Bagpipe Amazing Grace Download

[Agalia Valcin]

Thisis a very confusing point for many people. It'ssad to say that many amateur musicians (read "mostpipers"!) do not know thedifference between the tuning pitch and the key. Terriblemistakes can result from this misunderstanding. It's generallyonly an issue when bagpipers try to play with guitars, organs,orchestras or other bands.

I know of pipers who've told orchestras that they'd behappy to play Amazing Grace in B-flat with the orchestra. I knowof people with smallpipes tuned to concert A and told folkmusicians that they'll play Amazing Grace in A. This can lead tovery embarrassing situations and can potentially ruin a musicalprogram. Please read on to find out why this DOESN'T WORK.

The low A on the modern chanter of great highlandbagpipe (and the drones) are commonly tuned to above concert Bflat, which is 466.16 Hz. With the application of some tape and abit of adjustment of the reeds, the instrument can be adjustedsuch that low A on the chanter (and the drones) vibrate at 466.16Hz. This is a concert B-flat tuning of the instrument, but it isnot necessarily the key.

(Please note that most bagpipes today tune at 476 to 480 Hz! This is roughly halfway between B-flat and B. Setting up a concert B-flat bagpipe can be challenging. Setting up a concert A pitch instrument is difficult.)

Musical "key" is defined in the HarvardBrief Dictionary of Music as "somethinglike "tonal center" or "main note" of acomposition and, by extension, all of the notes related to thecentral note and forming the tonal material for the composition."

As an example, a B-flat clarinet sounds 466.16 Hz whenit plays a C. This is defined as a B-flat instrument. However,since it is a chromatic instrument, which can play all sharps andflats, and has a wide range, almost four octaves, it is capableof playing most pieces in any key. That is to say that it canstart any tune on any note and play appropriate intervals to playthe tune.

The bagpipe is much more limited. Because it is not achromatic instrument, the music is generally written withoutsharps, although C sharp and F sharp implied. Because of the lackof chromatics and the limited range of an octave plus one note,tunes usually only sound decent in one arrangement on thebagpipe. For example, Amazing Grace must start with pipes playingthe notes Low A ("Ah"), D ("a-maz"), F(#)ED("zing") and then F(#) ("grace") or the tunecannot be played. Hence the bagpipe can only play Amazing Gracein one key.

So what key is this? The easiest way (and generally correct) to find out what keyyour tune is in is to determine upon which note the tune ends.This is generally the "resolution" of the tune and willcommonly be the tonic of the key. Since, the note called low A onthe great highland bagpipe tunes close to concert B flat, let'sassume that the piper adjusts the tuning (with tape, sealing way,dowels, baling wire and other stuff) to become pitched to"true" concert B flat. Now Amazing Grace ends on a D onthe chanter. For a chanter tuned such that when an A is soundedit comes out at 466.16 Hz, the note fingered as a D is pitchedconcert E flat. In communicating with other musicians, theyshould be told that Amazing Grace will be played in E flat.

Thus, we can see that the actual key depends upon theinstrument and the tune. The bagpipe can regularly play in any ofthree keys. The scale contains essentially a sharp C and a sharpF. Tunes can be resolved to play in the following keys:

Most amateur folk musicians don't like to play in BFlat and E Flat. Consequently the more popular folk instrumentaccompaniment are smallpipes tuned to A or D. This puts AmazingGrace in D or G, respectively. Smallpipes in D are generally morepopular than A as they are easier to play and to sing along with!

(Note that there are arrangements of Irish Washerwomanand Auld Lang Syne can be played in more than one key on anybagpipe. The melody gets "folded" (and sometimes a bitspindled and mutilated!), but it can work. Most tunes don't workwell in their unintended keys.)

So what concert pitch are you playing when you fingera note? In the table below, find your instrument across the topand what note your are fingering on the left. The intersection ofthe rows and columns corresponds approximatelyto the "concert pitch" that you are playing.

(Note: Since concert pitch is "eventempered" and the bagpipe is "just tempered", theagreemnt to concert pitch approximate. To learn more about howfar "off" you'll be, go to Can I use a tuner for intonation on mychanter?)

The sharp-eyed, knowledgeable reader will note thatthere is a G# missing in some of these scales. Bagpipe staffnotation contains only two sharps - if any at all are noted. Thereason is that the tuning of High G is an issue in that the pitchdoesn't quite conform to a convenient category in Western music.It's typically tuned higher and G and lower than G#. SeamusMacNeill (Classical Music of the Highland Bagpipe, 1968, BBC)suggests that the proper pitch of this note is intended tomaximize the number of pentatonic modes that can be played on theinstrument. He goes on to say that the interval is known as a"limma" and occurs in the Phrygian scale of ancientGreek music. As a result, some tunes can sound a bit, well, ..oddto those used to western intervals... on high G (e.g. GoingHome). To make matters worse, I've not read any text that dealswith the tuning of the piobaireachd high G, and, given hispredilection for piobaireachd, I'm not completely sure which highG Seamus was referring to!

In various texts, the scale of the bagpipe isdescribed as being in a mixolydian mode. This mode is derived byplaying only the white keys on a keyboard and starting at G andwould result in a major scale with a flatted seventh (i.e. F, notF# in the G scale). This suggests that the bagpipe scale(presumably starting on Low A) has intervals equivalent to amajor scale with a flatted seventh . Maybe it's close enough.However, because of the tuning issue regarding high G, this isclose, but not quite right. Seamus MacNeill (ibid) suggests that,because there are tuning issues with both G and D (which I didn'tmention above!), the bagpipe scale should be called a major scalewith an augmented fourth and a diminished seventh. ProfessorYamane (who studied this problem while developing the Korg AT-2Tuner) suggest that the fourth should not be augmented.

Newton wrote the words from personal experience; he grew up without any particular religious conviction, but his life's path was formed by a variety of twists and coincidences that were often put into motion by others' reactions to what they took as his recalcitrant insubordination. He was pressed into service with the Royal Navy, and after leaving the service, he became involved in the Atlantic slave trade. In 1748, a violent storm battered his vessel off the coast of County Donegal, Ireland, so severely that he called out to God for mercy. While this moment marked his spiritual conversion, he continued slave trading until 1754 or 1755, when he ended his seafaring altogether. Newton began studying Christian theology and later became an abolitionist.

Ordained in the Church of England in 1764, Newton became the curate of Olney, Buckinghamshire, where he began to write hymns with poet William Cowper. "Amazing Grace" was written to illustrate a sermon on New Year's Day of 1773. It is unknown if there was any music accompanying the verses; it may have been chanted by the congregation. It debuted in print in 1779 in Newton's and Cowper's Olney Hymns, but settled into relative obscurity in England. In the United States, "Amazing Grace" became a popular song used by Baptist and Methodist preachers as part of their evangelizing, especially in the American South, during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century. It has been associated with more than 20 melodies. In 1835, American composer William Walker set it to the tune known as "New Britain" in a shape note format; this is the version most frequently sung today.

With the message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of sins committed and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God, "Amazing Grace" is one of the most recognisable songs in the English-speaking world. American historian Gilbert Chase writes that it is "without a doubt the most famous of all the folk hymns"[1] and Jonathan Aitken, a Newton biographer, estimates that the song is performed about 10 million times annually.[2]

It has had particular influence in folk music, and has become an emblematic black spiritual. Its universal message has been a significant factor in its crossover into secular music. "Amazing Grace" became newly popular during the 1960s revival of American folk music, and it has been recorded thousands of times during and since the 20th century.

How industrious is Satan served. I was formerly one of his active undertemptors and had my influence been equal to my wishes I would have carried all the human race with me. A common drunkard or profligate is a petty sinner to what I was.

In 1725, Newton was born in Wapping, a district in London near the Thames. His father was a shipping merchant who was brought up as a Catholic but had Protestant sympathies, and his mother was a devout Independent, unaffiliated with the Anglican Church. She had intended Newton to become a clergyman, but she died of tuberculosis when he was six years old.[5] For the next few years, while his father was at sea Newton was raised by his emotionally distant stepmother. He was also sent to boarding school, where he was mistreated.[6] At the age of eleven, he joined his father on a ship as an apprentice; his seagoing career would be marked by headstrong disobedience.

As a youth, Newton began a pattern of coming very close to death, examining his relationship with God, then relapsing into bad habits. As a sailor, he denounced his faith after being influenced by a shipmate who discussed with him Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, a book by the Third Earl of Shaftesbury. In a series of letters Newton later wrote, "Like an unwary sailor who quits his port just before a rising storm, I renounced the hopes and comforts of the Gospel at the very time when every other comfort was about to fail me."[7] His disobedience caused him to be pressed into the Royal Navy, and he took advantage of opportunities to overstay his leave.

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