What is ‘Scottish’ music?

The category of ‘Scottish’ could include:

  • music that is played on “indigenous” instruments?  But typical instruments are not always purely indigenous: the violin or fiddle originally came from Italy, for example, and the wire strung harp is found across the Celtic world.  There is much more to Scottish music than only music played by indigenous instruments.
  • music that is composed or played by musicians of Scottish residence or adopted nationality which has therefore “sounded from” Scotland? But there are many composers and performers who have contributed to Scottish music who were not born within the borders of the modern nation … some who have arrived and stayed … some who have visited and influenced us … in other words, ‘sounding from’ is not simple!
  • music that is composed, performed or listened to within Scotland? Well, that seems broad enough … however, there are diasporic Scots worldwide who might also be important to the story of how Scottish music is disseminated and curated …

In other words, a simple definition of ‘Scottish’ is elusive, and often not very helpful. As Scotland looks at its past cultures of sound, and thinks about it’s diverse future, perhaps this is a good moment to embrace that diversity?

As a small nation on the edge of Europe with a large global diasporic population, Scotland is well placed as a test case of how international influences and indigenous cultural patterns meet and blend.  Even genres of music which seem at first listening to be indisputably ‘Scottish’ have moments of radically international entanglements – the binary forms of Scottish dancing, for example, reflect common binary form structures of baroque dancing, and to some extent preserve aspects of that historical period’s interest in social dancing albeit within a distinctive and carefully curated ‘Scottish’ cultural tradition.

We are interested in hearing about research across the spectrum of what might be considered ‘Scottish’.  There are many varieties of Scottish – and together they contribute to a unique national culture.

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