This series of posts seeks to elucidate canntaireachd, pibroch’s oldest tool for memorisation and musical understanding. In this part, I notice how the difference between sound waves and light waves has severed the vocal practice of canntaireachd from its written forms. I propose that colour could heal this rift, making canntaireachd less confusing and more useful in the 21st century. 200 years ago, John MacCrimmon fingered his walking stick […]
canntaireachd
The MacFarlanes’ Gathering (Too Long in this Condition)
This tune presents excellent opportunities for amateurs and professionals to make tired ears prick up and pay attention. It is one of those tunes begging for a fresh interpretation by a piper who wants to offer something extra – a memorable and authoritative performance that stands out from the crowd. Every year at the Piobaireachd Society Conference, I hear the Music Committee longing […]
A Fragment of Traditional Canntaireachd
The pibroch ‘The Piper’s Warning to his Master’, and especially Donald MacDonald’s version ‘MacDonald’s Warning’, is echoed in the traditional song ‘Cholla mo Ruin’, of which several versions have been recorded at Tobar an Dualchais. This one is sung by Mary Morrison, Barra: http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/43276/3 Of special interest is the diddling or canntaireachd at the end, […]