You're welcome.

Beyond the variations which are heard in your recording, the tune goes on to some fancier embellishments called tourluath (TOOR loo ah), tourluath a mach (-- a mah), crunluath (CRUN loo ah), and crunluath a mach, then it goes back to the beginning of the tune to finish it. Those embellishments add some aural interest, and can almost sound 'bubbly'. I know, TMI.

I agree that it could get tiresome to someone not familiar with the idiom and expecting to hear them, which is probably why they're not included on the band recording and it fades out during the third variation.

Some piobaireachd tunes are only 5-6 minutes, while others go on for 15 minutes or more. For another good example of piobaireachd, I suggest listening to the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band's Down Under CD. Track 4 is the piob "Andrew MacNeill of Colonsay". They start out singing it (in canntaireachd* - Gaelic for 'singing'), then they play what they just sang, then they sing part again while a piper plays the same part. The whole track's only 6:41, but then again, they're only doing part of the tune.


*Canntaireachd is a formalized style of using particular syllables (a.k.a. 'vocables') to indicate specific notes and embellishments in order for pipers to learn tunes. It's one of the ways pipers used to learn pipe music before standardized notation came about. That and simple observation/imitation and repetition.