Highland Cathedral is a beautiful tune, widely loved and played…but I’ve got a problem and I need your help. I hear many pipers and bands being very aggressive with certain notes and I wonder why. I took a brief tour on the Internet and found several versions of the tune. We’ll start off by focusing on the 2nd part, measures 3 & 4. I found this written in three different ways, which can be seen in the picture associated with this post.
In my mind, I hear the tune being played as written in Version 3, with the runs being “open” and syncopated. Those three “tied” notes are played with equal value and spread over a full beat. When I “tap it out” everything falls into place and the tune is very melodic. When I listen to players and bands playing the tune, I hear something more like what can be seen in versions 1 & 2. I also hear the sixteenth notes being played very aggressively, creating a completely unsettling effect.
This treatment of the sixteenth notes carries on elsewhere creating angst where there should be calm. Truthfully, it drives me crazy.
My bigger question here is “Do you hear the music or are you just doing math?” Do you sing the tune in your mind and allow your fingers to follow along or are you just playing notes? I think the word I’m looking for here is “empathy”.
Love to hear your thoughts.
I had a P/M early in my piping life who was often saying “the music is just a guide”. If you can’t sing it out loud and in your head when you’re playing it’s just an exercise in mathematics.
I tend to play it as #3. However, my first copy of it, which supposedly was drafted to match and orchestral version, would be like #2 but with a tied A and C so no distinct articulation of the 2nd beat. I quite like that too. Otherwise, with the beat articulated, it is too harsh for #2 especially if the 1/16th notes are again rushed or chipped.
The more I play, the more I feel it matters to be one “one with the tune”. I understand the tune was written to be played the way it was written. I understand the math is not always correct.
However, once you get a “feel” for the tune (e.g., 6/8s), becoming one with the tune may stray from the exact tempo & math of how the tune was written.
Is this “feeling” completely off base?
—Anonymous.
I think you’re not at all off-base. Staff notation is a guide. It’s up to the piper to breathe life into the tune. I’ve gone through bagpipe music software and doctored accepted settings to more accurately represent the tune “musically”. It’s a very interesting and eye-opening exercise.