ABSTRACT
The music of the bagpipe may be divided into two main types, Ceòl-M#x00F3;r (Great Music) and Ceòl-Beag (Small or Little Music). Piobaireachd is a highly esoteric music, hardly known, even to the very meaning of the name, outside the circle of the pipers themselves. The Urlar is much ornamented by grace-notes conventional to this music and to the technique of the instrument. The reader is recommended to count two beats to a crotchet, and until he has got the feel of the time, to ignore all grace-notes, i.e. in reading it over to himself without a musical instrument. This chapter presents the bars of a typical Urlar, from the piobaireachd ‘The MacLeod’s Salute’, traditionally attributed to Donald Mor MacCrimmon. Some, like ‘MacCrimmon’s Lament’ are better known as songs than as piobaireachd; with others, the reverse is true; some, like Cholla mo rùin, are equally well known, to the Gael at least, in either form.
