The Sea Kingdoms by Alistair Moffat

Author:Alistair Moffat
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Birlinn

Few of the institutions of the Lordship survived in any recognizable form, except one surprising legacy that surfaced in Skye in the 1580s, although the likelihood is that it was much older than the sixteenth century. The MacCrimmons were hereditary pipers to the Macleods of Dunvegan, and until 1801 they maintained a school of piping which ensured that what the Gaels called Piobaireachd (Anglicized as Pibroch) developed into one of the most sophisticated musical traditions in western Europe.

From earliest times bagpipes were common to many cultures. There are records of the Roman Emperor, Nero, playing the pipes as well as the fiddle and the ladies of the medieval French court played the corne-muse as a refined social accomplishment. Henry VIII had five sets of bagpipes, but as high society became more and more indoor after 1500, they were played less and less. Although smaller domestic sets using a bellows arrangement rather than lungpower did maintain some popularity, the bagpipes were seen, along with the drum and horn, as an outdoor instrument. In only one country did they avoid modification for the drawing room. The great Highland bagpipes of the Scottish Gael retained their loudness and power and with them the Ceol Mor, the Great Music, was created.

Unlike bellows-driven pipes the bagpipe is mouth blown. The reeds work best when slightly damp, and to keep a set of pipes in good working condition they need to be played almost every day. This led to a creative virtuous circle. Because the pipes were played so often, composition began to develop and skills improved with good tuition and practice. Pipers had particular roles, and certain styles and tunes were eventually thought to be appropriate to each. In the morning they played reveille and in the evening they welcomed guests, as they still do at modern weddings. Like buglers, pipers were also important in warfare. They relayed battle orders to an army in action, and at the battle of Falkirk in 1746, the Jacobite army failed to press home its advantage because the pipers had given their instruments to their servants and gone in with their swords. That meant that Lord George Murray and the other commanders were unable to communicate readily with their troops.

The single most important impetus to the creation of pipe music as an art form of great beauty was the Skye college of the MacCrimmons. More than any of their predecessors, they understood how best to adapt the special qualities of the Highland bagpipe. Because the chanter which plays the tune is attached to the bottom of the bag and is not in the mouth, there can be little loud/soft variation, and there is no break in the music since the three drones make a continuous sound. Good players take a long time to tune the single bass and two tenor drones and often play informal preludes in order to work their instruments into a stable state.

At the MacCrimmon college, pipe music was divided into two classifications: the Ceol Mor, or Great Music, and the Ceol Beag or Small Music.

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