Monday, July 05, 2004
A Good Book
I've recently been reading John Gibson's Traditional Gaelic Bagpiping, 1745-1945. It's a very interesting book.
He begins be demolishing the myth that bagpipes were ever banned, or even discouraged, by the Disarming Acts; and even shows that the proscriptions on Highland dress were paper tigers, unenforcable, and unenforced, until the Seven Years' War gave the British army a pretext to enforce it: since (after 1748) the punishment for wearing Highland dress was conscription, and the army needed soldiers. Rather, he discusses the effects of immigration, first of tacksmen and the middle class in the 18th century, then the poor in the 19th, as factors in the disruption of Highland music.
Some of his conclusions - or implications - I find harder to swallow. He notes that the reference in MacDonald's "Compleat Theory" stating that playing on the pipes violin music using the "small Dote & Tich" (dot-flag) prevents the pipe from being properly cut, and thus such music is "never peculiar to the Pipe". Gibson takes this to mean - as far as I can tell - that Strathspeys were played in the 1750s in a completely different fashion - that there were no dot-flags, but only tachums, and argues that this remains true in Cape Breton music. Honestly, this seems unlikely to me. He may live in Cape Breton now, but he has a piper's ear, and not a fiddler's, and though no fiddle strathspey, except the Northeast style ones, is nearly as pointed as a pipe strathspey, all regions, Cape Breton included, make extensive use of the dot-flag.
An alternate explanation, which I favor, is that Strathspeys, as a regional style that had was only a few decades old by MacDonald's writing, and diffusing out of their native region only later, may have been adopted less readily by pipers outside their home area than by fidders, especially if (as has been suggested) Strathspeys began on the fiddle. MacDonald was, after all, an Anglicized Gael living in Edinburgh, and his tastes may reflect the pre-strathspey sensibility.
MacDonald's statement about the inappropriateness of the dot-flag in Scottish music does not, to me, say much about whether the reels and jigs he mentions as part of the ancient pipe repertoire were swung or not. No one but a modern regimental piper swings a reel so far that it becomes a dot-flag, nor is a jig swung to dot-flag-even without becoming a 6/8 march in the process; nor do anyone but modern regimental pipers notate that way. There are good reasons to think that in varying degrees - depending on the dance context - swing was present in 18th century Scottish dance music. That MacDonald explicitly mentions jigs at this early date shatters notions among modern pipers that the jig is a late import to the pipes; and in the broader sense Gibson effectively demolishes the usual canard that ancient pipers only played ceol mor, and turned their noses at ceol beag, until modern times.
Some of Gibson's comments about the ornaments played in 18th century reels are fascinating. Several sources refer to pipers boasting that they used the crunnludh in their reels, a practice essentially unheardof today. Does this speak to tempo of reels? Complex piobaireachd ornaments would be nearly impossible in the fast tempos modern reels are played at on fiddle, and in the beer tent on pipes.
This bears on the question of whether "wild" Cape Breton pipers are playing in a conservative ancient style or a derived one. Gibson mentions that ceol mor did not survive well in the New World. In addition, he mentions sources that claim that Cape Breton pipers would, in the place of a taurludh or similar ornament in a given tune, play an undeciperable pattern of gracing. The combination of these comments suggests to me that the "wild" Cape Breton piper is playing in an evolved, not original, style. Without ceol mor, there would be no reason to learn its ornaments, much less incorporate them into ceol beag; leaving the place open for ad hoc substitutions. While there is probably merit to the claim that Cape Bretoners preserved aspects of rhythm and pulse lost to the regimental/competition idiom, the assertion (not made directly by Gibson, but I've heard from others) that ancient Gaelic ornamentation was un-formalized, just because Cape Bretoners made up their own ornaments, remains unproven, and suspect, in my view. It does seem likely that the choice of ornamentation in a given tune's performance was improvised, as it is in fiddle, but the "tool kit" of ornaments were probably piobaireachd-derived, not truly freeform.
I think there's some great scholarship in this book, my nitpicking aside, and it's made me even more interested in bringing together the study of historical piping and fiddling into a unified whole.
One last thing - there are several indications that in the early 18th century, pipers and fiddlers worked closely enough together that many musicians were proficient on both instruments, both in Cape Breton and in Scotland. Could it be that my approach really does have historical merit?
He begins be demolishing the myth that bagpipes were ever banned, or even discouraged, by the Disarming Acts; and even shows that the proscriptions on Highland dress were paper tigers, unenforcable, and unenforced, until the Seven Years' War gave the British army a pretext to enforce it: since (after 1748) the punishment for wearing Highland dress was conscription, and the army needed soldiers. Rather, he discusses the effects of immigration, first of tacksmen and the middle class in the 18th century, then the poor in the 19th, as factors in the disruption of Highland music.
Some of his conclusions - or implications - I find harder to swallow. He notes that the reference in MacDonald's "Compleat Theory" stating that playing on the pipes violin music using the "small Dote & Tich" (dot-flag) prevents the pipe from being properly cut, and thus such music is "never peculiar to the Pipe". Gibson takes this to mean - as far as I can tell - that Strathspeys were played in the 1750s in a completely different fashion - that there were no dot-flags, but only tachums, and argues that this remains true in Cape Breton music. Honestly, this seems unlikely to me. He may live in Cape Breton now, but he has a piper's ear, and not a fiddler's, and though no fiddle strathspey, except the Northeast style ones, is nearly as pointed as a pipe strathspey, all regions, Cape Breton included, make extensive use of the dot-flag.
An alternate explanation, which I favor, is that Strathspeys, as a regional style that had was only a few decades old by MacDonald's writing, and diffusing out of their native region only later, may have been adopted less readily by pipers outside their home area than by fidders, especially if (as has been suggested) Strathspeys began on the fiddle. MacDonald was, after all, an Anglicized Gael living in Edinburgh, and his tastes may reflect the pre-strathspey sensibility.
MacDonald's statement about the inappropriateness of the dot-flag in Scottish music does not, to me, say much about whether the reels and jigs he mentions as part of the ancient pipe repertoire were swung or not. No one but a modern regimental piper swings a reel so far that it becomes a dot-flag, nor is a jig swung to dot-flag-even without becoming a 6/8 march in the process; nor do anyone but modern regimental pipers notate that way. There are good reasons to think that in varying degrees - depending on the dance context - swing was present in 18th century Scottish dance music. That MacDonald explicitly mentions jigs at this early date shatters notions among modern pipers that the jig is a late import to the pipes; and in the broader sense Gibson effectively demolishes the usual canard that ancient pipers only played ceol mor, and turned their noses at ceol beag, until modern times.
Some of Gibson's comments about the ornaments played in 18th century reels are fascinating. Several sources refer to pipers boasting that they used the crunnludh in their reels, a practice essentially unheardof today. Does this speak to tempo of reels? Complex piobaireachd ornaments would be nearly impossible in the fast tempos modern reels are played at on fiddle, and in the beer tent on pipes.
This bears on the question of whether "wild" Cape Breton pipers are playing in a conservative ancient style or a derived one. Gibson mentions that ceol mor did not survive well in the New World. In addition, he mentions sources that claim that Cape Breton pipers would, in the place of a taurludh or similar ornament in a given tune, play an undeciperable pattern of gracing. The combination of these comments suggests to me that the "wild" Cape Breton piper is playing in an evolved, not original, style. Without ceol mor, there would be no reason to learn its ornaments, much less incorporate them into ceol beag; leaving the place open for ad hoc substitutions. While there is probably merit to the claim that Cape Bretoners preserved aspects of rhythm and pulse lost to the regimental/competition idiom, the assertion (not made directly by Gibson, but I've heard from others) that ancient Gaelic ornamentation was un-formalized, just because Cape Bretoners made up their own ornaments, remains unproven, and suspect, in my view. It does seem likely that the choice of ornamentation in a given tune's performance was improvised, as it is in fiddle, but the "tool kit" of ornaments were probably piobaireachd-derived, not truly freeform.
I think there's some great scholarship in this book, my nitpicking aside, and it's made me even more interested in bringing together the study of historical piping and fiddling into a unified whole.
One last thing - there are several indications that in the early 18th century, pipers and fiddlers worked closely enough together that many musicians were proficient on both instruments, both in Cape Breton and in Scotland. Could it be that my approach really does have historical merit?
# posted by Peter @ 8:52 AM 
