Pibroch - History

History

In the absence of concrete documentary evidence, the origins of pibroch have taken on a quasi-mythic status. The earliest commonly recognised figures in the history of bagpipe pibroch are the MacCrimmon family of pipers, particularly Donald Mor MacCrimmon (ca. 1570-1640), who is reputed to have left a group of highly developed tunes, and Patrick Mor MacCrimmon (ca. 1595-1670), one of the hereditary pipers to the Chief of MacLeods of Dunvegan on the isle of Skye.

There is some controversy over the attribution of authorship of key pibroch tunes to the MacCrimmons by Walter Scott, Angus Mackay and others who published on the topic in the 19th century. The Campbell Canntaireachd, written in 1797, is a two-volume manuscript with chanted vocable and phonetic transcriptions of pibroch music that predates the 19th century attributions. It contains no references to the MacCrimmons and has different names for numerous tunes that were subsequently associated with them.

The pibroch "Cha till mi tuill" in the Campbell Canntaireachd manuscript, which translates as "I shall return no more", is related to a tune associated with victims of the clearances emigrating to the new world. Walter Scott wrote new romantic verses to this tune in 1818 with the title "Lament - (Cha till suin tuille)" which translates as "We shall return no more", later republished as "Mackrimmon’s Lament. Air - Cha till mi tuille."

In Angus MacKay's book A Collection of Ancient Piobaireachd or Highland Pipe Music, 1838, the pibroch "Cha till mi tuill" is subsequently published with the title "MacCrummen will never return". The pibroch "Couloddins Lament" in the Campbell Canntaireachd manuscript appears in MacKay's book with the title "Lament for Patrick Og MacCrimmon". This pattern has led critics of the orthodox accounts of pibroch history such as Alistair Campsie to conclude that the authorship and origins of the pibroch repertoire were reframed for political and Hanoverian motivations that can be traced back to anxieties over Scottish nationalism.

While the conventional accounts of the origins of pibroch are largely characterised by an agrandising romanticism common to antiquarian appropriations of remnant historical traditions in the late 18th century and early 19th century, there are substantial surviving authentic musical documents that concur with a living tradition of performed repertoire, providing a grounding for any debate over authoritative accounts of the tradition.