A Scotch Bestiary: Enigmatic Variations on a Zoological Carnival at a Caledonian Exhibition is an organ concerto by the Scottish composer James MacMillan.
It was composed from 2003 to 2004 and was first performed by the organist Wayne Marshall and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on October 7, 2004.
As the subtitle indicates, the piece was conceived in the style of such similarly episodic works as Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations, Camille Saint-Saëns's The Carnival of the Animals, and Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.
"[5] Stephen Johnson of BBC Music Magazine observed, "...while the Concerto has its moments of spellbound celebration, like the strings' imitation of improvised Gallic psalm-singing (one of the loveliest things in all folk music) in the central slow movement, A Scotch Bestiary is full of a black vitality which always threatens to explode into pure chaos.
Others, as the work's subtitle implies ('Enigmatic variations on a zoological carnival at a Caledoninan exhibition'), are more elusive to outsiders, but even then the acrid caricature remains wickedly entertaining.