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33 chapters
Preface.
Preface.
This book was not written on a preconceived plan, drawn up from the beginning of the work. It “growed.” It had its inception in a commission to write for the Weekly Herald half-a-dozen biographical articles on famous pipers. The necessary investigation produced a mass of material too interesting to be left unused, and the half-dozen articles of the original commission became twenty-seven, with very little of the biographical in them. These, after being finally recast, revised, and in several cas
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CHAPTER I. Tuning up.
CHAPTER I. Tuning up.
“A Hundred Pipers”—Scotland becoming Cosmopolitan—The War spirit of the Pipes—Regiments, not Clans—Annual Gatherings—Adaptability of Pipes—Scotch folk from Home—An aged Enthusiast—Highlands an Extraordinary Study—Succession of Chiefs—Saxon introduced—Gaelic printed—Highlands in 1603—The Mac Neills of Barra—Highland hospitality. “Wi’ a Hundred Pipers an’ a’ an’ a’” is a song that catches on with Highland people as well now as in the days when the piper was a power in the land. There is a never en
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CHAPTER II. Harpers, Bards, and Pipers.
CHAPTER II. Harpers, Bards, and Pipers.
Ancient musical instruments—Priestly harpers—Hereditary harpers—Irish versus Scottish harpers—Royal harpers—Use of harp universal—Welsh sarcasm—Mary Queen of Scots’ harp—The last of the harpers—“The Harper of Mull”—From harp to pipes—The Clarsach —Pipes supplanting bards—The last clan bard—Bardic customs—Bards’ jealousy of pipes—The bard in battle—Duncan Ban Mac Intyre—Two pipers scared—When the pipes became paramount—The fiery cross—The coronach. The harp was the immediate predecessor of the pi
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CHAPTER III. The Tale of the Years.
CHAPTER III. The Tale of the Years.
The time of the Flood—Pipes in Scripture—In Persia—In Arabia—In Tarsus—Tradition of the Nativity—In Rome—In Greece—In Wales, Ireland, and Scotland—Melrose Abbey—In France—In England—At Bannockburn—Chaucer—In war—First authentic Scottish reference—Oldest authentic specimen—Became general—Rosslyn Chapel—Second drone added—At Flodden—“A maske of bagpypes”—Spenser—Shakespeare—James VI.—A poetical historian—Big drone added—The ’45—Native to Scotland—The evolution of the Highlands. Gillidh Callum was
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CHAPTER IV. The Make of the Pipes.
CHAPTER IV. The Make of the Pipes.
There’s meat and music here, as the fox said when he ate the bagpipe.— Gaelic Proverb. The “Encyclopædia” definition—The simple reed—Early forms—Simple bagpipes—The chorus—The volynka —Continental pipes—British pipes—The Northumbrian—The Irish—The Highland—Tuning—Modern pipes—Prize pipes. “A wind instrument whose fixed characteristic has always been two or more reed pipes attached to and sounded by a wind chest or bag, which bag has in turn been supplied either by the lungs of the performer or b
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CHAPTER V. With an Ear to the Drone.
CHAPTER V. With an Ear to the Drone.
Dr. Johnson—Inspiration of Scottish music—Professor Blackie—Highland music simple—Scottish airs once Highland—Age of Highland music—Capability of the bagpipe—How it has suffered—Peculiarities of the pibroch—Pipe music not fitted for inside—How it troubled the pressman—Chevalier Neukomm—Professor Blackie again—A Chicago jury’s opinion—An ode to the pipes. Dr. Johnson, who was in several ways a bundle of contradictions, found at least one thing in Scotland that he enjoyed. When on his tour through
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CHAPTER VI. The “Language” of the Pipes.
CHAPTER VI. The “Language” of the Pipes.
Have the pipes a language?—A wild, fanciful notion—How it got a hold—How much of it is true?—The reed actually speaking—A powerful influence—The power of association—Neil Munro—Descriptive Highland airs— A Cholla mo run —Military stories—In South Africa—An enthusiastic war correspondent. In this chapter we would walk warily, knowing that we are on dangerous ground. The question is, Has the bagpipe a language more than any other instrument? Can it speak to the heart of the Highlander more than an
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CHAPTER VII. The Literature of the Pipes.
CHAPTER VII. The Literature of the Pipes.
Ancient music lost—Transmission by tradition—Druidical remains—Systems of teaching—No books—“Unintelligible jargon”— Canntaireachd —The Mac Crimmon System—The Gesto Book—A scientific system—A tune in Canntaireachd —Pipers unable to explain—Earliest printed pipe music—Mac Donald’s books—More recent books—Something to be done. For long, the music of the pipes was so much a part of the life of the people that no records of tunes were necessary. But there came a time when interest in these things wa
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CHAPTER VIII. The Pipes in Battle.
CHAPTER VIII. The Pipes in Battle.
A Culloden incident—Ancient Celts in battle—The harper and bard superseded—First mention of pipes in battle—First regimental pipers—In the navy—Prince Charlie’s pipers—An “instrument of war”—A Mac Crimmon incident—Power of pipes in battle—A Magersfontein incident—Byron’s tribute—Position in actual battle. Professor Aytoun in these cynically humorous lines, from the “Bon Gaultier Ballads,” would have us believe that the piper was more important in times of war than the actual fighting man. He was
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CHAPTER IX. The Piper as a Hero.
CHAPTER IX. The Piper as a Hero.
One cowardly piper—At Philiphaugh—At Bothwell Bridge—At Cromdale—The Peninsular War—At Waterloo—Reay Country pipers—At Candahar—At Lucknow—In America—In Ashanti—In the Soudan—In South Africa. The pipers of a regiment are exposed to very much the same dangers as are the soldiers, and in all the history of British warfare we read of only one cowardly piper. This was Raoghull Odhar , a Highlander, who, being one day in the exercise of his duty in the battlefield along with his clan, was seized with
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CHAPTER X. The Regimental Piper.
CHAPTER X. The Regimental Piper.
Preserving the pipes—Regimental bands—Pay of army pipers—The seven pipers of Falkirk—Duties of regimental pipers—The meaning of “Retreat”—A story of Napoleon—In a social capacity—An army wedding—A military funeral—At the officers’ mess—Awkward incidents—“Boberechims.” Nothing has helped more to preserve the bagpipe as our national musical instrument than the fact that it has always been used in connection with the Highland regiments. On several occasions officers, always English, it should be no
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CHAPTER XI. The Piper as a Man of Peace.
CHAPTER XI. The Piper as a Man of Peace.
Clan pipers—Chief’s retinue—At weddings—Pipers prohibited—In sorrow—At funerals—Queen Victoria’s funeral—To lighten labour—The harvest dance—The shepherd’s pipe—In church architecture—In church services—As a call to church—Ministers and the pipes—Falling into disrepute—“As proud as a piper”—Jealousy of the old masters—“As fou as a piper”—An Irish piper. The pipers of old were hereditary pipers, and lived from generation to generation in the family of the chief who ruled their clan. They were tra
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CHAPTER XII. The Burgh Pipers of Scotland.
CHAPTER XII. The Burgh Pipers of Scotland.
Royal pipers—In France—At the English court—The Edinburgh Piper—Dumbarton—Biggar—Wigtown—Glenluce—Dumfries—Linlithgow—Aberdeen—Perth—Keith—Dalkeith—Dundee—Peebles—A weird story—Falkirk—“Gallowshiels” pipers’ combat—The Hasties of Jedburgh—Habbie Simson of Kilbarchan—Bridgeton—Neil Blane of Lanark—The Piper of Northumberland. Although as a clan musician the piper was to a large extent a public character, he was quite as public in one or two other capacities. There were semi-royal pipers, and ther
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CHAPTER XIII. From the Seat of the Scorner.
CHAPTER XIII. From the Seat of the Scorner.
Poking fun at the pipes—English caricature—Mixed metaphor—Churchism and pipes—Fifteenth century satire—A biographical sneer—Thackeray—Bitter English writers—Testimony of a Jew—Home sarcasm—The bards—Joanna Baillie—A Frenchman’s opinion—William Black—Ignorance breaking its shins—Imported sportsmen—The duty of Highlanders. There is a curious tendency, except in truly Highland circles, to poke fun at the pipes. This tendency is very noticeable in the domain of English comic journalism, the more or
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CHAPTER XIV. The Humour of the Pipes.
CHAPTER XIV. The Humour of the Pipes.
Punch’s joke—King Charles’s heads—An amusing competition—A Highlander’s Irishism—Wedding experiences—A piper’s fall—A resourceful piper—A Cameron piper and his officer—“Lochaber no more”—An elephant’s objection—Embarked in a tub—Glasgow street scene—Bad player’s strategy—What the wind did—A new kind of tripe—A Pasha and a piper—A Gordon nervous—A jealous piper—Dougal Mac Dougal’s downfall. Apart from the wilfully sarcastic humour exemplified in the previous chapter, there clings round the pipes
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CHAPTER XV. Demoniac Pipes and Pipers.
CHAPTER XV. Demoniac Pipes and Pipers.
Tam o’ Shanter—The Devil’s favourite instrument—“Sorcerers” burned—A bard’s satire—Glasgow Cathedral story—A Hebridean Tam o’ Shanter—Continental ideas—Reformation zeal—Ghostly pipers—A “changeling piper”— The Lost Pibroch —The Chisholm “enchanted pipes”—The Black Chanter of Clan Chattan. It was not at all a new idea that of Burns, when he represented the arch-enemy of mankind playing the pipes to the revellers in Alloway’s “auld haunted kirk.” The ancients had it, and the sylvan divinity Pan, w
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CHAPTER XVI. Pipers and Fairies.
CHAPTER XVI. Pipers and Fairies.
In fairies’ hillocks—Stories with a common origin—Sutherlandshire version—Away for a year—Harris piper and the fairies—Seven years away—Fairies helping pipers—Helping the Mac Crimmons—A boy piper—How the music went from Islay to Skye—Faust-like bargains—A Caithness story—A fairy piper. Pipers with a leaning towards the uncanny dealt largely with fairies, and in West Highland mythology piping is said to have been heard in fairies’ hillocks. “I know two sisters,” says a boy in a story of Skye—“one
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CHAPTER XVII. Pipers in Enchanted Caves.
CHAPTER XVII. Pipers in Enchanted Caves.
Allied to fairy stories—Venturesome pipers—The Skye cave—The Mull version—The Argyllshire—The Ghostly piper of Dunderave—“Wandering Willie’s Tale”—A Sutherlandshire cave—A Caithness story—Underground passages. The story of a piper endeavouring to explore a mysterious cave is so closely allied to the class dealt with in last chapter, that all might quite fairly have been included under one heading. The only difference often is that in the one case the piper enters a cave opening out to the sea, w
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CHAPTER XVIII. The Hereditary Pipers.
CHAPTER XVIII. The Hereditary Pipers.
Hereditary in two senses—When they ceased—The Mac Crimmons—A traditional genealogy—A Mac Gregor tradition—The Mac Crimmon College—Dr. Johnson—College broken up—An Irish college—Its system—A Mac Crimmon’s escapades—Respect for the Mac Crimmons—The Rout of Moy—The last of the race—How they excelled—The Mac Arthurs—The Mac Intyres—The Mac Kays—The Rankins—The Campbells—The Mac Gregors. The hereditary pipers were hereditary in at least two senses. They were hereditary because son followed father, ge
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CHAPTER XIX. Some Latter Day Pipers.
CHAPTER XIX. Some Latter Day Pipers.
Angus Mac Kay—Queen Victoria’s first piper—His book—Donald Mac Kay—John Bane Mac Kenzie—The Queen’s offer—The piper’s reply—Donald Cameron—His achievements—His theory of pipe music—His system of noting—His last competition—A special reed—“The King of Pipers”—Other latter day pipers. After the death of the last Mac Crimmon piper in 1822 no one was left to maintain the traditions of the hereditary pipers. But the class was not wholly extinct. The next notable name we come across is one that is not
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CHAPTER XX. How Piping is Preserved.
CHAPTER XX. How Piping is Preserved.
The waking—Professor Blackie—Highland Society of Scotland—Highland Society of London—The system of competitions—The first competition—The venue changed—The gold medal—Present day competitions—Some suggestions—R.L.S.—Pipe bands—Examples from high life—Quality of music—The Pipes abroad—Sir Walter Scott. The verse of Scott’s, quoted at the head of this chapter, referred to the harp, but we may use it as referring to the pipes, remembering at the same time that there is little hope of these ever occ
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“A CHOLLA MO RUN.”
“A CHOLLA MO RUN.”
One of the earliest recorded instances of the bravery of a piper is contained in the annals of our own Highlands, and is inseparably connected with the tune known as A Cholla mo run , referred to in a previous chapter. [16] It may be as well to give the story here at full length. The hero was the piper of Coll Kitto, or left-handed Coll, who landed in Islay with the advance party of an expedition from Ireland, with instructions to take the Castle of Dunivaig by surprise, should he find that this
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“DUNTROON’S SALUTE.”
“DUNTROON’S SALUTE.”
Another tune—“Duntroon’s Salute”—is mixed up with A Cholla mo run in a rather peculiar way, a way that suggests that the origin of the one is somehow being attributed to the other. Sir Alexander Mac Donald, Alister Mac Cholla Chiotaich , so this story goes, made a raid on Argyllshire in 1644 (the dates are irreconcilable with the accepted facts of the two stories), and surrounded Duntroon Castle, with the object of cutting off every person inside in revenge for the murder of his father’s piper.
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CHAPTER XXII. Some World-Famous Pibrochs.
CHAPTER XXII. Some World-Famous Pibrochs.
Mac Crimmon’s Lament—Best known of all pipe tunes—Its story—Blackie’s poetry—Scott’s—The war tune of Glengarry—A tragic story—The pibroch o’ Donuil Dhu—Too long in this condition—Pipers and inhospitality—Oh, that I had three hands—Lochaber no more—Allan Ramsay’s verses—An elated Mac Crimmon—Rory Mòr’s Lament—Clan Farlane pibroch—Pipers, poetry, and superstition. There are several reasons why “Mac Crimmon’s Lament” should be the best known of all pipe tunes, but the most important is the fact tha
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CHAPTER XXIII. Some Well-Known Gatherings.
CHAPTER XXIII. Some Well-Known Gatherings.
A Tune with four stories—The Carles wi’ the Breeks—The Mac Gregor’s Gathering—Scott’s verses— Caber Feidh —The Camerons’ Gathering—Well-matched chiefs—The Loch of the Sword. The first tune to be noticed in this chapter is peculiar in this respect, that whereas to many are ascribed two origins, to this there are ascribed three or four. More than one cannot possibly be correct, unless we conclude that different pipers at different times in different places and without any co-operation, composed th
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CHAPTER XXIV. More Stories and a Moral.
CHAPTER XXIV. More Stories and a Moral.
The Clan Stewart March—Mac Gregor of Ruaro—The Braes of the Mist—Episode at a Dunvegan competition—A Mac Crimmon surpassed—Mac Pherson’s Lament—Burns and the story—Rob Roy’s lament—The Mac Lachlans’ March— Gille Calum —The Reel o’ Tulloch—The Periwig Reel—Jenny Dang the Weaver—Mac Donald’s salute—Mac Leod’s Salute—Disappearing lore—Something to be done. The Royal House of Stuart should perhaps have been mentioned earlier, but, like other names famous in history, they did not leave much to poster
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I.—THE SCALE OF THE PIPES.
I.—THE SCALE OF THE PIPES.
In making a few observations on the scale of the bagpipe ( Piob-mhorna h-Alba ) it is not necessary to go deeply into the evolution of instrumental music, but it may be well to state shortly that the earliest instruments devised for expressing musical sounds, that is sounds having a definite relation to one another, were of two distinct orders, the first probably being the reed or pipe, made of various materials, such as straw, reeds, bone, wood, or metal, blown by the mouth and giving a single
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II.—PRACTICAL HINTS.
II.—PRACTICAL HINTS.
If the player is standing the body should be perfectly upright, head erect, and eyes carelessly fixed on some object as high as himself. Great care should be taken that the shoulder on which the big drone rests is not allowed to rise, or yield in any way to the weight or blowing of the pipes; the head must not incline towards the big drone or droop backwards or forwards; the chest must be kept inflated and the shoulders square. If the player is marching the shoulders should be allowed to swing t
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III.—BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PIPE MUSIC.
III.—BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PIPE MUSIC.
The list of books of pipe music is not very long, but the difficulties of making it complete and accurate are more than may at first appear. The principal difficulty is in the matter of dates, publishers, no doubt for good reasons, nearly always refraining from giving on their title page the year in which the book was first issued. Some of the older books, too, are now very rare, and there are not many people who have anything like a complete set. The following list has been compiled with every
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IV.—GOLD MEDALISTS OF THE HIGHLAND SOCIETY OF LONDON.
IV.—GOLD MEDALISTS OF THE HIGHLAND SOCIETY OF LONDON.
In 1781, the Highland Society of London instituted competitions in pibroch playing. It was not, however, until 1835 that the gold medal now so well known as the highest honour attainable by pipers, was first awarded. The following is a list of the first prize winners and gold medalists so far as it has been found possible to obtain them. Unfortunately for the absolute authenticity of the list, the records of the Highland Society were lost in a fire sometime ago, and the secretary, therefore, cou
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V.—DIRECTORY OF BAGPIPE MAKERS.
V.—DIRECTORY OF BAGPIPE MAKERS.
The making of bagpipes is almost, if not quite confined to Scotland. One or two firms in London profess to be makers, but they either make very little or get the instruments from Scotland. There are no makers abroad, but a large trade is done by Scottish makers with colonial customers. The following is a list of all the makers of any professional standing:—...
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VI.—THE LARGEST KNOWN LIST OF PIBROCHS.
VI.—THE LARGEST KNOWN LIST OF PIBROCHS.
The following list of pibrochs, which is the index to Major-General Thomason’s Ceol Mor , [18] is the most complete that has ever been published. With the exception of three new tunes included in The Music of the Clan Mac Lean , and one or two others, it contains all the pibrochs known to present day players, while the particulars as to composers’ names and dates of origin are more full than anyone else has attempted:— 18 . See page 110 . With nineteen pibrochs, of which name and date and compos
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VII.—THE GARB OF OLD GAUL.
VII.—THE GARB OF OLD GAUL.
The “quelt,” as very ancient writers called it, is one of the few things that are left to remind Scotland of its once distinctive nationality. Together with the Gaelic and the pipes, it makes Scottish history peculiar among the histories of countries. In no other land have the distinguishing marks of a nationality that, as a separate kingdom, has ceased to exist been retained in almost all their original purity. Of the three things, the kilt is perhaps the most interesting. The language and the
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