Pondering Barnaby’s discovery, I took another look at some of the insane Cuttings captured by Joseph MacDonald.
Old Joe indicates that these were available as variations depending on the genre (Marches, Laments). Obviously, they aren’t played anymore, and I might even go so far as to suggest they fell out of favor within a generation or two of his writing (since other manuscripts and scores after him make no mentions of them).
But I was thinking: they might be candidates for a Cadenza!
Such flourishes would be very cool for competitors and performers to use!
An excellent idea. I’ve been trying to learn to play them for years, and can recommend them to the masochistically-minded as a finger exercise.
Its worth noting that some are played on low G, while others are on low A, and some begin on low G but continue on A.
This may offer a clue as to the difference between our way of playing the tuludh/creanludh cuttings, with two low G’s ( a grip) and his - perhaps there was a subtle difference in effect which has been forgotten as later pipers preferred the more emphatic low G?
I wonder if there is some connection between MacDonald’s big movements and the runs in contemporary variation sets. The sample above is from Henry Atkinson ms which was pricked down in 1694. There is evidence that these runs were played with closed fingering. William Dixon’s tunes, for example, contain many runs that I believe were intended to be played with closed fingering.
John asked me to post this for him in light of his comment.
I think he may be onto something…