VisitShetland

Music

Shetland Musicians

World-renowned musicians, Tom Anderson, Aly Bain, Willy Hunter, Violet Tulloch, "Peerie Willy" Johnson, and latterly, Catriona Macdonald have helped to bring an international focus to Shetland music.

Fresh Talent

A solid traditional musical education programme in the schools has ensured that a whole new generation is enthusiastic and passionate about the music.

Young Shetland groups such as Fiddlers' Bid, Filska and solo fiddler, Brian Gear, are in the vanguard of a breed of new dynamic performers who have achieved status on the international stage.

Contemporary Music

Shetland music doesn't all stop at the fiddle. Other, more contemporary bands are also achieving critical acclaim, such as Rock Salt and Nails, Drop the Box, The Red Vans, Pete Stack and the Rayburns and Shoormal. Thanks to new digital recording facilities on the island there is now the option to buy what you hear in Shetland. Local record shops stock a wide selection of CDs and cassettes.

Our Music's History

Music session in the Lounge Bar

Situated between Norway and Scotland, the veritable crossroads of the North Sea, Shetland was always a rich source of musical talent, ripe for the cross-pollination of cultures.

Research reveals that traditionally, Shetlanders first played on a two-stringed instrument called a 'gue', similar to the violin. This probably derived from the old Norse instrument called the 'gigla'.

Spiritual Home Of The Fiddle

However, when the violin or fiddle was introduced to Shetland, it could be said that it found it's spiritual 'Bonhoga' or home. Embraced by the islanders of every class, it was said that by 1808, one in ten people could play the fiddle. Eventually, almost every Crofthouse had a fiddle hanging in the 'But End' or common living room.

A heady, spirited Shetland style of playing evolved. An amalgam of old fairy tunes, new Scottish melodies and the wild, plaintive strains of the Old Norse tunes.

Coupled with a distinctive style of tuning drawn from international influence, Shetland music bubbled up from a wellspring that has never ceased to flow.

The principal use of the fiddle was to accompany dancing. Before the advent of public halls, this took place in the houses. Reels were the main dance and each district and island had their own variations, tunes and distinguished fiddling families.

Often passed from father to son (it was an almost exclusively male preserve) the music was seldom written.

... 20th Century

Fiddle Frenzie

Shetland sailors carried the lightly portable fiddle for entertainment, sometimes several men bought a hare in an instrument and crews on whalers and merchant navy ships sent and brought home music from all over the world.

New Technology

With the dawn of new technology and improved communications, via the phonograph, records, and the radio came the means to record and collect the music. Education brought the means for reading and writing of music and eventually most households in Shetland owned a wireless.

Social Impact

Coupled with the 1970's oil boom swelling the island's population, new wealth brought the means to build an infrastructure of public halls and community venues. The social scene changed dramatically, the old way of life was gradually supplanted by a more mainstream culture and much of the traditional music was all but lost.

Had it not been for the vision of a few far sighted individuals such as Dr Tom Anderson, who recorded, catalogued and archived what was left of the traditional culture, then taught interested pupils, it is doubtful if the vibrant scene that exists today would have survived.

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