THEY will be left reeling by the news in Strathspey.

Experts now believe the Scottish classical music that took its name from the Highland region may originate elsewhere. An Edinburgh University academic has published a paper suggesting the music – said to mimic Gaelic speech patterns – is older than had been thought.

Although first recorded for posterity in Speyside in the 1700s, the music may date back much further and be more closely linked with Gaelic heartlands such as the Western Isles, according to William Lamb of the university's department of Celtic and Scottish Studies.

Speyside was Gaelic-speaking in the 1700s, but the music – which inspired Beethoven, Schubert and Chopin – may originate further west.

Dr Lamb said: "In a country still struggling with its linguistic history, it is ironic that its national music probably originated in a variety of song known to a diminishing number of citizens along its north-west periphery. For most of its life as a nation, Scotland is likely to have had a higher proportion of Gaelic speakers than any other language." He added that the Strathspey seemed to be a legacy of this.

Dr Lamb, whose paper is published in Scottish Studies today, also believes the Strathspey rhythm originated in the luinneag – a type of Gaelic choral song in which human movement is closely linked to rhythm, such as dancing, waulking the tweed, rocking a baby, milking or rowing.