As the descriptive title says, with a nod to both urlar and alap traditions of Scotland and India. The Alap is the opening section of a typical North Indian classical performance. It is a form of melodic improvisation that introduces the raag. The Urlar (or Ground, or Theme) is the opening section in Scottish Piobaireachd. Though today the

As the descriptive title says, with a nod to both urlar and alap traditions of Scotland and India. The Alap is the opening section of a typical North Indian classical performance. It is a form of melodic improvisation that introduces the raag. The Urlar (or Ground, or Theme) is the opening section in Scottish Piobaireachd. Though today the Scottish tradition contains no improvised or extemporised aspect, I do suspect it once did.

The story behind the tune...

Hector Maclean served as a military commander under his uncle, Donald of Islay, Lord of the Isles. Ongoing territorial disputes between Barons of the East and West of Scotland led, in 1411, to the Battle of Harlaw, near Inverurie, Aberdeenshire. The battle saved Aberdeen from destruction at the hands of the highland

The story behind the tune...

Hector Maclean served as a military commander under his uncle, Donald of Islay, Lord of the Isles. Ongoing territorial disputes between Barons of the East and West of Scotland led, in 1411, to the Battle of Harlaw, near Inverurie, Aberdeenshire. The battle saved Aberdeen from destruction at the hands of the highland forces but Red Hector, along with many others, met his untimely end there. The composer of 'Lament for Red Hector of the Battles' is unknown.

In this arrangement, after recording the Highland Bagpipe I added soprano saxes in octaves and a tenor whistle in F.

An arrangement of this striking ancient melody performed here on whistle (in F) with two saxophones playing sympathetic responses. In place of the toarluath and crunluath variations I linked the theme notes with something that felt more natural to play on the whistle, hopefully while keeping forward motion and the sense of urgency/intensity those

An arrangement of this striking ancient melody performed here on whistle (in F) with two saxophones playing sympathetic responses. In place of the toarluath and crunluath variations I linked the theme notes with something that felt more natural to play on the whistle, hopefully while keeping forward motion and the sense of urgency/intensity those variations typically add.
My approach is faithful to the composition in many regards but does add an extemporised element, especially through the variations. This interests me as I believe an improvisational aspect to this music must have existed and indeed perhaps once formed its basis.
Music traditions in India, as in Scotland, are built upon a drone but the Indian style is (still?) improvised. The Indian musician doesn't differentiate between 'improvising' and 'playing music'. I wonder whether Scottish bagpiping has lost roots in this regard? Hinduism - the collective spiritual understandings of people of the Indus region is still strong, whereas any equivalent understandings inherent to these parts (ie modern Scotland, etc) has long since disappeared. My anthropological hobbyist part suspects we lost something fundamental in this Western world, a long, long while back. I feel music can give (albeit very) faint clues to this.

An article by Mrs Bridget Mackenzie, serialised in the Piping Times in 1980 (reposted recently on bagpipe.news, linked below), also offered relevant notions in regards the lost improvisational aspect of Piobaireachd, linking with an ancient style of Norse verse.

"The convention was that they were spontaneous, and to suggest otherwise was to insult the artiste, but there is evidence that this spontaneity drew heavily on the store of training previously built up".**

*bagpipe ornamentation which the final variations in piobaireachd are often based around.

** https://bit.ly/2NHaczR