Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

'
398 SCOTTISH MUSIC SCOTTISH MUSIC
either flat or sharp being required in the
melody.
The use of the imperfect pentatonio scale in
our early music must gradually have ceased,
through acquaintance with the music of the
church service, which had its singularly complete
diatonic system of modes. The complete diatonic
scale, which we find in the simple Shepherd's
Pipe or Recorder, is really that on which our
older melodies are formed. The pitch note
might be D or G, or any other, but the scale
would be the ordinary major diatonic with the
semitones between the 3rd and 4th and 7th
and 8 th degrees. The key of G is that adopted
in the following remarks. With scarcely an
exception the old tunes keep steadily to this
scale without the use of any accidental. It will
also be seen that the pathos produced by means
of the 4th of the key, is a clever adaptation of
a necessity '— '
of the scale. The Flowers of the
Forest fortunately preserved in the Skene MS.
—is a fine example of the skill with which the
unskilled composer used the meagre means at
his disposal. The first strain of the air is in
G major, as will be seen if it be harmonised,
though no F sharp was possible on the instrument
; in the second strain, no more affecting
wail for the disaster of Flodden could have been
produced than that effected by the use of the
Ffl, the 4th of the scale of the instrument, the
minor 7th of the original key. With his simple
pipe the composer has thus given the effect of
two keys.
The Flowers of the Forest. Ancient Version.
^^^^^^^^^^i
f^^E^.
It may be objected that the voice was not
tied down to the notes of an imperfect instrument,
and could take semitones wherever it
felt them to be wanted ;
[but in the process of
transmission the untutored singers, happily
ignorant of musical science, adhere rigidly to
the original forms of the scales in which they
sing.]
The same effect of playing in two keys occurs
in waly waly ' ! love is bonnie, a little while
when it is new,' but in most modem versions of
the melody both the Ft) and F( are found ;
this
was not possible on the primitive instrument,
though easy on the lute or violin.
waly waly.
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Any air which has the natural as well as the
altered note may be set down as either modern,
or as having been tampered with in modern
times. The major seventh in a minor key is
also a fairly good sign of modern writing br
modern meddling. In a tune written otherwise
in the old tonality, the occurrence of the major
seventh sounds weak and effeminate when compared
with the robust grandeur of the full tone
below.
A few more examples may be given to show
the mingling of the pentatonic with the completed
scale. Adieu Dundee '—also found in
'
the Skene MS.—is an example of a tune written
as if in the natural key, and yet really in the
Dorian mode.
Adew Dundee.
^^^^^^^^
Another example is The wauking of the ' fauld,
which, played in the same key, has the same
peculiarity in the 1 3th bar ; this, however, is
the case only in modern versions of the air, for
that given by Allan Eamsay in the Gentle
Shepherd (1736) is without the E.
Of thb Gaelic Mtjsic.
If the difficulty of estimating the age of the
music of the Lowlands is great, it is as nothing
compared to what is met with in considering
that of the Highlands.
The Celts certainly had music even in the
most remote ages, but as their airs had been
handed down for so many generations solely
by tradition, it may be doubted whether this
music bore any striking resemblance to the airs
collected between 1760 and 1780 by the Eev.
Patrick Macdonald and his brother. The specimens
given of the most ancient music are
interesting mainly in so far as they show the
kind of recitative to which ancient poems were
chanted, for they have little claim to notice as
melodies. The example here given is said to
be 'Ossian's soliloquy on the death of all his
contemporary heroes.'
'Slow.
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There are, however, many beautiful airs in
the collection ; they are simple, wild, and