Seanchaidh na Coille by Michael Newton

Author:Michael Newton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cape Breton University Press
Published: 2015-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

4: Elegy to Iain MacGilleBhràth

The following elegy was composed to the celebrated musician-scholar Iain MacGilleBhràth “am Pìobaire Mór” (the Great Bagpiper) on his death on April 19, 1860, in Nova Scotia by an unnamed brother. It is sung to the tune of “Cumha Chlann Dòmhnaill” (The Lament of Clan Donald),19 which is appropriate given his kinship and cultural affiliations. This song gives us a parting glimpse of the last vestiges of the aristocratic Highland order: MacGilleBhràth was one of the last Gaelic poets and musicians to enjoy professional patronage in Scotland, and as this text relates, he had revelled in the company of others of similar station on the famous yacht the Dubh-Ghleannach before he left for Nova Scotia.20 After settling in Antigonish County he changed his career to schoolteacher (lines 37-40).

The high social rank and personal attainments of both Iain himself and the family in general are strongly emphasized (lines 9-12). The stress on manners and gentility (lines 11, 31 and 40) is interesting in light of the book entitled Companach an Òganaich (The Youth’s Companion) written by MacGilleBhràth’s son Alasdair in 1836 in Gaelic to provide advice about morality and etiquette to those aspiring to upward mobility.21 MacGilleBhràth had received considerable formal education (lines 33-35, 45 and 49) and was deeply immersed in the history, literature and music of his people, having been trained by a hereditary piping instructor on the Isle of Skye (lines 54-56). His pre-eminence on the instrument is described in some detail in the poem (lines 57-65), which makes allusion (line 67) to one of the celebrated Gaelic poets of the early-19th-century Highlands, Alasdair MacFhionghain of Morar, who praised MacGilleBhràth’s musical skills in one of his own compositions. MacGilleBhràth is praised for his great intellectual capacities, enabled by remarkable powers of memory (lines 51-52), and for his work recovering Gaelic poetry that was later printed in An Cuairtear Òg Gàidhealach22 (lines 73-78). One of his original compositions was a religious hymn about the crucifixion (described in lines 81-88).23

Original Text

1

Seo an saoghal neo-chinnteach

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