by Kirsty Gunn
Publication of these books has helped the Society fulfil its main aim. In addition to this, the Society has now developed a comprehensive website providing sound files, manuscripts, new music, photographs and other information, all designed to encourage the understanding and playing of this music.
A sense of the atmosphere, range and type of musical activity promoted by the Society is evident in an extract taken from a report by the Society’s Jack Taylor of a recent conference that is available in transcript in the List of Additional Materials section at the back of this book.
In addition to hosting events such as the one detailed above, the Piobaireachd Society has set itself, since its formation, the aim of broadening the general performance repertoire through a programme of new publications.
As previously mentioned, since 1925 fifteen books have been published, … a nominal total of 268 tunes. We can be precise about the nominal total, as the title of each book follows essentially the same format, thus: Piobaireachd, 12 tunes edited by Comunn na Piobaireachd followed by Piobaireachd, a Second Book of 12 tunes … and so on, with 12 tunes in books 1–3, 16 in books 4–10, and 20 in books 11–16. The real total, however, could be considered to be larger, as there is often a question of whether two pieces should be considered as distinct or as ‘versions’ of each other.
Nominally, each book is the work of a committee, that is, the Music Committee of the Society, to whom all questions of selection and editing were delegated. But the committee has always had other responsibilities as well, and in practice the editorial work has been undertaken by only a few people. The prime movers were John Grant and Archibald Campbell; later Archie Kenneth took an increasing part, the books from 11 to 15 being largely his. Less well known is the major contribution made by James Campbell, especially in the later books. Roderick Cannon took over in 1996. The foundation of the work was the collection of manuscripts and rare printed books which John Grant and Archibald Campbell had built up personally since they started working together in the early 1900s. These and some others acquired by the Society itself are now mostly preserved in the National Library of Scotland.
The Society’s editorial policy was stated from time to time in resolutions formally adopted by the Music Committee, and in the prefaces to the various books, especially Book 1 and the revised Book 6, and in the separate ‘General Preface’ which supersedes the original preface to Book 1. This new preface also gives a full bibliography of sources and their present locations.
The Society writes:
The Piobaireachd Society has never had premises of its own, and this may be the reason why it has not retained an archive set of its own publications. Nor has there been, until now, any attempt to catalogue the books comprehensively. The Music Committee felt that the centenary of the Society would be a good occasion to make such an attempt with the publication of the new Bibliography. Although great care has been taken, it cannot be claimed that this Bibliography is completely accurate or comprehensive. It is in fact a preliminary publication and we hope that it will lead to new discoveries. Most books have been reprinted many times over. We catalogue here about 90 printings of the fifteen books, but less than half of these printings have actually been seen and handled by the present editor. It seems likely that examples of every edition and reprint are still in existence in one private collection or another. The Society will be very pleased to hear from anyone who knows of editions which we have not managed to locate, and even more pleased to hear of others which we have omitted altogether, or errors in the information given. If anyone would like to donate examples of the missing books they will be most gratefully accepted. They will be catalogued and added to this list, then handed on to the National Library, with full acknowledgement.
The College of Piping, established in 1944 and situated in Glasgow, is the international centre of world piping, with more than sixty-five years’ experience in teaching Scotland’s national instrument, the great Highland bagpipe. A registered charity, the college keeps its lessons as affordable as possible by subsidising them with profits from the college shop.
Each month the college publishes piping’s most authoritative journal, the award-winning Piping Times. The magazine has a global monthly readership of 10,000. The college also publishes and distributes a large selection of tutor books, manuals and historical writings on the bagpipe and its music, including its Tutor Book 1, which has sold more than 395,000 copies worldwide.
In 2008 the college opened a new lecture hall, which completed the re-development of its premises and means it can now host some of the most important competitions and concerts in the piping calendar.
Also situated in Glasgow, in a historic building and with as its Patron HRH Prince Charles, the Piping Centre incorporates a school with rehearsal rooms and an auditorium not only for the Highland pipes but also Scottish smallpipes, Ulleian pipes, fiddle, accordion and drumming. There is also a museum and interpretation centre, and a reference library, as well as conference facilities and a hotel.
To that end, it is popular with visitors from abroad as well as around the UK, as detailed knowledge or skill of bagpipe playing is not a prerequisite for the enjoyment of the many facilities available – whether one is coming for performance or simply pleasure.
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Publications associated with teaching
Of the range of regular newsletters and journals made available to further the education and understanding of the playing of piobaireachd, and of the history of the pipes in general, the best-known and most established publications are the Piobaireachd Society’s regularly updated editions of work and the monthly Piping Times published by the School of Piping.
When read through as a body of publications, the complete output of the Piobaireachd Society provides as comprehensive a history of the music as has ever been made available, from the famous Kilberry manuscript onwards. In addition there are many other books and recordings on piping and piobaireachd and those of particular interest to the C eol Mor enthusiast will be Binneas A Boreraig and the MacArthur MacGregor Manuscript.
Last Appendix: ‘The Big Music’
As we read in the definition that appears at the beginning of this book, piobaireachd is an ancient form of composition that may be described simply as a theme with variations, a structure of music that has gone unchanged for hundreds of years and is known to have been elevated to its status as a pure art form by the MacCrimmon family who together wrote some of the finest pieces of music for the Highland bagpipe ever known.
Piobaireachd is divided into two types, known in Gaelic as Ceol Mor, for ‘Big Music’, the grand and solemn laments and salutes that are played to mark formal occasions and are grave and serious in tone; and Ceol Beag, for ‘Small Music’, such as reels, strathspeys and marches played at weddings and gatherings and is lighthearted in mood. As the Highland bagpipes are known in Gaelic as ‘piob mhor’, and as a piper is a ‘piobaire’, so the word ‘piobaireachd’ may be known, literally, as pipe music – but in fact, over time, it has come to stand for the great classic music of the bagpipes, the Ceol Mor for which it is celebrated today.
The music is not easy to define or even to describe – it has been called, by some, the voice of uproar and the music of real nature and emotion. Many hear in the sound a cry that is near human – bringing to mind the ancient belief that once upon a time the pipes could actually ‘speak’, and that the playing of the music is nothing more than the extension of poetry recited by the bards as a way of passing down tales of genealogy and line, the story of the clan’s history told in sound.
Each piobaireachd was composed for a particular purpose, breaking down into the following categories as mentioned above: gatherings, marches, laments, salutes and certain titled tunes: ‘Lament for Himself’, being a composition made up of the sounds and story of its composer’s life, is an example of such a tune. That the individual notes of the chanter take on discrete definitions associated with certain people or themes is an idea that is present
in ‘The Big Music’ and surely was in the mind of the man who composed ‘Lament for Himself’. The following code may serve as a guide here, but only by reading the pages of the four movements of the tune that precede these Appendices, that is, the body of ‘The Big Music’, can one truly understand the ‘lexicon’ of notes that belong solely to John Sutherland of Rogart.
As it is, the code stands:
Chart of notes
Low ‘G’ Note of Gathering
Low ‘A’ The Tune’s note
‘B’ Note of Challenge
‘C’ Most Musical note
‘D’ Note of Battle
‘E’ E choing note
‘F’ Note of Love
High ‘G’ Note of Sorrow
High ‘A’ Piper’s own note
As we have read, in the days before written manuscript piobaireachd was composed and taught by being sung – by the teacher to his pupil – in Gaelic, with each note and inflection carrying its own word and sound. This type of instruction, known as canntaireachd, a singing-down of a tune from one generation to the next, is as detailed and fine in its oral and aural transcription as any completed manuscript on paper. My own father was taught his repertoire this way, by the great piper Pipe Major Donald MacLeod of Lewis (1917– 1982), and the method is still believed by most serious pipers to be the only true way to learn a piece of music, instruction about inflection, phrasing and dynamics being carried in the vocables themselves as well as the sheer sound of the musician’s voice in conveying it.
To conclude: The basic structure of the music consists of an air with variations upon its theme. The ground – or Urlar – is the basic theme and is normally played slowly, containing within it all the major ideas of the music.
The ground is then followed by variations: the Taorluath, the Crunluath and the Crunluath A Mach – each with its own doublings and variations, and each movement also more complex and more difficult to play than the one that went before. By the final variation the composer’s ingenuity and the piper’s capability have been tested to the very limit.
The tune then ends, to quote the definition at the beginning of ‘The Big Music’, in a ‘return to the Urlar’s opening simplicity. Then the piper will play those same notes with which the composition began, walking away over the hill as the sound of the music fades from the air into silence and stillness takes up its watch again upon the empty page.’
1 These first opening bars of the music’s theme indicate the opening ‘remarks’ of the music laid out at the beginning of the Urlar of ‘The Big Music’ and also in the Taorluath section where John MacKay lies in his bed through the last hours of his life. The socalled ‘breathing’ sequence is clearly indicated in the repetition of these four bars.
2 NB: For those who would like to hear the full version of ‘Lament for Himself’, it is possible to download it from a website that is being created for ‘The Big Music’.
3 The same section of music can be scanned exactly to the words for the Lullaby for Katherine Anna that appear in the Urlar movement of ‘The Big Music’.
Glossary
ailte end, finish, i.e. ‘Ailte vhor Alech’ is ‘End of the Road’, one of the names given to The Grey House of Rogart
a mach out, showing of itself, as in Crunluath A Mach; means to show the workings of a crown movement
beallach pass, denoting height; i.e. ‘Beallach Nam Drumochta’ is the Summit or Pass of Drumochta
ben behind or back; common usage
bothan or bothy; a little hut or rough-built dwelling place
breve long sustained note (double the weighting of the more commonly used semibreve); musical term
cailleach old woman; witch
canntaireachd the singing and notation of piobaireachd using vocables
chanter the pipe of a bagpipe; traditionally made of ebony with a silver trim
ceilidh a Highland party of music and dance
ceol beag little music; strathspeys, reels etc.
ceol mor big music; piobaireachd
cumha lament; form of piobaireachd composed for funerals, death in battle etc.
crunluath crown; the third movement of a piobaireach
crunluath a mach a crown that shows itself in all its glory; the final variation of a piobaireachd
dithis two or a pair; doubling of a note; musical term; doubling theme and single note repeated or played in pairs (also known as siubhal singling)
drone the steady bass-note of the Highland bagpipe; i.e. bass drone, tenor drone etc.
dubh dark or black; i.e. ‘Dubh Burn’ is Black Water or Dark River
failte welcome or salute; form of piobaireachd composed for gatherings
gesundkunstwerk the overall artwork; a piece of art that is all-encompassing, creates an overall experience of music, sound, image etc. that is a world unto itself
glas particular fingering and tuning to create a ‘joining’ effect in the music
havering one way or another; to be uncertain
leumluath a variation incorporated within the Taorluath movement of a piobaireachd; also sometimes known as the ‘Stag’s Leap’ to indicate the branching out of the tune into a new direction
leitmotif recurring musical idea; used principally in relation to Wagner’s music
og younger; or latter; used as differentiation in family naming, i.e. Patrick ‘Og’ MacCrimmon was the youngest son of Patrick MacCrimmon (by contrast, ‘Mor’ often used to denote the elder or oldest in a family)
piobaireachd the classical musical composition played on the great Highland bagpipe
port musical term relating, initially, to harp piobaireachd
port tionail music composed for gatherings
rubato with feeling, vibration; musical term
semibreve long sustained note of four beats; musical term
siubhal a passing or traversing; i.e. of one set of musical notes passing from one to the other
sligheach secret, sly; hidden
smirr to rub over or blend; i.e. to smirr a tune is to fail to articulate individual notes; musical term as well as general use
slochd summit; peak
strath a long valley beween two hills; often with a river running through the centre and broadening out towards the sea
taorluath the second movement or variation of a piobaireachd
thrawn stubborn
urlar ground; the first movement of a piobaireachd
Bibliography
Music: Piobaireachd/primary
Bagpipe music manuscripts in the National Library of Scotland; notated listing available from the Piobaireachd Society website at: piobaireachd.co.uk
Buisman, Frans, Andrew Wright and Roderick D. Cannon. The MacArthur–MacGregor manuscript of piobaireachd (1820): The Music of Scotland, Volume 1. University of Glasgow Music Department Publications
Campbell Canntaireachd manuscripts, 1797: Piobaireachd Society website
Campbell, Archibald. The Kilberry Book of Ceol Mor. The College of Piping: Glasgow, 1969
MacKay, Angus. A Collection of Ancient Piobaireachd or Highland Pipe Music, 1838: Piobaireachd Society website
Neil MacLeod’s A Collection of Piobaireachd or Pipe Tunes, as verbally taught by the McCrummen Pipers in the Isle of Skye (also known as the Gesto Canntaireachd manuscripts) Edinburgh, 1828: Piobaireachd Society website
Piobaireachd Society Books, Volumes 1–present: Piobaireachd Society website
Ross, Roderick. Binneas A Boreraig: The Complete Collection. The College of Piping: Glasgow, 1959
Thomason, Major General. Ceol Mor, 1900: Piobaireachd Society website
Music: Piobaireachd/secondary
Anon. ‘Piobaireachd and the “Winter Classes”’. Pamphlet Press, 1969
Brown, Barnaby. ‘The design of it: patterns in pibroch’, in The Voice, Winter, Spring & Summer, 2004–05
Campsie, Alistair. The MacCrimmon Legend or The Madness of Angus MacKay. Canongate, 1980
Cannon, Roderick D. ‘The
Campbell Canntaireachd manuscript: the case for a lost volume’, in Joshua Dickson (ed.), The Highland Bagpipe: Music, History, Tradition. Ashgate, 2009
Cannon, Roderick D. ‘What can we learn about piobaireachd?’ Ethnomusicology Forum, Volume 4, Issue 1, 1995
Cannon, Roderick D. Gaelic Names of Pibrochs: A Classification. Scottish Studies, 2006.
Cannon, Roderick D. The Highland Bagpipe and Its Music. Birlinn, 1995
Cheape, Hugh. ‘Traditional Origins of the Piping Dynasties’; ‘Bagpipes and their Military Function’, in Joshua Dickson (ed.), The Highland Bagpipe: Music, History, Tradition. Ashgate, 2009
Cheape, Hugh. The Book of the Bagpipe. Birlinn, 1999
Collinson, Francis. The Bagpipe: The History of a Musical Instrument. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975
Dickson, Joshua (ed.) The Highland Bagpipe: Music, History, Tradition. Ashgate, 2009
Donaldson, William. The Highland Pipe and Scottish Society 1750–1950. Tuckwell Press, 2000
Fraser, Alexander Duncan. Some reminiscences and the bagpipe. W. J. Hay, 1907
Gibson, John Graham. Old and New World Highland Bagpiping. McGill-Queen’s Press, 2002.
Gunn, R. J. C. Piobaireachd: Legends and History. Piobaireachd Studies, 2008
Haddow, Alexander John. The History and Structure of Ceol Mor – A Guide to Piobaireachd: The Classical Music of the Great Highland Bagpipe. The Piobaireachd Society: Glasgow, 1982
Joseph MacDonald’s Compleat Theory of the Scots Highland Pipe (1760): Piobaireachd Society website
MacDonald, Allan. ‘The Relationship between Pibroch and Gaelic Song: Its Implications on the Performance Style of the Pibroch Urlar’, M.Litt. thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1995