A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Pibroch

by William Barclay Squire

PIBROCH (Gaelic Piobaireachd, a pipe tune). A series of variations for the bagpipe, founded on a theme called the urlar. Pibrochs are the highest form of bagpipe music, and are often very difficult to execute properly. The variations, generally three or four in number, increase in difficulty and speed, until the composition concludes with a creanluidh, or quick movement. Like all bagpipe music, pibrochs are not written in any proper scale, and it is impossible to note them down correctly for any other instrument, owing to the peculiarly imperfect tuning of the bagpipe, and particularly owing to the presence of an extra note between F and F♯, a peculiarity which is also found in the Alpenhorn. [See Bagpipe and Ranz des Vaches.] Pibrochs are generally of a warlike character, including marches and dirges; they often bear the names of various historical and legendary events. Thus 'The Raid of Kilchrist' is ascribed to Macdonald of Glengarry's piper, who composed and performed this pibroch in the year 1603, during the burning of a church with its whole congregation; and the specimen of which a portion is given below—'Failte Phroinsa,' the Prince's Salute—was composed by John MacIntyre, piper to Menzies of Menzies, on the landing of the Pretender in 1715. It must not however be supposed that the music is always contemporary with the events which the pibrochs commemorate; for although many of them are undoubtedly of considerable antiquity, yet the names of old pibrochs which have been lost are often transferred to new compositions. There are not many collections of Highland music, but the best are those by Patrick Macdonald (of Kilmore), Donald Macdonald, and Mackay. The following is the first part of the urlar of a pibroch, and is interesting, as showing the 'warblers' or gracenotes in which good pipers excel. It must be remembered that the note represented by F is rather sharper in the bagpipe.

[ W. B. S. ]