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Snippets of History |
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Date/Era early 1800s |
Topic Music, religion |
District Trotternish |
Person |
| The whole peninsula of Trotternish was once the home of a great number of fiddlers. From the oral tradition, we are led to believe that every home had a fiddler. The coming of the evangelical movement in the early 19th century saw people like Donald Munro - the 'Blind (and best) Fiddler' in Trotternish turning his heart from this 'wordly pleasure'. He staged a public burning of fiddlers and bagpipes at the head of Loch Snizort. And the clarsach had been the gem of musical instruments to the Gaels up to around the 17th century. Its popularity declined in favour of piobaireachd (the classical music of the Highland bagpipe) - to the extent that harpers and their music became a rarity. Music has always been very important to the Gaelic people and the proof is the vast number of beautiful songs which have been handed down over the centuries through the oral tradition. It is a sadness that for part of the twentieth century, Gaelic singing began to lose its roots somewhat, to be dominated by music which was Gaelic in name but anglicised in delivery. Tha mi as aonais, mar a bha am Barra-breac gun ph́obaire. I am without it, as Barbreck was without a piper A Laird of Barbreck was at one time too mean to keep a piper, and this characteristic has rendered him immortal in this old Gaelic proverb! The message that comes home to us is that one is lacking in something that should normally be in their possession, and it shows us the value and importance of music to the Gaelic people. The bagpipe is a baggage of mysterious engineering. It was invented 100 years before the piano. There is a sheepskin bag, 3 drones, the blowstick and the chanter. For a piper, getting rid of the unwanted moister (which enters the bag with his or her breath) is the biggest problem. The moister, heat and cold can put the pipes out of tune. This is why you often see pipers putting their finger into the top of the drones. When people left for Cape Breton (Nova Scotia) and beyond, strangely they took their dancing feet with them. Step dancing used to be very much a natural thing to do - a respojnse to the music rather than a choreographed piece. At the time of the Highland clearances, the dancing was lost to Scotland and though there are 'steps' to rejuvenate our original dancing, if you want to see it at its best, you have to go to Cape Breton. Piping became big in the sixteenth century. Skye was where the Maccrimmons invented piobaireachd. They were the hereditary pipers to the Chiefs of the Clan Macleod. A few hundred years ago, piping - and music generally - was so highly valued that a piper was entitled to da fhichead latha a' phiobaire (forty days' hospitality in any home). | |