The Mysteries of Piobaireachd Vol 2: Addendum

The last post in this category was about the story behind a few piobaireachd tunes, and I just heard another that I had to share.

A highland village near a loch relied heavily on the men of the village to catch enough fish to get through the winter.  In one particular year the old men were to old to fish and the young men devoted their efforts to catching young ladies instead of fish; the resulting tune of the hardships of the village is "Scarce of Fishing."

The Mysteries of Piobaireachd Volume 2: The Story

Piobaireachd is one of the forms of music that is quintessentially Scottish.  It's the original music of the GHB, played by lone pipers before anyone ever thought to make more than one piper play at the same time.  It's sometimes referred to as the classical music of the bagpipes, and there is a lot more to a good piobaireachd than just playing the notes.  This series of posts will highlight some of the mysteries of piobaireachd, and why it's such a unique style of music.

Another reason that piobaireachds are so great is that each tune has a story behind it.  Sometimes the general story can be deduced from the name ("The King's Taxes"), but a bit of research can usually turn up some really interesting stories.  Here are a few of my favorites.

The castle of Duntrune in Argyllshire was at one time a stronghold of clan Campbell.  Legend has it that the MacDonalds invaded and captured the castle while the Campbell chief was away, but the MacDonald chief had to return home for some reason.  He left a small detail to hold the castle which included his piper.  The Campbells returned and retook the castle, killing all the guard except the piper.  They lay in wait for the MacDonalds to return, and the piper maintained a vigil on the ramparts, looking for his chieftain's boat to come across the loch.  When he saw the boat he struck up his pipes and played a tune the chief would recognize, but slightly different to indicate something was wrong.  The MacDonald chief interpretted the warning correctly and turned the boat around.  The piper received a punishment worse than death: his hands were cut off so he could never play again.  He subsequently died from his injuries, and the tune he played has come to be known as "The Piper's Warning to his Master."  This story was thought to be just legend until excavations at Duntrune unearthed a skeleton with its hands cut off cleanly at the wrist, leading to speculation that maybe there was some truth to the story.

Donald Mor MacCrimmon had a younger brother with facial ticks, which earned him the nickname Squinting Patrick.  Poor Patrick was murdered by his foster brother, and Donald was not happy with this.  His clan chief advised him to wait a year before exacting his revenge, hoping the time would cool his anger, but it didn't.  After 12 months Donald and a band of men rode to the village on Kintail, where the murderer was known to live.  He went from door to door demanding the murderer, but no one in the village would give him up.  Donald then had the doors nailed shut and set fire to 18 houses in the village, resulting in the death of several of its inhabitants.  As the village burned, he played a tune called "A Flame of Wrath from Squinting Patrick."

Email me if you know other good stories and I'll add them in a follow up post.

Previous Mysteries of Piobaireachd Posts
Volume 1: What's in a Name?

The Mysteries of Piobaireachd Volume 1: What's in a Name?

Piobaireachd is one of the forms of music that is quintessentially Scottish.  It's the original music of the GHB, played by lone pipers before anyone ever thought to make more than one piper play at the same time.  It's sometimes referred to as the classical music of the bagpipes, and there is a lot more to a good piobaireachd than just playing the notes.  This series of posts will highlight some of the mysteries of piobaireachd, and why it's such a unique style of music. 

One of the best things about a piobaireachd is often its title.  Tunes were traditionally written to celebrate or mourn a person, commemorate an event or battle, announce the gathering or movement of clans, or make a general commentary on life.  As such, each tune has a unique story behind it and the names are often very descriptive.  Here's a list of some of my favorite piobaireachd names, in no particular order.  Tunes that I play are marked with an asterisk (*).

• The Unjust Incarceration
• The King's Taxes
• The Red-Speckled Bull
• The Rout of the MacPhees
• Lament for the Only Son
• The Blind Piper's Obstinacy
• Lament for the Dead
  
• The Massacre of Glencoe*
• The Finger Lock
• The MacKay's White Banner
• Scarce of Fishing
• Lament for the Union (the Union being between England and Scotland)
• The Vaunting
• A Flame of Wrath for Squinting Patrick
• The Bicker
• The Bells of Perth
• Too Long in this Condition
  
• The Glen is Mine
• The Little Spree (A spree in this context refers to a drinking binge.  There are also tunes called The Big Spree and The Meddling Spree)
  
• The Old Men of the Shells
• The Desperate Battle of the Birds*
• A Piper's Warning to His Master

These are my favorite piobaireachd names; do you any others you like? 

First competition wrapup

If you have a good memory and have been paying attention, you would have noticed that the counter on my blog expired yesterday morning at about 10:00, and I was counting down to my first solo piping competition. The counter has now been reset for my next competition at the Loch Norman Highland Games in Charlotte, NC.

The day was an interesting one, a combination of ups and downs. The band bus arrived about 8:15 am, and I got there at the same time since I rode on the bus. The solo competitions were scheduled to start around 9:00 and we had a few who were playing around that time. I helped find a place for the band to hang out and helped some of the younger ones get ready for their own competitions and checked the schedule... my own competitions were supposed to start at 12:30, so I had some time to kill.

The morning was spent in a combination of listening to others play, changing into the band uniform, and warming up my own pipes, and I went to check on my competitions. All of the judges were running behind, and since I was last on the order of play (which is usually a good thing) I was definitely concerned with my solos interfering with preparations for the band contest. The band was on last as well, and didn't have to tune up until about 3:00, and by 2:30 I had only attempted one of my solo competitions. I say attempted because that was what happened; officially it's a break down because I didn't finish the tune. In the second part of my strathspey I played a wrong note, fuzzed around for a bit and couldn't get back on, and just stopped. It's disappointing, only my second breakdown in five years of competing. I blame it on a combination of not enough practice and not paying attention; it won't happen again.

I waited for a bit and then played my 6/8 march, and finished around 3:00. I felt pretty good about the 6/8, and from the look of things it was the only event I was going to actually finish. The 2/4 march and piobaireachd were both running so far behind that there was no way I was going to play them and be able to do band stuff too. Grrr. So I put my solo chanter down, got the band chanter, and put myself out of the solo piping mindset.

During a break in the band tuneup (the band contest was also running behind, since some of the judges were behind in their solos), I went to get my scoresheet for the 6/8 march: 1st place with the designation of "above grade level." I can tell you that redeemed the day for me. Continued warming up, played the band contest, and ran back upstairs to check on the solo competitions. Piobaireachd was actually so far behind that the second to last competitor (right in front of me) was just starting his tune, so the steward said "You want to play?" Heck yeah! I missed the 2/4, but I was going to play another one.

The tune went fairly well, and there was a nice little chat with the judge after. He said "You're a very good player, and you've been we'll taught. I'm surprised I've never heard of you. A few little finger things, crunluaths not always consistent, but the music is there: good phrasing, good tempos, good transitions." That made me feel good; he said the competition was really tough so I wasn't expecting a prize (one wrong note and some finger things), so you can imagine my surprise when I went to the scoring table on the way to find 2nd place with another above grade level.

The band placed second out of five, and I'll post videos of the whole band contest on YouTube by this afternoon. Now it's time for breakfast, and to call all my piping friends to tell them I feel like a good piper.

**Addition: I have started a journal of competition results. Click here.