of Edinburgh, Session 1870-71. 
383 
Many minor airs can be played on the pentatonic 6cale of the 
relative major; that is, airs on DjJ minor can be played on the 
black notes, and airs in A minor can be played on the white notes 
on the pentatonic of C; airs in D minor on the pentatonic of F; 
and airs in E minor on the pentatonic of G. 
Specimens of major pentatonic airs are these—“ Roy’s Wife,’ 
“Auld Langsyne,” u Ye Banks and Braes,” “ The G-ypsies came,’ 
“ Whistle o’er the lave o’t.” 
Specimens of minor pentatonic airs—“ The Mucking o’ Geordie’s 
byre,” “My tocher’s the jewel,” “ Auld Robin Gray” (old set), 
“ Wandering Willie,” “ Ca’ the yowes to the knowes.” 
Some minor airs are composed on the pentatonic of the tone 
below. 
Specimens—“Adieu, Dundee” (in Skene MS.), “Blythe, Blythe.” 
In several old pentatonic airs grace notes or transitional notes 
have been added in modern singing or playing, but the original 
pentatonic character can still be traced. 
Another large class of Scotch airs are composed on the full 
diatonic scale, and can be played entirely on the white notes with¬ 
out any apparent modulation. 
When these airs are on the key of C major, there is nothing 
very peculiar in them, and there are many of this class. But 
when they are composed on other keys, certain peculiarities 
appear. 
Several Scotch airs are composed in the key of G, but played on 
the full diatonic scale of C, so as frequently to introduce F natural, 
sometimes with a pathetic, sometimes with a comic effect. The 
old set of the “Flowers of the Forest ” (Skene MS.) is an example 
of the one, and the tune of “ Pease Strae ” of the other. 
Other specimens are—“Bessie Bell,” “ Tullochgorum,” “Loch- 
aber no more.” 
Minors in the diatonic scale are often singular, as, for instance, 
the air of “ My boy, Tammie,” played on the white notes. It 
runs into three keys—D minor, C major, and F major. 
The pentatonic scale is not peculiar to Scotch music, but it may 
partly be accounted for by the fact that rude wind instruments are 
apt to be defective in the fourth and fifth. The simple diatouic 
scale, without other semitones, may in like manner have been used 
