One of the joys of viewing original sources is the continuous learning one receives when opening up to their musical insights. Yes, for some folks the hand-written manuscripts can seem a chore to read. And yet, it is here that the most interesting and unexpected encounters take place. Because, although enough notational idioms had been developed […]
Month: August 2016
Interpreting Primary Source Manuscripts - Part 5
All so-called “echo beats” are crahinin. But not all crahinin are echo beats. Unfortunately, this is not widely known in the pibroch community, and the result is a fundamental misunderstanding of non-MacKay manuscripts sometimes dismissed as “non-musical” when “played literally”. Historically, however, what we have learned from other primary sources is that crahinins came in a variety of rhythmic […]
More on Pibroch and Poetry
From Ronald Smith - While thinking about the proposition ‘How can poetry make me a better performer of Pibroch?’ I recalled that poetry was once much more present in people’s lives than it is now. In particular, a popular form of entertainment was the ‘ballad’, which was always a singing performance and not a written […]
Interpreting Primary Source Manuscripts - Part 4
The crahinin. Bob Gresh mentioned it in his post. Allan MacDonald has published on it. We have certainly written about it often enough (here, and here, and here). It is potentially one of the most expressive elements in the pibroch player’s repertoire. But, it is one of the least understood, most formulaic phrases in pibroch. To […]
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Willie Donaldson - College of Piping Lecture
Dr. Jack Taylor made us aware of this event held at the College of Piping, “What can we learn from the old piobaireachd sources?” Lecture by Dr. William Donaldson, with performances by Jim McGillvray. It’s on Livestream (requiring an account for login; Facebook should work). Thank you, Jack!
Interpreting Primary Source Manuscripts - Part 3
In our previous post, we noted how the Piobaireachd Society Collection version of Salute on the Birth of Rory Mor MacLeod (PS 131) had made the editorial choice to notate specific phrases (crahinin) according to a contemporary and specific style. It also included an Urlar return where none is present in the manuscripts. This resulted in a […]
On Keening and the Crahinin
To piggy-back on Bob Gresh’s wonderful article, Allan and I discussed keening during one of our sessions together. The discussion is part cultural anthropology, part history, but always with music and performance in mind. Here is the video I mentioned: