Scotland: history, culture, and geography of music

The music of Scotland has both a strong oral and literary tradition that has been handed down through the generations and heavily mythologized from the late 18th century. In contemporary times, Scotland is a nation of around 5.3 million people within the United Kingdom. The traditional music of Scotland is performed in three main languages: English, Gaelic, and Scots. The Scottish Gaelic and Scots languages are central to Scottish traditional music, and in relation to other European countries, Scotland has had a long tradition of scholarship and collection of traditional music. Scotland’s political position as a stateless yet devolved nation within the United Kingdom has also been constitutive of much political song that sits comfortably alongside its substantial ballad and lyric song traditions and some other unique indigenous song and tune types such as waulking songs, piobaireachd, and strathspeys. Often internally characterized as a bookish tradition in relation to other European and North American traditional music, Scottish traditional music is performed in social contexts ranging from intimate family situations to formal, mass-mediated television and radio performances. This entry provides an overview of the history of Scottish traditional music, from its roots in the 16th-century reel to contemporary expressions in communities in Scotland and around the world.