Brigadoon, anyone? Need tune names, please

[ohiopiper]

Piped at a Veterans Day ceremony and was approached by a High School drama director. They're putting on a musical performance of the old movie "Brigadoon". He asked me to pipe and I've got till April to fill in the tunes. One problem... I've never seen the movie myself. He seemed primarily interested in a wedding scene. Can anybody name that tune?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[EagleJCS]

There are several threads over on the Dunsire site (just Google 'Brigadoon, pipe tunes, Dunsire') covering this topic.

The general consensus is the play (and the film, for that matter) doesn't utilize any actual pipe tunes, per se. Lerner and Lowe composed some music for the pipes, but it's difficult to memorize. Many pipers use a series of 6/8's or other upbeat tunes for the wedding scene and Lord Lovat's Lament (played slower than usual) for the funeral scene.

[MacGumerait]

ohiopiper ,

John is quite right . Here is a video of the " wedding scene " from the old movie .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTOx1ziDzTU

The High School Drama director will need to understand that there is not just piping in the wedding scene and it's also not a combination of traditional pipe tunes . The music is specific to the movie .

Sounds like the Drama director is saying ... hey ... you play bagpipes ... how about doing that for our Brigadoon play .... bagpipes are bagpipes ... just do the wedding scene thing from the movie .

[castledangerous]

Lord Lovat's Lament for the funeral

Also, I did a setting in BMW of the tune from the score, if you want it

[OC Richard]

Remember it was a play first (1947) later a movie (1954). So they're not putting on a staged version of the movie, I would assume, but putting on the original play, or at least songs from the original play.

The bagpipe tunes are all in the actual score, and written in the correct key so that a bagpiper can read them. The drama teacher has a copy, doesn't he?

Yes one tune is Lord Lovat's Lament but it's arranged in a specific way for the play.

Another tune is the "Funeral Pibroch" which was composed for the play. It's a long somewhat complicated piece.

Here is the funeral scene, with the piper piping on the body with Lord Lovat's Lament then going into the "funeral pibroch". It's a good piper and he's playing the "pibroch" the way it's in the score

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBg_A6v27LE

Then there's the marchlike tune that you play for the "entrance of the clans", a 6/8 time piece.

Here it is played by the orchestra, but I've been in productions were the pipes play this exact music... as I recall it's written in the right key for the pipes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DNOLVLPbCM

I think that these three pieces are the only ones in the score which are written out specifically for the pipes. The wedding dance music is done by the orchestra, not the pipes, as I recall. (The "sword dance" in the play has no resemblance whatsoever to the Highland Dance of the same name, either in music or in dance steps.)

Brigadoon was quite popular, at one time there being a number of different casts touring the country simultaneously, each cast having two pipers, as I recall. So, a number of pipers made their living for several years touring with that play.

Forget about the movie- they changed quite a few things for the movie. I've piped for a large number of Brigadoon performances over the last 35 years, all a bit different, but the pipe music as I said is in the actual score and therefore set in stone so to speak.

[ohiopiper]

Thanks. I'm assuming he doesn't have the score since he was asking me if I knew what the tunes were. He did mention the Sword Dance, and I assume he has no idea it's different. I didn't, having never seen Brigadoon.

They are doing the play, not the movie remake. Doing research led me to the fact that it was indeed first a musical/play and then a movie. Wife says she has a copy of the movie in a box somewhere, I may have to watch it to get a feel for what's expected. Director is supposed to call me sometime this week.

[OC Richard]

I wouldn't watch the movie in preparation for the play, because as I've said they made a lot of changes in the movie.

The clips I posted show the music in the play performed correctly, filmed from performances of the play itself.

How can a guy put on a play without the score? What are the singers going to sing? Are the singers just going to watch the movie and make up their vocal parts? I don't think so. Likewise the pipe music is in the score, and it's ridiculous to ask a piper to just watch the movie (which has different music in many places!) and make up his parts.

As I said only Lord Lovat's Lament is a traditional piece (though arranged in a specific way), the rest of the music is composed by Lerner & Lowe, and it's all available in sheet music form.

Now, I have seen one production of Brigadoon where the director decided to throw out the play's original "sword dance" music and use the real traditional Scottish Sword Dance, having the piper play Ghillie Callum, just like is done nowadays in Highland Dancing. Also the director threw out the play's original wedding dance music and hired a real Scottish fiddler to play Scottish Country Dance music for that scene. The director hired a top Scottish dance instructor (certified by both the RSCDS and the Highland Dance Board) to teach real traditional Scottish dance to the cast.

But all the other productions I've seen over the years use the Broadway style choreography for both the sword dance and the wedding dance.