Cogadh no Sìth or ‘War or Peace’ (PS 204) is one of the few tunes for which there are dated contemporary references, as well as it also providing part of the case for a missing volume 3 of the Campbell Canntaireachd.
The earliest reference was in 1746 when John MacDonell of Scotus (or ‘Spanish John’) was with some remnants of the Jacobite army following the events at Culloden, who had assembled at Lochiel’s home at Achnacarry. He recorded that
‘we were awakened at break of day by… by all the Highland Bagpipes playing the general, Cogga na si, having been alarmed by their scouts, who reported that the Duke of Cumberland had sent a much superior force by three different routes to surround them…’
The next appearance comes in a Regimental Order Book for the Western of Argyle Fencibles dated the 25 July 1778. It was one of five duty tunes described as the ‘Gathering’ or Coagive & Shea. This later reference assumed a greater importance when I had established that Colin Campbell, the writer of the canntaireachd volumes, had served in that regiment. When discussing its implications with Roddy Cannon, I had made the point that Campbell therefore must have known that tune, but as it does not appear in the two surviving volumes it added to the case that there was a volume missing.
Roddy contemplated that point, then commented that the argument became even stronger since by the ordered nature of the tunes in the existing two volumes Cogadh no Sìth would not in any case have fitted into either of them. Following this breakthrough the topic re-surfaced in our subsequent conversations. It was during one of those that I remarked that if my recollection was correct, in circa 1962 I passed through what had become the Highland Brigade training depot at Fort George. When there, a big parade took place with ‘brass’ present. During the General Salute, the first part of the ground Cogadh no Sìth was played by a solo piper while the rifles used at that time were held vertically in front of the body in the Present Arms position.
Once more Roddy thought about it and said that it all made sense, as the ground was based on an old military fife tune variously called ‘The Mother’ or ‘Point of War’. This was one of three fife tunes which made up what was called the Long Reveille (or as one book of Fife music has it, ‘The Rouse at Daybreak’; the other two tunes being ‘The Three Camps’ and ‘Scotch Reveille’).
This now reaches a poignant moment: I received in the post a draft that Roddy wanted me to check back to it’s original manuscript in the National Library. Also included were his copies of the three tunes transposed down to ‘our pitch’. It was at the time I received his letter that I heard of his sad demise. In the cover note he also drew my attention to the fact that the third tune had a similarity to ‘The Earl of Mansfield’.
Certainly it does all make sense. The transition of the original Fife tune to the pipes probably occurred around the period following the Union of 1707, when all the military forces in the UK were brought under one command, Due to forces being raised for combined service in the Low Countries, it would have brought pipers and fifers in closer proximity to each other. It would also have provided plenty of time for the professional soldiers on both sides of the Jacobite wars to have become use to the tune’s function as an ‘alarm’ by the time of the ’45.
An excellent reconstruction of the background to this tune, and of Roddy Cannon’s analytical mind at work.
Noting the information that Colin Campbell, the scribe of the Nether Lorn Ms, had served in the Argyll Fencibles, whose duty tunes of 1778 have survived and provide early proof of the air ‘Cogadh no Si’ being used by the military, I wondered if the inclusion of ‘The Finger Lock’ in that same list of tunes, which it is presumed were known to Colin Campbell, has any implications?
One is that Colin Campbell would also have known its gaelic name, ‘A Ghlas Mheur’, and therefore, when he wrote that name above the tune in his collection, would not have made a mistake about the definite article ‘A’, writing an English letter ‘A’ , but would have written the Gaelic ‘A(n)’ meaning ‘the ‘.
Nor would he have meant ‘a tuning phrase’ when he wrote ‘Ghlas’. This must mean that ‘The Finger Lock’ is the correct traditional name of this tune, and that all talk of ‘Ghlas’ being a mistake on Campbell’s part for ‘Gleus’ (a tuning phrase) is beside the point.
I would not have thought that the inclusion of the ‘Finger Lock’ in the regimental order book had any implications. It was given as ‘Glaisvair’ but all spellings both Gaelic and Scots in that order book are particularly grim. It is though an interesting tune being attributed to both the Rankins and Ranald MacAllan Og, ‘One of the MacDonalds of Morar’ as Donald MacDonald correctly describes him, (he is often referred to as ‘of Cross’, but that was the home of his elder brother Allan MacDonald of Morar, Ranald was only staying there with his brother in Ranalds later life ).
It was a very popular tune and in the 1785 competition it was played by three of the competitors, although interestingly in the program where it was given as ‘Glais-mheur’ it was one of the tunes without a translation of the name simply describing it as ‘A favourite piece’. The first actual translations of the title seem to be either Donald MacDonald or the Hannay-MacAuslan MS.
I am not sure what you mean regarding the definite article because Campbell simply has ‘Glass Mhoier’. It is probably unsafe to read too much into any of Campbell’s spellings. I have published a more detailed background to that family elsewhere but though the father Donald Campbell seems to have been educated to be a scribe, subsequently overtaken by events, though his writing skill was passed to his son Colin. In common with most native Gaelic speakers of the period they would not have received an education in reading and writing in Gaelic. In fact the only name which comes to mind of someone who did and wrote some piping related material was William MacMurchy whose writings probably deserve greater prominence in the piping world.
Therefore Colin Campbell was in the position of being a native speaker illiterate in his own language, reasonably competent in written Scots but with little cause to exercise it in spoken form nor with any opportunity to be very well read in that language. He was therefore likely to have had a very narrow Scots vocabulary as speaking and or reading any language is the best way of increasing the size of your working vocabulary. This in turn explains a lot of the problems with the titles in the remaining two volumes.
However I have an idea that it may be possible to ‘use’ the titles to sift out the original core repertoire of Donald Campbell from those tunes added later by his son. I had after much prodding from Roddy made a start on doing something with it but it is one of the problems of advancing on a very broad front and preferring to actually be buried in archives that progress is very slow.
I think that if a third volume did exist - and it’s increasingly difficult to argue otherwise - then Volume III *could* account for the large number of tunes, and variations on other tunes, which appear in Angus MacKay’s MS and are absent in the older records.
Preface page 5 of Donald MacDonald’s book notes ‘…there has not been above a dozen of different Tunes played at the annual competitions of pipers in Edinburgh’. (Not dissimilar to modern lower grade pipe bands!)
Out-of-the-blue Angus MacKay creates a very large MS (which of course included versions of Donald MacDonald’s work and the MacArthur/MacGregor MS). I wonder if the majority of tunes which *first appear* in his book or MS, and are NOT in the CC Vol I and II are from the CC Vol III?
Then
Sorry to post off-topic, and controversially!
The two people who are principally responsible for the corruption of piobaireachd are:
1) William Ross (1869) - the first to publish piobaireachd without piano scores - thereby disconnecting piobaireachd from classical Western music.
2) ‘Ian’ McLennan (1907) - the first to remove the rhythm from the crunluath movement by declaring one of the notes to be ‘redundant’. (at least he didn’t do it to jigs, strathpeys or reels - it would have made for some odd dance movements!)
One could argue that the first corruption was in the attempt to write it down, because notation either in the form of canntaireachd or on a staff is always lacking the essence of the music. 1) Is or was piobaireachd ever connected to Western Classical music? If so, why was that a good thing? 2) The so called redundant low A controversy has been dealt with at length by Donaldson and others. There’s nothing stopping us from playing it now if we want. The modern way of play the a mach movements is a better example of an ossification that makes little musical sense.
Hi John
1) ‘… notation either in the form of canntaireachd or on a staff is always lacking the essence of the music.’
I take the point you are making. However notation either in the form of canntaireachd or on a staff is not divorced from the essences of the music either! - Just as the famous painting of Mona Lisa isn’t divorced from the actual face of Ms. Lisa either!
2) Sorry I worded it badly. Piobaireachd IS connected to Western Classical music. Just as Western Classical music is connected to the Tuvan Throat Singing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTCJ5hedcVA (love the ice in the river in the background!). What I am trying to say is that music appeals to a primeval that transcends culture.
My objection is that piobaireachd as traditionally played is far, far closer to Western Classical music than the current performers who are conforming to an unnatural competition ‘scene’ where pipers are confirming to a ‘meme’ created by the Piobaireachd Society - the current ‘meme’ being determined by imitation of previous prize successes. It is the ARTIFICIAL evolution of this theme, by survival of the proven methods of prize winners, which is the evil alt pibroch is battling!
3) I agree with your comments with respect to what Barnaby once described to me as the ‘FULL crunluath’.
Now I understand. We are of the same mind. It’s what happens when music is turned into a sport. Competition pibroch is what it is, and yet some pipers manage to tease the music out in spite of it all.
“…pipers are confirming to a ‘meme’ created by the Piobaireachd Society – the current ‘meme’ being determined by imitation of previous prize successes. It is the ARTIFICIAL evolution of this theme, by survival of the proven methods of prize winners, which is the evil alt pibroch is battling!”
This is a most succinct and telling remark about the competition scene, rather like a political cartoon. However, I think in demonizing The Piobaireachd Society, one might forget it consists of people like oneself and who are in thrall to the same forces of conformity which compel all performers at competitions to dress in almost identical outfits - just now, black kilt hose are de rigeur, it seems. (whatever happened to the once popular diced hose ?)
Another point of continuity with Western Classical Music which could be mentioned is the prevalence of competition - Beethoven and others, for example, frequently took part in them; one favourite form was for the competitor to be given a sheet of music while sitting at the piano, which he was expected to play and to improvise variations impromptu. Once, B was given a sheet upside down by mistake - which he nevertheless played and improvised upon. Even today, competitions are everywhere in the classical music world.
Keith Sanger once again blows my mind. “Cogadh no Sidh” was a fife tune adopted by pipers. Amazing. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the image of a fifer playing the tune at the sub-dirge tempo of contemporary competitive pibroch. That music be another indication that “we’re playing it wrong.”
Sorry to post off topic, once again. Dear alt pibroch, would it be possible to create a discussion list for your members?
‘It is what happens when music is turned into a sport. Competition pibroch is what it is, and yet some pipers manage to tease the music out in spite of it all.’
Your 32 words should be the creed of alt pibroch (and mine too!). Congratulations!
1) Why not play them at their own game. Let’s call the traditional art ‘piobaireachd’ and the competition art ‘pibroch’. Don’t let them steal our language and then use it against us! It’s one of the oldest tricks in the art of propaganda.
2) The photo of the pipe band at the top of these pages is somewhat ironic!
1) I started doing just that instinctively. It makes sense on several levels.
2) It is nice to see the Cameron and MacArthur tartans together. I thought that might be by design, given they are two are famous piping families.
Any chance of showing us the sources for the fife tunes?
If you mean the hand written transcription by Roddy I will need to think on what the copyright position is, a very tricky subject these days as Barnaby knows well. My original post had been subject to some editorial work and a passing acknowledgement to Richard Powell from whom Roddy had a copy of The Reveille on page 18 of The Fife Major, published by Rudalll, Carte & Co Ltd got lost. Copies of that should be publicly available in suitable libraries or military sources.
However , that only gives the title for the first and relevant tune as ‘The Mother’, and I do not know where Roddy got the alternative title of ‘Point of War’. It is a problem when only some of a distant ongoing discussion is only partly put down on paper. I had a similar problem with the unexpected death of Frans Buisman . I had been trying to calculate the potential amounts of ‘metal’ which could have been bought for strings on a Clarsach from an account paid in Holland for 1627. The amount was given in ‘Florins’ but determining their actual silver content at that time was complicated and most of the reference works were in Dutch. Frans and I had discussed it several times and I received a draft he wanted me to look over and in a PS said he thought he had cracked the Florin value problem and would explain in detail on his next visit. An event which unhappily never happened.
Hey Keith,
The three part British Reveille begins in 1815 with Potter’s new manuals (The Art of Beating the Drum and The Art of Playing the Flute), when the Scottish and English establishments are merged. If you look at Potter, you see that the sequence is the English Reveille, called the Mother and Three Camps Reveille, followed by the Accompaniment to the Rolls, and then the Scotch Reveille.
The English Reveille is usually referred to as the Reveille in 18th century fife tutors, but as The Mother and Three Camps Reveille in corresponding Drum manuals. “The Mother” refers to the heavy use of 5-stroke rolls, which are occasionally called “The Mother”.
The Three Camps is also in several sources referred to as The Points of War. This was signal to charge bayonets in battle, but also as a salute. Hence why the Three Camps is often referred to as A General Salute. [As a random note, playing the reveille as a salute may have been a European tradition, as the French reveille ‘La Diane’ was also played as a salute. The Napoleonic salute known as L’Rigodon d’Honneur is a variation on La Diane.]
Tamplini’s Fife-Major and Drum-Major (1850) appears to have mislabeled the second tune. This tune, while labelled “Three Camps,” isn’t that tune, but actually the rolls that accompany the Scotch Reveille.
Hopefully a number of images of music will be posted in this thread: http://www.altpibroch.com/learning/the-general/#comment-1014
Thanks Keith. Well I meant we should see the original sources, that’s the usual standard on this site!
Yes it is difficult when circumstances conspire like this. All the more reason I suppose, to publish sources and working as well as conclusions and opinions!
Oh dear. I started playing ‘War or Peace’ Donald MacDonald’s setting from PS p305. It’s conveniently on one page. Or so I thought!
After finding a transposition error (failure to repeat two hiharinins) I have now had to waste printer ink and part of a tree to compare the setting from MacDonald’s MS bar-by-bar with the PS setting.
Total of 9 transposition errors detected - 3 minor, 2 medium and 4 major.
Being picky, Lahore* in describing MacDonald’s crunluath a mach uses a contradiction in terms ‘usual curiosity’.
*In reference to the fact he was a circuit judge in Lahore, modern day Pakistan. Referring to him as ‘Kilberry’ provides him with unwarranted piping credentials. Is he the piobaireachd ‘Taliban’?
The notes then state ‘The only help [sic] derivable from Donald MacDonald… ‘
Unbelievable!
I highly recommend the two volume edition of MacDonald edited by Cannon and Sanger if you don’t have it. Perhaps that’s what you’re working from.
Glen’s setting is worth a look.
http://www.ceolsean.net/content/GlenPio/Book05/Book05%2014a.pdf
I don’t see a hiharinin in the tune. unless this signifies the last four beats of the urlar and first variation.
I’ve heard pipers play the grips followed by an ‘e’ gracenotes as modern taorludhs, which ruins the tune for me.
For no particular reason (perhaps just its age and novelty), I rather like this version:
Thanks for posting that old setting, which I also like, since it makes plain the ‘musical feel’ of the tune, which is somewhat obscure in other early settings. It also suggests that much of the ornamentation is voluntary, according to the taste of the performer. This puts a different perspective on discussions about the relative correctness of GDE cuttings, tuludh cuttings, or grips followed by E gracenotes, which can be seen as alternative ways of creating a similar effect.
Referring to the start of this thread and Spanish John’s reference to the use of pipes for military signaling in the Jacobite army the following may be of interest.
On 17 January 1746 the Jacobite & Hanoverian armies faced each other at Falkirk Muir. The Jacobite’s won a comprehensive victory though missed the opportunity of completely annihilating Hawley’s fleeing troops. Lord George Murray was called into account for not capitalising upon the victory. In his memoirs Murray cites his inability to rally his troops for want of pipers i.e. “our vast loss was that not a pair of pipes could be got. The pipers, whenever a battle begins, give their pipes to their boys, who take care of them: and the pipers, who are commonly as good men as any, charge with the rest.” Source; Lord George Murray “Marches of the Highland Army”. Chambers 1834 p 87/88.
The original copy of Lord George Murray’s defense of his actions is among the archives at Blair Castle. It is though a moot point whether if he had got hold of a piper it would have made much difference. The whole image of pipers in action is somewhat ‘generalized’ and the idea of pipers actually leading troops directly in an advance is quite modern, or at least mainly 19th C and later.
There was towards the end of last year a BBC Scotland program on piping during the first world war and it included a laboratory standard simulated test to create the noise of one of those battles and see if the pipes could actually be heard during one. The answer was a resounding and not unexpected no.
It would have been little different during battles in earlier times. Last year I was involved giving piping history advice to the organisers of what was intended to be the first of an annual weekend celebration of the Battle of Killiecrankie. There was an ‘arena’ of about 100 yards square marked out for the re-enactors and between the demonstrations of musket drills and cavalry charges, (about 5 horses as I remmeber), Stuart Letford would play one of the tunes we had thought contemporary with the event.
Being the first time and there was competition piping wise with two large events going on elsewhere, and so the Saturday morning had a light attendance and so I seized the opportunity to do a little experiment of my own by taking up a different position around the outside of the ‘arena’ each time Stuart was on. This was therefore without any competing noise of battle yet he was barely audible and the sound was also very directional. When he was pacing towards me it was mostly’chanter’ but even knowing which tunes he was going to play not easy to follow. When he paced away from me the drones were prominent and the chanter could hardly be heard at all. Moving my position away from the flat field by the marker stone where it was held to further up the hill where vegetation and landscape dips came into play nothing could be heard at all.
This is not surprising either and although pipers certainly accompanied the soldiers to battlefields and played to keep spirits up in the nervy period before battle commenced there is other evidence besides that of Lord George’s comments that it if fit the pipers handed their pipes to their servant and joined battle with the rest. There is one example in a Gaelic poem relating to Sheriffmuir where it mocks the fact that the servant carrying Rankin’s pipes actually took fright and ran away taking the pipes with him.
It was common certainly according to the Scottish records for pipers and harpers to have a servant to carry the instruments. They tend to crop up during the 17th C in the accounts when a visiting musician along with his ‘man’ both receive some sort of payment. That it continued into the 18th C with pipers is shown not just by the Gaelic poem and Lord George’s statement but just two weeks ago while trawling through a not very well catalogued deposit in the archives I came across a list of the effects from Stuart of Grantully’s house in Dundee which were rouped (auctioned) following his death in 1720. They included his pictures there and among them was one described as ‘A Piper and his Man’.
There may be further milage to go in tracking it as the buyers were also noted but apart from showing that the well known picture of Grants piper painted in 1714 may not have been so unique, it also adds further confirmation that pipers still had their own servants into the first half of the 18th C. As the picture must have predated 1720 I suspect it would have been of Grantully’s own piper who I also have been tracking from 1710 to when he disappears from those records after 1715. His name usually given in the accounts was Donald Stuart but there are also grounds for thinking it would have been ‘alias MacGregor’.
There was quite a cosmopolitan spread with the pictures including several of what is now Holland, but the title of one which does allow the imagination to flow was noted in the roupe list as ‘ The Old Monk and the Young Nun’.