Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 2005 (SND, online supplement).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

CANNTAIREACHD, n. Also canntireachd  [Gael., lit. chanting] 1. . Chanting of pipe music in (non-lexical) syllables, the vocables varying in different piping traditions (generally the vowels representing melody notes, the consonants grace-notes (s.v. grace note); loosely also a written representation of this.Sc. ii Angus MacKay Seaforth MS 1854 folio :
As noted down by him from the Canntireachd of John Mac Kay his Father.Sc. 1988 Roderick D. Cannon The Highland Bagpipe and its Music (1990) 67:
Before the days of written notation, ceòl mór was taught in a system somewhat like the modern tonic sol-fa. The piper sang the tune in vocables which had no meaning as words but which corresponded closely to the actual notes. The effect was similar to the vocables used in choruses of Gaelic songs, except that canntaireachd vocables had musical meaning, and conveyed fairly precisely the grace notes and therefore the fingering required for each note.Sc. 2000 William Donaldson The Highland Pipe and Scottish Society 1750 – 1950 449:
In its written form, canntaireachd provided the basis of the indigenous notational system and it was brought to its most developed state by Colin Mór Campbell of Nether Lorn, in Argyll, at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. Although Campbell’s work was almost immediately superseded by a form of staff notation adapted specifically for the pipe, and remained unpublished and unrecognised until well into the 20th century, it remains an important achievement and gives valuable insight into the musical organisation of ceòl mór.

2. canterach, = mouth music (s.v. mouth I. 1. Comb.) for dancing.Per. 1990 Betsy Whyte Red Rowans and Wild Honey (1991) 35:
Then he did it in the canterach. He cantered it over and over till I got it right.Per. 1990 Betsy Whyte Red Rowans and Wild Honey (1991) 197:
We would have our friends and relations there with their musical instruments, their diddling, canterach and singing.