Jim Dawson wrote: > Alan MacDonald...... in fact wrote a thesis on the subject of pibroch and > his conclusion was that modern pibroch, > to which you refer was actually a fabrication of what real pibroch was.
And is not 'real pibroch' also a fabrication?!? Or did it arrive with the rest of the Universe..(and where did that come from etc.)? I raise the point not to score a point, but because I think the discussion is touching something essential about being human, and it does no harm to acknowledge it. The issue is one of freedom and order - either of which may lead to hell if not balanced by the other. Pibroch I regard as SEP (Someone Else's Problem, to quote Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), but I have picked up enough to know that a lot of the arguments about pibroch are not really about music or aesthetics, but people's personalities or characters. When the *sense* has gone out of something through a process of chinese whispers, certain types will cling on to the *letter* out of insecurity, ignorance or whatever. It seems that Alan's efforts are in rediscovering the sense of pibroch, particularly in its relation to Gaelic song, so good luck to him. As for improvisation - there's no need to have a problem with it, it's always(?) been a part of trad music, but if it's not your thing, there are still plenty of great tunes to play. Cheers Matt Seattle Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
