AHH! The cane drone reeds and the lower pitch make for such a more haunting sound then modern piping. I never get to experience the glory days of anything : (
This is absolutely my favorite recording of this tune, ever. Just majestic. They're down at 454hz, which has more mood and soul in my opinion, compared the super sharp pitches we're at now. They did this with cane reeds and rope tension drums, and speaking of the drums, just rocking drum score. Despite the echo and recording quality, This is what bagpipes sound like in my imagination.
I have played Caberfeidh for years in march, strathspey, reel & jig time. It is one of, if not the best pipe tune there is. Now becoming more popular again having gone out of fashion because it actually requires a fair degree of lower hand skill to get it right. As a march it can't be beat, using the strong and louder lower notes to great effect, very stirring. I bet many an enemy heard this over the hill and thought better of it. The tone here is fantastic and steady, great pitch in an era before pitch went skywards and now often sounds so "thin" by comparison. I have listened to this recording many times. They are playing it slightly differently from the way it is written in the "old" now reprinted Seaforth book. Listen to the 3rd part, holding the last note before the C grip and D throw missing the E & F. I think. I was originally taught this tune by an old Seaforth Highlander who had done the Pipe Major's course at Edinburgh Castle, the late Archie Cross, he always played it and I have certainly caught this tune. The tune must be centuries old, if anyone knows please put the full history on here, it was asscoiated with the MacKenzie's of Seaforth, the Chief was called "Caberfeidh". Did it originate from a piobroch, does anyone know? There is another good recording of Caberfeidh, a slightly later vintage by the Argylls on their album from the late 60's with Ken Robson as Pipe Major just after they came back from Crater. Also a good recording on the Queens Own Highlanders...A Pipers Day, good modern pitch not too high. To any young piper or band pipe major, learn Caberfeidh.....it is a fantastic tune.
Thanks for contacting me privately, UA-cam had thought your comment was spam so I restored it to view. I played briefly in a contest band with an ex Seaforth Jerry Gibson who is now a well known Highland pipe maker. To my great surprise I have ended up a maker of Irish uilleann pipes, so I know some of the factors that go into the tone, particularly the drones. Listen to any current world champ top band video, then come back to the tone of these drones where the drums are silent; it's a different harmonic blend here. I've re-pitched drones more drastically than the rise of Highland pitch standards, even built a Henderson GH pipe bass to uilleann pitch and loudness, but found the tone is preserved if the proportions are faithfully followed. As a professional educated guess, well let's say I'm qualified to be wrong, I think the Highland pitch rise has not always followed best practice in both drones and chanters. I would love to have accurate bore plots for some of the drones from this recording.
A fabulous recording. I had the original LP that I bought in Buenos Aires. All excellent marches and tunes altogether. Love Caber Feidh. The high and low notes express the depth of the highland spirit. It is dramatic, powerful, it is really the insistent beat of LIFE itself. It sounds like a human heart. Pure beauty.
One of the old classic LPs of pipe music ! I would have loved to have had this when my love for pipe music began in the mid-fifties (but I didn't find a teacher till 1965 - a long time for a passion to wait !) I do have some other Scots Guards albums, though: from 1964 (1st Bn./P/M John.S. Roe); from 1972 (1st Bn./P/M Angus MacDonald); and from 1975 (2nd Bn./P/M Linden Ingram) as well as loads from Shotts, Glasgow/Strathclyde Police and other grade 1 bands. Thanks for sharing !
It's all about "acoustic tuning". The reason why the tone of pipes keeps getting worse the higher pitch we go at is because the drones are not designed to play at pitchs like 480 or so. They sound acoustically best at like 466 or lower, on average, for a set of Naills or McCallums. My Hendersons are slightly different being acoustically tuned to 475, so they sound better at 480 than do a myriad of other pipes. Perhaps someone can make a set of drones whose harmonics match the bass harmonics when the drone reed is closed, this is where most of the harmonics come from when the reed is closed, not open. That aside this is a really nice arrangement! BTW the pipes sound to be 455 or so.
@DrBetelgeuseMD Also the rope-tension snare drums used hide heads. I'm sure they had snares under both heads though for that crisp sound.I can't prove it but I feel like the drum heads may have been tuned to the pipes' E, the 5th note of the pipe scale.
This is the first and BEST version of Cabar Feidh I know. They play it a little differently from most other settings I've heard. Note that in the first bar, there is no high A, only high Gs. Also, I wonder, @ 1:13, 1:14 and 1:15, are those taorluaths or (as standard in this tune), tachums on low A? Wonder if this was an original Scots Guards arrangement, or published somewhere.
I've got a very fast ear, and I can hear the "grip" style D-throws, taorluaths and grips bubbling. The sound is there, but you have to hear it sort of the way you spot a object in the night sky by looking off to the side. If you played cane reeds earlier than 1980, the most amazing thing is how perfectly fixed the pitch is, there is no sign of any drift in tuning of any instrument when they were using cane reeds, leather headed drums w rope tension.
One more. The 2 sides of this album were engineered differently. This is the opening tune of side 2. I have the opening tune of the album "Modder River" and it's only got 41 views. Search "Modder River" and I'm on top. This is an incredibly difficult contest march pipe tune full of the bubbly grip/tarluath/double-catch movements but the engineering is clearer for hearing the bagpipe ornamentation. Look it up; I hope you are or become able to play this tune. It's too much fun.
Actually the gracenotes are pretty clear when the drum stops from time to time! I will definitely look for the video you mention!! Thanks alot! On my side i'm just about to very slowly gain relative evenness and comfort speed with Bonnie Dundee, The Steam Boat and A Hundred Pipers--all three the full bubbly versions :D i force muyself to go slow it really helps!Then nibble on first thee parts of Cabar Feidh with no rhythm too.Hesitate if i should use quick slide across the hole and back on hG..
@erracht Hm, 1st notes are ga ge g so there's a high A in there definitely. As to 1:13 etc.: in the answer phrase of part 4 (with all the low A's) they're all taorluaths. What you label as "tachums" would just be g-d-e gracenotes separating low A's as in other versions. I learned this mid 60's from vinyl playing it at half speed; if you have audio software slow it down to half and it's plain as day through the dense echo of the hall. I just did and it's taorluaths all the way down.
@Dayepipes I don't hear an A (as a full note) between the Gs - listen to 0:07 and 0:17 - in usual arrangements there's a clear A there, but here it is presumably only as a gracenote.
PS -i meant, on high G doubling, upwards, kind of like mirror image of the low G birl with slide. Kind of works for me. Some people just press twice but i find it slow. One positive thing is that i train every day on the smwll pipes and because they have thicker chanter, the moment i grab the great pipe it feels way easier with thinner chanter :)) Cheerss and thanks again!
@erracht Email me at ddaye@daye1.com and give more detail. Happy to clarify anything I've said, consider what you're saying, and provide stretched audio if you want.
Last of the few, I knew the two Roe Brothers, both pipe majors, former QVS school boys and Bob Crabbe Peace time were 1st and second Battalion bands and Depot piping school bands, not sure if 3rd, armored had pipers in WW II I have original side drum 1937 circa
![Cabar Feidh - 4 SCOTS P&D (The Highlanders) - The Royal Mile, Edinburgh [4K/UHD]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hCOEufYavhw/mqdefault.jpg)
![Cabar Feidh - 4 SCOTS P&D (The Highlanders) - The Royal Mile, Edinburgh [4K/UHD]](/img/tr.png)
AHH! The cane drone reeds and the lower pitch make for such a more haunting sound then modern piping. I never get to experience the glory days of anything : (
This is absolutely my favorite recording of this tune, ever. Just majestic. They're down at 454hz, which has more mood and soul in my opinion, compared the super sharp pitches we're at now. They did this with cane reeds and rope tension drums, and speaking of the drums, just rocking drum score. Despite the echo and recording quality, This is what bagpipes sound like in my imagination.
Rope tension drums are the og and far superior
I agree with everthing you've said.
It's the drum rests that kill it.
@@robertkaye5434 rests to let the drones sound through. These people knew who they were.
I have played Caberfeidh for years in march, strathspey, reel & jig time. It is one of, if not the best pipe tune there is. Now becoming more popular again having gone out of fashion because it actually requires a fair degree of lower hand skill to get it right. As a march it can't be beat, using the strong and louder lower notes to great effect, very stirring. I bet many an enemy heard this over the hill and thought better of it.
The tone here is fantastic and steady, great pitch in an era before pitch went skywards and now often sounds so "thin" by comparison. I have listened to this recording many times. They are playing it slightly differently from the way it is written in the "old" now reprinted Seaforth book. Listen to the 3rd part, holding the last note before the C grip and D throw missing the E & F. I think.
I was originally taught this tune by an old Seaforth Highlander who had done the Pipe Major's course at Edinburgh Castle, the late Archie Cross, he always played it and I have certainly caught this tune. The tune must be centuries old, if anyone knows please put the full history on here, it was asscoiated with the MacKenzie's of Seaforth, the Chief was called "Caberfeidh". Did it originate from a piobroch, does anyone know?
There is another good recording of Caberfeidh, a slightly later vintage by the Argylls on their album from the late 60's with Ken Robson as Pipe Major just after they came back from Crater. Also a good recording on the Queens Own Highlanders...A Pipers Day, good modern pitch not too high.
To any young piper or band pipe major, learn Caberfeidh.....it is a fantastic tune.
Thanks for contacting me privately, UA-cam had thought your comment was spam so I restored it to view. I played briefly in a contest band with an ex Seaforth Jerry Gibson who is now a well known Highland pipe maker. To my great surprise I have ended up a maker of Irish uilleann pipes, so I know some of the factors that go into the tone, particularly the drones. Listen to any current world champ top band video, then come back to the tone of these drones where the drums are silent; it's a different harmonic blend here. I've re-pitched drones more drastically than the rise of Highland pitch standards, even built a Henderson GH pipe bass to uilleann pitch and loudness, but found the tone is preserved if the proportions are faithfully followed. As a professional educated guess, well let's say I'm qualified to be wrong, I think the Highland pitch rise has not always followed best practice in both drones and chanters. I would love to have accurate bore plots for some of the drones from this recording.
Guidich'n Righ. My grandad was a Seaforth. WIA Beaumont Hamel 1916. Love this tune.
Cuidich 'n Righ! Brilliant performance. My grandfather's first cousin in the Seaforths died there too.
A fabulous recording. I had the original LP that I bought in Buenos Aires. All excellent marches and tunes altogether. Love Caber Feidh. The high and low notes express the depth of the highland spirit. It is dramatic, powerful, it is really the insistent beat of LIFE itself. It sounds like a human heart. Pure beauty.
Just good to hear the older pipe band tunes. Strong sound and excellent tone. Have many good memories of my piping years.
One of the old classic LPs of pipe music ! I would have loved to have had this when my love for pipe music began in the mid-fifties (but I didn't find a teacher till 1965 - a long time for a passion to wait !)
I do have some other Scots Guards albums, though: from 1964 (1st Bn./P/M John.S. Roe); from 1972 (1st Bn./P/M Angus MacDonald); and from 1975 (2nd Bn./P/M Linden Ingram) as well as loads from Shotts, Glasgow/Strathclyde Police and other grade 1 bands.
Thanks for sharing !
My Dad was in the Scots Guards in the Second World War fought in North Africa and Italy!😒💂🥁🏴
Sounds fantastic, instant goosebumps! I rather like the lower pitch, nowadays the low A going above 480Hz is just getting ridiculous imo.
They were really EXCELLENT ! Thank you for uploading.
This is played so well, wish i could hear them separately because the mass effect muffles their impeccable gracenotes embelishements!
Nice sound, as ex- 'Q' 'O' Highlander still sends a wee shiver down ma spine, CABARFEIDH!!
Wow. I used to have this record, but forgot about it until I saw the album cover.
awesome tune, awesome rendition, and nice recording
Here how the pitch of the pipes is lower? And love the old snare drum sound. Excellent!
It's all about "acoustic tuning". The reason why the tone of pipes keeps getting worse the higher pitch we go at is because the drones are not designed to play at pitchs like 480 or so. They sound acoustically best at like 466 or lower, on average, for a set of Naills or McCallums. My Hendersons are slightly different being acoustically tuned to 475, so they sound better at 480 than do a myriad of other pipes. Perhaps someone can make a set of drones whose harmonics match the bass harmonics when the drone reed is closed, this is where most of the harmonics come from when the reed is closed, not open. That aside this is a really nice arrangement! BTW the pipes sound to be 455 or so.
Thanks for sharing Ive been trying to practice this song
@DrBetelgeuseMD Also the rope-tension snare drums used hide heads. I'm sure they had snares under both heads though for that crisp sound.I can't prove it but I feel like the drum heads may have been tuned to the pipes' E, the 5th note of the pipe scale.
This is the first and BEST version of Cabar Feidh I know. They play it a little differently from most other settings I've heard. Note that in the first bar, there is no high A, only high Gs. Also, I wonder, @ 1:13, 1:14 and 1:15, are those taorluaths or (as standard in this tune), tachums on low A? Wonder if this was an original Scots Guards arrangement, or published somewhere.
I've got a very fast ear, and I can hear the "grip" style D-throws, taorluaths and grips bubbling. The sound is there, but you have to hear it sort of the way you spot a object in the night sky by looking off to the side. If you played cane reeds earlier than 1980, the most amazing thing is how perfectly fixed the pitch is, there is no sign of any drift in tuning of any instrument when they were using cane reeds, leather headed drums w rope tension.
Can someone who builds these instruments to modern standards please listen to the tone of these drones? Emails to me accepted.
One more. The 2 sides of this album were engineered differently. This is the opening tune of side 2. I have the opening tune of the album "Modder River" and it's only got 41 views. Search "Modder River" and I'm on top. This is an incredibly difficult contest march pipe tune full of the bubbly grip/tarluath/double-catch movements but the engineering is clearer for hearing the bagpipe ornamentation. Look it up; I hope you are or become able to play this tune. It's too much fun.
Actually the gracenotes are pretty clear when the drum stops from time to time! I will definitely look for the video you mention!! Thanks alot! On my side i'm just about to very slowly gain relative evenness and comfort speed with Bonnie Dundee, The Steam Boat and A Hundred Pipers--all three the full bubbly versions :D i force muyself to go slow it really helps!Then nibble on first thee parts of Cabar Feidh with no rhythm too.Hesitate if i should use quick slide across the hole and back on hG..
Thanks, I agree on all counts. This sound, both pipes and drums, to my knowledge as a piper does not exist on this planet any longer in live music.
@erracht Hm, 1st notes are ga ge g so there's a high A in there definitely. As to 1:13 etc.: in the answer phrase of part 4 (with all the low A's) they're all taorluaths. What you label as "tachums" would just be g-d-e gracenotes separating low A's as in other versions. I learned this mid 60's from vinyl playing it at half speed; if you have audio software slow it down to half and it's plain as day through the dense echo of the hall. I just did and it's taorluaths all the way down.
@Dayepipes I don't hear an A (as a full note) between the Gs - listen to 0:07 and 0:17 - in usual arrangements there's a clear A there, but here it is presumably only as a gracenote.
PS -i meant, on high G doubling, upwards, kind of like mirror image of the low G birl with slide. Kind of works for me. Some people just press twice but i find it slow. One positive thing is that i train every day on the smwll pipes and because they have thicker chanter, the moment i grab the great pipe it feels way easier with thinner chanter :)) Cheerss and thanks again!
Could anyone recommend a copy of the sheet music to match this version or close?
Old School is Cool
Ah, to be a Seaforth once again!
Are the 2nd 3rd and 4th battalion pipes and drums still in existence?
yes indeed, this is a worthy rendition for marching into battle
❤️👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
@erracht Email me at ddaye@daye1.com and give more detail. Happy to clarify anything I've said, consider what you're saying, and provide stretched audio if you want.
Onward Lads
I have no idea; I'm strictly musical and a Yank.
i know dixie ingram
Nvm
Last of the few, I knew the two Roe Brothers, both pipe majors, former QVS school boys and Bob Crabbe
Peace time were 1st and second Battalion bands and Depot piping school bands, not sure if 3rd, armored had pipers in WW II
I have original side drum 1937 circa