Trad Meets Classical

Great music comes in many colors

Today we’ll take a look at the connections between Scottish trad music and classical. But first, I want to thank you for bearing with me as I took a break.

I was working on a table of contents, but it began to feel redundant, since this publication’s online page allows you to browse the titles of more than 120 articles. There are also tabs at the top of the page, which offer three categories: “MusicScapes of Scotland,” “Music & Walking Tours,” and “Events.” There’s also a tab for our “Chat,” where you can engage with other readers (paid subscribers are able to start threads, but anyone can respond).

This earlier article gives you links to the beginning of each of our four music & walking tours — to the Highlands and Skye, to the Outer Hebrides, to Ayrshire and Burns country, and to the Northern counties and islands.

I’ll be spending more time in Scotland from now on, so there will be lots to talk about, and I would love to hear from you if you have questions or requests, whether through a comment below, an email reply, or a comment in the Chat.

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The following article was first published in Scottish Life magazine in 1999, but provides a good historical sense of some of the connections between trad and classical music in Scotland. You can read this and 94 other chapters about Scottish music in my book, MusicScapes of Scotland: Vignettes from Prehistory to Pandemic.

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A traditional, untrained singer can give an unaffected, moving performance. But what if she goes off to a conservatory, gains classical technique, and comes home to sing her native songs? Wouldn’t she still sing from the heart? Is her music now “classical”?

The richness of Scottish music embraces a vast range of native styles, from gutsy folk musicians to classically trained performers. Usually we associate traditional music with the folksier side of the music. But the so-called classical side deserves a good look and listen, for in Scotland, this music too has strong traditional roots.

When we listen to the soaring operatic voice of Kenneth McKellar or the technically dazzling playing of Alasdair Fraser, we are not listening to classical music, but to Scottish traditional music brilliantly performed.

In the history of Scottish music, wherever traditional and classical music have met, Scotland’s traditional music has held its own. This inner strength has baffled many an observer. One 18th-century writer explained that although Scottish music may not hold fast to the rules of classical composition, “it produces its intended effect in a superior degree” and therefore “it is the preferable music.”

Perhaps this is why classical music never developed strongly in Scotland until the 20th century. The Scots, including the aristocracy, simply preferred their own music. They loved to sing, write, and play it, and patronized its performances and publications. In 1847, one writer issued an awkward and revealing apology for the fact that the Scots preferred traditional to classical music. He wrote, “It is to be feared that the beauty of the melodies is itself partly to be blamed for the indifference to higher music.”

I’ll never forget the Scotsman who led a group of young players offering traditional fiddle tunes, and yet felt the necessity to assure me that his musical group also plays some “good stuff,” by which he meant music of Handel and Haydn. He might as well have apologized for enjoying the traditional at the expense of the “higher music.”

There has been confusion among Scots themselves about the value of their own traditions, and yet, by and large, they prefer their own music. In recent years, the popular operatic tenor Kenneth McKellar used his talents to bring out the beauty of those melodies. Though he could sing nearly anything, the clarity, tone and passion of McKellar’s voice are unmistakable when he sings Scottish songs. In quicker songs such as “Wee Cooper of Fife,” or “The De’il’s Awa’,” you can feel his exuberance. His is classical technique at the service of Scottish music, rather than Scottish song dressed up as classical music.

The same could be said about Anne Lorne Gillies, who sings with a trained voice in both Gaelic and English. Some have criticized the “cleaning up” of Gaelic songs by classically trained musicians, but we must distinguish between those who feel a need to “dignify” folk music, versus those who use classical skills to express their musical ideas. Gillies’ album Oh My Land is a tribute to Gaelic song, and rings with sincerity.

Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Bruch were among those who used Scottish melodies in their own works. One recording of Haydn’s Scottish songs features Scottish folksinger Jean Redpath. Because her fine voice is not classically trained, this album brings out the folk origin of the songs, even as they blend in with Haydn’s classical accompaniment. A similar balance of folk song within a classical arrangement can be found in Redpath’s seven albums of Robert Burns’ songs, set by composer Serge Hovey.

Scotland’s great fiddler, Aly Bain, linked up with a contemporary Norwegian composer and the BT Scottish Ensemble to record Follow the Moonstone. This lush classical setting of Scandinavian, Shetland and Scottish fiddle tunes includes the 18th century strathspey, “Beauty of the North,”and several J.S. Skinner tunes that work well in both traditional and classical settings.

It is difficult to find a Scottish musician or composer who did not incorporate traditional music into his work. Composer James Oswald (1711-1769) wrote classical pieces, often using Scottish melodies, but also created tunes that have been part of the traditional repertoire, including many fiddle tunes, and melodies for songs such as Burns’s “Ae Fond Kiss.” You can hear some of Oswald’s compositions on Airs for the Seasons, an album performed by the Leda string trio.

Bach Meets Cape Breton, by baroque violinist and Cape Breton fiddler David Greenberg, is a unique comparison of classical and folk styles. It features Scottish melodies arranged by Oswald, William McGibbon, Alexander McGlashan, John Gow and other 18th-century Scottish musicians. Shortly after this music was written, many Highlanders were forced to emigrate to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and brought with them these same tunes, which they played in traditional style. In some tracks, Bach Meets Cape Breton brilliantly crosses over from baroque to folk and back again, switching between harpsichord accompaniment and guitar.

Composer, guitarist and conductor Scott MacMillan wrote a series of lively and innovative classical arrangements of Scottish and Cape Breton tunes for an unusual octet, which recorded them on Songs from the Cape. This album showcases the strong pulse of four traditional Cape Breton musicians, combined with the colorful background of a string quartet.

Scottish traditional music certainly holds its own against other styles in Pipe Major Robert Mathieson’s The Big Birl. Here, traditional solo bagpiping is backed by a variety of accompaniments, including a string quartet, calypso band, rock band, and easy listening atmospherics.

One of the more prolific composers of classically inspired pieces is William Jackson. His work includes the “Wellpark Suite,” “St. Mungo,” and “A Scottish Island,” all of which have the flow of melodies and shifting moods that is characteristic of classical compositions. Yet these pieces rely heavily on Scottish traditional melodies and instrumentation. In a sense, he is using a classical framework to express Scottish musical ideas.

One of Jackson’s classical/traditional effort it won a competition seeking a possible new national anthem for Scotland. His contribution was called “Land of Light,” and is featured on a CD of the same name, along with a selection of other Jackson performances.

In 1991, BBC Radio budgeted 26 half-hour radio programs to explore the music of Scotland. Once the producers got involved in the project, they ended up with no fewer than 30 ninety-minute programs, without exhausting their material. Sometimes even the experts underestimate the rich diversity of Scotland’s music. This groundbreaking program resulted in a wonderful book by John Purser, called Scotland’s Music. (You can read more about this book in these earlier articles: “Scotland’s Music: A 3000-Year Overview,” “Scotland’s Music, 3d edition,” and “Scotland’s Music: Neolithic to World War I.”)

With the flourishing of Scottish recordings, we all now have the opportunity to take a better look and listen for ourselves. Whether you prefer traditional or classical, there is plenty of each from Scotland, and some refreshing combinations of both. Call it what you will, you’ll know when you’ve found the “good stuff,” for great music speaks to the heart.