G'day Boab,

" ... The national instrument of Scotland is not the 'Great Pipes", but the fiddle ... "

Fron when ... to when ... ?

I seem to remember reading older texts that complained of how the arrival of the 'newfangled' and foreign fiddle, in the British Isles in the 17th century, has displaced the traditional instruments (crowd/crydd, lutes, citterns, &c, in the string area) and their music and replaced it with predominantly Italian fiddle tunes (like Greensleeves) and a host of Italian fiddle masters to promote/teach/arrange for the new instrument.

I certainly notice that most of the 19th century Edinburgh music books I possess profess to be arranged by persons with very Italian names (but I do also remember that Edinburgh music publishers used all sorts of foreign 'hack arrangers' ... such as some bloke called Beethoven ... ).

Regards,

Bob Bolton