Music in Medieval Scotland
Survivals of works from the first half of the sixteenth century indicate the quality and scope of music that was undertaken at the end of the Medieval period.
In the High Middle Ages, the need for large numbers of singing priests to fulfill these obligations led to the foundation of a system of song schools.
The proliferation of collegiate churches and requiem masses in the Late Middle Ages would have necessitated the training of large numbers of choristers, marking a considerable expansion of the song school system.
The captivity of James I in England from 1406 to 1423, where he earned a reputation as a poet and composer, may have led him to take English and continental styles and musicians back to the Scottish court on his release.
These limitations are the result of factors including a turbulent political history, the destructive practices of the Scottish Reformation, the climate[1] and relatively late arrival of music printing.
[4] Early Medieval Scotland and Ireland shared a common culture and language, that although reduced in significance from the High Middle Ages, both persisted in the society of the north and west.
There are much fuller historical sources for early Medieval Ireland, which suggest that there would have been filidh in Scotland, who acted as poets, musicians and historians, often attached to the court of a lord or king, and passed on their knowledge and culture in Gaelic to the next generation.
After this "de-gallicisation" of the Scottish court, a less highly regarded order of bards took over the functions of the filidh and they would continue to act in a similar role in the Highlands and Islands into the eighteenth century.
They often trained in bardic schools, of which a few, like the one run by the MacMhuirich dynasty, who were bards to the Lord of the Isles,[13] existed in Scotland and a larger number in Ireland, until they were suppressed from the seventeenth century.
[20] They were designed to provide masses for their founders and their families, who included the nobility and the emerging orders of the Lords of Parliament and the wealthy merchants of the developing burghs.
[21] The Wolfenbüttel 677 manuscript contains a large number of French compositions, particularly from Notre Dame de Paris, beside inventive pieces by unknown Scottish composers.
[1] The proliferation of collegiate churches and requiem masses in the later Middle Ages would have necessitated the training of large numbers of choristers, marking a considerable expansion of the song school system.
A stress was placed on the technique of Faburden, associated with the Burgundian School, by which plainsong melodies, usually in the tenor voice, were harmonised according to strict rules that meant that rehearsal was unnecessary.
[1] The captivity of James I in England from 1406 to 1423, where he earned a reputation as a poet and composer, may have led him to take English and continental styles and musicians back to the Scottish court on his release.
[21] The story of the execution of James III's favourites, including the English musician William Roger, at Lauder Bridge in 1482, may indicate his interest in music.
[1] An entry in the accounts of the Lord Treasurer of Scotland indicates that when James IV was at Stirling on 17 April 1497, there was a payment "to twa fithalaris [fiddlers] that sang Greysteil to the king, ixs".
Melodies have survived separately in the post-Reformation publication of The Gude and Godlie Ballatis (1567),[2] which were spiritual satires on popular songs, adapted and published by the brothers James, John and Robert Wedderburn.
[28] They remained an oral tradition until the increased interest in folk songs in the eighteenth century led collectors such as Bishop Thomas Percy to publish volumes of popular ballads.
