Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Scottish Great Highland bagpipes are the best known examples in the Anglophone world, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia, including Anatolia, the Caucasus, and around the Persian Gulf.
A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres including classical music. Although violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, the style of the music played may determine specific construction differences between fiddles and classical violins. For example, fiddles may optionally be set up with a bridge with a flatter arch to reduce the range of bow-arm motion needed for techniques such as the double shuffle, a form of bariolage involving rapid alternation between pairs of adjacent strings. To produce a "brighter" tone, compared to the deeper tones of gut or synthetic core strings, fiddlers often use steel strings. The fiddle is part of many traditional (folk) styles, which are typically aural traditions—taught 'by ear' rather than via written music.
Scottish country dance (SCD) is the distinctively Scottish form of country dance, itself a form of social dance involving groups of couples of dancers tracing progressive patterns. A dance consists of a sequence of figures. These dances are set to musical forms which come from the Gaelic tradition of Highland Scotland, as do the steps used in performing the dances. Traditionally a figure corresponds to an eight-bar phrase of music.
The schottische is a partnered country dance that apparently originated in Bohemia. It was popular in Victorian era ballrooms as a part of the Bohemian folk-dance craze and left its traces in folk music of countries such as Argentina, Finland ("jenkka"), France, Italy, Norway ("reinlender"), Portugal and Brazil, Spain (chotis), Sweden, Denmark ("schottis"), Mexico, and the United States, among other nations. The schottische is considered by The Oxford Companion to Music to be a kind of slower polka, with continental-European origin.
A cèilidh or céilí is a traditional Scottish or Irish social gathering. In its most basic form, it simply means a social visit. In contemporary usage, it usually involves dancing and playing Gaelic folk music, either at a house party or a larger concert at a social hall or other community gathering place.
The hornpipe is any of several dance forms played and danced in Britain and Ireland and elsewhere from the 16th century until the present day. The earliest references to hornpipes are from England with Hugh Aston's Hornepype of 1522 and others referring to Lancashire hornpipes in 1609 and 1613.
Highland games are events held in spring and summer in Scotland and other countries with a large Scottish diaspora, as a way of celebrating Scottish and Celtic culture, especially that of the Scottish Highlands Games. Certain aspects of the games are so well known as to have become emblematic of Scotland, such as the bagpipes, the kilt, and the heavy events, especially the caber toss. While centred on competitions in piping and drumming, dancing, and Scottish heavy athletics, the games also include entertainment and exhibits related to other aspects of Scottish and Gaelic cultures.
A strathspey is a type of dance tune in 4
4 time. It is, simply stated, a reel played at a slightly slower tempo, with slightly more emphasis on certain beats. This emphasis can be the same measure to measure or vary throughout the tune, depending on the player. Cut-dot snap rhythms, or "Scotch snaps", are a feature of both. These are short notes before a dotted notes, which in traditional playing is generally exaggerated rhythmically for musical expression. An example of a strathspey would be the song "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond", provided it is sung staccato:
La Sylphide is a romantic ballet in two acts. There were two versions of the ballet; the original choreographed by Filippo Taglioni in 1832, and a second version choreographed by August Bournonville in 1836. Bournonville's is the only version known to have survived and is one of the world's oldest surviving ballets.
Highland dance or Highland dancing is a style of competitive dancing developed in the Scottish Highlands in the 19th and 20th centuries, in the context of competitions at public events such as the Highland games. It was created from the Gaelic folk dance repertoire, but formalised with the conventions of ballet', and has been subject to influences from outside the Highlands. Highland dancing is often performed with the accompaniment of Highland bagpipe music, and dancers wear specialised shoes called ghillies. It is now seen at nearly every modern-day Highland games event.
The Highland Fling is a solo Highland dance that gained popularity in the early 19th century. The word 'Fling' means literally a movement in dancing. In John Jamieson's Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, 1808, the Highland Fling was defined as 'one species of movement' in dancing, not as one particular movement. There is some speculation that the first solo Highland Fling dances simply showed off steps that individual dancers preferred in the Strathspey Reel, a social dance.
Scottish Americans or Scots Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Scotland. Scottish Americans are closely related to Scotch-Irish Americans, descendants of Ulster Scots, and communities emphasize and celebrate a common heritage. The majority of Scotch-Irish Americans originally came from Lowland Scotland and Northern England before migrating to the province of Ulster in Ireland and thence, beginning about five generations later, to North America in large numbers during the eighteenth century.
Fling may refer to:
A Scottish regiment is any regiment that at some time in its history has or had a name that referred to Scotland or some part, thereof, and adopted items of Scottish dress. These regiments were created after the Acts of Union in 1707 between England and Scotland, either directly serving Britain during its various wars, or as part of the military establishments of Commonwealth countries. Their "Scottishness" is no longer necessarily due to recruitment in Scotland nor any proportion of members of Scottish ancestry. Traditionally, Scottish regiments cultivate a reputation of exceptional fierceness in combat and are often given romantic portrayals in popular media. Within Scotland, itself, regiments of the Scottish Lowlands did not adopt as distinctively "Scottish" uniforms until the late Victorian Era and even then the kilt, that most distinctive aspect of the Highland soldier, was not adopted wholesale.
The Wicked Tinkers are an American Celtic music group who perform at many Scottish/Irish festivals.
The Seann Triubhas is a Highland Dance. Its name is a Gaelic phrase which means "Old Trousers".It is called this because the Scottish wanted a way of celebrating getting their Scottish culture back from the British
Ghillies are specially designed shoes used for several types of dance. They are soft shoes, similar to ballet shoes. They are used by women in Irish dance, by men and women in Scottish country dance, and by men and women in Highland dance.
Gareth Mitchelson is a Scottish dancer. He won the World Highland dancer Championship four times and is now a qualified teacher, adjudicator and examiner in Highland and Scottish step. He is a delegate to the SOBHD and a director of Scottish Dance Traditions.
A highland is an Irish musical form in duple meter, largely idiomatic of Donegal. Like the fling, it is related to the Scottish highland fling and the hornpipe, found throughout the British Isles. Like its Scottish cousin, a fling is played in cut time and has a dotted rhythm. Like the Scottish strathspey, quarter notes may sometimes be articulated as triplets or Scots snaps. However, unlike the strathspey, these Scots snaps are usually less sharply articulated. They are also played more slowly than reels and are strongly accented on the first beat, which tends to be a note quarter note in length. A typical fling has a 32-bar form divided into two parts, each consisting of eight bars which are repeated: AABB.
There are a number of traditionally itinerant or travelling groups in Europe who are known as "Travellers" or "Gypsies".
