Pibroch: is a classical music genre native to the Scottish Highlands and performed on the Great Highland Bagpipe. It is also sometimes played on the Scottish fiddle and the clarsach as part of a recent revival. Traditionally, many pipers prefer the Scottish Gaelic name Ceòl Mòr which is Scots Gaelic meaning "Big Music", to distinguish it from the more common kinds of popular bagpipe music such as reels, marches and strathspeys, which are called Ceòl Beag or "Little Music". Even a listener with no knowledge of piping or music could distinguish between a performance of pibroch from ceòl beag; they are quite different sounds.
History
The origins of pibroch are obscure. The musical form appears to have been somewhat developed by the time of Patrick Mor MacCrimmon (ca. 1595-1670), one of the hereditary pipers to the Chief of MacLeods of Dunvegan on the isle of Skye. Some researchers state that the style of ornamentation in pibroch points to origins in harp music, in particular the use of rapid descending arpeggios as gracenotes.
Despite repeated claims that the bagpipe and/or its music was banned after the 1745 rebellion, little evidence for this exists. In 1792, the first known pibroch competition was held in Falkirk at the annual Tryst. Over the course of the 19th century, with the opening up of communications within the Highlands (in particular, the railways), a competing circuit emerged with the two most pre-eminent competitions being held at Inverness and Oban, the former descended directly from the first competition at Falkirk.
Most pibroch are traditional tunes that were written perhaps prior to 1745 and in many cases the composer is unknown, however pibroch continues to be written by composers up to the present day.
In 1903, The Piobaireachd Society was founded with the aim of recording the corpus of existing pibroch tunes, collating the various versions, and publishing an authoritative edition. Those normative Piobaireachd Society tunes settings have been the basis on which ceol mor competitors at the various Highland Games have been judged ever since, the piping judges themselves being appointed by the PS.
In recent decades some pipers and researchers have questioned the editing of the tunes that went in the PS books, claiming the style chosen favoured one piping tradition at the expense of others, while others suggested that some tunes had been twisted out of their original shape to make them conform unnecessarily to one of the recognised tune structures.
Pibroch was developed on and for the Great Highland Bagpipe (possibly drawing on earlier clarsach forms.), and as a result relies on the features and limitations of that instrument. Pibroch is properly expressed by minute and often subtle variations in the length of notes, so much so that pibroch is nearly impossible to transcribe accurately to the written score. (See Seumas MacNeill's Preface in Angus MacKay's book referenced below). Many written forms of pibroch do exist (Angus MacKay's, A Collection of Ancient Piobaireachd, Binneas is Boreraig, The Kilberry Book of Ceol Mor and The Piobaireachd Society Collection, not to mention a number of manuscripts that have been scanned and are freely available online.) but they serve mainly as a rough guide for the piper; the proper expression of the rhythms and tempos of the tune must be learned from a teacher. See the article on Canntaireachd. Pibroch does not follow a strict metre, and though it does have a rhythmic flow or pulse; it does not follow a strict beat or tempo though it does have pacing.
In musical structure, pibroch is a theme with variations. The theme is usually a very simple melody, though few if any pibroch contain the theme in its simplest form. The theme is first stated in a slow movement called the ground or in Gaelic the ùrlar. This is usually a fairly stylised version of the theme, and usually includes numerous added embellishments and connecting notes. The subsequent variations can number from one up to about twenty, although there are a few fragmentary tunes for which only a ground is known. In most cases the variations following the ground involve the use of a number of different musical embellishments, usually starting very simply and progressing through successively more complex movements before returning again to the ground. For example, variations after the urlar or ground usually includes a siubhal (pronounced shoo-all and meaning a passing or traversing) or dithis (pronounced jee-esh and meaning two or a pair) or both. The siubhal comprises theme notes each coupled with a single note of higher or lower pitch that usually precedes the theme note. The theme note is held and its paired single note cut. The timing given to the theme notes is of critical importance in displaying the virtuosity of the master piper. If the theme and single note are repeated or played in pairs, it is referred to as a doubling, otherwise a siubhal singling. The dithis is similar. The theme note is accented and followed by a cut note of lower pitch, usually alternating, for example, between an A and a G. If the coupled pairs are played in a repeating pattern, it too is called a dithis doubling. Following the siubhal or dithis variation are other more complex embellishments.
The Gaelic names of these type movements are: Lemluath (Lem-lua), Taorluath (Tor-lua), and Crunluath (Cren-lua). In almost all pibroch in which these later movements are found, the variations are played first as a singling and then as a doubling and with a slightly increased tempo. However not all pibrochs will include all or even any of these movements but instead use variations that are deemed to be irregular.
bron source: Wikipedia
More information go to:
