Notation[edit]
Pibroch is properly expressed by minute and often subtle variations in note duration and tempo. Traditionally, the music was taught using a system of unique chanted vocables referred to as Canntaireachd, an effective method of denoting the various movements in pibroch music, and assisting the learner in proper expression and memorization of the tune. The predominant vocable system used today is the Nether Lorn canntaireachd sourced from the Campbell Canntaireachd manuscripts (Volume 1. 1797)[5] and (Volume 2. 1814).[6] and used in the subsequent Piobaireachd Society books.
Multiple written manuscripts of pibroch in staff notation have been published, including Angus MacKay's book A Collection of Ancient Pìobaireachd (1845), Archibald Campbell's The Kilberry Book of Ceòl Mór (1969),[7] and The Pìobaireachd Society Books[8]
The staff notation in Angus MacKay's book and subsequent Pìobaireachd Society sanctioned publications is characterised by a simplification and standardisation of the ornamental and rhythmic complexities of many pibroch compositions when compared with earlier unpublished manuscript sources. A number of the earliest manuscripts such as the Campbell Canntaireachd MS that predate the standard edited published collections have been made available by the Pibroch Network website as a publicly accessible comparative resource.[9]
Pibroch is difficult to document accurately using traditional musical notation, and early attempts suffered from conventions which do not accurately convey tune expression.[10] More contemporary pibroch notation has attempted to address these issues, and has produced notation much closer to true expression of the tunes.[11][12]
Pibroch does not follow a strict metre but it does have a rhythmic flow or pulse; it does not follow a strict beat or tempo although it does have pacing. The written notation of pibroch serves mainly as a rough guide for the piper. The expression of the rhythms and tempos of the pibroch tune are primarily acquired from an experienced teacher and applied through interpretive performance practice.
Related ceòl mór genres were historically also played on the fiddle and on the wire-strung Gaelic harp or clàrsach.[13] The clarsach ceòl mór is likely to have predated and influenced the later pipe[14] and fiddle[15] music. However, pibroch in its current form was developed on the Great Highland Bagpipe, with most of the extant pibroch tunes being adapted to or written specifically for the GHB, and as a result the musical form is influenced by features and limitations of that instrument.
In musical structure, pibroch is a theme with variations. The theme is usually a very simple melody, though few if any pibroch contain the theme in its simplest form. The theme is first stated in a slow movement called the ground or in Gaelic the ùrlar. This is usually a fairly stylised version of the theme, and usually includes numerous added embellishments and connecting notes.
The subsequent variations can number from one up to about twenty, although there are a few fragmentary tunes for which only a ground is known. In most cases the variations following the ground involve the use of a number of different musical embellishments, usually starting very simply and progressing through successively more complex movements before returning again to the ground.
Variations after the ùrlar or ground usually include a siubhal ('passing' or 'traversing') or dithis ('two' or 'a pair') or both. The siubhal comprises theme notes each coupled with a single note of higher or lower pitch that usually precedes the theme note. The theme note is held and its paired single note cut. The timing given to the theme notes is of critical importance in displaying the virtuosity of the master piper. If the theme and single note are repeated or played in pairs, it is referred to as a doubling, otherwise a siubhal singling.
The dithis is similar. The theme note is accented and followed by a cut note of lower pitch, usually alternating, for example, between an A and a G. If the coupled pairs are played in a repeating pattern, it too is called a dithis doubling.
Following the siubhal or dithis variation are other more complex embellishments. The Gaelic names of these type movements are: leumluath, taorluath, and crùnluath. In almost all pibroch in which these later movements are found, the variations are played first as a singling and then as a doubling and with a slightly increased tempo. However, not all pibrochs will include all or even any of these movements but instead use variations that are deemed to be irregular.
In addition the theme will usually have one of several internal structures for the ordering of its musical phrases. These are usually classified as follows:
Few pibrochs are pure examples of any of these structures though most can be fit into one of the first three with a slight modification of one or two of the phrases in one or more lines.
A compilation of the structure of many pibroch tunes, including related historical essays, was written by A. J. Haddow.[16]
There is evidence from early treatises (e.g. Joseph MacDonald) that the structure was originally counted in 4, so a Primary form would be
Similarly, Secondary form can be read as
The Gaelic titles of pibroch compositions have been categorised by Roderick Cannon into four broad groupings.[18] These include:
Pibroch in the functional category were most commonly written for or have come to be associated with specific events, personages or situations:
The different categories of pibroch do not have consistent distinctive musical patterns that are characteristic of the category.[20] The role of the pibroch may inform the performers interpretative expression of rhythm and tempo.
Many pibroch tunes have intriguing names such as "Too Long in This Condition", "The Piper's Warning to His Master", "Scarce of Fishing", "The Unjust Incarceration" and "The Big Spree" which suggest specific narrative events or possible song lyric sources.
The oral transmission of the repertoire has led to diverse and divergent accounts of the names for tunes, and many tunes have a number of names. Mis-translation of Gaelic names with non-standard phonetic spelling adds to the confusion.
In some cases the name and subject matter of pibroch tunes appears to have been reassigned by-19th century editors such as Angus MacKay, whose book A Collection of Ancient Piobaireachd or Highland Pipe Music (1838) included historically fanciful and romantic pibroch source stories by antiquarian James Logan.[21] A number of pibroch collected by MacKay have very different titles in earlier manuscript sources. MacKay's translated English titles became the commonly accepted modern pibroch names, sanctioned by subsequent Piobaireachd Society editors.[22]
Roderick Cannon has compiled a dictionary of the Gaelic names of pibroch from early manuscripts and printed sources, detailing inconsistencies, difficulties in translation, variant names, accurate translations and verifiable historically documented attributions and dates in the few cases where this is possible.[23]
Related musical forms[edit]
Welsh Medieval cerdd dant[edit]
Ceòl mór is being situated within a broader medieval cultural milieu in the British Isles through the revival of early Welsh cerdd dant ("string music").[186] This genre of Irish influenced medieval Welsh music offers a precedent for Scottish pibroch as an aristocratic extended art music played on the harp with a repeated melodic theme or ground and elaborate formal variations.[187] Welsh Cerdd Dant repertoire from the late-Middle Ages was documented in the ap Huw manuscripts in the 17th century by Robert ap Huw as a binary system of tabulature notation.[188][189]
Bill Taylor is an early Scottish and Welsh harper who is researching, reconstructing and recording definitive performances of early cerdd dant music on replica historical gut-strung Romanesque harps and late-medieval bray harps.[190][191] Taylor has published extensive online resources outlining this applied performance-based research.[192] Taylor and Irish wire-strung harpist Paul Dooley discuss and perform demonstrations of the ap Huw music in the recent BBC documentary History of the Harp.[193]
There is debate over the interpretation of references in Welsh manuscripts to the role of gut-strung and horse hair-strung bray harps in the late-Middle Ages. Taylor considers these to be the authentic instruments for the performance of cerdd dant.[194] Heymann and Chadwick are contributing to a research project to reconstruct an early Welsh horse hair-strung bray harp, testing this theory through application.[195]
Peter Greenhill's reading of the manuscripts has led him to conclude that the pieces were played on a wire strung harp and that they were instrumental pieces, though he theorises that the Clymau Cytgerdd section may have been used for poetical accompaniment.[196] He argues that instrumental early cerdd dant music was originally played on the highly resonant wire-strung harp using similar sharpened nail-based string striking and dampening techniques and ornamentation employed in Irish and Scottish ceòl mór harp music.[197]
Paul Dooley has researched and recorded a dedicated album of ap Huw compositions played on a replica early Irish wire-strung clairseach harp.[198] Ann Heymann has researched the ap Huw manuscript with a particular focus on the interpretation of the notation of playing techniques that are comparable to the Irish wire-strung harp techniques noted down by Edward Bunting in the late 18th century.[199] She has recorded "Kaniad San Silin", one of the oldest compositions in the cerdd dant repertoire on a replica early Irish wire-strung clairseach harp.[200] Simon Chadwick also includes this piece in his live repertoire, played on a replica early Scottish Queen Mary wire-strung clarsach harp.[201]
Barnaby Brown has identified characteristics of the Welsh and by extension Irish medieval harp tunings recorded in the ap Huw manuscript that are also present in Scottish bagpipe tuning.[202] The common source of influence for these shared musical practices is likely to be found in the formal conventions of medieval aristocratic and religious Irish Gaelic wire-strung harp music.
Irish ceòl mór[edit]
Further clues to the broader cultural context of bagpipe pibroch can be found in the small body of compositions that have an Irish association.[203] The pibroch "Cumha a Chleirich" which translates as "The Cleric's Lament" and is commonly known as "The Bard's Lament" is entitled "one of the Irish piobarich" in the Campbell Canntaireachd manuscript.[204] This canntaireachd provides possible surviving documentation of an Irish harp ceòl mór repertoire. Ann Heymann has recently transcribed, performed and recorded this pibroch played on a replica early Irish wire-strung clairseach harp.[205]
At the Highland Society of London pibroch competition in Edinburgh in 1785, John MacPherson is listed as having played "Piobrachd Ereanach an Irish Pibrach."[206] A pibroch in the Angus MacKay MS Vol 1 entitled "Spiocaireachd Iasgaich/Scarce of Fishing" appears in the earlier Donald MacDonald Jnr. MS. (1826) with the very Irish title of "O’Kelly's Lament."[207]
The Irish wire-strung harp standard "Brian Boru's March"[208] appears with pibroch variations and a range of titles in the Scottish bagpipe repertoire: Angus MacKay and General C.S. Thomason both give two titles "Taom-boileinn na Coinneamh/The Frenzy of Meeting" and "Lament for Brian O'Duff", which concurs with the Campbell Canntaireachd title "Brian O’Duff's Lament";[209] Simon Fraser lists the tune as "A Lament for King Brian of Old"; and the Niel MacLeod of Gesto book of Canntaireachd gives the title "Tumilin O'Counichan an Irish Tune".[210]
At the William Kennedy International Piping Festival (2009), held in Armagh, Barnaby Brown conducted workshops on the chanting of Irish associated pibroch canntaireachd from the Campbell Canntaireachd manuscript.[211] These Irish ceòl mór workshops focused particularly on the canntaireachd transcriptions of "One of the Irish Piobarich" also known as "The Bard's Lament", the "Brian Boru's March" pibroch variant "Brian O'Duff's Lament/An Irish Lively Tune" also known as "Taom-boileinn na Coinneamh/The Frenzy of the Meeting", and "Ceann na Drochaide Bige/The End of the Little Bridge,"[212] a battle pibroch associated with an expedition to Ireland in 1594 by an army of Scottish Isleman to support Red Hugh O'Donnell's rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I.[213] The pibrochs "Hugh's Lament,"[214] "Samuel's Black Dog"[215] or "Lament for Samuel", and "Lament for the Earl of Antrim"[216] also have an association with this Irish conflict.[213] Frank Timoney argues that "Lament for the Earl of Antrim" is another possible Irish wire-strung harp composition.[203]
The bagpipe pibroch "Duncan MacRae of Kintail's Lament" is a variant of the Irish harp tune "Ruairidhe Va Mordha/Rory O Moor, King of Leix's March" notated by Edward Bunting from the repertoire of Irish wire-strung harpists in the late 18th century.[217] Allan MacDonald has played and recorded these two closely related compositions as a bagpipe medley, with the harp tune informing his revisions of the standard pibroch settings.[218] He has also performed an arrangement of this medley with an ensemble of Irish musicians on modern instruments for the BBC documentary The Highland Sessions.[219]
The only composition in the Irish wire-strung harp repertoire similar in structure to ceòl mór that is documented with intact formal variations is "Burns March", notated by Bunting and revived on the wire-strung harp in recordings by Charles Guard,[220] Gráinne Yeats[221] and more recently by Simon Chadwick.[222] This medieval composition survived in the repertoire as a training tune for wire-strung harp students that provided a vehicle for the mastery of characteristic ornamental performance techniques.[223]