Lecturer in music, Dr Aaron McGregor has recently had a chapter published in a collection of essays on deviance and marginality in Early Modern Scotland.
The essay forms one chapter of Deviance and Marginality in Early Modern Scotland, edited by Allan Kennedy for Boydell Press: [See Link]
McGregor's chapter concentrates on the lives and work of itinerant and "common" musicians (those who didn't enjoy permanent employment or upper class patronage). Suspicion of their role in fomenting deviant behaviour meant centuries of attempts to curb or ban musical activities, though the continued punishment of those breaking the rules also speaks to their longstanding social functions.
The chapter argues that musicians had a complex and shifting relationship with the authorities, with negative associations offset by charity and employment, though patronage often went together with attempts to control social activities and the movement of people. Musicians pushed back against repression, and by the 18th century they enjoyed an increased professionalisation through a system of apprenticeships and networks. A vernacular revival in the early 1700s led to better prospects, and the ability to perform music began to go together with strength of character, rather than necessarily being linked with loose morals and deviant behaviour.