ABSTRACT
The terminology and definition ‘Scottish traditional music’ is prone to a variety of interpretation and misunderstanding, and can lead to the ring-fencing and labelling of practices and repertoires into a canon or ghetto. This chapter considers the interaction of oral and literate transmission in printed sources of notation from eighteenth and nineteenth century Scotland, and the fluid changes that occur in content, practice and genre in examples from the early development of the fiddle strathspey and the work of Nathaniel Gow. The chapter argues for a development of tradition-consciousness through an awareness of history.
