Pibroch, or is an art music genre associated primarily with the Scottish Highlands that is characterised by extended compositions with a melodic theme and elaborate formal variations. Strictly meaning 'piping' in Scottish Gaelic, has for some four centuries been music of the great Highland bagpipe.Haddow, Alexander John (1982, 2003) The History and Structure of Ceol Mor - A Guide to Piobaireachd: The Classical Music of the Great Highland Bagpipe. Glasgow: The Piobaireachd Society.
A more general term is (in reformed spelling, or in old spelling), meaning the 'great music' (to distinguish this complex extended art-music from the more popular Scottish music such as dances, reels, marches, and strathspeys, which are called or 'little music'). This term encompasses music of a similar nature to pibroch, pre-dating the adoption of the Highland pipes, that has historically been played on the wire-strung Gaelic harp () and later on the Scottish fiddle, and this form is undergoing a revival.
Etymology + Pronunciations Scots Gaelic Pronunciation The Gaelic word literally means 'piping' or 'act of piping'. The word is derived from ('pipes') via ('piper') plus the abstract forming suffix . In Gaelic, literally refers to any pipe music, not merely (literally: 'big music'). Pibroch is a spelling variant first attested in Lowland Scots in 1719.
Bagpipe societies, such as the Glasgow-based Piobaireachd Society, have commonly employed the term as a synonym for played on the Great Highland Bagpipes. The term or pibroch is also historically employed to describe -related repertoire played on instruments other than bagpipes, particularly the Scottish fiddle. This book is an outgrowth of a 30-part BBC series commissioned by Martin Dalby. See also
Notation 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 , 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 sung vocable system used today is the Nether Lorn adapted from the written vocable notation in the Campbell Canntaireachd manuscripts (Volume 1. 1797) and (Volume 2. 1814). available online from the Pibroch Network website. 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 (1845), Archibald Campbell's The Kilberry Book of (1969),Campbell, Archibald (1969, reprinted 2006). The Kilberry Book of Ceol Mor, 3rd Ed, Glasgow: The College of Piping. and The Pìobaireachd Society BooksThe Piobaireachd Society. Piobaireachd Society Books, Volumes 1-15, Glasgow: Engraved and Printed for the Piobaireachd Society by Holmes McDougall LTD., 33 York Street, Glasgow.
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.
Pibroch is difficult to document accurately using traditional musical notation, and early attempts suffered from conventions which do not accurately convey tune expression.See Seumas MacNeill's Preface in Angus MacKay, A Collection of Ancient Pìobaireachd (1845). More contemporary pibroch notation has attempted to address these issues, and has produced notation much closer to true expression of the tunes.Ross, Roderick S. (ed.) (1992). Binneas is Boreraig, The Complete Collection, 1959. Glasgow: The College of Piping.MacNeill, Dugald B. (2007). Sight Readable Ceol Mor Book I. Edinburgh, Scotland: Dugald B. MacNeil.
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.
Structure Related genres were historically also played on the fiddle and on the wire-strung Gaelic harp or .Simon Chadwick, 'Ceòl mór' at http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/ceolmor The clarsach is likely to have predated and influenced the later pipeSee Barnaby Brown in his introduction to Allan MacDonald's "Dastirum" (). and fiddleDavid Johnson, Scottish Fiddle Music of the 18th Century, John Donald, Edinburgh, 1984 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 . 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 or ground usually include a ('passing' or 'traversing') or ('two' or 'a pair') or both. The 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 singling.
The 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 or variation are other more complex embellishments. The Gaelic names of these type movements are: , , and . 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:
Primary – The theme or ground is composed of two two-bar phrases, A and B, played in the following order: AAB ABB AB Secondary – The theme or ground is composed of four phrases, with A and B being one-bar phrases and C and D being two-bar phrases, and played in the following order: ABCD CBAD CD Tertiary – A relative of Primary Pibroch, with three two-bar phrases, A, B, and C, played in the following order: AB ABB AB C Irregular – The theme or ground does not fit into any of the above structures.
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.Haddow, Alexander John (1982, 2003). The History and Structure of Ceol Mor - A Guide to Piobaireachd The Classical Music of the Great Highland Bagpipe, Glasgow: The Piobaireachd Society.
There is evidence from early treatises (e.g. Joseph MacDonald) that the structure was originally counted in 4, so a Primary form would be AABA BBAB
Similarly, Secondary form can be read as abABA baBABBarnaby Brown, The Design of It: Patterns in Pibroch, The Voice, Winter 2004
Titles and subjects
The Gaelic titles of pibroch compositions have been categorised by Roderick Cannon into four broad groupings.Roderick D. Cannon, Gaelic Names of Pibrochs: A Classification, Scottish Studies, 2006. These include:
Functional – salutes, laments, marches and gatherings. Technical – referring to strictly musical characteristics of the pieces such as "port" or "glas", terms shared with wire-strung harpers. Textual – quotations from song lyrics, usually the opening words. Short names – diverse short names referring to places, people and events similar to those found in Scottish popular music of the period.
Pibroch in the functional category were most commonly written for or have come to be associated with specific events, personages or situations:
Laments () are mourning tunes often written for a deceased person of note. Laments were commonly written as a result of families being displaced from their homeland, a practice that was very common after the Jacobite rising of 1745. Salutes () are tunes that acknowledge a person, event or location. Salutes were often written upon the birth of children or after a visitation to a prominent figure such as a clan chief. Many salutes have been written to commemorate famous pipers. Gatherings () are tunes written specifically for a clan. These tunes were used to call a clan together by their chief. The title "Gathering" traditionally refers to the practice of seasonal cattle raiding of rival clans.Barnaby Brown, "The MacFarlanes' Gathering (Too Long in this Condition)", AltPibroch website, posted Dec 19, 2016 MacFarlanes' Gathering, for example, had associated Gaelic words written according to 19th-century tradition by Aindrea Triath nam Pàrlanach, chieftain of the MacFarlanes between 1514 and 1544, as follows. etc. English translation: Cattle lifting, cattle rustling, cattle lifting we'll go, cattle lifting, through rain and through mist, up the moor of Glen Croe we'll go. Booty lifting, wasp stinging, booty lifting we'll go, etc. Rowing pibroch are more rhythmic tunes used to encourage rowers while crossing the sea.
The different categories of pibroch do not have consistent distinctive musical patterns that are characteristic of the category.Roderick S. Ross (ed.), , The Complete Collection, 1959, Glasgow: The College of Piping, 1992. 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.