Celtic music and the growth of the Feis movement in the Scottish highlands

So far, it sounds like a music camp, but there is an agenda. All the Feisean [Festivals] have in common the teaching of Gaelic, ranging from forty five minutes of language and song at some, to events like His Tir a' Mhurrain in South Uist, or Feis na h-Oige in Inverness, where Gaelic is the only language spoken. This would have been unthinkable only two decades ago, but the status and profile of Gaelic has increased steadily under continual pressure from campaign groups such as Comunn na Gaidhlig and Comann an Luchd-Ionnsachaidh [The Gaelic League and The Gaelic Learners' Association], and the recent injection of government funding for Gaelic broadcasting. One initiative beginning to bear fruit is Comann nan Sgoiltean Araich [CnSA], the Gaelic Playgroups Association, in which children, even monoglot Anglophones, learn Gaelic in a nursery school setting. There are now hundreds of such groups, not just in the Gaidhealtachd [Gaelic-speaking area], which have led, in turn, to Gaelicmedium primary schools in many island and city communities. Unfortunately, progress is currently stalled at tke secondary school level, with the previous government pronouncing that there is no good case for such provision anywhere in Scotland. The situation still looks bleak, as far as adult speakers goes, but in voluntary organizations like the CnSA, there may be more cause for hope than at any time since the nineteenth century.

The importance of Gaelic to the objectives of the f6is movement cannot be overemphasized; the rhythms of language unlock the door to the world-view of the Gael. Even Anglophone children can gain much from learning Gaelic in the f6is context, and I have seen ten-year-olds remember Gaelic songs from year to year and ask to sing them again, which speaks for itself. According to Dougie Pincock-piper, producer and enthusiastic f6is tutor-he has gained a much deeper understanding of Gaelic musical rhythms though listening to puirt-q-beul [mouth music] and songs, particularly the waulking songs, where complex and unexpected rhythms are created by the primacy of the words. Piper and singer Allan Macdonald has recently shown the relationship between Gaelic song rhythms and the piper's pibroch (1996). His contention is that by tracing the lineage of tunes back to their Gaelic words, we can reconstruct how they were meant to sound, rather than playing them with the metronomic rhythms often found found in the military influenced piping tradition of today. Such a theory would have been totally unacceptable in the piping world only ten years ago, butjust as dance music must reflect the dance, so song tunes must reflect the song, the language, and the culture from whence they come. As Somhairle MacGill-eain says, Gaelic song's "ineffable melodies rise like exhalations from the rhythms and resonances of the words" (1985:106).

It is this quality that most learners overlook when singing in Gaelic. To the native Gael, the resulting mixture might as well be in another language altogether, for many of the essential cues that one is listening to Gaelic are missing. Especially for music, song and language learners, then, the provision of Gaelic is essential to the whole concept of the feis and even, in theory, to qualifying for assistance from the national organizing body, Feisean nan Gaidheal. Unfortunately, the commitment of some feisean to this principle is weak, leading to what BBC Reidio nan Gaidheal [BBC Gaelic Radio] producer, Kenny MacIver, calls "a bouncy castle f(iiS.1112