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2008-2024
1. CANNTAIREACHD
“If you cannot sing it, you cannot play it”
First of all, it will be remembered that Pibroch is a music without improvisation where everything is "written", melodic notes and grace notes.
That being said, this doesn’t mean that there were scores, at least originally...
Let's not forget that we are dealing here with Celtic culture that was transmitted only orally, including bagpipe airs. Singing, of course, held an essential place in this process.
The pipers have therefore developed a syllabic technique for memorising airs and embellishments, called Canntaireachd, a Gaelic word basically designating the act of singing and then by extension a method of memorising pieces of pibroch.
The Canntaireachd, by its seniority, is probably the closest to what was played during the Golden Age (see page 1), whether it is the air itself or its expression.
Here it is a question of knowing how to sing the tune by memorising these different syllables before moving on to the bagpipe…
In this context, vowels are used for melodic notes while consonants are used for grace notes.
Listen to this example on the video below presenting the air “The Prince's Salute":
The Canntaireachd makes it possible to reproduce and therefore preserve the musicality of these tunes, a musicality that has been more or less damaged by the standardisation effort related to the scores: the rhythmic indications carried on a score (armours, note values, phrasing, etc...) can be quite far from the original expression or in any case do not allow to know it.
Each sung syllable can also be interpreted in several ways, which is obviously impossible with the note values present on a score.
How do we know Canntaireachd?
In the 18th century, a sign of the evolution of times, it appeared necessary to write the Canntaireachd probably to better preserve and transmit it. This was really the first decisive and important step towards breaking with the oral tradition, towards the scores and the standardisation that accompanies them.
The reference work is the Campbell Canntaireachd (CC) or Nether Lorn Canntaireachd first published in 1797: originally composed of three volumes, the third of which remains undiscovered today, it contains 169 tunes.
Rediscovered in 1909, it made it possible to reconnect with the oral tradition by illuminating the interpretation of Pibroch's scores but also by finding several airs (70) that had been "forgotten" at the time of the transcription into scores...
This manuscript was produced by Colin Mór Campbell, piper in Argyll.
In parallel with the collection work done, it is probably also inspired by a previous Canntaireachd treatise, that of MacCrimmon, which was probably also included in the system published by Neil Macleod of Gesto.
2. THE SCORES
At the 1st bagpipe competition organised in 1816, the judges found the Canntaireachd system quite incomprehensible, which accelerated a new mutation leading to the introduction of the scores in pibroch.
Thus, the very first collection of scores was published in 1838: it is the work of Angus MacKay, Queen Victoria's main piper between 1843 and 1854.
Containing nearly two hundred tunes, it is the largest collection of pibrochs collected in the 19th century.
This is indeed a decisive step that will of course influence the styles of play until today.
The score tried to channel, standardise or even simplify the expression even though in MacKay's time there were always different ways to interpret a pibroch piece, inherited from the oral tradition.
Writing, by wanting to facilitate the work of transmitting or even learning the air, by also more or less neglecting the contributions of the Canntaireachd, has cut this music from its roots…
It is still necessary to moderate these legitimate criticisms by considering that the mutation of our societies gradually abandoning the mode of oral transmission of their memories - not to mention the digital revolution of our 21st century - simply risked the disappearance of the musical genre of pibroch, or at most to confine it to a few initiates...
Here as elsewhere, the scores have undoubtedly made it possible to perpetuate this style and even to ensure it a planetary diffusion: even if it remains a fairly elitist music at least because of its technicality, it is nourished by a pool of young - and less young - musicians who now ensure its survival and the preservation of the cultural and historical roots that have generated it.
Two remarks to close this general presentation:
- other collections of scores have of course emerged since then: in addition to completing MacKay's initial work, they can also transcribe other modes or techniques of expression, which therefore corresponds to a relative return of oral tradition to the documentary collection.
- some tunes could be put on scores before the 19th century but these scores were almost of no use to pipers because they lacked in particular the sophisticated ornaments of the bagpipe.
“Seeking the song behind the score”
The PIBROCH - music of the origins (CEÒL-MÓR)
MISCELLEANOUS:
1. Piping Today (August 2007) - Eric Freyssinet, French specialist of Canntaireachd
2. PM Donald MacLeod
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
“General Principles of Pìobaireachd” by Andrew Wright
“Joseph MacDonald's Compleat Theory of the Scots Highland Bagpipe” (1760)
“Ceol Mor for the Great Highland Bagpipe” by Jimmy McIntosh
“Binneas is Boreraig” by Dr Roderick Ross
“Piobaireachd Fingerwork” by Jim Mc Gillivray
“Cabar Feidh Gu Brath”
penned by PM Donald Macleod
“The Unjust Incarceration”
penned by Iain Dall MacKay