A' Chluais-chiùil ann an Dualchas nan Gàidheal

Abstract

In generations past, Gaels had difficulty separating melody from words. When discussing a song, for example, someone who knew the air to a song was thereby assumed to know the words as well. A wide range of evidence also points to a pervasive cultural tendency to mix instrumental music and song. Lastly, music and song are frequently conflated in Gaelic traditional narrative – most apparently in tales of the cluas-chiùil (‘musical-ear’), the ability to transmit and receive messages through instrumental music, with many such narratives serving as aetiologies for well-known pipe tunes and dance songs. While the cluas-chiùil may be regarded as a supernatural trope, these tales – coupled with linguistic evidence – point towards an earlier cognitive configuration that entails a very close relationship between words and music. This article is written in Gaelic.