The final mode is the Locrian mode. This was a modified mode in Church modes due to its imperfect fifth and as a mode it was only theoretical. Despite this there does exist at least one Scottish tune which is The Souters of Selkirk . However, alowing for the cadence on B the melody is in the key of C-major. Even then the ending on B sounds more like it is ending on an imperfect cadence, i.e. on the seventh of the key of C.
Following on from the subject of cadences it is a fact that most folk music of Europe ends on a perfect cadence so as to establish the key note. This is not always the case in Scottish folk music which makes it fairly unusual, there are numerous examples of the melody key and scale not being so definable to be able to correctly call the ending note the key note or final note of the mode. A prime example of this is the famous tune The Campbells are Comin :
If the last note is taken as the final mode note then it would be in the Phrygian mode. However there are no Phrygian mode characteristics. The Phrygian mode has a minor feel and this piece is definately major.
The Scots Snap is one of the characteristics of Scottish music which is most widely known along with the pentatonic scale. However, as in the case of the pentatonic scale the Scots snap is only one aspect of rhythm in the music. The snap, as can be seen in the analysis, is most often found in the Strathspey style of dance music but it also occurs in every other form of Scottish music. This rhythm starts on a semi-quaver going to a dotted note: or alternatively from a shorter note like a demi-semi-quaver to a longer note like a double dotted quaver like the following.
There is controversy surrounding the use of the Scots snap, some such as the Groves Dictionary of Music saying that if it is not in the Strathspey, Reel or Gaelic vocal music it is not original. Collins says in answere to this that due to the lack of musical manuscript before the 18th century such a statement cannot be substantiated – especially since early manuscript was written for court instruments like the lute to which the snap rhythm was alien and other such un-folk-like instruments. In fact Collins would go as far as to say that the snap is, the very lifeblood of Scots musical rhythm, in both instrumental and and vocal music. This seems to be especially the case in Gaelic vocal music
Burns, himself an expert on Scottish music and song realised the importance and significance of the Scots snap shown by his putting words to the tune of Invercauld s Reel, where the natural rhythm of the speachexactly marked the musical snap:
The movement against the Scots snap was, at the time when Collins was writing, institutionalised e.g. competition manuscripts in Gaelic and Scots song are liable to have the Scots snap tastefully ironed out.
This is especially bad if the competitor had learned the pieces orally. Amy Murray, a reliable collector of Gaelic song found that a tune that she learned as a child in South Uist was bastardised in the competition version and she wrote down both versions as a comparison:
Scots snap may actually be linked to Gaelic intonation and syllablic structure. This is a field which has been studied but I have not been able to obtain much information about this idea. There is mention of William Matheson, Lecturer in Celtic in Edinburgh, who says that the Scots snap may not be so typical of Gaelic vocal music because in some cases there is an unnatural shortening and lengthening of syllabic values. If this is so, why is it common especially in Gaelic music (if we are to assume Emmerson and Collinson are correct)?
By straight rhythm is an uncomplicated rhythm in a tune which is composed of notes of mostly the same, regular time value such as quavers or semi-quavers.
We can see from The analysis of the four Scottish danced study which I completed that straight rhythm is most commonly seen in the reel genre of Scottish dance music throughout Scotland (excluding Perth for which I have notsources). This makes the music more flowing which directly relates to the actual reel dances that I know, which involve the movement of four dancers in a flowing traveling style creating, roughly, a figure of eight. It is often found in jigs, sometimes in Hornpipes and from my information I would deduce that it is never found in the strathspey. It does not show in the analysis but from several Aural sources it is probably rights to say that reels are usually fast which seems to go hand in hand with the rhythm as a simpler, uncomplicated rhythm would be preferable when playing fast to a more complicated scots snap rhythm (though the snap does appear in conjunction straight rhythm).