Canntaireachd

Canntaireachd (Scottish Gaelic: literally, "chanting"; ) is the ancient Scottish Highland method of noting classical pipe music or Ceòl Mòr by a combination of definite syllables, by which means the various tunes could be more easily recollected by the learner, and could be more easily transmitted orally. Nowadays, however, pipers tend to use standard musical staff notation to read and write various tunes, and anyone attempting to read this particular system needs some familiarity with Scottish Gaelic phonetics. It does still linger on in one or two places however. In general, the vowels represent the notes, and consonants the embellishments, but this is not always the case, and the system is actually rather complex, and was not fully standardised.

As Niel MacLeod of Gesto, who published the MacCrimmons' tunes in canntaireachd, took them down phonetically, it is rather difficult to describe the system minutely. (The MacCrimmons of Skye were commonly considered to be the great piping dynasty of Scotland). This must not be lost sight of when "translating" tunes. It was first written down at the end of the 18th century, in the Campbell Canntaireachd (in the National Library of Scotland).

William Donaldson, in The Highland Pipe and Scottish Society 1750-1950 states:

"In its written form, canntaireachd provided the basis of the indigenous notational system and it was brought to its most developed form by Colin Mór Campbell of Nether Lorn in Argyll, at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th Century. Although Campbell's work was almost immediately superseded by a form of staff notation adapted specifically for the pipe, and remained unpublished and unrecognised until well into the 20th Century, it remains an important achievement and gives valuable insight into the musical organisation of Ceòl Mór"