Pipe tunes' uber-long names

[OC Richard]

In the "song title game" thread one can see that, generally, song titles are pithy.

Such is not the case with Highland bagpipe tunes!

I don't know what it is, probably the military nature of so many tunes, but Scottish pipe tunes are possibly unrivalled regarding absurdly long tune titles.

Here are some examples:

Doctor Ross' 50th Welcome to the Argyllshire Gathering

(This is possibly the most widely-played long-title tune, and a civilian one at that.)

There are traditional tunes with fairly long titles:

There Was An Old Woman Tossed Up In A Blanket

Sound Of The Waves Against The Castle Of Duntroon

And some Gaelic ones:

Thailer A Bha Me Sherridh Is Feader A Thuair Me

Nuair A Bha Mi Og B'e Mo Roghainn Dol A' Shireadh Spors

Modern ones that commemorate various things:

Saint Andrews and Caledonian Society of Victoria British Columbia

The 1954 Scottish Pipe Band Association's Welcome To Pittodrie

But for really long ones, one must turn to relatively recent military compositions:

Pipe Major Willie Ross' Farewell to the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards (a widely-played tune)

Pipe Major Alex Douglas' Farewell To The 16 Company Royal Australian Army Service Corps

and the longest I could find

The 2nd Battalion 51st Highland Volunteers Territorial Army's Farewell To Regimental Sergeant Major Murdo MacLeod

[Profane James]

The Duke Of Roxburgh's Farewell To Blackmount Forest..

[crash]

I like...The King's Own Scottish Borderers Leaving Sun Wai Camp

[416 Rigby]

Kinda makes you thankful for short titles like
"Wings."

[OC Richard]

The Duke Of Roxburgh's Farewell To Blackmount Forest..

Hey that was the M in the MSR of the first band I played in!

Can't remember the S.

The R was The Sheepwife, as I recall.

[Profane James]

Ah nice! It's easily one of my favs. Iain Speirs has a wonderful version on YouTube with Lady Loudon and Bessie McIntyre as the strathspey and reel.

http://youtu.be/ummyfXC3dLY

[KD Burke]

I think incomprehensibility plays an important role as well. Most pipe tune titles are reasonably opaque when it comes to deciphering the tune. For example, I have no idea what the emotional frame of reference for "The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow" would be!

[Blupiper]

Some others:

Captain J. D. K. McCallum's Farewell to the 79th Q. O. C. Highlanders (a march in the Glen book)
The Chief's Sir Fitzroy Donald MacLean Bart. C. B. Welcome to Glasgow (quickstep from the Music of Clan MacLean book)
The Gathering of the MacDonalds of Clanranald to the Battle of Sheriffmuir (piobaireachd)

There is a site out there (www.ceolsean.net) that has digitized copies of a number of old pipe tune collections. It is often fun (for me as a piper) to peruse the titles for tunes that might work out to add to the repertoire and play the 'Pipe tune uber-long name' game. It's a free site and a great resource. Look it up, bring your practice chanter and spend (waste?) an evening.


JMB