Scottish Traditional Music

When I first began studying Cape Breton fiddle music in the 1980s, I was surprised by how much value the musicians placed on "correctness," and by my Cape Breton teachers'
claims to have learned many of their tunes from books. Playing style was being passed on aurally and applied to these relatively fixed tunes. I began to realize that traditional music systems display a spectrum of variability. Besides written music, authoritative sources such as classic recordings and the rhythm of Gaelic puirt-a-beul help determine whether a tune is "correct" in Cape Breton. The emphasis on correctness may be waning now.

R odERick was a wonderful colleague, friend and mentor to me for 20 years. His monumental scholarship illuminated every aspect of our common research field, the bagpipe music of Great Britain. His good counsel, lively humour and unfailing courtesy uplifted the lives of those he worked with. He certainly inspired me and in this article, i present a tune composed in his memory and reflect on his remarkable legacy to Highland piping. I am grateful to three colleagues for adding their memories, enriching this tribute to the leading piping scholar of our times.

This article discusses the song traditions of South West Scotland. It asserts that these traditions--despite being well known, and well documented in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (Burns, Cunningham, Scott)--were neglected in the twentieth and early twenty first.  Modern collectors are starting to rediscover this hidden aspect of the past, which has potential for regenerating and regeneration.

Cape Breton fiddle music is primarily derived from Scottish fiddle music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Irish and other traditional music styles have also had some influence on Cape Breton fiddling, mainly on repertoire. The basic fiddling style was brought by Scots from the Highlands and Isles in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when Scottish immigration to Cape Breton was at its peak. This relocation resulted in transplanted pockets of Highland culture; even as late as 1900, areas of Inverness County were culturally Scottish Gaelic. Cape Breton was comparatively isolated for many years, and the culture has been a conservative one. In addition, Cape Breton fiddlers have valued "correctness" in learning. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that aspects of eighteenth-and nineteenth-century Highland Scottish fiddle style survive in today's Cape Breton fiddle style, especially in the playing of older exponents who learned before the "Celtic revival" of the 1990's. In fact, because the fiddling tradition always remained vigorous in Cape Breton while it went into decline for a time in Scotland (particularly in the Highlands and Isles), some Scottish musicians have looked to Cape Breton fiddling for clues and inspiration while revitalizing their own music and dance. Since the 1990's, several summer music schools in the Isles regularly have featured Cape Breton fiddlers and dancers among their instructors.

Draft of a colloquium presentation given in 2014 at the University of Arizona as part of their ancient ethnomusicology series. Herein, the mechanics of the bagpipe as well as the basic structure of Ceol Mor (Piobaireachd) are briefly outlined for the uninformed. Traditional theories as to the origins of Piobaireachd are discussed, and then an additional likely source of inspiration for the genre is proposed: early liturgical change in the British Isles. More research and musical analysis is needed to fully outline this theory. Some problems arise when we consider that there are few extant sources of medieval chant from the Isles due to numerous church reformations and consequent destruction of archives. However, if we can examine closely related repertoires from the Continent, extant Scottish sources, as well as more recent chant sources in the Isles, the similarities between the melodic structure of the earliest Piobaireachd and medieval chant repertoires become evident as at least one additional source of inspiration for early Ceol Mor's distinctive intervalic contours.

Please note that this is a draft, not a published paper in any fashion (hence, it's labeling as such). I am not an expert on Piobaireach, rather a scholar in medieval studies with more extensive experience in chant history. My interest and knowledge of Piobaireachd comes from my experience as a bagpiper, and these observations come from my knowledge of chant in conjunction with my familiarity of early Piobaireachd repertoire. If you are interested in more thorough discussion of Piobaireachd apart from Gregorian/Gallican/Scottish chant, please refer to the bibliography.

You can view the presentation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWjFYPwcxWY&t

Reviews:

‘outstanding […] of the first importance in the study of Scottish music and social history’ (Scottish Gaelic Studies), ‘a major contribution’ (Cothrom), ‘enormous added value’ (The Scotsman), ‘imaginative and thorough’ (Scottish Studies)

'This newest edition of Puirt-à-Beul renews our insight into the musical form and expressive voice of Gaelic Scotland' (Julie Fowlis)

'One wonders what Dr Keith Norman MacDonald would make of this elegant edition of the book that he produced around 1901? Its subject-matter was rare in his own time, and we must not expect so much of someone who did not have the resources and knowledge that we now have. Will Lamb begins with an excellent definition of the genre, giving Puirt their proper place as art at long last. The book contains not only every word and note that was in the original, in a pleasanter format, but the texts are translated into English, and the names of the tunes are given as titles known to instrumentalists. That is only a hint of the treasures that Dr Lamb has culled from books and manuscripts from many centuries and places. MacDonald’s book is long out of print in any case, and the new Puirt-à-Beul should be a matter of great satisfaction to singers and instrumentalists alike.' Morag MacLeod

databases listing works influenced by Ossian, Burns, Scott, or Scotland or using Scottish folksong or texts.
This data was used for the "London Variation Sets and Building the Canon of Scottish Folksong" paper but has been updated since then.

An illustrated talk about Para Handy, Master Mariner, the picaresque character created by Neil Munro alias Hugh Foulis, his not less eccentric crew, and the historic and cultural context of these humorous tales in 1900-1920s Scottish Gaeldom

Some articles exploring the background to the collection of pipe music known as the Campbell Canntaireachd published in the Piping Times Vol 58. No. 1 (October 2005), Vol 58. No. 2 (November 2005), Vol 58. No. 10 (July 2006) and Vol 67. No. 1 (October 2014).

The aim of this thesis is to examine the perspectives of music education in the Scottish secondary school system from both teachers and ex-students in state, independent and specialist music schools. It investigates the significant issues and factors associated with music in secondary education by taking a nuanced approach to comparing the thoughts and opinions of both educators and ex-students from a selection of secondary schools which follow the national curriculum set in place by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA). By analysing three case studies of secondary schools in Scotland this thesis will deliberate on the key factors which influence these individual's perspectives on music education.

The study argues that the main issues which contribute towards the formulation of an individual's perspective on secondary school music education are: funding, classroom-environment and social context.

First published in the Piping Times vol. 50 No. 11 and No 12, (August and September 1998) and vol 51. No 1 (October 1998), This revised version from Ceol na hEireann No 3, (2002). Plus a follow up on the last days of Fitzmaurice entitled End Notes in An Piobaire vol. 5 No 4. (September 2009)

The Irish Piper James McDonnell was widely traveled and was a source of several tunes collected by Edward Bunting. He had a reputation as a somewhat irascible character which was certainly justified if this account of some legal problems he got into while on a circuit of Scotland was typical. Published in An Piobaire Vol 4. No. 37 (September 2006). He along with several other Irish Pipers  performed for the Highland Society of London and an example of his signature is reproduced in 'The Highland Society of London Meetings' published in An Piobaire Vol 7. No 4 (September 2011)