Hew Morrison Collection > Piobaireachd

As shown above, there are only six different bars in " The Prince's Salute," but
when played in full the order of the bars is as follows, viz. : — One, two, one, three.
One, two, one, three. Four, five, one, three. One, two, six, three.
In the first two illustrations what appHed to the Urlar also held good in the
variations, but that is not the case in this instance. The bars are played in the
same order up to the end of the Doubling of the First Variation. Up to this point
we have sixteen bars, which include the first four played twice in each variation,
but when we come to the Taorluath we find thirty-two bars in it, and all succeeding
variations. There are now seven different bars arranged as follows : — One, two,
three, four, one, two, five, six. One, two, three, four, one, two, five, six. One,
seven, three, two, one, two, five, six. One, two, three, four, seven, two, five, six.
At the first glance this seems rather irregular, and what is the cause ? It is because
the Urlar and the next two variations are written in common time, and the Taorluath
is written in six-eight time. If the Taorluath and the following variations were
written in common time, with four movements to the bar, what would be the result ?
It will be found that this variation would be written correctly and the bars would
then be in the following order, viz. : — One, two, one, three. One, two, one, three.
Four, five, one, three. One, two, six, three. There are now sixteen bars, which
agree with the Urlar, and this proves that the art of piobaireachd is not studied or
written according to its proper construction.
Let us take for the next example
"The Sister's Lament,"
There are sixteen bars in this Urlar altogether, twelve of the bars are entirely
different, and only four are repeated. To illustrate their order, which is the important
point, numbers alone will be used as the number of bars are greater here. The order
of bars is as follows : — One, two, three, four, five, six, three, seven, eight, seven, nine,
eight, ten, seven, eleven, twelve. The only bars repeated are the third, seventh,
and eighth, and the seventh bar is repeated twice, or played three times in the Urlar.
It will be seen that there is no regular place for the repeated bars to come in. Up
to the end of the sixth bar they are all different in succession ; then bar three is
repeated ; then other two new bars, taking us up to the end of the ninth bar ; then