Is the flute ever used for scottish tunes, particularly strathspeys?
Seems to me like the snap just isn’t the same using the wooden flute.
Is this just another case of ‘practice, practice, practice’ or do the two
things just not go very well together?
Chris Norman thinks the flute was used in Scotland as a parlor instrument. I don’t think there is any good evidence, but he plays Scottish music very convincingly. You can check the Caledonian Flute album (or the Chris Norman track in Wooden Flute Obsession).
A short answer would be because of the clan system and its affiliation with the English and Continental aristocracy (depending on which side of the cloth you come from). An even simpler answer would be bagpipes and fiddle. And then there is the “revitalization” of Highland culture brought on by Scott and The Royal Visit of King George IV.
The parlor music you hear on Chris Norman’s recording is a bit disconnected from the rural, Gaelic tradition and is more reflective of the Continental influence.
Cheers,
Aaron
You may find something here from Scotland’s leading baroque composer :-
James Oswald (1710-1769), Airs for the Seasons, selection, 4 vols: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter
performing edition, Chester Music (1984). (See recording below).
music@musicsales.co.uk
http://www.dorian.com/store/main.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=EM-B
You wanna hear Scottish tunes on the flute?
Listen to the one…the only…Iain MacDonald…one of Scotland’s most tasteful, jaw-droppiingly excellent Highland pipers and also a furiously talented flute player. Hear him rip it up on “First Harvest” available through http://www.musicscotland.com.
You might also check out his contributions to the '90s-era Battlefield Band recordings and his work on his brother Allan’s album “Fhuair Mi Pog”…an absolutely gorgeous album.
Look for the splendid recordings of Tommy Couper on the pipes with Andrew Nicol on the flute. Wonderful sound.
One is called the piper’s muse. They may be re-issued, having originally been cut around 1990.
The fact that Rose ( later of Rudall & Rose )was making flutes in Edinburgh around 1820, and copying flutes then in use in the area suggests quite early music was being played on them.
Then, ( or rather earlier ) there was James Lilly of Edinburgh who advertised in 1708 that he " turns flutes and hautboyes in ivory and hard-wood " .
Presumably someone was buying and playing them !
Hi Glauber, what makes you think that? Are numerous publications of Scottish tunes and musical compositions in the 18th and 19th century with arrangements explicitely for flute and of a nature for parlour performanance, i.e. not simple dance tunes, not enough evidence that there was a thriving culture of parlour flute playing in those early times in Scotland? Have you looked at the old publications from James Oswald for instance?
I know you are a resident of the country in question, Hans, but I’m with Glauber on this. The music being played in the middle-class parlours of Edinburgh and Glasgow was about as traditional as the Bay City Rollers.
I took the question to be more about the music from the Gaelic tradition: what was being played in bothies and such.
Cheers,
Aaron
Well Aaron this is an entirely different question. I will not argue that parlour music was “traditional” in the sense of folk or root music, but it surely was built upon it. Glauber questioned that the flute was used for parlour music, and I do not see any evidence that it was not. I think the “German flute” may have been a popular instrument in the parlours of the better off. If it was played by other parts of society and to what extent I do not know. Bear in mind also that there was a huge difference between gaelic highland and island Scotland and lowland Scotland. Like the bothy folkmusic tradition in north-east Scotland is totally different from the music sang and played on the western islands. And what was sang in the farm bothies was unlikely to be sung in the parlours of the landed gentry.
But the original question was: “Is the flute ever used for scottish tunes, particularly strathspeys?” This is not a historical question, and the answer is a simple “yes”. Just go to any Scottish session and you will hear Scottish tunes played on flute. There are many flute players who like playing Scottish tunes. There are some who prefer the Irish. But most I believe will have a repertoir of both Irish and Scottish tunes.
I think there is a difference in technique for playing Scottish music compared to ITM, different use of ornamentation and perhaps more tongueing. And it helps to be able to play in different keys than D and G. C is very useful and of course A, for which you may need a flute which allows you to play G# easily. But a crisp playing style for Scottish traditional music is achievable. Well I hope that I will get there eventually 
~Hans
Hans is reading my question right. Simply wondering whether the flute lends itself to the playing of scottish style tunes. Nonetheless, the other discussion is interesting.
I don’t know much about strathbeys, but I play
scottish tunes on the flute–I think they go
beautifully. I get the impression, too, that
stuff played on pipes transfers well to flutes.
FWIW
Why assume that there was any native tradition of playing instruments by the Scottish peasants in the 18th century or early 19th, any more than there may have been in Borneo ?
The " Gallic tradition " doesn’t seem very old, whether in Scotland or Ireland !
More like a romantic latter day image of life in those times being projected back.
The eighteenth century instruments would have been beyond the reach of the masses.
Entertainment was at home, as I seem to remember Mr Molloy telling me was the case in his youth.
Without instruments, I guess not too long before.
I was writing late at night and got my answer all mixed up. I should have said that i don’t think there is much evidence of a native Scottish flute tradition (there is parlour music, but that’s something else). However, Chris Norman seems to play Scottish tunes (including Piobaireachd) very well, as attested in his CD The Caledonian Flute, the first track of which was included in WFO II. I say “seems to” because as someone will quickly point out, i don’t know much about Scottish music.
Back in 2002, i had the opportunity to listen to Chris teach a strathspey to a bunch of Irish flute players, and that was very entertaining.
By the way, excellent use of casual name-dropping, Andrew! 
The name being James Oswald ? Green face Glauber.
You have not addressed the question of early Scottish flutemaker(s).
Ahh, but there is quite an old tradition of flute playig in Borneo, I believe. Looking at a nose-flute on my wall which a friend bartered from a tribal flute player in Borneo, this instrument is so primitive, flutes like that could have been made thousands of years ago.
Maybe the Scots or for that matter the Irish had simple flutes made and played by peasants for a long time, in addition to bags of goatskin driving air through a screetching reed
Borneo may not have been a good choice, but what time scale have you evidence of. We read about 70,000 year old flutes. It must have been some sort of folk music, unless it was devotional, or for communication , or stopping traffic at intersections.
I should perhaps have said North America where primative instruments have been made for years !
Have you any evidence of early Scottish folk instruments ? If you have more than assumptions it would be interesting to know.
Perhaps they used the bag of the goatskin to prevent somebody else from making a drum out of it. Public spriritedness ?
I am yet to see evidence of an early folk music traditon other than vocal and maybe harp and crwth in celtic regions.
The Breton folk “tradition” started with M. Veillon, I believe !
So he told me ( Ha Ha Glauber ! )
Andrew, I don’t know if there were any type of flute in common use in Scotland before the 18th century. I imagine kinds of whistles. The recorder has been in use much longer before the flute, in upper society.
Here are some intersting pages:
Scottish Music in the 18th Century
Folk Music in Scottish Society
According to these in the towns in lowland Scotland (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling are mentioned) there was a mingling of classes, and folk tradition went aside classical music and was known to the upper classes. The flute arrived only from about 1725 onwards, and was taken up by amateur upper class players (i.e. parlour music) playing both classical and folk music.
Ah, Jim Oswald Molloy!
Should Mr Molloy not be quoted ( I hope it is not misquoted ) as his upbringing in homebased music making has been touched upon in another thread and such home based folk music is relevant to this one ?
I have long known the dear boy, so do not need to pretend he is a stranger !
I have even sold him things long ago to help to sustain the Irish economy !