Non-heptatonic music
The schema which is presented here relates primarily to non-heptatonic Scottish Gaelic song, ie,
song which regularly does not use all of the seven musical notes available on the Gaelic harp.
Non-heptatonic song has been conserved more in Scotland than in Ireland and is therefore ideal
for this research.
Although much of the heptatonic (seven note) component of Gaelic song is founded principally
on the modality of the mainstream Western European scale system and, like the bulk of
Carolan's material, has a much reduced number of finals than that of my 'seòl slinneadh', my
research has led to me to consider that heptatonic structures are nevertheless related to my
schema, even if only in part, both in Scotland and Ireland.
I also suggest that the much of the gapped nature of most Gaelic song structures relates to the
medieval system of hexachords.
This research is ongoing and the following information will doubtless yet be revised. The seòl
slinneadh is only a report of my current theorising. As the repertoire covers centuries of musical
innovation, the seòl relates only to core regular patterns which are statistically significant.