Hew Morrison Collection > Piobaireachd

The Growth of Piobaireachd and its Preservation 127
Before closing this chapter, I have left the most important part to the last, and
that is the revival of the art of composing piobaireachd. It seems a special feature
of the Highland Gatherings even of old as well as at the present day to hold com-
petitions for piobaireachd playing. I refer to the competitions held at Falkirk and
Edinburgh under the patronage of the Highland Society of London. There is one
thing that is distinctly noticeable, and that is the fact that we do not see a
MacCrimmon's name appearing in a list of competitors or prize-winners at any
of those Gatherings. Perhaps the best of the great JIacCrimmons were gone
before those competitions started, and those who were left did not compete. It
would seem, therefore, that they were of too high an order to enter into com-
petition for prizes, the results of which could only be that they would have been
competing with their own pupils, and reducing their rank or superiority as masters
of the arts of composing and teaching.
Many pipers of the present age seem to think that the composition of piobaireachd
should be treated as a lost art, and that it is presumption on the part of any modern
performer on the Great Highland Bagpipe to challenge comparison with the great
masters of the past.
If this is the aspect in which we are to look on science or art of any description,
then the wheels of progress and enhghtenment must come to a complete standstill,
and we will have to remain content to allow our minds and talents to lapse into a
barren and morbid condition.
If there is any martial spirit left in the patriotic Highlander of to-day, he cannot
rest content to see his ancient customs die out for want of reviving and raising
them to a state of perfection again, and those who do compose original piobaireachd
may rest assured that even the MacCrimmons, if they were with us now, would not
look on our efforts in such a gloomy manner. It is only pipers of that class who
cultivate jealousy, or who wish to remain as they are, who would attempt to spoil
the good work of the revival of the composition of piobaireachd.
It has been suggested by several lovers of Ceol Mor to open the composition of
original piobaireachd to competition as a means of encouraging the creation of new
tunes. While we have competitions for piobaireachd playing with good results,
if the composition of original piobaireachdan were to be opened to competition, the
results would be fatal, and outwith the meaning and ancient customs that prevailed
when the Skye masters and creators of piobaireachd were at their best. Ossian
did not compose his poems for the mere sake of superiority in the rank of poets
any more than did the MacCrimmons create their masterpieces with a view to blot