Scottish scores for bagpipe - Weddings and Concerts

Eric Maclewis

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The music played with the Great Highland Bagpipe belongs to two main categories:

- ceòl-mór (gael. - great music) that could be described as classical bagpipe music: consisting of a main theme accompanied by multiple variations on a fairly slow tempo, it is the oldest known form of Scottish bagpipe music; in fact until the beginning of the 19th century this musical genre otherwise called pìobaireachd (gael. to designate the art of playing the bagpipes) or pibroch, is the only one to be performed on the bagpipes of the Highlands.

- ceòl-beag (gael. - small music): light music, music for dance; these airs were not played with the bagpipes before the 19th century but on other instruments such as the violin for example.
It now constitutes the essence of the repertoire of current pipers without them - for a minority -abandoning the great music of pìobaireachd.

The tunes presented here (70 in number for the moment) belong to the repertoire of ceòl-beag and, for the majority of them, to the show Scots Wha Hae.
The origin of the scores I wrote is varied: notation of the interpretations of some players that I had the opportunity to hear and meet (such as Fred Morrison for example), collections available for sale such as the reference works that constitute the three volumes of the Scots Guards - Standard Settings Of Pipe Music (Paterson's Publications), traditional scores already available on the internet.
I have sometimes corrected or completed these documents in order to compensate for obvious errors or oversights.
When necessary, I also proposed grace notes or structures somewhat out of instrumental music to get closer to the singing that offers valuable indications for a living interpretation of the melody.

Each air has been the subject of careful research and listening both from the point of view of notes and rhythms, expression, ornaments, etc... and from that of tempo.
This last element, a little more subjective, is of course linked to my feelings as a player and also depends on the environment in which the tune is interpreted: the proposed tempo is therefore above all a basis for work.
The other information relating to the air is the result of a curation work aimed at completing the presentation of the melody in several aspects (words, origins, etc.); some information relayed can be questioned, in particular because it does not cite - or insufficiently -their sources: we of course touch the limits of research on the web and I am of course very interested in any reliable information to correct or complete my point.

These scores are made available to you free of charge: use them, broadcast them as much as you want without omitting a reference to my site, to serve this music as much as I serve it.
Now, choose a track and discover the Scottish bagpipe score, the lyrics of the corresponding song, one or more recordings (from my albums, singles or edited with the CelticPipes software), videos, the history of the air, etc...

NB: if anyone believes there are copyright issues, please email me with details.

About the scores :

There are two main ways to transcribe the airs played with the Great Highland Bagpipe:

1. The main one - which I'll call Scottish writing - is read by all musicians and used on this website; the real pitch is an halftone above the score: as we play the A or D note from the score on the bagpipe, we hear a B flat or a E flat.
The scores are mostly written in the keys of A (with a natural G) and D.

2. The Breton writing (used by the bagadoù e.g.): the notes are at the real pitch this time; the scores are written in E flat major for an easier reading of the two parts for bombard and bagpipe.

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About the pitch: the “chanters” (pipe on which the melody is played) are generally higher than the 440 - 442 Hz standard A (or 466 Hz for the real note B flat = Scottish A).

Playing with other instruments (guitars for example) involves to artificially extend the length of the reed by removing it slightly with some hemp added to the brass tube where the reed strips are fixed and/or by using longer reeds specially designed for this purpose.

But the best is still to use adapted chanters called “concert pitch” designed specifically for this need.

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Some of these scores have a second title (or more): some airs are in fact best known by the song related but the bagpipe tune can have different(s) name(s).

The Great Highland Bagpipe

Scottish Tunes Tutorials

Practice Chanter

Menu Repertoire

PIBROCH

THE CORRIES

SCOTTISH TUNES FOR HIGHLAND BAGPIPE
(CEÒL-BEAG)