Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1976 (SND Vol. X). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

GROUND, n. Sc. usage in piping, of a pibroch: the main theme on which the variations are developed.Sc. c.1760 J. MacDonald Compleat Theory Highl. Bagpipe 5, 28:
This Slow Species of a Shake, or Beat, which belongs to the Ground or Adagio of Marches. . . . Their Allegro is for the most part, as was before mentioned, regularly built upon the Ground, to which it commonly keeps very close. Sc. 1901 W. L. Manson Highl. Bagpipe 81:
It [pibroch] is finished up with the ground or urlar as at the beginning. Sc. 1956 Scotsman (17 Sept.) 8:
His main fault was in playing his ground too slowly.Sc. 1988 Roderick D. Cannon The Highland Bagpipe and its Music (1990) 55:
A pibroch consists of an air with variations. The air, called ùrlar in Gaelic, 'ground' in English, is always slow and is often much longer than a typical march or dance tune. Some grounds have extremely simple melodies, made up from a few short phrases repeated in certain patterns, others are free-flowing and song-like.