Annotation:Pibroch of Donald Dhu (1)

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PIBROCH OF DONALD DHU/DOMHNALL DUBH/DONUIL DUBH [1]. AKA - "Black Donald Balloch of the Isles's March to Inverlochy 1427," "Piobaireachd Dhomhnuill Duibh Black Donald Balloch of the Isles March to the First Battle at Inverlochy 1427." AKA and see “Black Donald the Piper,” “Cameron Gathering,” “Lochiel's March (2).” Scottish, Air, Jig or March (6/8 time). A Major (Kennedy, Kerr, Martin): E Flat Major (Emmerson, Graham). Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (Emmerson, Kerr): AABB (Kennedy): AABBCCDD (Martin). A pibroch is a type of elaborate pipe tune, and this is an old set of variations "having the pronounced rhythm of the Single Jig" (Emmerson, 1972), and the catagorizaiton ‘pibroch’ is somewhat misleading with regard to most fiddle versions of the melody, which are not true pibrochs. Christine Martin (2002) says her settings are “fiddle setting(s) based on the bagpipe version of the popular 6/8 pipe march,” and that the version falls into the category of ceòl beag (little music), a simple march. The name Mac Dhomhnuill Duibh (Black {Mac}Donald) is the Gaelic patronymic of Cameron of Lochiel. Some title variants mention the 'First Battle at Inverlochy 1427' but there is no evidence that the march is associated with that conflict, nor that it has that antiquity. The association may be the product of Victorian imagination.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) wrote words to the tune, published in Alexander Campbell’s Albyn’s Anthology (1816). They commence:

Pibroch of Donuil Dhu,
Pibroch of Donuil,
Wake thy wild voice anew,
Summon Clan Conuil.
Come away, come away,
Hark to the summons!
Come in your war array,
Gentles and commons.

Scott was hugely popular in his day and his words, set to the basic 6/8 ground of "Pibroch of Donald Dhu," were set symphonically and sung in London concert venues, and thence around the world. It is because of Scott that the pibroch was one of the first of the genre to receive recognition outside of Scotland. Scott was no musician, but he did have access to piping sources (he employed a piper at his home in Abbotsford in the Borders, although, by contemporary accounts, his chosen piper looked the part but played poorly). It may also be that he had the tune from his publisher, Alexander Campbell, who was also a music collector and composer and who had visited Skye and Glenelg on a collecting expedition in the autumn of 1815 where he met pipers Niel MacLeod of Gesto and Donald Roy MacCrimmon. Scott was on the committee of the Highland Society of Scotland which had sponsored Campbell’s activities.

O’Neill prints the tune as a double jig entitled “Black Donald the Piper.” According to the sleeve notes of Ishbel Macaskill’s recording “Essentially Ishbel” (2000), the melody can be traced to the year 1431, when the MacDonalds defeated the royalist forces of the Scottish king. The lament is that of Domhnall Dubh, the chief of Clan Cameron, who were among the king’s troops. Martin says the melody has been known as a pipe tune and song for over 500 years, and that it is impossible to trace its origins. She notes that Domhnall Dubh, who died in 1460) led the Clan Cameron at the battle of Red Harlaw in 1411. Pipers have historically known the march under the names “Cameron Gathering” and “Lochiel's March (2).”

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Emmerson (Rantin’ Pipe and Tremblin’ String), 1971; No. 74, p. 156. Graham's Songs of Scotland, 1864. Kennedy (Traditional Dance Music of Britain and Ireland: Jigs & Quicksteps, Trips & Humours), 1997; No. 153, p. 37. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 1), c. 1880; No. 9, p. 31. Martin (Ceol na Fidhle, vol. 1), 1991; p. 24. Martin (Traditional Scottish Fiddling), 2002; p. 69.

Recorded sources:

See also listings at:
Alan Snyder’s Cape Breton Fiddle Recordings Index [1]
Jane Keefer’s Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]

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