FROM THE ARCHIVES: Music from the Highlands in the past

There are many possible and perhaps obvious attributes we might consider if we were asked to describe the Scottish Highlands; beautiful landscapes, tartan, whisky, Gaelic language and a rich folkloric tradition, writes Jennifer Johnstone, an archivist at the Highland Archive Centre.

In a more modern context we can draw on television and film references, ecological ideals and exciting new technological opportunities for companies and individuals.

We also have a strong tourism industry, often revolving around the outdoors and the high-quality hospitality offered. It could be argued that running through most of these is one vital thread – music.

It has been a huge influence in how we have interacted with one another through turbulent and political times and how we have come together to celebrate the wins in life.

We have grieved using it, we have wooed singing it and we have danced playing it. From the primal rawness in the past at funerals of the Caoineadh (keening) to the joyous revelling we indulge in during the festival season today - music has been, and still is, our great communicator.

The making of music, of course, pre-dates physical records and much of what we have today of our traditional music has been passed down orally throughout the generations. Thanks to people like prolific song-collector and folklorist, John Lorne Campbell, and ethnomusicologist and photographer, Margaret Fay Shaw, some of these old Gaelic songs and tunes have been preserved in written or digital format.

There are, however, references to music and song in very early records, such as those found in the Town Clerk’s documents for the Burgh of Inverness. Dated December 9, 1538, we read of the “Obligation by Sir Jacob Aucheleck for performance of his duties as parish clerk of Inverness, including keeping a song school, maintaining the clock and organ and taking part in services with the chaplains of the parish kirk.”

In the past few decades, Gaelic music and culture in particular has seen a resurgence in popularity but it’s not just traditional music that has captured the Highland population’s attention.

Nairn ran a successful jazz festival for decades and in the 1960s it seems there was even quite the pop music scene in Caithness with bands like The Yardbirds and The Troggs playing Wick’s Assembly Rooms. There is a fascinating account of this in one of our records - ‘Northlands Rock’ written by Steven Cashmore in 1998.

Within the Highland archives there are hundreds of records that mention music or contain information of performances from past programmes of Eden Court Theatre to reports, minutes and articles on The Royal National Mod, Scotland’s largest and most prominent Gaelic arts festival.#There are records that contain sheet music to popular airs of the 19th Century, and some that simply have a fleeting reference to attending a music lesson or concert within both functional and more personal correspondence. Music has been an ever-present, ever-evolving voice through the ages.

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