2. Flute Ornamentation in Scottish Traditional Music

2.1: The Flute in Scottish Traditional Music

To some, the concept of “Scottish Traditional flute playing” may seem like a recent invention. To others, it may even seem like a contradiction in terms. Despite the fact that flute players in Scotland have been playing traditional music including Scots Tunes and even piobaireachd since at least the eighteenth century,1 there is a widespread perception that the flute somehow doesn’t belong within the sound-world of Scottish Traditional music. The common view seems to be that the music of Scotland is chiefly the domain of fiddlers and pipers, and that the flute, by contrast, is a foreign import from across the Irish Sea.2 Only recently have flute players in Scotland begun re-engaging with this long and rich tradition of music-making.

The word “traditional” when used in conjunction with Scottish music usually implies the existence of one, long, unbroken lineage, in which tunes, techniques and instruments are passed down from teacher to student, stretching back to a time before the earliest notation of those tunes. While this image may be accurate to some degree, it ignores the fact that breaks in the transmission of oral tradition are common, and that many traditions are invented and re-invented over the centuries as political and socio-economic realities change.3 Such is the case with the oral tradition of flute playing in Scotland.

Recent research has established the fact that the transverse flute was played in Scotland at least as early as the sixteenth century, by both professionals and amateurs, women and men, from all strata of Scottish society. Elizabeth Ford has compiled a list of flautists known to have been active in Scotland throughout the eighteenth century and into the early nineteenth,4 and cites considerable evidence of these musicians performing and engaging with Scots Tunes. Collections of Scots Tunes appear in the libraries and collections of many members of the Scottish nobility throughout the century,5 and there is also evidence of traditional music being played on the flute by lower-class Scots, though the surviving documentary evidence for the latter is much sparser. 

One of the most charming sources describing the flute’s involvement in Scottish traditional music at the turn of the nineteenth century comes from a poem by the weaver, songwriter and flutist Robert Tannahill. In his song “The Five Friends,” Tannahill describes an evening of “bacchanalian” music-making, with each stanza describing one of the assembled party. The fifth stanza likely refers to to Tannahill himself:

There is Rab, frae the south, wi' his fiddle an' his flute;

I could list tae his strains till the stams fa' out.

And we’re a’ noddin’, nid nid noddin’,

We’re a’ noddin’ fu’ at e’en6

Correspondence between R.A. Smith and Motherwell (cited in Semple) suggests that the flute and fiddle were not actually present at the evening described by Tannahill, but the fact that the flute was mentioned in this way suggests that its involvement in traditional music-making was an established trope at this time.7

Soon after, however, the trail seems to go cold. At some point during the nineteenth century, the flute ceased to have a prominent role in the dissemination of Scots Tunes, and was no longer regarded as a defining part of Scottish musical tradition. Several scholars have suggested that this decline came about as a direct result of the bagpipe’s rise to prominence in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.8 Hugh Trevor-Roper describes in some detail the emergence, and indeed the self-conscious “invention” of the Scottish highland tradition, in which the highland bagpipes became an iconic cultural signifier for the Scottish nation as a whole:

The creation of an independent Highland tradition, and the imposition of that new tradition, with its outward badges, on the whole Scottish nation, was the work of the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It occurred in three stages. First, there was the cultural revolt against Ireland: the usurpation of Irish culture and the re-writing of early Scottish history, culminating in the insolent claim that Scotland - Celtic Scotland - was the 'mother-nation' and Ireland the cultural dependency. Secondly, there was the artificial creation of new Highland traditions, presented as ancient, original and distinctive. Thirdly, there was the process by which these new traditions were offered to, and adopted by, historic Lowland Scotland.9

One of these “outward badges” was the highland bagpipes, which, according to Trevor-Roper, had prior to the Act of Union chiefly been “regarded by the large majority of Scotchmen as a sign of barbarism.”10 The final stage in this “invention of tradition” is exemplified in artistic representations of Scotland wherein the highland dress and bagpipes come to synecdochically represent the Scottish nation as a whole. One such artistic representation is to be found in the satirical pamphlet The Butiad of 1763, in a print entitled “Publish’d according to Act of Parliament…” which depicts numerous musical instruments, including the bagpipes and “German” (or transverse) flute in the foreground.11

The cartoon (shown right) and its accompanying poem “The Masquerade; or, The Political Bagpiper,” is a veiled allegory depicting an affair that was rumoured to have taken place between the Princess of Wales (Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg) and the Scottish then-prime minister John Stuart, the Earl of Bute.12 Throughout the poem, the bagpipe and “German flute” are used as a sexualised metaphor, culminating in the lovers performing a concerted “lilt” together:

Quoth he, do not mourn,

For I ne’er will return,

While here I can taste of the Golden Fruit:

Then his Pipe he essay’d,

And another Lilt he play’s

In concert sweet --- with her German Flute.13

While the cartoon is by no means openly hostile in its attitude towards the flute, it does speak to a perception of the flute as a foreign influence, in opposition to the (supposedly) native Scottish bagpipes. The accompanying poem’s repeated reference to the German-ness of the “German flute” is obviously intended to make the satirical representation of Princess Augusta more plain, but also serves to highlight the perceived otherness of the flute in Scotland.

Flute-playing and bagpipe-playing had not always been regarded as mutually exclusive phenomena in Scotland. Throughout the eighteenth century, there is evidence of considerable shared repertoire between the two instruments, as well as numerous examples of flute players who also played the pipes.14 While no direct evidence of flute makers also making pipes (or vice versa) has yet been uncovered in Scotland, there are several examples of such makers active on the continent during this period, so it seems likely that this was the case in Scotland as well.15 Several studies in recent times have emphasised the link that existed between the two instruments throughout the century, and have identified this as a necessary area for future research.16 In much of the recent scholarship on Scottish music, there seems to be a strong desire to demonstrate the historical connection between these two instruments, perhaps because of the audible similarities between the performance practices of both in the context of Scottish Traditional music.

2.2: Current Influences on Scottish Traditional Flute Playing

The flute’s long exile from Scottish Traditional music has only recently come to an end. Even today, an overwhelming perception persists that the flute is simply “not Scottish enough.”17 One Scottish Traditional flute player interviewed by Ford noted that, even only a few decades ago, the community of flute players in Scotland was so small that they were virtually all known to each other. Nowadays, by comparison, a surge in interest among amateurs has seen the community grow substantially, with events and workshops by groups like FluteFling18 regularly filling up weeks in advance. Further afield, musicians like Chris Norman have increased the profile of Scottish Traditional flute playing considerably, through the release of countless recordings with David Greenwood and Concerto Caledonia,19 and through the work of Boxwood Festivals.20

Many of the techniques used by these players are rooted in those of Irish traditional flute playing. Hamish Napier, for one, notes that influential flute players within the Scottish Traditional music scene have “a very Irish way of playing,” which he hopes will one day give way to the emergence of a uniquely Scottish style.21 Others approach Scottish Traditional flute playing with particular emphasis on bagpipe techniques, borrowing terminology from this tradition, rather than from that of Irish flute playing, despite the fact that many of the same techniques are used in both traditions. Indeed, many Irish flute players likewise trace the origins of the techniques they use to the performance practice of the uilleann pipes.22

In discussing the relationship between Scottish traditional flute practices and those of Irish traditional flute players, bagpipers, and fiddlers, it is often difficult to identify a single point of origin for any given technique. Flutes and pipes of various kinds have been played in Ireland and Scotland for many centuries and their performance practice has been largely disseminated through oral tradition rather than written sources. Some have even suggested that many of the ornamentation practices regularly associated with piobaireachd and highland bagpipes in fact arose from the clarsach (harp) or vocal practices, rather than the other way around.23 The mists of time, and the all-eclipsing strength of association between Scotland and the bagpipes may preclude us from uncovering the origins of such practices. Ford concludes that the performance practice of Scottish Traditional flute players remains a “search for identity.”24

One feature common to all these practices (whether performed on the flute, pipes or violin) is a style of ornamentation, which is primarily articulatory, rather than harmonic in function. It is commonly claimed that these techniques arise from bagpipe practice, due to the nature of the instrument. As one cannot use the tongue to articulate between two notes of the same pitch on the bagpipes, one is forced to interrupt the sound in some other way, namely through “cuttings” or finger articulations – extremely rapid changes in pitch, which are barely perceptible, but have the effect of separating one sound from another without any silence in between. This forms a crucial part of the distinctive “articulatory ornamentation” practices of Scottish Traditional music, which are the main focus of this study.

Other common elements of Scottish Traditional performance practice include rhythmic variation (including frequent use of Lombard rhythms or the “Scotch snap”), rhythmic groupings/weightings, a particularly dense (and often rather loud) flute tone requiring a high volume of air, and a sense of “lilt” arising from the lengthening and weighting of certain paired notes in a way that is not easily notated. The interrelation of these elements is important – the line between what might be called “rhythmic variation” as opposed to “articulatory ornamentation” is not always clear, for instance. Similarly, the placement of these articulation patterns in relation to beat hierarchy is an essential part of achieving a sense of “lilt” in in Scottish Traditional music.25 By focussing exclusively on practices related to ornamentation in this thesis, I do not mean to reduce Scottish Traditional style to a single element, but rather to trace the journey of a single thread within a rich tapestry of techniques and traditions.

2.3: Problematising “Ornamentation”

In many ways, the practices described by the phrase “articulatory ornamentation” do not sit comfortably within the discursive limits of Western classical music. They are neither articulations nor ornaments in the sense that classical musicians use those words, and yet, simultaneously, they are both. Many performers of traditional Irish, Scottish and Cape Breton musics use the phrase “ornamentation” to describe these techniques as a matter of convenience.26 And yet, for some, these techniques have far more in common with “tongue articulations [which] have no discernible duration or pitch of their own…the same [being] true of well-played cuts and strikes.”27

Larsen proposes the term “pitched articulations” as a way of capturing this distinction. This term may have an advantage over the complementary term “articulatory ornamentation,” insofar as it implies the necessity of such techniques to the performance practice of this music. While most would consider “ornamentation” as something added to a piece of music, “articulation” is usually thought of as a necessary and non-negotiable aspect of performance practice. Likewise, Swinden categorises most of the techniques described below either as “articulation” or “rhythmic variation” for much the same reason.

I have opted to use a mixture of these terms here, interchangeably, depending on context. When discussing notated sources of Scots Tunes, particularly those created by musicians observing the oral tradition of Scottish music from the “outside,” it can be helpful to continue using the term “articulatory ornamentation” for the sake of convenience. I hope that the use of this term will still sufficiently acknowledge the limitations of categories defined by Western classical music, and oppose the essentialist, decontextualising effects of such categories when applied to Scottish Traditional music.

2. 4: Articulatory Ornaments, Pitched Articulations

The table presented right provides a list of the main forms of articulatory ornamentation common in Scottish Traditional flute playing today, complete with an audio demonstration, an example of each being used in context, and a description of the finger technique required to execute each articulation. I have also included Larsen’s articulation markings as a point of interest.28 This does not purport to be an exhaustive list, but rather a representation of my current embodied understanding of articulation techniques used in Scottish Traditional flute playing. My own journey with these techniques began roughly one year ago, and has drawn on the list of sources cited by Swinden;29 recordings, including those surveyed in chapter four of this thesis;30 and open-access online tutorials, including those published by Sean Cunningham31 and Shannon Heaton.32 While this is not intended as a guide for anyone attempting to learn how to embody this style themselves, it does serve as a necessary pretext to the discussion of ornamentation and aesthetics in Italian collections of Scots Tunes in chapter 3 of this thesis.

Certain features are common to all the articulations listed above, namely, the fact that they are executed as rapidly as possible, and that (when executed well) all of these movements are barely visible. The overall effect of these gestures should be articulatory – in other words, the effect of the ornament is felt, despite the fact that the duration of the ornament is imperceptible.

Swinden notes several kinds of rhythmic transformations (above, right) common to the performance practice of Scots Tunes today, many of which are related to the articulations shown (right). The second example, for instance, can be achieved through the use of a short crann, which produces an effect very similar to a birl in fiddle playing. The fourth and fifth examples can occur as a result of articulating every note with a cut at the beginning of the note. The placement of these gestures within the bar is likewise an important distinguishing feature. Whereas in most eighteenth-century art music from the continent, one would expect to find ornaments of an accented of articulatory nature on strong beat (beats 1 and 3 in simple time; 1 and 4 in compound time), in Scottish traditional music, these gestures often appear on unaccented beats of the bar. Similarly, while ornaments with a primarily harmonic function would usually be found on structurally important harmonies – as 4-3 or 6-5 suspensions, and at authentic cadences – the same cannot be said of the ornaments listed above. As we examine eighteenth-century collections of Scots Tunes, these features become all-important. The placement of ornaments on unexpected beats is the kind of practice likely to be translated into notated form, and therefore a key signifier of Scottish Traditional performance practice.

The Limits of Notation

The above analysis has shown plainly the limits of Western notation in dealing with Scottish Traditional performance practices. Any system of notation inevitably imposes a set of values on the music object, as a result of the representational limits of that system – Western classical notation, for instance, prioritises the representation of pitch and duration, representing both in a static linear format. It is no surprise then, that the Western classical tradition tends to ascribe value to music on the basis of these criteria. The articulatory practices of Scottish Traditional music are excluded from representation within this system – the duration of a cut or strike is too short to be captured, and the ambiguity of pitch inherent in such an articulation is totally lost within a system oriented around a static conception of pitch.

For better or worse, however, Western classical notation is one medium in which Scots Tunes from the eighteenth century are preserved. Approaching these texts from the point of view of performance practice, then, is an act that requires some degree of imagination. As a final point of departure, it is perhaps wise to keep in mind the words of Philip Bohlman:

Probably no form of essentializing music is as widespread as notation. Notation represents oral traditions or the composer's intent or the publishing industry's commodity, and therefore it exhibits remarkably diverse capabilities of disciplining music. Notation insists on the music's right to be just what it is, black on white, notes on the page, music as object. Notation removes music from the time and space that it occupies through performance, thereby decontextualizing it.33

It is important to keep in mind this process of decontextualization when approaching the notational practices found in Scots Tunes collections. While we cannot necessarily use these collections to determine exactly what these tunes sounded like in eighteenth-century Scotland, this study can serve to re-contextualise these notational practices, going some way towards re-imagining “the time and space that [this music] occupies through performance.” In so doing, I hope to shed light on the ways in which this music was understood and valorised by those who heard, notated, and performed it.