Piobaireachd and Canntaireachd
Ernie Geiger
I am working my way thru the Tutor for Piobaireachd by Seumas MacNeill
and am wondering from experienced players if learning Canntaireachd is
absolutely a must in order to be good at Piobaireachd. Any thoughts
are sincerely appreciated.
Thanks,
Ernie
Leslie Thomson
>........ learning Canntaireachd is absolutely a must ?.......
> Ernie
>
I'm sure you'll get many good suggestions, I for one support the concept
that piobaireached has a style that cannot be fully transmitted with the
written score, and that "signing" the Canntaireachd will give you an
additional insight, of course you can then "practice" the tune without
instrument at any time that pleases you.
In any case make up your mind after studing the Canntaireachd of a
piobaireached or two.
Keep at it,
Leslie
Ampiobaire
Ernie-
Not necessarily. The point of it is to help learn the tune. If you can
sing the tune it makes it easier to play. The inflections of the tune and
the little nuances of the theme come out and are a little more obvious
when sung. But I have placed in competition with a poibd that I never even
saw the music for or knew the cannd for. Its not anything you necessarily
need to know in order to succeed at piobd.
FYI the Piobd Society books contain all the Cannd for every tune in there
if you are interested in learning. Good tapes for other cannd are the Univ
of Edin tapes on George Moss, Brown, Maclean and Nicol.
GOOD LUCK!
Ryan Morrison-
d...@m1.sprynet.com
You can't do better for demonstration of a passage of music than to
have it performed on the instrument.
For sure, this is not always practical, for example, if you are
taking a lesson in a loud instrument and reviewing the same two bars
again and again.
In olden times, canntaireachd had merit. What if some tutors were
tone deaf hummers? And a written notation had yet to be developed. Plus,
with bagpipe music there's too great a variety of gracenote clusters to
represent them all by rolling your tongue in a "rrrr".
Nowadays, we DO have written notation and audio tape and CD's, so I
think canntaireached is about as relevant as farming with a wooden horse
drawn plough or making your own paper from rags. In 1997, an rudimentary
"dee da da da, rrreeee dum rrraaa da" suffices for singing a
piobaireachd because, come on, you've got the score and the cassette.
Rudimentary humming will demonstrate that musical phrasing which a score
can't fully capture.
Sincerely,
Dale Chock
San Diego
Ampiobaire
If you've got the technology, why not use it?
Ryan Morrison-
Peter Anderson
In article <33DD6B...@mail.willapabay.org>, Ernie Geiger
<ege...@mail.willapabay.org> writes
I have read all the repies so far and whilst some are right, many have
missed the point of what canniateachd can do to help your learning
process. Light music is designed to be written in staff notation
whereby strong emphasises is placed on the beat, if that were not the
case then we would see some interesting marching bands and some strange
dancing perhaps -;) On the other hand some slow airs lend themselves to
some leaway in interpretation. Take 'Flower of Scotland' for example,
this tune has the benefit of words which could help illustrate how the
tune could be altered. The first bar could be: F-l---o---wer of Scot-
land (the more --- the longer the note is held) or Flower of Scot---
land. The first version held the 'o' of flower and the second the Scot
of Scotland. Bit difficult to demonstrate on the ng, but the point is
we all recognise the words and can sing it in different ways to each
other so that everyone understands, and can easily comment on the tune.
Some years ago the Catholic Church abandoned Latin for it's services.
Latin was and still is a Universal Language, so anyone attending a
service in e.g. Holland and then another in Norway could not only follow
the service but still understand what was being said - they could also
sing the same tunes in the same language (latin) - the important
ananlogy is a UNIVERSAL language. The same thing happens in medicine -
if you ruptured your spleen in Sweden a doctor over there could converse
with another in Italy and the Latin names used will (maybe) be
recognised world wide (I hope -:).
Canntaireachd is an attempt to standardise a method whereby all the
notes and embellishments are contained in a common (Universal) language.
Using these structured vocables can make learning much easier compared
to methods. There are several 'schools' of Canntaireachd, the commonly
accepted is the Nether Lorn Cannt. To play Piobaireachd *well* it is
essential to realise that it is first and formost a **SONG** and the
*song* must be learnt first before any attempt is made to play the tune.
You could make a good attempt by imitating a well known player from his
CD and comparing this with the MS, but is what he is playing correct, is
his phrasing correct, he might be the greatest player of light music in
the world but what is his track record on piob., and on the day of the
recording did he have an 'off day'?? You need to understand piob. more
deeply than just trying to copy a CD - you need to know *how* the song
is sung.
Unlike light music many scholarly people have spent many years of
dedicated work in trying to ensure that what we have passed down to us
is as correct as possible, with as little deviation from that taught by
passed master pipers, this is what makes piobaireachd special. For
example, one of my tutors in piob. was a student of Alex MacDonald
(Kings piper from 1945 - 1962) who was a student of Nicol & Brown, who
were in turn pupils of John MacDonald of Inverness, who in turn was
taught by ?? (I cannot remember of hand but can look it up). Alex would
sing the tune to the pupil (not in any recognised form of cannt. but
would have a similar effect) who would then play & sing the tune back to
him and Alex would spend hours just correcting the smallest detail.
What was lost in this processes was the 'exactness' of the tune because
neither Alex, his pupil, or I know canntaireachd. Ok I have a pretty
good idea of what the tune *should be* - sort of, but not good enough.
I did not realise just how important this was until just two weeks ago.
We had just finished a morning concert in France and were having a meal
in the town square. There were about 20 French people (almost none
spoke English) and 10 pipers, among them was Eric (sorry forgot his last
name), a French piper who only plays piob. and a pupil of Andrew Wright.
He was talking to those around him and to make a point started singing,
in a few seconds he brought all conversation to a halt - his singing
voice was beautiful, it was The Lament for Mary MacLeod -
**IN CANNTAIREACHD**.
He brought tears to everyone, even those who had no idea what he was
doing. This **REALLY** brought home to me what piobaireachd is all
about. If I could only make my pipes *sing* like that then I would have
just reached heaven.
If you listen to the commentary by Nicol & Brown on Scottish Tradition
tapes they make the comment that John MacDonald Of Inverness refers to
the 'barbarity of staff notation' and that piob. can only be learned by
singing the tune. In the Piobaireachd Society Books it states - "In the
following collection an attempt is made to write in staff notation the
tunes in such a form that the construction of the tune stands out to the
eye ............ We must however, warn beginners that personal
instruction is absolutely essential, and no one should consider this
collection more than a guide to beginners, though perhaps sufficient for
trained (piobaireachd. - ed) players to learn new tunes from."
It was for the reasons above that I started:-
The Ceol Mor - The Piobaireachd CD Recording Project
(an extract from my report):-
========================================================================
The Aims
To:
1. To record and make publicly available on CD all Ancient Piobaireachd
currently available in manuscript form,
2. To recover and digitally re-master suitable archive material for
release onto CD,
3. To revive and encourage traditional methods of teaching this music,
4. To introduce the music of Piobaireachd to a wider and younger
audience,
5. To provide instructional recordings to the new and informed student,
6. To encourage composers and performers of Modern Piobaireachd.
The Background
Ceol Mor (great or big music) is the classical music of the Great
Highland Bagpipe and has been described as Scotland's major contribution
to world culture. More commonly known as 'piobaireachd' (the old Gaelic
term for all pipe music), it is especially composed for and played only
on the highland bagpipe; the only other instrument that can come
anywhere near expressing it adequately is the human voice.
Canntaireachd (a series of structured vocables) was the traditional
method of teaching where the tutor sung as well as played the tune to
the pupil. This method brings out the nuances of expression in a tune
to a far greater extent than staff notation can. Before 1784 staff
notation was unknown in piping and as published collections of pipe
music became more widespread, musical interpretation using canntaireachd
began to die out, to-date this skill is all but lost. While manuscript
may keep the score safe for future generations, it can only represent
the technical presentation of the tune, and cannot permit the depth of
expression that canntaireachd allows. For this reason many pipers may
wish to hear their tunes sung as well as played by a Master Piper.
The Situation
There is a world-wide explosion of interest in the highland bagpipe and
in piobaireachd. However, only a handful of accomplished pipers exist
who can teach canntaireachd and pass on this traditional method of
playing. There are just under 300 piobaireachd tunes published in
manuscript but only 52 complete sound recordings have been released
commercially and there are 2 recordings of instructional merit available
to the informed listener. Modern pipers and listeners who are unable to
meet or hear Master Pipers performing at recitals or competitions, are
therefore limited to their experience of the highest level of
piobaireachd interpretation and playing.
The Support
At the 1996 Piobaireachd Society Annual Conference I canvassed the
opinion of delegates and gained considerable support for this project.
Some of the distinguished people in the piping world who have offered
their names in support of the venture include:- Donald MacPherson, Angus
J. MacLellan, Malcolm McRae, Past President of the Piobaireachd Society;
Captain Gavin Stoddart, Director of the Army School of Piping; Andrew
Wright, President of The Piobaireachd Society; Roderick MacLeod,
Director of the Piping Centre, Glasgow, Dr. Roderick Cannon and others.
To date all responses have been positive.
The Project
The Trust will make recordings available to a world wide audience
comprising the best of the 300 extant tunes, together with instructional
recordings, on Compact Disc (CD). This would be achieved by the
following:-
1. Archive material
To make available to the public the best from recorded archive
Piobaireachd tunes currently owned by individuals and public
institutions such as BBC Radio Scotland, The Piping Centre, Edinburgh
University and from material already commercially available. This part
of the project will involve several stages:-
To:
1. Locate, collate and catalogue archive recordings.
2. Identify a recording studio to copy all these loaned recordings onto
Digital Audio Tape (DAT).
3. Seek experts to select the most suitable tunes from the material
available.
4. Sound engineer to 'clean' recordings suitable for CD format.
5. Select tunes for inclusion on CD.
6. To make available on analogue tape format suitable material that is
of interest but not suitable for general release on CD. The master
tapes to held by the Trust's recording library.
Notes relating to the above
1 To locate archive material several methods could be involved:-
advertising in Piping Magazines, writing to members of the Piobaireachd
Society, posting on the Internet Bagpipe Web site and contacting the
institutions listed above.
2 It may be possible to find a recording studio to sponsor this task.
Alternatively a University may be willing to undertake the
responsibility.
3 Guidance from the Piobaireachd Society would be sought for this item.
4 This may fall into two parts a) recordings over 15 years old may
suffer from 'Sticky Shed Syndrome'. This is not difficult to cure but
needs care; b) to remove some of the noises which accompany old
recordings - a computerised sound studio would be able to do this
without too much difficulty.
5 This should be a commercial decision but would take into account any
on-going theme from the preceding CD release.
6 There are numerous archive recordings that are of immense value to a
student, but may not be of a quality suitable for release on CD. It has
been suggested that these recordings be made available on tape and sold
on a 'one off' basis as required, with the master library copies held at
the Piping Centre.
7 For individuals or institutions to donate or loan their recordings to
a third party certain safeguards need to be put into place. To include
but not limited to, a secure collection and delivery service and
material must be returned within a pre-agreed time period and sensible
insurance made available.
2 Reviving Traditional Methods of Teaching
Most piping tutors do not know Canntaireachd (or any forms of it)
therefore if they are to teach Piobaireachd they will have to do so by
staff notation alone; it is therefore unlikely that their students will
gain any recognition for their performance at competition. Top
competitors however usually have access to a Master Class taught by
traditional teachers using Canntaireachd (or a form of it). These
teachers are scarce outside Scotland and certainly not available to the
majority of players. To revive their teaching methods it is essential
that their techniques are recorded for distribution to a wider audience.
The public and informed perception is that Piobaireachd is first and
foremost a song. To play the tune well on the pipes the song must be
learnt together with correct fingering technique. Once this has been
learnt the piper then sings the song to himself whilst playing the tune
on the pipes. To demonstrate this traditional method of interpretation,
recordings of Canntaireachd and Gaelic song would be sought.
3. Live Recordings
As it will not be possible to use archive recordings for the entire 200+
Piobaireachd tunes planned for release on CD, it will therefore be
necessary to use living performers to accomplish this task. The
recordings of living pipers may be controversial in that their style,
setting and performance may cause debate. Although different settings
exist, the point is that the listener and serious student has an
acceptable setting on CD. To overcome these objections CD cover notes
in the form of booklet would give reference to this fact and inform the
student where they may obtain further and detailed guidance on
alternative settings and styles. It is suggested that if highly
experienced and accomplished performers were used, then many tunes could
be recorded in a fairly short space of time. To ease administration and
make it clear to customers what to expect within the CD series, I
suggest that the CD series start with The Piobaireachd Society - Book 1
and record through to Book 15.
Further Information - The aims and objectives of the Trust are:-
* Place recordings under the protection of 'The Trust', and make them
available to the general public.
* Record all Piobaireachd published in print not already available on
CD.
* Provide instructional recordings of tunes for the informed listener.
These may take the form of a complete tune with additional recordings
demonstrating alternative settings and where possible mixed with archive
recordings from recognised old masters of this music. Where
appropriate, some tunes would be sung in Gaelic. Scholarly but readable
notes in the form of a CD-size booklet will accompany the CD and will be
cross-referenced to existing published material.
* Subject to agreement, the project will run closely alongside the
Piobaireachd Society. Malcolm McRae has suggested that the Society may
help produce record sleeve notes (see above).
* Any and all profits will be used to cover future costs and perpetuate
the project.
* Secure valuable material from our leading pipers as early as possible,
before they take their knowledge to the grave. (Too much irreplaceable
material has been lost already).
* Record, if possible, Piobaireachd played by our top players at
competition and at recitals, which is rarely done at present, and add
these to the 'Trust' archive.
* In order to protect the performers and the project, the Trust will
give people security should they loan original recordings and means that
any funds from recordings, donations and sponsorship are open to
scrutiny.
5. Trustees
The trustees should consist of a team of no more than 4/5 members and
should consist of people with a variety of skills. The team would
consist of least three principal advisors, highly regarded in piping
circles for their thorough understanding of Piobaireachd. Other members
should possess organisational, managerial, business and financial skills
and the ability to call upon skills outside the Trust. The Trust
anticipates that benefactors will have an interest in the Piobaireachd
project and hopes that a representative of the benefactor become a
trustee or take an active or non-executive role within the Trust.
Peter Anderson
September 1996
========================================================================
The above project is still happening, by is a bit slow.
I hope this stimulates some interesting topics - got to be better than
'what's under your kilt' - ;)
--
Peter Anderson
pipe...@arrakis.es
On Wed, 30 Jul 1997 18:00:12 -0700, Todd <rtmu...@ix.netcom.com>
wrote:
Thank you Todd, I tend to agree with you point of view, we of course
must use all technology provides us but I feel that playing an
instrument and not studying the music that comes behind it is
ignorance (and before anyone reacts to this, NOBODY has suggested this
at all) but when studying old forms of music we must not underestimate
its value and usefulness.
I feel that Dale Chock was being a bit too forceful in his opinion and
surely he doesn't really rate Canntaireachd with humming.
But what is sure is that all this argueing is keeping the question
alive, I mean you can only argue the point if you've studied some
Canntaireachd, and if you haven't, it is VERY reccomendable you do so
even if it is to prove that it's no use.
Pity the MacCrimmons have no web site.
Todd Muscat
Peter Anderson wrote:
a very long post with some great info. But no one is debating the
inadequacies of manuscript. The debate is whether Caintereachd is
necessary; Or, even better than just humming the tune. Indeed in your
own post you admitt that somewhere down the line in your tutledge
someone had forgotten the ACTUAL Cantereachd, but sang to you an
approximation which, if I understand your post, was good enough.
Cheers
Todd
Peter Anderson
Todd replied
Sorry my post was a bit long (got carried away).
I think you *could* get away without the cannt. but I think (imho) it
becomes progressivly more difficult you further down the line you go to
convey accurately what was started off with (loads of WWI jokes about
Major requesting a map, and the message changes as it gets passed around
ending up with a tank or something). As I mentioned in the main post my
tutor did not know cannt. *but* he was with me in France and we both
agreed from that moment on that cannt. was by far and away a better
method than humming or sudo-cannt. the main reason was that sometimes
some of the gracings are played open and listening Eric sign them in
cannt. made far more sense to me/us - I just wish I could learn it.
Sung cannt. just gave the tune the *right feel* something I could never
had imagined until I heard it for myself.
--
Peter Anderson
Todd Muscat
Peter Anderson wrote:
> I think you *could* get away without the cannt. but I think (imho) it
> becomes progressivly more difficult you further down the line you go
> to
> convey accurately what was started off with (loads of WWI jokes about
> Major requesting a map, and the message changes as it gets passed
> around
> ending up with a tank or something).
This illistrates the point VERY WELL! In the US we have a game called
"Operator" which has the same features of your WWI story. Why not use
the notation which most accurately describes the 'thing'? Symbol ~=
signifier.
Cheers
Todd
Ampiobaire
>To play Piobaireachd *well* it is
>essential to realise that it is first and formost a **SONG** and the
>*song* must be learnt first before any attempt is made to play the tune.
I do agree that it is important to know the song behind the tune, but is
the *cannt* necessary. With all due respect, humming the tune has always
worked for me, despite my extrem interest in the cannt. I have often
wrestled as to whether or not I like the MacCrimmon better than the Nether
Lorn.
>You could make a good attempt by imitating a well known player from his
>CD and comparing this with the MS, but is what he is playing correct, is
>his phrasing correct, he might be
>the greatest player of light music in
>the world but what is his track record on piob., and on the day of the
>recording did he have an 'off
>day'?? You need to understand piob. more
>deeply than just trying to copy a CD - you need to know *how* the song
>is sung.
I have had much difficulty locating a player of piobd around here that
actually uses cannt (I've had diff just locating piobd lpayers atr all!)
and sometimes pipers just have to depend on CD's where we are depraved of
good instructors.
Ryan Morrison-
>
>
Peter Anderson
In article <19970817063...@ladder02.news.aol.com>, Ampiobaire
<ampio...@aol.com> writes
>>To play Piobaireachd *well* it is
>>essential to realise that it is first and formost a **SONG** and the
>>*song* must be learnt first before any attempt is made to play the tune.
>
>the *cannt* necessary. With all due respect, humming the tune has always
>worked for me, despite my extrem interest in the cannt. I have often
>wrestled as to whether or not I like the MacCrimmon better than the Nether
>Lorn.
>
>>CD and comparing this with the MS, but is what he is playing correct, is
>>his phrasing correct, he might be
>>the greatest player of light music in
>>the world but what is his track record on piob., and on the day of the
>>recording did he have an 'off
>>day'?? You need to understand piob. more
>>deeply than just trying to copy a CD - you need to know *how* the song
>>is sung.
>
>actually uses cannt (I've had diff just locating piobd lpayers atr all!)
>good instructors.
>
>Ryan Morrison-
>>
>>
You could try the exchange teaching tapes offer by the College of Piping
(see add the magazine), I believe that you will then in touch will Angus
J.MacLellan who is one of the best teachers of piob. there is.
--
Peter Anderson
Diane
Humming a tune does not allow you to insert grace notes, edres,
Dares,cadents ect. *cann* does ... besides it is the acient way of
passing on a tune.. the way our ancesters kept it going,,,
On 17 Aug 1997 06:37:32 GMT, ampio...@aol.com (Ampiobaire) wrote:
>>To play Piobaireachd *well* it is
>>essential to realise that it is first and formost a **SONG** and the
>>*song* must be learnt first before any attempt is made to play the tune.
>
>I do agree that it is important to know the song behind the tune, but is
>the *cannt* necessary. With all due respect, humming the tune has always
>worked for me, despite my extrem interest in the cannt. I have often
>wrestled as to whether or not I like the MacCrimmon better than the Nether
>Lorn.
>
>>You could make a good attempt by imitating a well known player from his
>>CD and comparing this with the MS, but is what he is playing correct, is
>>his phrasing correct, he might be
>>the greatest player of light music in
>>the world but what is his track record on piob., and on the day of the
>>recording did he have an 'off
>>day'?? You need to understand piob. more
>>deeply than just trying to copy a CD - you need to know *how* the song
>>is sung.
>
>I have had much difficulty locating a player of piobd around here that
>actually uses cannt (I've had diff just locating piobd lpayers atr all!)
>and sometimes pipers just have to depend on CD's where we are depraved of
>good instructors.
>
>Ryan Morrison-
>>
>>
>
>