I have recently become aware of an interesting penchant among the cogniscenti of pibroch that it is a faux pas to perform a slow air while warming up.
I found that surprising, since I routinely hear them on the boards at local competitions.
Instead, according to those who held this opinion, the performer should play a short variation of another pibroch while tuning. (These are the same folks who also say the pipes should be tuned to high-A, and they give all sorts of interesting reasons for it but none of them ever seem to consider the audience listening to that painful sound.)
That got me thinking: What if we learned tuning preludes!
Here are a few that could be used from Joseph MacDonald (though they are too short for tuning, they make a nice impression upon the audience):
And here’s one from Angus MacKay, which could serve quite nicely for tuning, actually:
It such a lovely little ditty, with unexpected movements and phrases, and a full 9-note tessitura. Give it a try!
An excellent tuning phrase is the variation (from the Campbell Canntaireachd) to “Lament for the Harp Tree’ (PS 12).
I second that - but feel one should use Campbell’s name for the tune, since his is the oldest collection: CC V2 51 ‘Mcleod’s Lament’.
In Vol 1 no 81, he records ‘Chumbh craoibh na teidbh’ (Lament for Tree of Strings) which is a different air, known elsewhere as ‘Kinlochmoidarts lament no.2’.
And it might be a good idea to avoid the staff notation in the PS and interpret it straight from Campbell’s vocables: ‘(first motion) Hooen do cheho hioe heehoe IhecheI hooendo chehohioe heehoe hoen…’
This is the Campbell that Ronnie is talking about.
Preludes are as important as the tune in Asturian piping. This is a youtube video of an Asturian piping competition. Note, the piper faces the audience, his back to the judges. Highland piping competitions are somnambulatory in comparison. I couldn’t take a whole afternoon of this, but it is interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p627LO8xmpM
Aye, spottit dug, and the judges look as happy o’er here too!
Those must be some incredible evenings at Lorient.
In Ireland pipers are often judged by non-pipers. Imagine a Scottish piping competition with a judging panel of made up of a box player, a harper, and the first violin of the London Philharmonic.
@cubreac. A superb idea. That’ll take all the BS out of the competition system, and return it to the manner prior to pipers judging their own (‘aye laddie, that’s how I got it’, nonsense which perpetrates false memes).
The first sign of trouble brewing was the publication of PS 1 (Second series, 1925) with the removal of the ‘redundant’ low ‘A’s. An excellent read it Donaldson’s book Chapter 16. p339 ff.
Apropos the type of person best suited to judge a piping competition, it may be worth recalling that professional pipers who compete were themselves instrumental in setting up a ‘closed shop’, in which only professionals like themselves, or suitably vetted amateurs, were allowed on the bench. Some, such as the late Donald MacPherson, would actually refuse to compete if the panel of judges was not to their liking.
The old tradition of the local Laird being on the bench still survives in the Glenisla Games, although he is now flanked by the mandatory professionals.
Donaldson’s masterful overview of the ‘Redundant A controversy’ should be made widely available. Among other things, he shows that the PS book, which published the taorluath and crunluath movements without the ‘redundant A’, contrary to preceeding collections, was a follow-up to John Maclennan’s book which had also excluded this note, and was founded on careful consideration of traditional sources, including Joseph MacDonald’s Treatise which was not then well known.
Perhaps the best point is the observation that, when the two styles were demonstrated at a famous debate, it was almost impossible to tell them apart.
There’s one notated prelude from the Gaelic harp tradition, collected by Edward Bunting from the playing of Denis O’Hampsey in the 1790s.
It’s images 59, 60, 61 and 62 of this manuscript (QUB Special collections ms4/29)
http://cdm15979.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15979coll9/id/327
I can’t work out how to link to a specific page, sorry.
William Ross (the Queen’s piper) book page vii has a selection of ‘Preludes of Tuning’ taken from various piobaireachd including ‘The Old Woman’s Lullaby’ and ‘The Frisky Lover’.