Scholars from Edinburgh College of Art and KU Leuven in Belgium have been investigating the origins of the musical score – which contains only 55 notes – to cast new light on music from pre-Reformation Scotland in the early sixteenth-century.

Tantalising find

Researchers say the tantalising discovery is a rare example of music from Scottish religious institutions 500 years ago, and is the only piece which survives from the northeast of Scotland from this period.

The scholars made the discovery in a copy of The Aberdeen Breviary of 1510, a collection of prayers, hymns, psalms and readings used for daily worship in Scotland, including detailed writings on the lives of Scottish saints. Known as the ‘Glamis copy’ as it was formerly hel