BAGPIPE> 18th century tunes for pipes
Dick...@aol.com
In a message dated 10/13/98 03:19:55 PM, leon...@aol.com wrote:
>I'm looking for a few tunes which we know for certain were played by Highland
>pipers in the middle 1700's. More particularly useful would be tunes which we
>can verify were played in the Highland regiments at that time.
No one else touched this, so here goes.
Good luck finding tunes you "know for certain" were played mid 1700's, unless
you like Piobaireachd.
The only treatise known to have been written about pipe music in the 18th
century was written by Joseph MacDonald, an officer in the East India Company.
His "A Compleat Theory of the Scots Highland Bagpipe" contains many exercises
of Piobaireachd-like movements, and only a few snatches of unnamed tunes.
Seamus MacNeil identifies the example of the reel as "John MacKechnie," and
the jig example as "The Stool of Repentance."
I am no real expert on the history of pipe music, but my recommendation would
be to try to find a copy of the books written in the 19th century by Wm. Ross
(piper to Queen Victoria), and by Donald MacPhee. These settings are much
different than the ones you will find in modern collections. Then look at old
tunes that must have been around during the time of Burns (late 18th century).
There is no guarantee that pipers played these tunes back then, but they were
around because Burns set lyrics to them:
The Mucking of Geordie's Byre
My Lodging is on the Cold Ground
Corn Riggs are Bonnie
The Mill, Mill O
Maggie Lauder
Lord Breadalbane's March
Killiecrankie
Ye Jacobites by Name
Over the Hill and far away.
Most of these can be found in modern collections as well.
Here is a guess about some other tunes that may have been played in the 18th
century, most definitely in the19th century (judging by the Ross and MacPhee
books):
Hills of Glenorchy
All the Blue Bonnets
Caber Feidh
Bruce's Address (Scot's Wha Hae)
Lord Lovat's March
Up and Waur them A, Wullie
Donald Blue
Macpherson's lament.
Beyond that, do your own research. It should be fun for a re-enactment type.
Duane
Bill Collins
> In a message dated 10/13/98 03:19:55 PM, leon...@aol.com wrote:
> >I'm looking for a few tunes which we know for certain were played by Highland
> >pipers in the middle 1700's. More particularly useful would be tunes which we
> >can verify were played in the Highland regiments at that time.
>
> No one else touched this, so here goes.
> Good luck finding tunes you "know for certain" were played mid 1700's, unless
I'm not a historical expert either, but to give you pretty much the same
advice but on a budget: I'd check the regimental books (i.e. Gordon
Highlanders, Scots Guards I, etc) and pick out the tunes that say
"trad." next to them. Don't use Scots Guards II as the tunes there are,
for the most part, more modern.
As with most things to do with reenactors, the winner of the argument
will be the one who manages to shift the burden of proof on the other
party. Have the guy's prove that the old 42nd DIDN'T play that tune.
--
Bill Collins
______________________
"Just because you're paranoid...it
doesn't mean they're not out to get you."
SirJ1314
music for the great highland pipes has really changed since it was introduced.
Like have they always used emellishments like birls, taorlauths, etc.? Or were
they develpoed this century? If anyone has information I would be very
interested.
barry shears
Traditional Gaelic Bagpiping, 1745-1945
John G. Gibson
The bagpipe is one of the cultural icons of Scottish highlanders, but in
the twentieth century traditional Scottish Gaelic piping has all but
disappeared. Few recordings were ever made of traditional pipe music and
there are almost no Gaelic-speaking pipers of the old school left.
Recording an important aspect of Gaelic culture before it disappears,
John
Gibson chronicles the decline of traditional Highland Gaelic bagpiping -
and Gaelic culture as a whole - and provides examples of traditional
bagpipe music that have survived in the New World.
Pulling together what is known of eighteenth-century West Highland
piping
and pipers and relating this to the effects of changing social
conditions
on traditional Scottish Gaelic piping since the suppression of the last
Jacobite rebellion, Gibson presents a new interpretation of the decline
of
Gaelic piping and a new view of Gaelic society prior to the Highland
diaspora. Refuting widely accepted opinions that after Culloden pipes
and
pipers were effectively banned in Scotland by the Disarming Act (1746),
Gibson reveals that traditional dance bagpiping continued at least to
the
mid-nineteenth century. He argues that the dramatic depopulation of the
Highlands in the nineteenth century was one of the main reasons for the
decline of piping.
Following the path of Scottish emigrants, Gibson traces the history of
bagpiping in the New World and uncovers examples of late
eighteenth-century
traditional bagpiping and dance in Gaelic Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He
argues that these anachronistic cultural forms provide a vital link to
the
vanished folk music and culture of the Scottish highlanders.
This definitive study throws light on the ways pipers and piping
contributed to social integration in the days of the clan system and on
the
decline in Scottish Gaelic culture following the abolition of clans. It
also illuminates the cultural problems faced by all ethnic minorities
assimilated into unitary multinational societies.
"By studying and reinterpreting the historical relationship between
traditional Scottish and New World preliterate piping Traditional Gaelic
Bagpiping, 1745-1945 vastly enriches our knowledge of both of them. A
monumental contribution to Scottish and Canadian cultural studies."
Robin Lorimer, musicologist.
John G. Gibson is a Scots-born writer-historian living in Judique, Cape
Breton, Nova Scotia.
I also have published a few books of music which contain some info on
older piping styles found in that" Jurassic Park "of Gaelic culture,
Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Another tip would be to compare 20th century
tutors with a copies of the mid 19th century collections, most of which
contain instruction on how to play the bagpipe