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Please note:
Arrangements of tunes to be played on the bagpipes are frequently modified
from arrangements of the same tunes intended for singers. This often
(though not always) takes the form of additional flourishes and embellishments
that are not in the melody as singers think of it (for those familar with
it, the fourth bar of "Scotland the Brave" is a good example). Also,
sometimes it is necessary to make some adjustments in the tune to accommodate
the scale of the bagpipe. The bagpipe has a compass of only a little more than
an octave and has limited ability to add sharps or flats within its range.
For these reasons, the fitting of the lyrics provided
here to printed music intended for the pipes may not always be quite obvious
or straightforward, but with a little trial and error you can usually achieve
a reasonable result. |
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| Many of these pages
have links to MIDI or musical scores for the tunes. More information
on these formats and on software to read them is available on our Bagpipe
Music for the Web tutorial page. Note that MIDI is similar to
a "player piano" and does not accurately represent any real piper or pipe
band. Not all tunes are available in all formats, and some do not
have words. The Bagpipe Music Scores
page includes all tunes for which MIDI or musical scores are available
online on this site, regardless of whether the tunes have words. |
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| This collection is primarily one of
songs whose melodies have been adopted for pipe tunes. There are numerous other
popular songs and tunes that fit the bagpipe but have never been particularly
popular pipe tunes; also, there have been words
written to many traditional pipe tunes long after the tune was played on the
pipe. In general these are excluded from this collection, though there are a
few exceptions. For example, "Scotland the Brave" was a pipe tune for nearly
a century before the words were written, but the words have become so well-known
that it is included. Some other pipe tunes have also had words fitted onto them,
including "The Barren Rocks of Aden" and "The Meeting of the Waters," but this
appears to have been done long after they were written as pipe tunes and the words
are not nearly so popular as those for "Scotland the Brave." For now tunes such
as these are excluded.
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| You will find many
songs here that have strong political and/or religious overtones.
Inclusion in this list is not intended as an endorsement of any particular
political viewpoint. Whether Green or Orange, Jacobite or Unionist,
we should all learn to live together in peace. |
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