============================================================================= = Scales and Modes in Scottish Traditional Music = = Jack Campin = ============================================================================= Modes on the Highland Bagpipe ============================= 1. The Notes of the Bagpipe Chanter =================================== The Highland pipe uses a scale which is nearer to the Mixolydian mode than to anything else in the Western system (it is almost the same as the Zalzal scale of mediaeval Arabic music, which is presumably coincidence). It is written as if based on A, though the actual pitch is B flat. The two tenor drones of a Highland pipe are tuned an octave below the low A on the chanter, with the bass drone (added in the 18th century) an octave lower. When Highland pipe tunes are played on other instruments, they are nearly always played at the written pitch of A, with the other notes of the scale brought into line with the Mixolydian scale. (Bad fiddle transcriptions often get this wrong, and sharpen the G's to produce a major key). There are only nine notes in the standard chanter scale; some chanters and some fingerings can produce more, but these are never called for in traditional pipe music. A large proportion of the tunes in the Scottish repertoire fit this scale, even if they are not part of the pipe repertoire today. Whether this is because they were originally pipe tunes, or because the pipes were designed to play Scottish vocal tunes that already fell into that scale, is anybody's guess. Pipe tunes often have a basic melody in a gapped scale, but have the gaps filled in by upbeats or grace notes. It is quite rare for a full setting of a pipe tune to have the grace notes exactly matching the gapped-scale mode of the tune. In particular it's difficult not to use g as a frequent grace note. Grace notes are too short to have clearly identifiable pitch, so this doesn't matter. X:0 T:Highland pipes (as they sound) M:21/4 L:1/4 K:BbMix B,,4 B,4 B,4 ABcd efga b|] X:0 T:Highland pipes (as written) M:21/4 L:1/4 K:AMix A,,4 A,4 A,4 GABc defg a|] Written Highland pipe music usually omits any key signature - the two sharps are taken as read. Older sources may put the two sharps in explicitly. Some sources may even use three sharps; in that case, just ignore the sharp on the G. David Glen's books from the nineteenth century used the ingenious trick of giving the key signature as a pianist or fiddler would play the tune - tunes in his collections have signatures ranging from zero to three sharps, all of which a piper would ignore. Border pipes have a similar conical-bore chanter to Highland pipes and use a similar scale. Some older smallpipes, with a parallel-bore chanter, used a shifted scale with the tonal centre at the bottom of the range and providing one or two higher notes; in A major, ABcdefgab, or G major, GABcdefga. They are less standardized than Highland or Border pipes and some old examples have even had their chanter fingerholes recut to alter their basic mode. This is a typical Border pipe tune for a mixolydian chanter with the extended range, GABcdefga: X:0 T:Soor Plooms in Galashiels G:song M:4/4 L:1/8 Q:1/4=104 K:GMix GA|B3c B2ge|dBAG A2B>A|G3A BABd|e3d B2dg| edBe dBAd|BAGB A3B |GABc degc|B2G2 G2 :| d2|efga g2G2|g2 de/f/ e2dc |B2de f2gf|e4 d3d | efga g3G |gbag e2dc |Bcde fagf|e4 d2d2| efga g3G |g2 de/f/ e2dc |BAB2 dBd2|ede2 f3a | geg2 ede2|dBd2 BAB2 |g2fe dBgc|B2G2 G2 |] The tune uses the same gap-filling development as the Highland tunes quoted before; the first part is major/mixolydian hexatonic, the second mixolydian. But here the effect is much more dramatic and unmistakable, the natural f's becoming more and more strongly accented up to the climax in bar 20. 2. Modal Systems for the Bagpipe ================================ Pipe tunes frequently use pentatonic or hexatonic scales of the types described above. Among the seven note modes, the commonest are the mixolydian mode (for tunes written as ending on A) and the major mode (tunes ending on D). Roderick Cannon, in his book "The Highland Bagpipe and its Music", uses a different system for naming pentatonic modes than anything I've used so far. He describes three pitch sets, which he calls the A, D and G scales: X:0 T:Cannon's A-scale (D,G-gap) N:A lydian/major/mixolydian pentatonic N:E major/mixolydian/dorian pentatonic N:B mixolydian/dorian/minor pentatonic N:F# dorian/minor/phrygian pentatonic M:none L:1/4 K:AMix A2 B c e f a2 f e c B A2|] X:0 T:Cannon's D-scale (G,C-gap) N:D lydian/major/mixolydian pentatonic N:A major/mixolydian/dorian pentatonic N:E mixolydian/dorian/minor pentatonic N:B dorian/minor/phrygian pentatonic M:none L:1/4 K:AMix A B d2 e f a f e d2 B A|] X:0 T:Cannon's G-scale (F,C-gap) N:G lydian/major/mixolydian pentatonic N:D major/mixolydian/dorian pentatonic N:A mixolydian/dorian/minor pentatonic N:E dorian/minor/phrygian pentatonic M:none L:1/4 K:AMix G2 A B d e g2 a g2 e d B A G2|] A (the pitch of the drones) is the only tonal centre that can fit into all three scales. Cannon sees these scales as allowing tunes to have "double tonic" structures, or phrases which suggest alternating tonal centres. Each has four possible centres, but in practice most tunes only use two. Here is an example he mentions, on the G scale: the gaps have mostly been filled in with passing notes, but the only tonal centres are G and A, and unusually with G coming first in each four-bar phrase. (The third part is different, moving between A and D, but the third parts of four-part pipe tunes are often later additions). If you were putting guitar chords to this, each part would only need two chords. X:0 T:Cabar Feidh B:The Cabar Feidh Collection: Pipe Music of the Queen's Own Highlanders G:reel M:C| L:1/8 Q:1/2=90 K:AMix e|:g2 a>e g2 d>e|g2 d>c B>GG>B|[1 A>Bcf|a2 e>d c>AA>B:| [2 A>Bc>d e>fg>e|a2 e>d c>AA>g|| G2 e>G BB|G2 d>G B>GG>B| A2 e>A cc|A>cf>e c>AA>g | G2 e>G BB|G>gd>c B>GG>B| A>Bc>d e>fg>e|a2 e>d c>AA>g|| |:c2 g>c e>cg>e|c2 e>f g>ecd f>da>f|d>ef>g a>gffg>e f>de>d|cd c>AA>g|| |:G>GG>B G>GG>B|G>gd>c B>GG>B|[1 A>AA>c A>AA>c|e>ca>e c>AA>g:| [2 A>Bc>d e>fg>e|a2 e>d c>AA |] Hexatonic and heptatonic scales could be built up as combinations of Cannon's three pentatonic scales (though Cannon himself doesn't do this): X:0 T:A+D-scale (G-gap) N:D lydian/major hexatonic N:A major/mixolydian hexatonic N:E mixolydian/dorian hexatonic N:B dorian/minor hexatonic N:F# minor/phrygian hexatonic M:none L:1/4 K:AMix A2 B c d e f a2 f e d c B A2|] X:0 T:D+G-scale (C-gap) N:G lydian/major hexatonic N:D major/mixolydian hexatonic N:A mixolydian/dorian hexatonic N:E dorian/minor hexatonic N:B minor/phrygian hexatonic M:none L:1/4 K:AMix G A2 B d e f g a2 g f e d B A2 G|] X:0 T:G+A-scale (no gaps) N:A mixolydian M:none L:1/4 K:AMix G A2 B c d e f g a2 g f e d c B A2 G|] 3. Low and High G's =================== Low and high G's on the pipes are often treated differently. The high g is a relatively quiet note, while the low G is the loudest note on the chanter and hence the harshest dissonance against the drones (Alastair Campsie, describing his pibroch for Hugh MacDiarmid, writes that it "resembles nothing more than the spirit screaming against the insensate violence of the world"). And the two notes are not precisely an octave apart. So the high g is used more, and many pipe tunes omit the low G while using the high one - these are a boon to whistle players trying to play them on an A whistle, or transposed down a fourth on a D whistle. This is an unusual tune which does the opposite - the top two notes are omitted, but the low G is used: X:0 T:The High Road to Gairloch M:2/4 L:1/8 Q:1/4=88 K:AMix e>f eA |cA e2|df/e/ dG |BG d2 | e>f eA |cA e2|A>B cA |B2 A2:| cA A>B|cA c2|d>c B>c|dB d2 | cA A>B|cB ce|A>B cA |B2 A2:| ============================================================================= == (c) Jack Campin http://www.campin.me.uk/ October 2012 == == 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU, Scotland == == == == these pages: http://tinyurl.com/scottishmodes == =============================================================================