3 ST. K1LDA. HIGHLAND MUSIC. 



produced are such as no ear could be supposed to endure, 

 were there not daily proof to the contrary in the joy that 

 accompanies the national and characteristic dances, where 

 the bagpipe is employed in executing the most refined of 

 the dancing melodies. In these more modern composi- 

 tions however, the same character has still in a great 

 measure been preserved ; exceptions of course being made 

 of those airs which have combined with the genuine 

 character derived from the scale of five notes, the mu- 

 sical phrases of a better school. The limited range of 

 the pipe has given rise to another feature strongly cha- 

 racterizing the Highland melodies ; no less so indeed than 

 the nature of its scale. This is the irrelative transition 

 from the major key to the minor on the second of the scale, 

 or the reverse ; a peculiarity highly offensive to all but 

 Highland ears, which tolerate as good harmony an air 

 in the minor A on a drone bass in G.* 



In thus stating the claims of the bagpipe, as a funda- 

 mental cause of the peculiarities of the Highland melodies, 

 it must be remembered that the harp also, appears to have 

 been known to the Highlanders. Having long since 

 fallen into entire disuse, its former existence has natu- 

 rally been doubted, and the industry of antiquaries has 

 thus been excited to prove it. When matters, which 

 ought to be of common notoriety, require the species 



* The facility with which the human ear adapts itself to false intona- 

 tion, as well as to false harmony, is not a little remarkable. The High- 

 land piper considers his pibrach, or his reel, to be the perfection of 

 melody, as he thinks his unvarying drone the essence of harmony. To 

 render the bagpipe true by a better method of boring, and by the addition 

 of a few keys, would be considered a crime no less than that of adding a 

 string to the Greek lyre in former times. A piano forte in this country 

 is rarely tuned from the time it was made, yet is played on without 

 remorse. Musicians can find a parallel case, when the essence of har- 

 mony was considered to lie in a succession of fifths; when " quintoyer" 

 was synonimous with harmony. '1 he artificial nature of this invention is 

 not a little exemplified by comparing the effects of such a system With 

 those of the recent works of Mo/art and Haydn. 



