Scottish Mouth Music - Dolores Keane / John Faulkner

Mouth Music can be found in various forms throughout the world, but it is highly developed among the Gaels. It became part of the musical baggage of Scottish and Irish emigrants and travelled with them to Nova Scotia and down into the southern Appalachians. The term “mouth music“ is likely to be a translation of the Scots-Gaelic “port-a-beul“ (“tunes from the mouth“). It is sometimes sung with sparse instrumental accompaniment (bones, bells, drums) but is mostly unaccompanied. It was used as dance music and