv) Free reed instruments.

6. Instrumental music.

The Highland bagpipes, the fiddle and harp are conventionally regarded as the national instruments of Scotland. In addition to this triumvirate, a number of other instruments, notably the accordion, have had an important role in traditional music-making. During the early period of industrialization, pianos were bought by many of the factor/large farmer/merchant class, while commercialization in the production of instruments such as the harmonica, jews harp and concertina led to widespread usage of these instruments as well. A resurgence of interest in the clàrsach was much helped by the provision of instruments available for hire by the Clàrsach Society after its formation in 1931.

By the 1880s, the combination of inexpensive instruments and increased leisure time led to a boom in the formation of amateur community music-making groups including brass bands and pipe bands (both especially associated with collieries), amateur orchestras, including Strathspey and Reel Societies, and choirs.

(i) Bagpipes.

(ii) Fiddle.

(iii) Clàrsach.

Scotland, 6: § II. Traditional music: Instrumental music

(i) Bagpipes.

The Highland bagpipe is pre-eminent in Scotland. Consisting of a nine-note chanter, two tenor drones and a bass drone, this is the instrument of pìobaireachd, of clan society, of British Army regiments, and of community pipe bands (fig.2). The Highland bagpipe has emigrated, along with its players, to many parts of the world, especially the countries of the British Commonwealth; players from these countries still travel to Scotland to perform in competitions. There are also a number of bellows-blown bagpipes in Scotland; their revival since the 1980s has been one of the most important innovations in traditional music at the end of the 20th century.

The Highland bagpipe chanter has a scale of nine notes: g'–a'–b'–c''–d''–e''–f''–g''–a'' (the c'' is considerably flatter than in the tempered scale). This scale has been described as Mixolydian beginning on a', with a flat subtonic (g') below but this does not take account of bagpipe modes. There are three drones: two tenor drones on a and a bass drone on A.

The notes names given here are those used conventionally. It is important to note, however, that the actual pitches of modern chanters is considerably higher, usually approaching B. As pipers increasingly perform with musicians playing diatonic instruments, there are signs that the traditional tonality of the chanter is giving way to standard Western tuning systems.

The music of the Scottish Highland bagpipe is usually taught and practised on the practice chanter, a cylindrical mouth-blown wooden pipe with a double reed enclosed in a chamber or cap. The practice chanter is unique to the Scottish and to the Spanish bagpipe. It is possibly derived from the old stock-and-horn or shepherd's pipe (for illustration, see Stock-and-horn), which in some features it resembles, though the latter had a single reed. The practice chanter is the same length as the chanter of the bagpipe; but having a cylindrical bore (in contrast to the conical bore of the bagpipe chanter) it sounds an octave lower. A fully accurate standard of pitch however is not maintained in its manufacture.

Many pieces of Highland bagpipe music are pentatonic in character. Seamus MacNeill (F1968) identified three pentatonic scales (beginning on A, G, and D), each of which may be used in different ways so as to produce either a major or minor feeling. Joseph MacDonald, in his Compleat Theory of 1760 pointed out that the relationship of these pitches to the fixed drone pitch helps to convey a specific taste (Gaelic ‘blas’). The importance of these tastes is especially emphasized in tunes featuring a double-tonic construction.

There are two major categories of bagpipe music: pìobaireachd (lit. ‘playing on bagpipe’), also known as ceòl mór, and ceòl beag (lit. ‘small music’). Ceòl mór includes a variety of laments, salutes, gathering tunes, etc. all in the form of a theme and variations; this is now an esoteric repertory performed only by and for afficionados. At the height of Gaelic clan society, pìobaireachd tunes were closely related to song airs known to performers and listeners. Ceòl beag consists of dance music genres (marches, strathspeys, reels, jigs, hornpipes) and is a much more popular idiom.

The earliest records of the Highland bagpipe in Scotland concern the MacCrimmons in the 16th century. The first certain record of the MacCrimmons, who became hereditary pipers to the chiefs of the Clan MacLeod, concerns Donald Mór MacCrimmon (c1570–1640) who is credited with having invented pìobaireachd. The form of pìobaireachd is (briefly) that of variations, most of which are played slowly, on a theme or ‘ground’ (urlar) (ex.7a). The ground, after being played in its original version, is then reduced to skeletal form by selection of its essential ‘theme-notes’ (ex.7b). These theme-notes are decorated with chains or ‘ripples’ of stereotyped figurations (or ‘movements’) which increase in complexity with each succeeding variation of the pìobaireachd, until each theme-note may be transformed into a swift ripple of up to ten notes (ex.7c–e). Finally the pìobaireachd is rounded off nowadays with a return to the calm mood of the ground. The main pìobaireachd movements are urlar (ground), siubhal, taorluath and crunluath, to which may be added the taorluath a-mach and crunluath amach. The ground itself may be followed by one or more variations of conventional melodic type before the pìobaireachd variations proper. In the type known as a ‘G pìobaireachd’ the melody is in the key of G but is accompanied throughout by the drones sounding A. The apparent clash of keys adds a curious piquancy to the sound, and some of the finest pìobaireachd are composed in this implied bitonality.

The MacCrimmons were the supreme pìobaireachd composers and players for just over 250 years. After Donald Mór MacCrimmon, the most famous MacCrimmons were Patrick Mór (c1959–c1670), Patrick Òg (c1646–1730) and Donald Bàn MacCrimmon (1710–46). There were other notable piping families, the MacArthurs, Campbells and Rankines. After the death of the last of the great ‘hereditary’ MacCrimmon pipers, Donald Ruadh, in 1825, their piping tradition descended through their pupils, notably Iain Dall (i.e. blind) MacKay and his son Angus at Gairloch; and John and Angus MacKay in Raasay. The art of pìobaireachd all but perished in the repressive measures against the Highland way of life following the Jacobite rising about 1745. It was saved partly by the encouragement of piping in the new Highland regiments, formed towards the end of the 18th century, and partly by the formation in 1778 of the Highland Society of London, which instituted annual Scottish competitions in pìobaireachd playing. These continue to the present day.

Musical notation for Highland bagpipe music is loosely based on standard Western staff notation, but with several unique conventions. As noted above, the use of the name and staff-note ‘a’ refers to a chanter pitch closer to B on modern instruments. A key signature of three sharps may be included simply to indicate the approximate pitches of the chanter, or it may be left out altogether on the basis that the chanter pitches are fixed. Stereotypical ways of writing ornaments are used (see ex.7 for those used in pìobaireachd) which indicate finger patterns rather than necessarily perceivable pitches; these gracings also give no rhythmic indications. Pipers learn to interpret this specialized notation as part of their training, and most pipers find it difficult to read standard Western staff notation.

Notation is often supported, or entirely supplanted, by the use of canntaireachd (lit. ‘humming a tune’), a system of vocables indicating bagpipe melodies and specific gracings. Several systems of canntaireachd have been written down, including some associated with the MacCrimmons, and a very systematic method compiled c1800 by Colin Campbell. Most pipers today sing in quite loose forms of canntaireachd, but it remains an important form for teaching and musical discussions. Many of these loose canntaireachd syllables are similar to the vocables used in the choruses of Gaelic song.

Ceòl beag, unlike ceòl mór, includes many tunes also played on other instruments. The earliest publication of pipe tunes are to be found in 18th-century fiddle collections, but more significant early publication was in collections such as Patrick MacDonald's Highland Vocal Airs (D1784) and Donald MacDonald's Collection of Quicksteps, Strathspeys, Reels and Jigs (C1828). By the mid-19th century, army regiments supported pipe bands, each developing (and many eventually publishing) its own material.

Pipe marches are largely in 2/4 or 6/8 and, although there was considerable experimentation with expanded variation sets in the early 20th century, most have two parts followed by a single variation. These tunes are used by pipe bands for marching and in concert, by céilidh dance bands for round-the-room couple dances such as the Gay Gordons, Canadian Barn dance, etc., and by solo fiddlers and accordion players in listening medleys. Despite their wide currency among non-pipers, these tunes are classified as ‘pipe’ marches because the pitches used are possible on the chanter and because the large majority have been composed by pipers (e.g. Willie Lawrie, G.S. MacLennan, Duncan Johnstone and many others).

Pipe bands consist of a group of Highland pipers accompanied by side, tenor and bass drummers. They are found in both military and civilian contexts. Until the 1970s, the pipers generally played in unison but the best bands now include arrangements featuring a second part played a 3rd below the main melody line. The repertory of pipe bands emphasizes tunes of lesser complexity, as a strict unison sound is desired.

Pipe-band drummers are led by a drum-major responsible for arranging parts. Evidence from 19th-century descriptions points to a fairly simple set of standard beatings; in the 20th century these have been increasingly elaborate and some bands exhibit drummers with an astonishing degree of virtuosity. Drum beatings follow or complement the melodic rhythm of pipe tunes; modern drum majors make sophisticated use of silence, syncopation and dynamics. Drumming was transmitted entirely orally, often using an informal drum canntaireachd, until the mid-20th century, when drum scores based on the single-line notation system of the Basle school were introduced.

As in the case of pìobaireachd, pipe band music has, since the 19th century, dwelt in a world regulated by competitions and institutions (i.e. the Army School of Pipe, Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association). Partly influenced by the mid-20th-century folk revival, and partly in reaction against this regulated world, pipers began composing a significant body of new tunes which break rules concerning finger patterns, variation forms, and also introduce new rhythmic ideas. This trend, known as ‘kitchen piping’ for its informality, began in Canada but quickly gained popularity in Scotland, particularly among younger pipers. Public address systems also have brought a major change to the role of the Highland bagpipes in ensembles as it is now possible to balance the volume of this outdoor instrument with the softer fiddle, accordion, flute, clàrsach and voice.

In addition to the Highland bagpipe, Scotland has a variety of bellows-blown, or cauld wind, bagpipes. Historically, bellows-blown bagpipes are known from records concerning official pipers of Lowland burghs. These musicians played through the town at morning and evening, and at civic occasions. Cauld wind pipes had nearly died out by the mid-20th century but several have been revived, notably the Scottish small-pipes and the Border pipes. Both instruments are played in largest numbers by Highland pipers seeking an indoor instrument. These pipers simply transfer the Highland bagpipe repertory to the bellows-blown instrument. The Lowland and Borders Pipers Society (established 1984) seeks to revive repertory meant especially for bellows-blown instruments. There are now several important pipe makers, including Hamish Moore and Julian Goodacre, as well as composers (e.g. Gordon Mooney) concentrating on Scottish bellows-blown pipes.

Much Scottish bagpipe music is esoteric and is listened to and understood principally by other pipers and a small number of expert listeners. Competitions form one of the major outlets for performance of both pìobaireachd and pipe band music, and a large proportion of competition audiences is made up of pipers. Pipe bands play more popularly for a large number of civic occasions, and solo pipers are often called on to perform at weddings and funerals.

The growth of phenomena such as kitchen piping and the use of both Highland and bellows-blown pipes in bands featuring other melody instruments has, in the late 20th century, created wider audiences for sustained piping performances. Despite the esoteric nature of the most advanced and complicated forms of bagpipe music, the Highland pipes have a strong cultural resonance for Scots; they are considered emblematic of Scotland by the rest of the world. The strong connection with Highland society before the Jacobite rebellions, the emotive presence of pipes for army personnel, and the unique nature of the instrument all add to the Highland bagpipe's status as a national cultural icon.

Scotland, 6: § II. Traditional music: Instrumental music

(ii) Fiddle.

The fiddle is played throughout Scotland, with particular areas of concentration in the north-east and in Shetland, each of which has numerous fiddlers and a distinctive solo fiddle tradition. The west Highlands, though having a smaller number of players, also features a distinctive tradition of solo fiddle playing. Ubiquitous throughout Scotland is the presence of the fiddle in dance bands; stylistically, there is less regional differentiation here than in solo playing for a purely listening audience.

There are iconographic and literary records of string instruments as the feydl, rebec and croud in Scotland from about the 10th century; but the violin proper is first mentioned there at the beginning of the 18th century. The first collections of music for the instrument were mostly of song-tunes with instrumental variations, in which the violin was often an alternative to the flute or oboe.

There are records of noted Scots fiddle players living before the accredited date for the appearance of the violin in Scotland: Patrick Birnie (b c1635), Nichol Burne (‘the violer’, probably also 17th century) and the famous fiddler-freebooter James Macpherson, composer of Macpherson's Rant (b 1675; hanged 1700). His fiddle, which he broke in pieces on the gallows (it is now in the Macpherson Museum, Newtonmore), was made on the Italian model.

From the mid-18th century, Scottish fiddle playing was dominated for nearly 100 years by the Gow family. The first of the Gow fiddlers was Niel Gow (1727–1807; see fig.3). He is thought to have developed the trick of the up-bow stroke which characterizes the ‘Scotch snap’ of the strathspey. This style of playing has been handed down among fiddle players of the Gow tradition. One of the best known of the 20th century is Hector MacAndrew at Aberdeen, whose grandfather was taught by a pupil of Niel.

Niel Gow was the accredited composer of some 70 tunes; but some of these attributions are doubtful, the Gows being notorious for appropriating other people's tunes as their own. Of Niel's four sons the youngest, Nathaniel (1766–1831), even more famous as a composer than his father, is probably best known for his descriptive piece Caller Herrin, to which Lady Nairne wrote the well-known words of the same title. His Largo's Fairy Dance, commonly used in the eightsome reel, is also eternally popular. Nathaniel Gow was also significant as a publisher of fiddle tunes.

Of the Gows' contemporaries, one of the best known player composers for the fiddle was William Marshall (1748–1833). His compositions include Miss Admiral Gordon's Strathspey (to which Robert Burns wrote the words Of a’ the airts the wind can blaw), The Marquis of Huntly's Farewell, Craigellachie Bridge (ex.8) and other favourites. Other fiddle composers were Angus Cumming (b c1750), Isaac Cooper (c1755–1820), John Bowie (1759–1815), Robert Petrie (1767–1830) and ‘Red Rob’ Mackintosh (1745–1807), all of whom published collections of their own compositions.

In the 19th and early 20th century, the most famous Scottish fiddler was James Scott Skinner (1843–1927). His background included both traditional fiddle playing and dancing, as well as training in Western classical violin playing. This combination led to a virtuosic performance style, along with composition of violinistic variation sets, owing much to the world of the orchestral violin. Skinner published over 600 original tunes, some of which are so embedded in the national repertory in oral tradition that players are unaware of their composer. Skinner was highly influential through his live performances as a soloist in concert parties and, continuing after his death, through his numerous commercial recordings. He was the first Scottish fiddler to record commercially, starting in 1899.

In the 20th century, the fiddle declined in popularity after Skinner's death; this coincided with a rise in the popularity of free-reed instruments. After a major competition sponsored by the BBC in 1969, and in tune with the revival of song in Scotland and elsewhere, interest in the fiddle has grown enormously. Important performers of the last 30 years of the 20th century include Hector MacAndrew, Bill Hardie, Angus Grant, Aly Bain and Alasdair Fraser. Some sections of the fiddle world have taken a strong interest in related traditions, especially in Cape Breton and Donegal, both of which have strong communities of emigrant Scots.

The repertory of Scottish fiddlers consists primarily of dance tunes (marches, strathspeys, reels, jigs, waltzes and, to a lesser extent, hornpipe) but slower tunes meant for a non-dancing audience are important as well; these include song airs (from both Gaelic and Scots songs), other slow airs and the slow strathspey. This latter genre, first developed by William Marshall, features an exaggerated form of the jagged rhythms of the dance strathspey. Many slow strathspeys are in B and E major, keys not normally associated with traditional fiddling in Scotland. The typical medley for solo listening sets begins with a slow tune, and continues with a march, strathspey and reel or other combination of genres increasing in speed. These medleys generally feature tunes all in the same key. In contrast, medleys required for dance music generally include 3 to 4 tunes of the same genre.

Some writers have highlighted the use of scordatura tunings by Scottish and Shetland fiddlers, but these are rarely heard in modern times. Instruments in use today are standard European violins, often amplified in public performance through a variety of electronic means. Although there are makers of electric violins in Scotland, this form of the instrument has not been taken up by many traditional players.

Scotland, 6: § II. Traditional music: Instrumental music

(iii) Clàrsach.

Unlike the bagpipe and fiddle traditions, the harp in Scotland suffered a complete break in its tradition. Having flourished during the Lordship of the Isles with clan chiefs retaining official harpists, the role of the chief's harper declined throughout the 17th century. The last known professional harper, Murdoch MacDonald, retired in 1734 from service to MacLean of Coll. Another important late harper of this era was Roderick Morrison, harper to the MacLeod chiefs at Dunvegan Castle.

The instruments played by early Scottish harpers are represented by the ‘Queen Mary’ and ‘Lamont’ harps (National Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh) and the ‘Trinity’ or ‘Brian Boru’ harp (Library of Trinity College, Dublin). Bannerman judges that, on internal evidence of decoration of these instruments, they came from a west Highland workshop before the 16th century. Lowland households before the 18th century also supported harpers, mainly playing gut-strung instruments. The range of modern clàrsachs is variable but is normally from G to a''' with semitone tuning blades.

The repertory of pre-18th century harpers playing either wire- or gut-strung instruments is largely unknown. Modern scholar-performers, notably Alison Kinnaird and Keith Sanger, have pieced together evidence based on harp tunes in fiddle manuscripts, tunes with harpers' names in their titles, a few pieces known to be harp compositions (notably those in the Angus Fraser manuscript), along with evidence from Irish and Welsh sources. Kinnaird, along with harpists including Ann Heymann and the harp duo ‘Sileas’ have attempted modern reconstructions of early harp music; though musically successful, their connection to older traditions is somewhat speculative.

Collinson, Bannerman (F1991) and others have speculated that 16th-century harpists in the Highlands and Islands played variation forms which were taken up by pipers to form pìobaireachd. This is particularly likely in the case of official musicians to the MacLeod chiefs at Dunvegan, who included both prominent harpers (e.g. Roderick Morrison) and the MacCrimmon family of pipers.

Revival of the gut-strung clàrsach began in the late 19th century, when Lord Archibald Campbell instituted a competition for clàrsach playing to accompany Gaelic song at the National Mod; he also had instruments made in conjuction with this new competition. An arpeggiated accompaniment style developed which was related more closely to Western orchestral use of the concert harp than to anything known about indigenous Scottish harp music. Marjorie Kennedy Fraser and her daughter popularized this approach and it was further supported when the Clàrsach Society (Comunn na Clàrsach) was formed in 1931. The Clàrsach Society has provided instruments available for hire, individual lessons, publications of harp arrangements and performance opportunities. In the 1980s, influenced by the historical work of Alison Kinnaird and the increasing popularity of traditional music generally, a new generation of harpers engaged in further experimentation, playing fiddle and pipe melodies on both gut- and wire-strung harps, and using a more syncopated and varied style of accompaniment. Patsy Seddon and Mary MacMaster have been most prominent in the movement. As with other traditional instruments, electronic versions of the clàrsach have been used but only to a limited extent.

Scotland, 6: § II. Traditional music: Instrumental music

(iv) Free reed instruments.

Free reed instruments, especially the mouth organ and accordion, are among the most popular instruments of traditional music in Scotland. Despite their popularity, free-reed instruments have low prestige because of their relatively recent origin and lack of art-music associations.

Jimmy Shand (b 1908), ex-miner turned accordion salesman and then professional musician, single-handedly boosted the popularity of the button-key accordion in the mid-20th century to the point that the fiddle was largely supplanted as the main instrument of the dance. The piano-key accordion has since become dominant. Bobby MacLeod of the Isle of Mull was one of the most distinguished accordion players who also played the Highland bagpipes. He interpreted, on the accordion, aspects of piping style, particularly the swing of march playing, and some gracings. At the same time, he and others experimented with jazz harmonies in using accordion chord structures for accompaniment of Gaelic song airs. At the end of the 20th century, the piano accordion continues to flourish in Scotland, with prominent exponents including Jim Johnstone, Freeland Barbour and Phil Cunningham. The accordion is primarily associated with dance music, but it is also used in concert bands. The concertina retains a minority-interest position but has a devoted following and some virtuoso performers.

7. Education.

Traditional music education has ranged from apprenticeship systems among clan pipers to self-teaching during immersion in oral tradition, to individual and group lessons of varying formality. Traditional musicians sometimes speak of the need of heroes to emulate; in the modern world, this takes place through a combination of personal contact and learning from recorded sound. Alan Lomax referred to Scotland's traditional music as ‘bookish’ and reference, though not strict adherence, to written collections forms an important part of literate musicians' education.

After a mid-20th century lull in traditional music conventionally attributed to the rise of disco dancing, there appeared a generation lacking personal contact with traditional musicians. As interest grew in the 1970s and 1980s, newer organizations (e.g. The Traditional Music and Song Association) joined older ones (e.g. Clàrsach Society) in providing workshops and lessons in traditional music. The Feisean movement in the Highlands and Islands has been most successful in encouraging young musicians and giving them contact with some of the best teachers of traditional music.

Tom Anderson began a highly successful programme of fiddle teaching in Shetland in the 1970s, as well as helping to initiate summer vacation classes at Stirling University. His first and most famous pupil was Aly Bain, but he went on to found a schools fiddle programme in Shetland that is still flourishing at the end of the 20th century. Bagpipe instruction has also entered schools, particularly in the Highlands, and the College of Piping and Piping Centre in Glasgow, along with the Army School of Piping in Edinburgh, have provided further formal training for pipers. Other instruments and singing have not been so well supported in formal primary and secondary education. In 1996, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama began a degree course for traditional musicians featuring principal studies in accordion, bagpipes, clàrsach, fiddle, Gaelic song, Scots song and percussion. The presence of this course has done much to bolster formal recognition for traditional music throughout Scotland.

c: instrumental and dance collections

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A Manuscript sources. B Vocal collections. C Dance and instrumental collections. D Gaelic collections. E Pìobaireachd collections. F Studies.

a: manuscript sources

b: vocal collections

d: gaelic collections

e: pìobaireachd collections

f: studies

a: manuscript sources

in modern notation unless otherwise stated

Rowallan MS, French 6-line tablature, lute, 1612–28, GB-Eu

Straloch MS, French 6-line tablature, lute, 1627–9, lost, transcr. of more important tunes by G.F. Graham, 1847, En

Skene MS, French 4-line tablature, mandora, 1630–33, En; transcr. G.F. Graham in Dauney (1838)

Lady Margaret Wemyss MS, songs, tablature, lute, 1643–8, En

Guthrie MS, Italian 4-line tablature, vas da braccia, 1675–80, Eu; transcr. H.M. Willsher (c1942)

Panmuir [Panmure] MSS, some vn, some cittern, c1680, En

Newbattle Abbey MS (Lessones for ye Violin), 1680, En

Blaikie MSS, va da gamba, 1682–92, lost, 40 of the 122 tunes transcr. A.J.Wighton, GB-DU

Balcarres Lute Book MS, 1692–4, En

Atkinson MS, 1694, Society of Antiquaries Library, Newcastle upon Tyne

Leyden MS, French 6-line tablature, lyra viol, c1695, University Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, transcr. G.F. Graham, En

A ?17th-century lutebook, Mr, photocopy, SA

Scone Palace MS, 6–line tablature, lyra viol, and part modern notation, c1700, Earl of Mansfield's collection, Scone Palace, Perth

James Gairdyn MS, vn, 1700, En

James Thomson MS, some rec, some vn, 1702, En

Agnes Hume MS, 1704, En

Francis Collinson/George Bowie MS, fiddle, 1705, En, 78ff

Mrs. Crockat's MS. 1709, lost, mentioned by W. Stenhouse in his notes to J. Johnson, The Scots Musical Museum (Edinburgh, 1820)

Margaret Sinkler MS, hpd, 1710, En, over 100 tunes

Waterston MSS, 1715–19th century, Waterston family collection, Edinburgh, photocopies, En

George Skene MS, fiddle and pipe, 1717, En

Cuming MS (For the Violin: Patrick Cuming his Book), 1723–4, En

McFarlan MSS, 1740, vol.i (243 tunes), lost; vols.ii (150) and iii (292), En

A Collection of the Newest Country Dances perform'd in Scotland, 1740, Ob

Joseph MacDonald MS (A Compleat Theory of the Scots Highland Bagpipe), 1803, Eu

McLean-Clephane MS, 1816, En

Angus Fraser MS, n.d., GB-Eu

b: vocal collections

J. Forbes: Songs and Fancies to Three, Four or Five Parts (Aberdeen, 1662, 2/1666)

T. D'Urfey: Pills to Purge Melancholy (London, 1698–1720)

W. Thomson: Orpheus Caledonius, or A Collection of the Best Scotch Songs (London, c1725, rev. 2/1733

A. Stuart: Musick for Allan Ramsay's Collections of Scotch Songs (Edinburgh, c1726)

R. Bremner: Thirty Scots Songs for a Voice and Harpsichord … the Words by Allan Ramsay (Edinburgh, 1757, enlarged 3/c1795)

J. Oswald: A Collection of the Best Old Scotch and English Songs set for the Voice (London, c1761–2)

N. Stewart: A Collection of Scots Songs (Edinburgh, c1762)

J. Johnson: The Scots Musical Museum (Edinburgh, 1787–1803, rev. 1853/R by W. Stenhouse and D. Laing) [with notes]

D. Corri: A New and Complete Collection of the Most Favourite Scots Songs (Edinburgh, 1788, 4/c1795)

W. Napier: A Selection of the Most Favourite Scots-Songs (London, 1790–94)

P. Urbani: A Selection of Scots Songs (Edinburgh, 1792–c1794)

G. Thomson: A Select Collection of Original Scotish Airs for the Voice (London, 1793–7)

J. Ritson: Scotish Songs (London, 1794) [with Historical Essay]

J. Elouis: A Selection of Favourite Scots Songs (Edinburgh, 1807)

J. Hogg: Jacobite Relics (Paisley, 1819–21/R)

R.A. Smith: The Scottish Minstrel (Edinburgh, 1820–24)

W. Motherwell: Minstrelsy Ancient and Modern (Glasgow, 1827)

G.F. Graham: The Songs of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1848–9) [with notes]

G.F. Graham: Lyric Gems of Scotland (Glasgow, 1856)

F.J. Child: English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Boston, 1882–98/R)

D. Balfour: Ancient Orkney Melodies (Edinburgh, 1885)

R. Ford: Vagabond Songs and Ballads (Paisley, 1899)

J.C. Dick, ed.: The Songs of Robert Burns (London, 1903)

A.E. Moffat: The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Highlands (London, 1907)

J.M. Diack and others: The Festival Series of Scottish Songs (Glasgow, 1925)

G. Greig and J.B. Duncan: Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads and Ballad Airs, ed. A. Keith (Aberdeen, 1925)

J. Ord: Bothy Songs and Ballads (Edinburgh, 1930)

J.L. Campbell: Highland Songs of the ‘45 (Edinburgh, 1933)

B.H. Bronson: The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads with their Texts According to the Extant Records of Great Britain and America (Princeton, NJ, 1959–72)

E. MacColl: Personal Choice of Scottish Folksongs and Ballads (New York, 1963)

E. MacColl: Folksongs and Ballads of Scotland (New York, 1965)

R. Orr: The Kelvin Series of Scots Songs (Glasgow, 1965)

C.T. Davie and G.C. MacVicar: The Oxford Scottish Song Book (Oxford, 1969)

P. Kennedy: Folksongs of Britain and Ireland (London, 1975)

E.B. Lyle: Andrew Crawfurd's Collection of Ballads and Songs (Edinburgh, 1975)

E. MacColl and P. Seeger: Travellers' Songs from England and Scotland (Knoxville, 1977)

N. Buchan and P. Hall: The Scottish Folksinger (Glasgow, 1978)

E. Lyle, P. Shuldham-Shaw and others, eds.: The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection (Aberdeen and Edinburgh, 1981–2000)

D. Williamson and L. Williamson: A Thorn in the King's Foot: Stories of the Scottish Travelling People (Harmondsworth, 1985)

N. Gatherer: Songs and Ballads of Dundee (Edinburgh, 1986)

D. Groves: James Hogg Selected Poems and Songs (Edinburgh, 1986)

E. MacColl and P. Seeger: Till Doomsday in the Afternoon: the Folklore of a Family of Scots Travellers, the Stewarts of Blairgowrie (Manchester, 1986)

A. McMorland, ed.: Herd Laddie o' the Glen: Songs of a Border Shepherd Willie Scott, Liddesdale Shepherd and Singer (Edinburgh, 1988)

E. McVicar: One Singer One Song: Songs of Glasgow Folk (Glasgow, 1990)

S. Douglas, ed.: Come Gie's a Sang: 73 Traditional Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1995)

S. Douglas: Lines Upon the Water: a Collection of Original Songs (Cork, 1997)

c: instrumental and dance collections

J. Playford: The English Dancing Master (London, 1651/R as The Dancing Master)

H. Playford: A Collection of Original Scotch Tunes (London, 1700, rev. 2/1701)

J. Young: A Collection of Original Scotch Tunes (London, c1700–05)

A. Craig: A Collection of the Choicest Scots Tunes (Edinburgh, 1730)

J. Oswald: A Curious Collection of Scots Tunes (Edinburgh, c1739, enlarged 2/c1775)

J. Oswald: The Caledonian Pocket Companion (London, c1742–60)

F. Barsanti: A Collection of Old Scots Tunes (Edinburgh, 1742)

W. M'Gibbon: A Collection of Scots Tunes (Edinburgh, 1742, enlarged 3/1755)

B. Thumoth: Twelve Scotch and Twelve Irish Airs with Variations (London, c1745)

R. Bremner: A Curious Collection of Scots Tunes (Edinburgh, 1759)

R. Bremner: A Collection of Scots Reels and Country Dances (Edinburgh, 1759–61)

N. Stewart: A Collection of the Newest and Best Reels and Country Dances (Edinburgh, 1761–2)

F. Peacock: Fifty Favourite Scotch Airs for a Violin (Aberdeen, 1762)

N. Stewart: A New Collection of Scots and English Tunes (Edinburgh, c1762)

C. M'Lean: A Collection of Favourite Scots Tunes (Edinburgh, 1772)

D. Dow: A Collection of Ancient Scots Music (Edinburgh, c1775)

D. Dow: Thirty-Seven Reels (Edinburgh, c1775)

D. Dow: Twenty Minuets (Edinburgh, c1775)

J. Aird: A Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs (Glasgow, 1775–c1897)

A. Cumming: A Collection of Strathspey or Old Highland Reels (Edinburgh, 1780, 3/c1798)

A. MacGlashan: A Collection of Strathspey Reels (Edinburgh, 1780)

A. MacGalshan: A Collection of Scots Measures (Edinburgh, 1781)

A. MacGlashan: A Collection of Reels (Edinburgh, 1786)

J. Bowie: Collection of Strathspey Reels and Country Dances (1789)

W. Napier: Napier's Selection of Dances and Strathspeys (London, c1795)

D. MacDonald: A Collection of Quicksteps, Strathspeys, Reels and Jigs (Edinburgh, 1830)

D. MacDonald: A Collection of Quicksteps, Strathspeys, Reels and Jigs arranged for the Highland Bagpipe (Edinburgh, 1828)

J. McLachlan, ed.: The Piper's Assistant: a new Collection of Marches, Quicksteps, Strathspeys, Reels and Jigs (Edinburgh, 1854)

J. Kerr: Collection of Merry Melodies for the Violin (Glasgow, n.d.)

E. Koehler and son: Violin Repository of Dance Music (Edinburgh, 1881–85)

K.N. MacDonald: The Skye Collection of the Best Reels and Strathspeys Extant (Edinburgh, 1887)

J. Glen: The Glen Collection of Scottish Dance Music (Edinburgh, 1891–5) [with critical matter]

W.C. Honeyman: The Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor (Edinburgh, 1898)

J.S. Skinner: The Scottish Violinist, Consisting of Strathspeys, Reels, Pibrochs, Marches, Hornpipes, Pastoral Airs, Violin Solos, Slow Airs, etc., etc. (Glasgow,1904)

Scottish Country Dance Society: The Scottish Country Dance Book (Glasgow, 1924–)

J.M. Henderson: Flowers of Scottish Melody Especially Arranged for Violin and Piano (Glasgow, 1935)

W. Ross: Pipe-Major W. Ross's Collection of Highland Bagpipe Music (London, c1950)

A. Fitchet: The Angus Fitchet Scottish Dance Album (Glasgow, 1954)

Scots Guards: Standard Settings of Pipe Music (London, 1954–81)

J. MacFadyen: Bagpipe Music (Glasgow, c1966)

W. Bryson: The Edcath Collection of Highland Bagpipe Music (Edinburgh, c1968)

T. Anderson and T. Beorgeson: Da Mirrie Dancers: a Book of Shetland Fiddle Tunes (Lerwick, 1970)

R. Cooper: Shetland Music, i–iv (Lerwick, 1971–72)

D. Richardson and others: Music and Song from the Boys of the Lough (Edinburgh, 1977)

A. Harper: Music for the Scottish Dance Band (Wick, 1979)

J. Hunter: The Fiddle Music of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1979)

A.J. Hardie: The Caledonian Companion (London, 1981)

G. Mooney: A Collection of the Choicest Scots Tunes (1982)

T. Anderson: Ringing Strings: Traditional Shetland Music and Dance (Lerwick, 1983)

D. Johnson: Scottish Fiddle Music in the Eighteenth Century: a Music Collection and Historical Study (Edinburgh, 1984)

F. Barbour: The Hills of Atholl (Muirhead, Angus, 1985)

The Cavendish Collection (Edinburgh, 1985)

G. Mooney: A Tutor for the Cauld Wind Pipes (1985)

B. Murray: The Bon-Accord Collection of Scottish Music (Aberdeen, 1985–)

R. Wallace: The Glasgow Collection of Bagpipe Music (Glasgow, 1986)

T. Anderson and Shetland's Young Heritage: ‘Gie's an A’: Shetland Fiddle Tunes (Lerwick, 1986)

I. Hardie: A Breath of Fresh Airs (Nairn, 1986, 2/1991)

A. Kinnaird: The Harp Key: Music for the Scottish Harp (Temple, Midlothian, c1986)

I. Powrie: Original Compositions by Ian Powrie for Fiddle and Accordion (Forfar, 1986)

G. Dixon: The Lads Like Beer: the Fiddle Music of James Hill (Pathead, Midlothian, 1987)

J. Sutherland: The Flow Country (Edinburgh, 1987)

Battlefield Band: Forward with Scotland's Past (Temple, Midlothian, 1988)

B. Hardie: The Beauties of the North (Edinburgh, 1988)

A. MacDonald: The Moidart Collection (1991)

R.B. Mathieson: Marking Time: Tunes for the Highland Bagpipe (Glasgow, 1990)

I. Hardie, ed.: The Nineties Collection: New Scottish Tunes in Traditional Style (Edinburgh,1995)

P. Cunningham: The Cunningham Collection (Beauly, 1995)

M. Seattle, ed.: The Master Piper: Nine Notes that Shook the World: a Border Bagpipe Repertoire Prick'd Down by William Dixon AD 1733 (Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, Northumberland, 1995)

d: gaelic collections

P. MacDonald: A Collection of Highland Vocal Airs (Edinburgh, 1784)

A. Campbell: Albyn's Anthology (Edinburgh, 1816–18)

S. Fraser: Airs and Melodies peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles (Edinburgh, 1816/R)

F. Dun: Orain na h-Albain (Edinburgh, 1848)

K.N. MacDonald: The Gesto Collection of Highland Music (Leipzig, 1895)

Gunn and M. MacFarlane: Songs and Poems by Rob Donn Mackay (Glasgow, 1899)

K.N. MacDonald: Puirt-a-Beul, or Mouth Tunes (Glasgow, 1901)

M. Kennedy Fraser and K. MacLeod: Songs of the Hebrides (London, 1909–21)

A. Gilchrist: ‘A Note on the Modal System of Gaelic Tunes’, JFSS iv (1910–13), 150–53

F. Tolmie: A Collection of Gaelic Songs (Journal of the Folk Song Society, iv, 1911)

Coisir a'Mhoid: The Mod Collection of Gaelic Part Songs (Glasgow, 1912–53)

B.H. Humble: The Songs of Skye (Inverness, 1934)

D.M. Morison: Ceol Mara: Songs of the Isle of Lewis (London, 1935)

G. Calder, ed.: Songs of William Ross in Gailic and in English (Edinburgh, 1937)

W. Matheson, ed.: The Songs of John MacCodrum, Bard to Sir James MacDonald of Sleat (Edinburgh, 1938)

K.C. Craig, ed.: Orain Luaidh Mairi Nighean Alasdair (Glasgow, 1949)

M.F. Shaw: Folksongs and Folklore of South Uist (London, 1955)

H. Creighton and C. Macleod: Gaelic Songs in Nova Scotia (Ottawa,1964)

J.L. Campbell and F. Collinson: Hebridean Folksongs (Oxford, 1967–81)

D. Bowman, ed.: The Old Songs of Skye (London, 1977)

Comunn Gaidhealach Leodhais: Eilean Fraoich: Lewis Gaelic Songs and Melodies (Stornoway, 1982)

J.C. Watson, ed.: Gaelic Songs of Mary MacLeod (Edinburgh, 1982)

J.L. Campbell, ed.: Songs Remembered in Exile – Traditional Gaelic Songs from Nova Scotia Recorded in Cape Breton and Antigonish Country in 1937 with an Account of the Causes of Hebridean Emigration, 1790–1835 (Aberdeen, 1990)

V. Bryan, ed.: Ceòl nam Feis: a collection of songs and music from the Scottish Gaelic tradition complete with translations and source notes (Portree, 1996)

e: pìobaireachd collections

D. MacDonald: A Collection of the Ancient Martial Music of Caledonia called Pìobaireachd (Edinburgh, 1822)

A. MacKay: A Collection of Ancient Pìobaireachd (Edinburgh, 1838)

W. Ross: Pipe Music (1875)

General Thomason: Ceol Mor (Glasgow,1893)

D. Glen: A Collection of Ancient Pìobaireachd (Edinburgh, early 20th century)

Communn na Pìobaireachd: Pìobaireachd (Glasgow, 1925–90)

G.F. Ross: Some Pìobaireachd Studies (Glasgow, 1926)

G.F. Ross: A Collection of MacCrimmon and other Piobaireachd (Glasgow, 1929)

A. Campbell, ed.: The Kilberry Book of Ceol Mor (Glasgow, 1953)

R. Ross: Binneas is Boreraig (Edinburgh, 1959) [with 11 discs, played by Malcolm Macpherson]

W. Matheson, ed.: The Blind Harper (Edinburgh, 1970)

Pìobaireachd Society: Coel Mor Composed During the Twentieth Century (Glasgow, n.d.)