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Ceòl Mòr
1. The Massacre of Sabra and Shatila Piobaireachd: 6, 6, 4. (1982)
Composed to mark the mass murder by the Lebanese Christian Phalange militia of more than 3000 people residing in these Beirut refugee camps during 16–18 September 1982.
2. Echo and Narcissus Piobaireachd: 6, 6, 4 (1982)
The nymph Echo was condemned by the goddess Hera to repeat the words of others. She fell in love with butwas rejected by Narcissus. Her voice was all that was left as she pined away, while Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection. In Variation 1 of the piobaireachd, titled ‘Narcissus’, each bar is a mirror image of its equivalent in the Ground. In the Crunluath variation, titled ‘Echo’, each bar contains an echo of its equivalent in Variation 1.
3. Greenham Gathering Piobaireachd: 4, 4, 4. (1982)
Composed as a tribute to the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, which was set up in protest at the storing of American cruise missiles at a nearby RAF base. A blockade began in March 1982 and became the main focus of the antinuclear Peace Movement in the UK.
4. Salute to Solidarność Piobaireachd: 4, 4, 4. (1982)
Solidarność was the independent trade union ‘Solidarity’ founded in Gdansk, Poland, in 1980. Its leader, Lech Wałęsa, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 and was elected as President of Poland in 1990. This piobaireachd was during the communist government’s attempts to destroy the Union in 1982.
5. Salute to Mojahedin-e-Khalq Piobaireachd: 6, 6, 4. 1982)
Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) was a large dissident organization that opposed the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This piobaireachd was composed at the time of the state-sponsored 1981–1982 Iran Massacres.
6. The Battle of the Braes Piobaireachd: 4, 4, 4 (1984)
This piobaireachd features in the composer’s Isle of Skye collection (Op. 16, 1984). It commemorates an event (Blàr a' Chumhaing) during the Highland Clearances. Landlords were removing crofters to make room for sheep, but the crofters of the Braes, near Portree on the Isle of Skye, refused to obey an eviction notice issued in April 1882. When police were summoned from Glasgow to enforce the eviction a battle ensued. It led to a government commission of enquiry and an Act in 1886 that gave crofters more security of tenure.
Ceòl beag
1. City of Hull Pipers 2. Duncan Gray’s Wooing 3. Ще не вмерла України March (1982)
Schottische (1986)
(Verbytsky 1863, arr. 2022)
Traditionally, the Highland Bagpipe plays just nine notes: low G, low A, B, C-sharp, D, E, F-sharp, high G and high A. It is conventional to write the notes C and F without sharp signs. The instrument has risen in pitch, and is now a transposing instrument, since each of its notes now sounds a semitone higher than written. However, it is not an equal temperament instrument and the gaps between C-sharp and D, and between F-sharp and G, are slightly wider than a semitone. The two tenor drones play an A (concert B-flat) an octave higher than the bass drone. The performer ‘strikes in’ the drones before commencing playing, and once the performance begins the chanter (on which the melody is played) can’t be stopped because, unlike the Northumbrian pipes, it is an open not a closed chanter. Much of the skill in playing the Highland Bagpipe lies in the execution of the many grace notes.
Derek B. Scott