Rona Wilkie | 'Gur muladach tha mi': Singing as coping mechanism in nineteenth-century Gaelic Scotland

Event details

Speaker: Rona Wilkie (University of Edinburgh)

Date: 1 February 2024

Time: 5.15 - 6.45pm.  

Venue: Alison House, Atrium (G10)

Abstract

1847 saw a Gaelic world on the brink of ruin. Gaels were a disparate people struggling with the impact of generations of migration and emigration, a substantial split in the Church, little to no political power or rights, as well as the significant failure of the potato crop. However, by 1887 a much different reality had emerged, where crofters were represented by their own in parliament, an act had been passed to enshrine land rights and there was a growing national cultural movement aimed at the protection of the Gaelic language and culture. My scholarship contends that musical performance was central to this transformation of Gaeldom’s political and cultural fortunes. In this seminar, I will concentrate on one of the vital areas in which music-making facilitated this change, namely the use of singing, performance and musicking to bring some emotional relief. I will analyse songs contemporary to performance settings, and will apply theory from the fields of musicology, psychology, and music therapy to the music culture to draw some inferences about the likely impact of community singing and musicking on the mental health of Gaels throughout the period.

Further Reading

• Rona Wilkie, ‘Performing Waulking Songs as an Emotional Practice in Gaelic Scotland’, in Ordinary Oralities: Everyday Voices in History, ed. by Josephine Hoegaerts and Janice Schroeder (De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2023), pp. 133­–https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111079370-009

Biography

Rona Wilkie is musician, a scholar and a teacher from Argyll. A winner of the BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year, Rona combines voice and fiddle to create a new and exciting perspective on Highland music, by pushing the boundaries through her work with musicians from across the musical spectrum. She is also currently finishing a PhD at the School of Scottish Studies in the University of Edinburgh, which concentrates on the musical forces at play in Gaelic Scotland in the 40 years preceding the momentous passing of the Crofters’ Holding Act in 1886. Alongside her creative and academic work, Rona is a Teaching Fellow for Gaelic at the University of Edinburgh, where she is the Course Organiser for the university’s communicative Gaelic language tuition.