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The oldest references to music in the Highlands date back to the time of the Picts and Dal Riadan Scots. Pictish stone carvings depict musical instruments - including triangular harps and large curved horns called Carnyx. Likewise, music is known to have been important in the lives of the Gaels. Adamnan's biography of Columba, for example, mentions Gaelic praise song, and we also know that bells played a part in religious life. Later, during the medieval period, other instruments such as the Tiompain (almost certainly a lute) and double and triple pipes became popular. Most of the early instruments, with the exception of the harp died out, and the horn or trumpet like aerophones (instruments in which the player's lips act as a reed), which seem to have played quite a prominent role in early music, have disappeared completely.
Although we know something of the social importance of music from writings and carvings, none of the early music itself has survived in its original form. The first written music which may (or equally, may not) have a Gaelic influence is the Inch colm Antiphoner. This remarkable document originated on the island of the same name in the Firth of Forth, in the monastery delicatied to Saint Columba. It consists of religious music from around the 13th century. Some of these pieces are in praise of Columba and it has been suggested that they originated on Iona. However, evidence is tenuous and at the time that the music was written, Gregorian Chant had made its presence felt in Scotland. Moreover, analysis of the melodic structures does not show much relationship with later Highland Music. This means, that important as this manuscript is, in a general musical sense, what it tells us about Gaelic music is dubious.
The only other vocal music related to the Gaelic tradition written down before the end of the 17th century are some of the tunes used today in Gaelic religious singing (see later). However, these are based on the Scots Metrical Psalter and not on Highland tradition. It is very frustrating that great Gaelic manuscripts, such as the Fernaig Manuscript and more importantly, The Book of the Dean of Lismore, have material obviously intended for singing, but no notation of musical melody.
Of course, one might argue that the oral tradition brings us many ancient tunes, handed down from generation to generation; however, this source needs to be treated with extreme caution. Oral transmission is a game of "Chinese Whispers", each time a song is passed on, it changes subtly - and it only takes one or two notes to change before the song's musical context is altered significantly. Therefore, songs which are sung today with ancient subject matter (and there are plenty of them), may have started their journey to the present day in quite a different form. In fact, one can sometimes see a song evolving as one traces its progress from an early to a modern collection.
The first reliable collections of Gaelic song appeared at the end of the 18th century and it is there we must start the search for the origins of Gaelic Song.
During the 18th century, individual pieces of Gaelic music started to find their way into collections such as Oswald's "Caledonian pocket companion". Unfortunately, many of the editors of these collections had no detailed experience of Gaelic song and they often altered the melody to fit the prevailing musical taste. Sometimes elaborate arrangements were made which also helped to obscure the melodic line. However, at the end of 18th century and start of 19th, the situation changed dramatically with the publication of two of the most important collections of Gaelic music and song.
The two important collections were: "A Collection of Highland Vocal Airs" published by Patrick MacDonald and "The Airs and Melodies peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles" published by Capt Simon Fraser. These two books are important for three basic reasons: Firstly, they are large - Fraser's contains 221 tunes, each with an explanatory note. Secondly, they were complied by musically literate Gaelic Highlanders with an intimate knowledge of the material. Finally, the compilers of both collections wished to preserve their heritage as accurately as possible (although both did occasionally change both melody and rhythm in a misguided attempt to "improve" or "correct" the musical form).
Joseph MacDonald who complied Vocal Airs came from a well known Highland family of Durness in Sutherland. He died at the age of 33 in 1762 and so it fell to his bother Patrick to publish the collection in 1784. Vocal airs is usually considered the more important of the two collections.
Fraser's collection is currently in print (although published in Canada!). Capt Fraser had a colourful career which included a period in jail in Inverness for non payment of debts. He was born in Ardchie (near Ft Augustus) and lived mainly at Knockie in Stratherrick. In many ways he was a dislikeable character, but was a superb fiddler, especially of Gaelic tunes, and his musically notation is generally excellent - although he notated tunes with fiddle ornaments and double stops, which can be a nucience when studying the melodies. His collection was published in 1816 and his son Angus Fraser published a further (and equally important) collection of both his and his fathers.
Both these collections are a storehouse of important music and provide the first real and reliable picture of Gaelic music, providing an effective snapshot of the music in the mid 18th century. Interestingly, analysis of melody in both collections shows that the forms and scales used have more in common with modern Irish Gaelic song than the modern Scottish Gaelic idiom, with the pentatonic scale taking rather a back seat. This is shown below in the analysis of scale in 100 of the tunes from Capt Frasers collection (see the next page for an explaination of these):
Modal 56%
Gaelic 27%
Irregular 12%
Penatonic 5%
The melodic structures used in the songs are the same as those used in modern Gaelic music. Compare these figures with the details of the scales used in Gaelic songs from modern collections in the other pages.
As stated previously, there are many tunes in the Gaelic tradition which appear to be of great antiquity; the trouble is: one cannot make too many assumptions about their original form from the music which reaches us today. However, providing that we accept the possibility of error, there are some educated guesses which we can make.
One of the most interesting forms to reach us today is Orain Mor ("Great Songs"). The term ?Oran Mor? is not actually traditional, but probably came into usage in the late 19th century based on the song Oran Mor MhicLeoid written by An Clarsair Dall in the 17th century. It now applied to a particular type of song, most examples of which date from the 17th and 18th centuries. Examples include: Iain Ghlinn Cuaich, Alasdair a Gleanna Garadh and 'Se mo bheachd ort a bhais. These songs are more complex than most village verse and were written by educated bards, literate in the earlier professional bardic tradiations. They are typically constructed from eight line stanzas with an involved and lengthy melodic argument, which uses the typical Gaelic musical forms described in the next chapter. The range is often one and half octaves and so they can be quite difficult to sing. The melodies are sometimes more ethereal and less tonal than typical popular Gaelic songs. They often take the form of praise songs, related to the clan praise poetry of earlier times. The comparison with Ceol Mor is obvious. A combination of Ceol Mor and Oran Mor allow us to construct a fairly secure picture of the more complex Gaelic music between the 16th and 18th centuries. Although based around the same musical scales and rhythms, it differed from the Gaelic music composed by village bards in that its melodies were longer, more complex and less tonal and tended to be based on 2 or 4 beats in a bar rhythms, rather than 3 or 6 which appears in later songs.
Travelling back further than Ceol Mor and Oran Mor entails treading some very boggy ground. There are tens, if not hundreds of songs in the Gaelic cannon which seem to date from the mists of time, but what we hear today are the modern versions of these pieces which may bear little resemblance to their original forms. Popular examples include Seathan, Mhic mo righ a Tir Chonaill and Laoidh Fhraoich. Some can be dated because they refer to historical figures such as The Lords of the Isles and others ancient heroic stories. Many of these pieces have no rhymic basis at all; the accents are based on word stresses, which are often irregular in Gaelic verse; likewise, the melodies (to the modern ear) sound loose and ill formed - these too may be based on the melodic component of Gaelic speech, rather than deliberate melody (old sources mention that bards chanted poetry to a harp accompniment).
Another aspect of the culture which may lend a tenuous clue to earlier music is the tradition of Gaelic Psalm singing which is still heard in Protestant churches throughout the islands. The tunes to which the psalms are sung are not actually Gaelic - they are from the Scots Metrical Psalter. However the style of performance is uniquely Gaelic. It consists of decorating the melody with numerous secondary notes and applying a liberal dash of the "portamento" style of singing described in the next page to the performance. Again, like the most ancient songs, there is little place for rhythm. In fact the form is definitely reminiscent of chanted verse with incidental, improvised melody. The sound thus produced is indescribable and defies notation. In the radio series "Scotland's Music" John Purser pointed out interesting similarities between the Gaelic style and music of the Ethiopian church (and also between solo vocal styles). This is a peculiar connection because old Gaelic folktales trace the descent of the Gaels to the queen of Ethiopia and some writers claim a similarity between certain Kenyan languages and Gaelic.
This has been a necessarily short introduction to the ancient musical forms. There is still much research to be done in the area. However, one thing is certain - these many influences - from Ancient Song and Harp Music, through to Ceol Mor and Oran Mor have been passed from generation to generation and have become integrated with other traditions, both ancient and modern, to produce the vast treasure house of Gaelic song which we hear today. It is to a detailed musical description of this store of song - the bedrock of all Gaelic music, which we turn in our other link.
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