Page 65 - Bagpipe Tunes Transcribed by Paul Cranford

ISSUE : Issue 47

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1988/1/1

introduce you to John as MacLeod. Because if you're not a Mac," he said, "you don't reg? ister with old John at all!" He played the pipes for about 10 minutes, and he passed them back to me. "Try that 'Drunken Piper' again, MacLeod!" Well, that time I got through it bet? ter than I did the first time. "Ah," he said, "you've been a long time with? out playing, MacLeod. IT'S A DAMN SHAME!" He turned around to Danny Allan, he said, "Do you know--MacLeod is not a bad piper. But if I had him for about 6 months, I'd make a damn rattling good piper out of him!" I guess he would, too! Oh, I used to like playing the pipes, you know. I used to get the pipes tuned up and get out on the verandah, play a string of marches or so on. My father'd come along, "Aw, play 'Tullochgorm,' or"--some strath? speys, you know--"'Devil in the Kitchen.'" I remember one time I had just learned-- picked up a new tune from a book. "The Lads Arthur and Sarah Severance of Mull," a reel. Father was working--he was down on the fishhouse. It was near din? ner time. And he was making a harpoon pole for swordfishing. And he had one of those big long jointer planes, you know. And I started playing this tune, I was out on the verandah with the pipes. My cousin, Bobby Morrison, was here. Bobby came up. He said, "Look, boy," he said, "you'd better stop playing the pipes," he said, "or your fa? ther will have the pole," he said, "all down to nothing but shavings!" Our thanks to Sharon Irwin for help in the preparation of this article. Bagpipe Tunes Transcribed by Paul Cranford Paul Cranford: The tunes in this article are bagpipe tunes. No key signature is giv? en because there's only one scale that a bagpipe can give. The fiddler, to play them, has to make certain adjustments. He has to automatically sharpen the C-note and, the F-note. And often the G-note is shar? pened- -but not all the time. When the G- note is on the beat, it's usually natural. When it's off the beat--when it's unaccent? ed- -the G is usually sharpened by the fid? dler. The piper, of course, has no such choice. For the piper, it's always a note that's actually slightly between sharp and flat. That's part of the reason Cape Breton fid? dling intonation is not equally tempered like a piano scale. The do-re-mi-fa-sol-la- ti-do type of scale that you find on a pia? no is in specific tuning. The spaces be? tween the notes are equal whole tones and semi-tones throughout the scale (like the black and white keys on the piano or the distances between the frets on a guitar.) But the bagpipe scale does not have equal EXCELLENT DINING <> INDOOR OR PATIO D.J. 6 Nights a Week Live Matinee Every Saturday 458 CHARLOTTE STREET, DOWNTOWN SYDNEY

Cape Breton's Magazine