The Highland bagpipe : $b its history, literature, and music: with some account of the traditions, superstitions, and anecdotes relating to the instrument and its tunesManson, W. L. (William Laird)
History
The Highland bagpipe : $b its history, literature, and music: with some account of the traditions, superstitions, and anecdotes relating to the instrument and its tunes
Manson, W. L. (William Laird)
Bagpipe
A Faust-like story is told of Andrew, chief of the Clan Mac Farlane, and
the supposed composer of the “Clan Farlane Pibroch.” Andrew and
Alastair, chiefs of the Mac Donells of Keppoch, were credited with
having “the black art.” They were said to have sold their souls to the
devil in exchange for their supernatural powers. They seem to have
driven a rather peculiar bargain, for the understanding was that the
devil should get only one of their souls, the chiefs to decide between
themselves which it would be. The appointed day and hour came on which
the debt was to be paid, and still the chiefs, though they had come to
the trysting place, had not decided which soul was to be given up. When
the devil came he was in a desperate hurry, and at once exclaimed,
“Well, and whose soul do I get?” On the spur of the moment Mac Donell
pointed to Mac Farlane’s shadow, saying, “That’s he,” whereupon the
devil snatched up the shadow and ran off with it. From that day Mac
Farlane was never known to cast a shadow.
As to the tune itself, Sir Walter Scott supposes it had a close
connection with the predatory excursions of the clan into the low
country near the fastnesses on the western side of Loch Lomond. The
pibroch, _Thogail nam bo_, seems to indicate such practices, the sense
of the music being:—
“We are bound to drive the bullocks,
All by hollows, hirsts, and hillocks,
Through the sleet and through the rain;
When the moon is beaming low
On frozen lake and hill of snow,
Boldly, heartily we go,
And all for little gain.”
The tune was almost lost, but about 1894 some enthusiasts gathered it
from several who knew it, and committed it to paper, thus ensuring its
preservation. The credit of this laudable effort, it should be added, is
mainly due to Provost Mac Farlane of Dumbarton, who, with the help of
Pipe-major J. Mac Dougall Gillies, Glasgow, had the complete tune taken
down from the playing of John Leitch, an old man who lived in
Glendaruel. The Faust-like story of its composer is also told of a
Donald Mac Kay of Lord Reay’s country, but not in connection with a
tune.
“JOHN GARBH OF RAASAY’S LAMENT.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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