Pibroch (Ceòl Mòr)

Ceòl Mòr or pibroch (Scottish Gaelic pìobaireachd) is an art music genre associated primarily with the Scottish Highlands that is characterized by extended compositions with a melodic theme and elaborate variations. Strictly meaning "piping" in Scottish Gaelic, pìobaireachd has for some four centuries been music of the Great Highland Bagpipe. Music of a similar nature, pre-dating the adoption of the Highland pipes, has historically been played on the wire-strung Gaelic harp (clàrsach) and later on the fiddle, and this form is undergoing a revival.

Structure
Related ceol mór genres where historically also played on the fiddle and on the wire-strung cláirseach. The clàrsach ceòl mòr predated and is likely to have influenced the later pipe and fiddle music. However pibroch in its current form was developed on the Great Highland Bagpipe, with most of the extant pibroch tunes being adapted to or written specifically for the Highland pipe, and as a result the musical form is influenced by the features and limitations of the instrument.

In musical structure, pibroch is a theme with variations. The theme is usually a 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 ùrlar. This is usually a fair stylised version of the theme, and usually includes numerous embellishments and connected notes.

The subsequent variations can vary from one to about twenty, although there are some fragmentary tunes for which only the ùrlar is known. in most cases the variations following the ùrlar involve the use of a number of different musical embellishments, usually starting very simply and progressing through successively more complex movements before returning again the ùrlar.

Variations after the ùrlar usually include siubhal ("passing" or "traversing") or dithis ("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 repeating pattern, it too is called a dithis doubling.

Following the siubhal or dithis variations are other more complex embellishments. The Gaelic names of these type movements are: leumluath, taorluath, and crùnluath. in almost all pibroch in which these later movements are found, the variations are played first as a singling than as a doubling and with a somewhat 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.

In addition the theme will usually have one of several internal structures for the ordering of its musical phrases. These are usually classified as follows:


 * Primary - Theme or ùrlar is composed of two two-bar phrases, A and B, played in the following order:

AAB

ABB

AB


 * Secondary - The theme or ùrlar is composed of four phrases, with A and B being one-bar phrases and C and D being two-bar phrases, and played in the following order:

ABCD

CBAD

CD


 * Tertiary - A relative of the Primary Pibroch, with three two-bar phrases, A, B, and C, played in the following order:

AB

ABB

AB

C


 * Irregular - The theme or ùrlar does not fit into any above structures.

Few pibrochs are pure examples of any of these structures though most can be made to fit into one of the first three with a slight modification of one or two of the phrases in one or more lines.

There is evidence from early treatises (e.g. Joseph MacDonald) that the structure was originally counted in four, so a Primary form would be


 * AABA
 * BBAB

Similarly, a Secondary form can be read as


 * abABA
 * baBAB