Traditional Scottish Music

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

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.