Scottish folk music (alsoScottish traditional music) is agenre offolk music that uses forms that are identified as part of the Scottish musical tradition. There is evidence that there was a flourishing culture of popular music in Scotland during the late Middle Ages, but the only song with a melody to survive from this period is the "Pleugh Song". After theReformation, the secular popular tradition of music continued, despite attempts bythe Kirk, particularly in the Lowlands, to suppress dancing and events likepenny weddings. The first clear reference to the use of theHighland bagpipes mentions their use at theBattle of Pinkie Cleugh in 1547. The Highlands in the early seventeenth century saw the development of piping families including theMacCrimmons, MacArthurs,MacGregors and the Mackays ofGairloch. There is also evidence of adoption of the fiddle in the Highlands. Well-known musicians included the fiddler Pattie Birnie and the piperHabbie Simpson. This tradition continued into the nineteenth century, with major figures such as the fiddlersNiel and his sonNathaniel Gow. There is evidence ofballads from this period. Some may date back to the late Medieval era and deal with events and people that can be traced back as far as the thirteenth century. They remained anoral tradition until they were collected as folk songs in the eighteenth century.
The earliest printed collection of secular music comes from the seventeenth century. Collection began to gain momentum in the early eighteenth century and, as the Kirk's opposition to music waned, there was a flood of publications includingAllan Ramsay's verse compendiumThe Tea Table Miscellany (1723) andThe Scots Musical Museum (1787 to 1803) by James Johnson andRobert Burns. From the late nineteenth century there was renewed interest in traditional music, which was more academic and political in intent. In Scotland collectors included the Reverend James Duncan andGavin Greig. Major performers includedJames Scott Skinner. This revival began to have a major impact on classical music, with the development of what was in effect a national school of orchestral and operatic music in Scotland, with composers such asAlexander Mackenzie,William Wallace, Learmont Drysdale,Hamish MacCunn andJohn McEwen.
After World War II, traditional music in Scotland was marginalised, but remained a living tradition. This was changed by individuals includingAlan Lomax,Hamish Henderson andPeter Kennedy, through collecting, publications, recordings and radio programmes.Traditional singers that they popularised includedJohn Strachan,Jimmy MacBeath,Jeannie Robertson andFlora MacNeil. In the 1960s there was a flourishingfolk club culture andEwan MacColl emerged as a leading figure in the revival in Britain. The clubs hosted traditional performers, including Donald Higgins and theStewarts of Blairgowrie, beside English performers and new Scottish revivalists such asRobin Hall,Jimmie Macgregor,The Corries and theIan Campbell Folk Group. There was also a strand of popular Scottish music that benefited from the arrival of radio and television, which relied on images of Scottishness derived fromtartanry and stereotypes employed inmusic hall andvariety, exemplified by the TV programmeThe White Heather Club which ran from 1958 to 1967, hosted byAndy Stewart and starringMoira Anderson andKenneth McKeller. The fusing of various styles of American music with British folk created a distinctive form offingerstyle guitar playing known asfolk baroque, pioneered by figures includingDavy Graham andBert Jansch. Others totally abandoned the traditional element includingDonovan and theIncredible String Band, who have been seen as developingpsychedelic folk. Acoustic groups who continued to interpret traditional material through into the 1970s includedOssian,Silly Wizard,The Boys of the Lough,Natural Acoustic Band,Battlefield Band,The Clutha, and The Whistlebinkies.
Celtic rock developed as a variant ofBritish folk rock by Scottish groups including theJSD Band and Spencer's Feat.
Five Hand Reel, who combined Irish and Scottish personnel, emerged as the most successful exponents of the style. From the late 1970s the attendance at, and the number of, folk clubs began to decrease, as new musical and social trends began to dominate. However, in Scotland the circuit ofceilidhs and festivals helped prop up traditional music. Two of the most successful groups of the 1980s that emerged from this dance band circuit wereRunrig andCapercaillie. A by-product of theCeltic Diaspora was the existence of large communities across the world that looked for their cultural roots and identity to their origins in the Celtic nations. From the United States this includes Scottish bandsSeven Nations,Prydein andFlatfoot 56. From Canada are bands such asEnter the Haggis,Great Big Sea,The Real Mckenzies andSpirit of the West.
There is evidence that there was a flourishing culture of popular music inScotland in the Late Middle Ages. This includes the long list of songs given inThe Complaynt of Scotland (1549). Many of the poems of this period were also originally songs, but for none has a notation of their music survived. Melodies have survived separately in the post-Reformation publication ofThe Gude and Godlie Ballatis (1567),[1] which were spiritual satires on popular songs, adapted and published by the brothersJames,John andRobert Wedderburn.[2] The only song with a melody to survive from this period is the "Pleugh Song".[1] After theReformation, the secular popular tradition of music continued, despite attempts by the Kirk, particularly in the Lowlands, to suppress dancing and events likepenny weddings at which tunes were played.[3]
The first clear reference to the use of theHighland bagpipes is from a French history, which mentions their use at theBattle of Pinkie Cleugh in 1547.George Buchanan claimed that they had replaced the trumpet on the battlefield. This period saw the creation of the ceòl mór (the great music) of the bagpipe, which reflected its martial origins, with battle-tunes, marches, gatherings, salutes and laments.[4] The Highlands in the early seventeenth century saw the development of piping families including theMacCrimmonds, MacArthurs,MacGregors and the Mackays ofGairloch. There is also evidence of adoption of the fiddle in the Highlands withMartin Martin noting in hisA Description of the Western Isles of Scotland (1703) that he knew of eighteen players inLewis alone.[5] Well-known musicians included the fiddler Pattie Birnie (c. 1635–1721) and the piperHabbie Simpson (1550–1620).[3] This tradition continued into the nineteenth century, with major figures such as the fiddlersNiel (1727–1807) and his sonNathaniel Gow (1763–1831), who, along with a large number of anonymous musicians, composed hundreds of fiddle tunes and variations.[6]
There is evidence ofballads from this period. Some may date back to the late Medieval era and deal with events and people that can be traced back as far as the thirteenth century, including "Sir Patrick Spens" and "Thomas the Rhymer", but for which there is no evidence until the eighteenth century.[7] Scottish ballads are distinct, showing some pre-Christian influences in the inclusion of supernatural elements such as the fairies in the Scottish ballad "Tam Lin".[8] They remained an oral tradition until increased interest in folk songs in the eighteenth century led collectors such as BishopThomas Percy to publish volumes of popular ballads.[8]
In Scotland the earliest printed collection of secular music was by publisher John Forbes, produced inAberdeen in 1662 asSongs and Fancies: to Thre, Foure, or Five Partes, both Apt for Voices and Viols. It was printed three times in the next twenty years, and contained seventy-seven songs, of which twenty-five were of Scottish origin.[9] Eighteenth century publications includedJohn Playford'sCollection of original Scotch-tunes, (full of the highland humours) for the violin (1700), Margaret Sinkler'sMusic Book (1710), James Watson'sChoice Collection of Comic and Serious Scots Poems both Ancient and Modern 1711. The oppression of secular music and dancing by the Kirk began to ease between about 1715 and 1725 and the level of musical activity was reflected in a flood of musical publications in broadsheets and compendiums of music such as themakarAllan Ramsay's verse compendiumThe Tea Table Miscellany (1723), William Thomson'sOrpheus Caledonius: or, A collection of Scots songs (1733),James Oswald'sThe Caledonian Pocket Companion (1751), andDavid Herd'sAncient and modern Scottish songs, heroic ballads, etc.: collected from memory, tradition and ancient authors (1776). These were drawn on for the most influential collection,The Scots Musical Museum published in six volumes from 1787 to 1803 byJames Johnson andRobert Burns, which also included new words by Burns. TheSelect Scottish Airs collected byGeorge Thomson and published between 1799 and 1818 included contributions from Burns andWalter Scott.[10] Among Scott's early works was the influential collection of balladsMinstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802–03).[11]
From the late nineteenth century there was renewed interest in traditional music, which was more academic and political in intent.Harvard professorFrancis James Child's (1825–96) eight-volume collectionThe English and Scottish Popular Ballads (1882–92) has been the most influential on defining the repertoire of subsequent performers, and the English music teacher Cecil Sharp was probably the most important in understanding of the nature of folk song.[12] In Scotland, collectors included the Reverend James Duncan (1848–1917) andGavin Greig (1856–1914), who collected over 1,000 songs, mainly from Aberdeenshire.[13] The tradition continued with figures includingJames Scott Skinner (1843–1927), known as the "Strathspey King", who played the fiddle in venues ranging from the local functions in his nativeBanchory, to urban centres of the south and atBalmoral. In 1923 theRoyal Scottish Country Dance Society was founded in an attempt to preserve traditional Scottish dances that were threatened by the introduction of the continental ballroom dances such as thewaltz orquadrilles. The accordion also began to be a central instrument at Highland balls and dances.[14]
This revival began to have a major impact on classical music, with the development of what was in effect a national school of orchestral and operatic music in Scotland. Major composers includedAlexander Mackenzie (1847–1935),William Wallace (1860–1940),Learmont Drysdale (1866–1909),Hamish MacCunn (1868–1916) andJohn McEwen (1868–1948).[15] Mackenzie, who studied in Germany and Italy and mixed Scottish themes with German Romanticism,[16] is best known for his threeScottish Rhapsodies (1879–80, 1911),Pibroch for violin and orchestra (1889) and theScottish Concerto for piano (1897), all involving Scottish themes and folk melodies.[15] Wallace's work included an overture,In Praise of Scottish Poesie (1894).[17] Drysdale's work often dealt with Scottish themes, including the overtureTam O’ Shanter (1890), the cantataThe Kelpie (1891).[18] MacCunn's overtureThe Land of the Mountain and the Flood (1887), hisSix Scotch Dances (1896), his operasJeanie Deans (1894) andDairmid (1897) and choral works on Scottish subjects[15] have been described by I. G. C. Hutchison as the musical equivalent of theScots Baronial castles ofAbbotsford andBalmoral.[19] Similarly, McEwen'sPibroch (1889),Border Ballads (1908) andSolway Symphony (1911) incorporated traditional Scottish folk melodies.[20]
After World War II, traditional music in Scotland was marginalised, but, unlike in England, it remained a much stronger force, with the Céilidh house still present in rural communities until the early 1950s and traditional material still performed by the older generation, even if the younger generation tended to prefer modern styles of music. This decline was changed by the actions of individuals such as American musicologistAlan Lomax, who collected numerous songs in Scotland that were issued byColumbia Records around 1955. Radio broadcasts by Lomax,Hamish Henderson andPeter Kennedy (1922–2006) were also important in raising awareness of the tradition, particularly Kennedy'sAs I Roved Out, which was largely based around Scottish and Irish music. TheSchool of Scottish Studies was founded at University of Edinburgh in 1951, with Henderson as a research fellow and a collection of songs begun byCalum Maclean (1915–1960).[21] Acts that were popularised includedJohn Strachan (1875–1958),Jimmy MacBeath (1894–1972),Jeannie Robertson (1908–1975) andFlora MacNeil (1928–2015).[22] A number of festivals also popularised the music, such asEdinburgh People's Festival (1951–1953), Aberdeen Folk Festival (1963–),Girvan Folk Festival (1964–1965 and 1975–present) and Blairgowrie Folk Festival (1966–1971).[21] In the 1960s there was a flourishingfolk club culture. The first folk club was founded in London byEwan MacColl (1915–1989), who emerged as a leading figure in the revival in Britain, recording influential records such asScottish Popular Ballads (1956).[23] Scottish folk clubs were less dogmatic than their English counterparts which rapidly moved to an all English folk song policy, and they continued to encourage a mixture of Scottish, Irish, English and American material. Early on they hosted traditional performers, including Donald Higgins and theStewarts of Blairgowrie, beside English performers and new Scottish revivalists such asRobin Hall (1936–1998),Jimmie Macgregor (born 1930) andThe Corries. A number of these new performers, including theIan Campbell Folk Group, emerged from theskiffle movement.[21]
There was also a strand of popular Scottish music that benefited from the arrival of radio and television, which relied on images of Scottishness derived fromtartanry and stereotypes employed inmusic hall andvariety. Proponents includedAndy Stewart (1933–1993), whose weekly programmeThe White Heather Club ran in Scotland from 1958 to 1967. Frequent guests includedMoira Anderson (born 1938) andKenneth McKeller (1927–2010), who enjoyed their own programmes.[24] The programmes and their music were immensely popular, although their version of Scottish music and identity was despised by many modernists.[25]
The fusing of various styles of American music with British folk created a distinctive form offingerstyle guitar playing known asfolk baroque, pioneered by figures includingDavy Graham andBert Jansch.[12] This led in part to Britishprogressive folk music, which attempted to elevate folk music through greater musicianship, or compositional and arrangement skills.[12] Many progressive folk performers continued to retain a traditional element in their music, including Jansch who became a member of the bandPentangle in 1967.[12] Others largely abandoned the traditional element of their music. Particularly important wereDonovan (who was most influenced by emerging progressive folk musicians in America such asBob Dylan) and theIncredible String Band, who from 1967 incorporated a range of influences includingmedieval andEastern music into their compositions, leading to the development ofpsychedelic folk, which had a considerable impact onprogressive andpsychedelic rock.[26] Acoustic groups who continued to interpret traditional material through into the 1970s includedOssian andSilly Wizard.[27]The Boys of the Lough andBattlefield Band, emerged from the flourishing Glasgow folk scene.[21] Also from this scene were the highly influentialThe Clutha, whose line up, with two fiddlers, was later augmented by the piper Jimmy Anderson, and the Whistlebinkies, who pursued a strongly instrumental format, relying on traditional instruments, including aClàrsach (Celtic harp).[23] Many of these groups played largely music originating from the Lowlands, while later, more successful bands tended to favor the Gaelic sounds of the Highlands. While fairly popular within folk circles, none of these groups achieved the success of Irish groups such asThe Chieftains andThe Dubliners. Some of these bands produced noted solo artists, includingAndy M. Stewart of Silly Wizard,Brian McNeill of Battlefield Band, andDougie MacLean of the Tannahill Weavers. MacLean is perhaps the best known of these, having written "Caledonia", one of Scotland's most beloved songs.
Though perhaps not as popular as some of their Celtic fusion counterparts, traditional Scottish artists are still making music. These include Hebridean singerJulie Fowlis, 'Gaelic supergroup'Dàimh, andLau.Old Blind Dogs have also found success singing in theDoric Scots dialect of their nativeAberdeenshire.Albannach has gained recognition for their distinctive combination of pipes and drums.
Celtic rock developed as a variant ofBritish folk rock, playing traditional Scottish folk music with rock instrumentation, developed byFairport Convention and its members from 1969.Donovan used the term "Celtic rock" to describe the folk rock he created for hisOpen Road album in 1970, featured a song with "Celtic rock" as its title.[28] The adoption of British folk rock heavily influenced by Scottish traditional music produced groups including theJSD Band The Natural Acoustic Band (1970) and Spencer's Feat. Out of the wreckage of the latter in 1974, guitaristDick Gaughan formed probably the most successful band in this genreFive Hand Reel, who combined Irish and Scottish personnel, before he embarked on an influential solo career.[29]
From the late 1970s the attendance at, and number of, folk clubs began to decrease, as new musical and social trends, includingpunk rock,new wave andelectronic music began to dominate. However, in Scotland the circuit ofcèilidhs and festivals helped prop up traditional music.[12] Two of the most successful groups of the 1980s emerged from this dance band circuit. From 1978, when they began to release original albums,Runrig produced highly polished Scottish folk rock, including the first commercially successful album with the allGaelicPlay Gaelic in 1978.[30] From the 1980sCapercaillie combined Scottish folk music, electric instruments and haunting vocals to considerable success.[31] While bagpipes had become an essential element in Scottish folk bands they were much rarer in folk rock outfits, but were successfully integrated into their sound byWolfstone from 1989, who focused on a combination of highland music and rock.[32] More recently, bands such asMànran andTide Lines have also focused on a combination of Celtic music and pop-rock. Additionally, groups such asShooglenifty andPeatbog Faeries mixed traditional highland music with more modern sounds, such as dubstep rhythms, creating a genre sometimes referred to as "Acid Croft".Niteworks inspired the two aforementioned bands and the electronic sampling ofMartyn Bennett have further developed Celtic electronic music which has been described as both Gaelictronica[33] and Celtictronica.
Successful Scottish stadium rock acts such asSimple Minds fromGlasgow andBig Country fromDunfermline incorporated traditional Celtic sounds onto many of their songs. The former based their hit "Belfast Child" around the traditional Irish song "She Moved Through the Fair" and incorporated accordion into their line-up, while the latter's guitar and drum sounds on their early albums were heavily influenced by Scottish pipe bands, particularly on songs such as "In a Big Country" and "Fields of Fire". Big Country also covered Robert Burns' "Killiecrankie".
One by-product of theCeltic Diaspora was the existence of large communities across the world that looked for their cultural roots and identity to their origins in the Celtic nations. While it seems young musicians from these communities usually chose between their folk culture and mainstream forms of music such as rock or pop, after the advent ofCeltic punk relatively large numbers of bands began to emerge styling themselves as Celtic rock. This is particularly noticeable in the United States and Canada, where there are large communities descended from Irish and Scottish immigrants. From the U.S. this includesSeven Nations,Prydein andFlatfoot 56. From Canada are bands such asEnter the Haggis,Great Big Sea,The Real Mckenzies andSpirit of the West. These groups were influenced by American forms of music, some containing members with no Celtic ancestry and commonly singing in English.[34]
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