pibroch

The Gaelic word {{lang|gd|piobaireachd}} literally means 'piping' or 'act of piping'. The word is derived from {{lang|gd|pìob}} ('pipes') via {{lang|gd|pìobaire}} ('piper') plus the abstract forming suffix {{lang|gd|-eachd}}. In Gaelic, {{lang|gd|pìobaireachd}} literally refers to any pipe music, not merely {{lang|gd|ceòl mór}} (literally: 'big music'). Pibroch is a spelling variant first attested in Lowland Scots in 1719.{{cite web|title=Dictionary of the Scots Language|url=http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?plen=3596&startset=29384942&query=PIBROCH&fhit=pibroch&dregion=form&dtext=snd#fhit|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130419180317/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?plen=3596&startset=29384942&query=PIBROCH&fhit=pibroch&dregion=form&dtext=snd%23fhit|access-date=23 December 2012|archive-date = 2013-04-19}}

Bagpipe societies, such as the Glasgow-based Piobaireachd Society, have commonly employed the term {{lang|gd|piobaireachd}} as a synonym for {{lang|gd|ceol mor}} played on the Great Highland Bagpipes.{{cite web |title=Piobaireachd Society – About Us |url=http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17&Itemid=28 |access-date=30 December 2012 }} The term {{lang|gd|piobaireachd}} or pibroch is also historically employed to describe {{lang|gd|ceol mor}}-related repertoire played on instruments other than bagpipes, particularly the Scottish fiddle.{{cite book |last=Purser |first=John |title=Scotland's Music |year=1992 |publisher=Mainstream Publishing Co. Ltd. |location=Edinburgh |isbn=1-85158-426-9 |pages=141–2 }} This book is an outgrowth of a 30-part BBC series commissioned by Martin Dalby. See also {{cite web |last=Purser |first=John |title=Album notes to Scotland's Fiddle Piobaireachd, Volume 1 (CD) 2010, Tulloch, TM504 |url=http://www.bonnierideout.com/ |access-date=23 December 2012 }}

Pibroch is properly expressed by minute and often subtle variations in note duration and tempo. Traditionally, the music was taught using a system of unique chanted vocables referred to as {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd}}, an effective method of denoting the various movements in pibroch music, and assisting the learner in proper expression and memorization of the tune. The predominant vocable system used today is the Nether Lorn {{lang|gd|canntaireachd}} sourced from the Campbell Canntaireachd manuscripts (Volume 1. 1797){{cite web |title=1797 – Colin Campbell: Vol. 1 |url=https://pibroch.net/c1/ |website=Pibroch Network |date=18 August 2013 |access-date=27 August 2023}} and (Volume 2. 1814).{{cite web |title=1797 – Colin Campbell: Vol. 2 |url=https://pibroch.net/c2/ |website=Pibroch Network |date=20 August 2013 |access-date=27 August 2023}} available online from the Pibroch Network website. and used in the subsequent Piobaireachd Society books.

Multiple written manuscripts of pibroch in staff notation have been published, including Angus MacKay's book A Collection of Ancient {{lang|gd|Pìobaireachd|italic=unset}} (1845), Archibald Campbell's The Kilberry Book of {{lang|gd|Ceòl Mór|italic=unset}} (1969),Campbell, Archibald (1969, reprinted 2006). The Kilberry Book of Ceol Mor, 3rd Ed, Glasgow: The College of Piping. and The Pìobaireachd Society BooksThe Piobaireachd Society. Piobaireachd Society Books, Volumes 1-15, Glasgow: Engraved and Printed for the Piobaireachd Society by Holmes McDougall LTD., 33 York Street, Glasgow.

The staff notation in Angus MacKay's book and subsequent Pìobaireachd Society sanctioned publications is characterised by a simplification and standardisation of the ornamental and rhythmic complexities of many pibroch compositions when compared with earlier unpublished manuscript sources. A number of the earliest manuscripts such as the Campbell Canntaireachd MS that predate the standard edited published collections have been made available by the Pibroch Network website as a publicly accessible comparative resource.{{cite web |title=Notations of Pibroch before 1854 |url=https://pibroch.net/sources/ |website=Pibroch Network |date=18 August 2013 |access-date=27 August 2023}}

Pibroch is difficult to document accurately using traditional musical notation, and early attempts suffered from conventions which do not accurately convey tune expression.See Seumas MacNeill's Preface in Angus MacKay, A Collection of Ancient Pìobaireachd (1845). More contemporary pibroch notation has attempted to address these issues, and has produced notation much closer to true expression of the tunes.Ross, Roderick S. (ed.) (1992). Binneas is Boreraig, The Complete Collection, 1959. Glasgow: The College of Piping.MacNeill, Dugald B. (2007). Sight Readable Ceol Mor Book I. Edinburgh, Scotland: Dugald B. MacNeil.

Pibroch does not follow a strict metre but it does have a rhythmic flow or pulse; it does not follow a strict beat or tempo although it does have pacing. The written notation of pibroch serves mainly as a rough guide for the piper. The expression of the rhythms and tempos of the pibroch tune are primarily acquired from an experienced teacher and applied through interpretive performance practice.

Related {{lang|gd|ceòl mór}} genres were historically also played on the fiddle and on the wire-strung Gaelic harp or {{lang|gd|clàrsach}}.Simon Chadwick, 'Ceòl mór' at http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/ceolmor The clarsach {{lang|gd|ceòl mór}} is likely to have predated and influenced the later pipeSee Barnaby Brown in his introduction to Allan MacDonald's [http://www.pibroch.net/articles/dastirum_intro.pdf "Dastirum"] ({{ISBN|978-0-9546729-1-1}}). and fiddleDavid Johnson, Scottish Fiddle Music of the 18th Century, John Donald, Edinburgh, 1984 music. However, pibroch in its current form was developed on the Great Highland Bagpipe, with most of the extant pibroch tunes being adapted to or written specifically for the GHB, and as a result the musical form is influenced by features and limitations of that instrument.

In musical structure, pibroch is a theme with variations. The theme is usually a very simple melody, though few if any pibroch contain the theme in its simplest form. The theme is first stated in a slow movement called the ground or in Gaelic the {{lang|gd|ùrlar}}. This is usually a fairly stylised version of the theme, and usually includes numerous added embellishments and connecting notes.

The subsequent variations can number from one up to about twenty, although there are a few fragmentary tunes for which only a ground is known. In most cases the variations following the ground involve the use of a number of different musical embellishments, usually starting very simply and progressing through successively more complex movements before returning again to the ground.

Variations after the {{lang|gd|ùrlar}} or ground usually include a {{lang|gd|siubhal}} ('passing' or 'traversing') or {{lang|gd|dithis}} ('two' or 'a pair') or both. The {{lang|gd|siubhal}} comprises theme notes each coupled with a single note of higher or lower pitch that usually precedes the theme note. The theme note is held and its paired single note cut. The timing given to the theme notes is of critical importance in displaying the virtuosity of the master piper. If the theme and single note are repeated or played in pairs, it is referred to as a doubling, otherwise a {{lang|gd|siubhal}} singling.

The {{lang|gd|dithis}} is similar. The theme note is accented and followed by a cut note of lower pitch, usually alternating, for example, between an A and a G. If the coupled pairs are played in a repeating pattern, it too is called a dithis doubling.

Following the {{lang|gd|siubhal}} or {{lang|gd|dithis}} variation are other more complex embellishments. The Gaelic names of these type movements are: {{lang|gd|leumluath}}, {{lang|gd|taorluath}}, and {{lang|gd|crùnluath}}. In almost all pibroch in which these later movements are found, the variations are played first as a singling and then as a doubling and with a slightly increased tempo. However, not all pibrochs will include all or even any of these movements but instead use variations that are deemed to be irregular.

In addition the theme will usually have one of several internal structures for the ordering of its musical phrases. These are usually classified as follows:

• Primary – The theme or ground is composed of two two-bar phrases, A and B, played in the following order:
• AAB
• ABB
• AB
• Secondary – The theme or ground is composed of four phrases, with A and B being one-bar phrases and C and D being two-bar phrases, and played in the following order:
• ABCD
• CBAD
• CD
• Tertiary – A relative of Primary Pibroch, with three two-bar phrases, A, B, and C, played in the following order:
• AB
• ABB
• AB
• C
• Irregular – The theme or ground does not fit into any of the above structures.

Few pibrochs are pure examples of any of these structures though most can be fit into one of the first three with a slight modification of one or two of the phrases in one or more lines.

A compilation of the structure of many pibroch tunes, including related historical essays, was written by A. J. Haddow.Haddow, Alexander John (1982, 2003). The History and Structure of Ceol Mor - A Guide to Piobaireachd The Classical Music of the Great Highland Bagpipe, Glasgow: The Piobaireachd Society.

There is evidence from early treatises (e.g. Joseph MacDonald) that the structure was originally counted in 4, so a Primary form would be

• AABA
• BBAB

Similarly, Secondary form can be read as

• abABA
• baBABBarnaby Brown, The Design of It: Patterns in Pibroch, The Voice, Winter 2004

The Gaelic titles of pibroch compositions have been categorised by Roderick Cannon into four broad groupings.Roderick D. Cannon, [http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/musicfiles/preprints/Gaelicnames.pdf Gaelic Names of Pibrochs: A Classification], Scottish Studies, 2006. These include:

• Functional – salutes, laments, marches and gatherings.
• Technical – referring to strictly musical characteristics of the pieces such as "port" or "glas", terms shared with wire-strung harpers.
• Textual – quotations from song lyrics, usually the opening words.
• Short names – diverse short names referring to places, people and events similar to those found in Scottish popular music of the period.

Pibroch in the functional category were most commonly written for or have come to be associated with specific events, personages or situations:

• Laments ({{lang|gd|Cumha}}) are mourning tunes often written for a deceased person of note. Laments were commonly written as a result of families being displaced from their homeland, a practice that was very common after the Jacobite rising of 1745.
• Salutes ({{lang|gd|Fàilte}}) are tunes that acknowledge a person, event or location. Salutes were often written upon the birth of children or after a visitation to a prominent figure such as a clan chief. Many salutes have been written to commemorate famous pipers.
• Gatherings ({{lang|gd|Port Tionail}}) are tunes written specifically for a clan. These tunes were used to call a clan together by their chief. The title "Gathering" traditionally refers to the practice of seasonal cattle raiding of rival clans.[http://www.altpibroch.com/learning/macfarlanes-gathering/ Barnaby Brown, "The MacFarlanes' Gathering (Too Long in this Condition)", AltPibroch website, posted Dec 19, 2016] MacFarlanes' Gathering, for example, had associated Gaelic words written according to 19th-century tradition by Aindrea Triath nam Pàrlanach, chieftain of the MacFarlanes between 1514 and 1544, as follows. {{langx|gd|'Thogail nam bó, dhìomain nam bó,'thogail nam bó théid sinn,'thogail nam bó, ri uisge 's ri ceò,ri monadh Ghlinn Crò théid sinn.'Thogail nan creach, bhualadh nan speech,'thogail nan creach théid sinn,}} etc. English translation: Cattle lifting, cattle rustling, cattle lifting we'll go, cattle lifting, through rain and through mist, up the moor of Glen Croe we'll go. Booty lifting, wasp stinging, booty lifting we'll go, etc.
• Rowing pibroch are more rhythmic tunes used to encourage rowers while crossing the sea.

The different categories of pibroch do not have consistent distinctive musical patterns that are characteristic of the category.Roderick S. Ross (ed.), {{lang|gd|Binneas is Boreraig|italic=unset}}, The Complete Collection, 1959, Glasgow: The College of Piping, 1992. The role of the pibroch may inform the performers interpretative expression of rhythm and tempo.

Many pibroch tunes have intriguing names such as "Too Long in This Condition", "The Piper's Warning to His Master", "Scarce of Fishing", "The Unjust Incarceration" and "The Big Spree" which suggest specific narrative events or possible song lyric sources.

The oral transmission of the repertoire has led to diverse and divergent accounts of the names for tunes, and many tunes have a number of names. Mis-translation of Gaelic names with non-standard phonetic spelling adds to the confusion.

In some cases the name and subject matter of pibroch tunes appears to have been reassigned by-19th century editors such as Angus MacKay, whose book A Collection of Ancient Piobaireachd or Highland Pipe Music (1838) included historically fanciful and romantic pibroch source stories by antiquarian James Logan.Angus MacKay, A Collection of Ancient Piobaireachd or Highland Pipe Music, 1838. A number of pibroch collected by MacKay have very different titles in earlier manuscript sources. MacKay's translated English titles became the commonly accepted modern pibroch names, sanctioned by subsequent Piobaireachd Society editors.Iain I. MacInnis, [http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/musicfiles/manuscripts/macinnes/imthesis9.pdf "Piobaireachd Society titles in need of amendment,"] in The Highland Bagpipe: The Impact of the Highland Societies of London and Scotland, 1781–1844", M.Litt, University of Edinburgh, 1988, Ch. 4, part f, p. 186-194. Thesis available online on [http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/music/index.html Ross' Music Page] website.

Roderick Cannon has compiled a dictionary of the Gaelic names of pibroch from early manuscripts and printed sources, detailing inconsistencies, difficulties in translation, variant names, accurate translations and verifiable historically documented attributions and dates in the few cases where this is possible.Roderick D. Cannon, [http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/musicfiles/manuscripts/pibroch-dict.pdf Gaelic names of Pibrochs: A Concise Dictionary], 2009. Available online on [http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/music/index.html Ross' Music Page] website.

In the absence of concrete documentary evidence, the origins of pibroch have taken on a quasi-mythic status.Roderick D. Cannon, "What can we learn about piobaireachd?", Ethnomusicology Forum, Volume 4, Issue 1, 1995, Pages 1 – 15. The earliest commonly recognised figures in the history of bagpipe pibroch are the MacCrimmon family of pipers, particularly Donald Mor MacCrimmon ({{circa|1570}} – 1640), who is reputed to have left a group of highly developed tunes,Haddow, Alexander John (1982, 2003). The History and Structure of Ceol Mor – A Guide to Piobaireachd The Classical Music of the Great Highland Bagpipe. Glasgow: The Piobaireachd Society. and Patrick Mor MacCrimmon ({{circa|1595}} – 1670), one of the hereditary pipers to the Chief of MacLeods of Dunvegan on the isle of Skye. The prominence of the MacCrimmon Pipers coincides closely with the legislation designed to curb the importance of the Clan Bardic Harpists (Clarsairs). These laws known as The Statutes of Iona of 1609 are significant in reducing the role of the Clarsach and elevating the Piobh in importance. This suggests a deliberate adoption of older Harp tunes onto the Great Highland Bagpipe.

There is some controversy over the attribution of authorship of key pibroch tunes to the MacCrimmons by Walter Scott, Angus Mackay and others who published on the topic in the 19th century. The Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=unset}}, written in 1797,Campbell Canntaireachd volume 1. 1797, NLS MS 3714. The tunes are numbered 1-83. [www.altpibroch.com/resources/sources/c1/ Available online at the Alt Pibroch Club website]Campbell Canntaireachd volumes 2. 1797, NLS MS 3715. The tunes are numbered tunes 1-86. [http://www.altpibroch.com/resources/sources/c2/ Available online at the Alt Pibroch Club website] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203024021/http://www.altpibroch.com/resources/sources/c2/ |date=2014-02-03 }} is a two-volume manuscript with chanted vocable transcriptions of pibroch music that predates the 19th-century attributions. It contains no references to the MacCrimmons and has different names for numerous tunes that were subsequently associated with them.

The pibroch "{{lang|gd|Cha till mi tuill}}" in the Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=unset}} manuscript,[http://www.altpibroch.com/PrimarySources/057-C1_56-MacCrimmon_will_never_return.pdf "Cha till mi tuill"] in Campbell Canntaireachd volume 1, no. 56, 1797, NLS MS 3714. The spelling of this title and many of the Gaelic titles that follow that are sourced from 18th- and 19th-century manuscripts have non-standard Gaelic spelling. In most cases the accurate spelling can be readily deduced, but there are a number of pibroch titles and terms that are commonly mistranslated or remain ambiguous. The original manuscript's spelling is nevertheless retained for tune titles and musical terms described below unless otherwise indicated. which translates as "I shall return no more", is related to a tune associated with victims of the Clearances emigrating to the New World. Walter Scott wrote new romantic verses to this tune in 1818 with the title "Lament – ({{lang|gd|Cha till suin tuille}})" which translates as "We shall return no more", later republished as "Mackrimmon's Lament. Air – {{lang|gd|Cha till mi tuille}}".Sir Walter Scott, "Mackrimmon's Lament" in The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott, with memoir of the author, Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Library, 2005, p. 285-7. [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;rgn=full%20text;idno=AAW4795.0006.001;didno=AAW4795.0006.001;view=image;seq=00000291 Available online at http://quod.lib.umich.edu/] This song was originally published by Walter Scott as "Lament– ({{lang|gd|Cha till sin tuille}})" in Alexander Campbell (Ed), Albyn's Anthology, Vol 2, 1818. Scott's accompanying notes claim that MacCrimmon composed the piece prior to a military raid following a premonition of his own death. Piping "folk-lore" conflates this narrative with an anonymous piper reportedly killed by a small Jacobite ambush force at the Rout of Moy in 1745. However, it has also been reported that over a decade earlier, in 1734, Rob Roy MacGregor from his deathbed requested the playing of "{{lang|gd|Cha Till Mi Tuilleadh}}". In Angus MacKay's book A Collection of Ancient Piobaireachd or Highland Pipe Music, 1838, the pibroch "{{lang|gd|Cha till mi tuill}}" is subsequently published with the title "MacCrummen will never return".Angus MacKay, A Collection of Ancient Piobaireachd or Highland Pipe Music, 1838, p. 17-20[http://www.altpibroch.com/resources/tunes/ps57/ PS 057 "MacCrimmon will never return"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150218160229/http://www.altpibroch.com/resources/tunes/ps57/ |date=2015-02-18 }} Comparative tune resources are available on the Alt Pibroch Club website.

The pibroch "Couloddins Lament" in the Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=no}} manuscript[http://www.altpibroch.com/PrimarySources/137-C2_53-Lament_for_Patrick_Og_MacCrimmon.pdf "Couloddin's Lament"] in Campbell Canntaireachd volumes 2, no. 53, 1797, NLS MS 3715 appears in MacKay's book with the title "Lament for Patrick Og MacCrimmon".Angus MacKay, A Collection of Ancient Piobaireachd or Highland Pipe Music, 1838, p. 82-83.[http://www.altpibroch.com/resources/tunes/ps137/ PS 137 "Lament for Patrick Og MacCrimmon"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150218155033/http://www.altpibroch.com/resources/tunes/ps137/ |date=2015-02-18 }} Comparative tune resources are available on the Alt Pibroch Club website. This pattern has led critics of the orthodox accounts of pibroch history such as Alistair Campsie to conclude that the authorship and origins of the pibroch repertoire were reframed for political and Hanoverian motivations that can be traced back to anxieties over Scottish nationalism.Alistair Campsie, The MacCrimmon Legend or The Madness of Angus MacKay, Edinburgh: Canongate, 1980. {{ISBN|0-903937-66-2}}

While the conventional accounts of the origins of pibroch are largely characterised by an aggrandising romanticism common to antiquarian appropriations of remnant historical traditions in the late 18th century and early 19th century,cf. Edward Jones, The Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards, 1784. there are substantial surviving authentic musical documents that concur with a living tradition of performed repertoire, providing a grounding for any debate over authoritative accounts of the tradition.

Most pibroch are commonly assumed to have been written during the 16th to 18th centuries. The entire repertoire comprises approximately 300 tunes. In many cases the composer is unknown, however pibroch continues to be composed up to the present day. Recent research suggests that the style of ornamentation in pibroch points to earlier origins in wire-strung Gaelic harp music, in particular the use of rapid descending arpeggios as gracenotes.See: Alan MacDonald, Dastirum (CD), 2007. {{lang|gd|Siubhal}} 2. A comparative demonstration and discussion of the shared characteristics of ornamentation common to pibroch and early Harp playing is provided by Allan MacDonald on this album through the inclusion of the 17th-century composition "Port Jean Lindsay" sourced from the Straloch MS (1627-9) and played by Javier Sainz on a replica Lamont Medieval wire-strung harp.

The wire-strung {{lang|gd|clàrsach}} was traditionally the primary high status aristocratic instrument in Gaelic Scotland and Ireland. The art music performed on the wire-strung harp was passed down through oral transmission and much of the repertoire is likely to have been lost. A diverse range of historical manuscripts nevertheless provide a resource for the reconstruction of key aspects of this musical culture.Simon Chadwick, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/ "Sources for the Music,"] Early Gaelic Harp Info website. A significant body of wire-strung harp compositions and related performance practices were notated from the last of the Irish wire-strung harpists by Edward Bunting in the late 18th century.Simon Chadwick, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/bunting.htm "The Bunting Manuscripts 1792-c. 1843,"] Early Gaelic Harp Info website. Documentation of the Scottish wire-strung harp repertoire can be found through tunes that were transcribed to other instruments such as the Port genreSimon Chadwick, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/port/ "The Port" with video of a demonstration performance on the wire-strung harp], on Early Gaelic Harp Info website transcribed in Scottish lute manuscriptsRobert Gordon of Straloch, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/straloch.htm Staloch MS (1627-9)], copy by George Farquhar Graham (1847), NLS ms adv.5.2.18; John Skene (d.1644), [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/skene.htm Skene MS. (c. 1630)], NLS ms adv.5.2.15; Lady Margaret Wemyss (1630–1648), [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/wemyss.htm Wemyss MS. (1643-4)], NLS Dep.314, No.23; [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/balcarres.htm Crawford of Balcarres MS. (1692-4)], NLS Acc.9769/Personal papers 84/1/6. and other collections,A number of Ports and other probable harp compositions are also published in: John Bowie, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/bowie.htm Collection of Strathspey Reels and Country Dances], 1789; Daniel Dow, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/dow.htm Collection of Ancient Scots Music], Edinburgh, 1776; Anna-Jane and Margaret Maclean-Clephane, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/maclean-clephane.htm Maclean-Clephane MS.] (1808) NLS ms 14949a & (1816) NLS ms 14949b. fiddle pibrochs published by Walter McFarlan,David Young, Walter McFarlan, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/macfarlane.htm MacFarlane MS], c. 1740, NLS ms. 2084 & 2085. and Daniel Dow,Daniel Dow, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/dow.htm Collection of Ancient Scots Music], Edinburgh, 1776. and possibly some of the early bagpipe pibrochs. Probable wire-strung harp repertoire can also be found in a number of collections of Irish and Scottish songs and tunes, often published in arrangements for violin, flute and other modern instruments.John and William Neal, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/neal.htm A Collection of the most Celebrated Irish Tunes proper for the violin, German Flute or Hautboy], Dublin, 1724.James Oswald, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/oswald.htm The Caledonian pocket companion, containing all the favourite Scotch tunes, with variations for the German flute, with an index to the whole], London, 1750. Also published as: James Oswald (edited by John Purser), [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/emporium/books/oswald.htm Caledonian Pocket Companion CD-Rom], Nick Parkes, 2006 & 2007Burk Thumoth, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/thumoth.htm "Twelve Scotch and Twelve Irish Airs: With Variations, set for the German Flute, Violin or Harpsichord by Mr Burk Thumoth,"] London: J. Simpson, 1742; Burk Thumoth, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/thumoth.htm "Twelve English and Twelve Irish Airs: With Variations, set for the German Flute, Violin or Harpsichord by Mr Burk Thumoth,"] London: J. Simpson, 1743-5.

"{{lang|gd|Caoineadh Rìoghail}}/The Royal Lament" ({{circa|1649}}) is a harp tune similar in structure to pibroch with an introductory theme and formal variations."{{lang|gd|Caoineadh Rìoghail}}/The Royal Lament" in [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/fraser.htm Angus Fraser MS. Collection of Scottish Gaelic Airs], {{lang|gd|Taigh na Teud|italic=no}} Publications, 1996, p.15. See also: Alison Kinnaird, "{{lang|gd|Caoineadh Rioghail}}/The Royal Lament" on The Harp Key (CD), 1978. Temple Records. Allison Kinnaird has performed and recorded the composition on a modern lever harp in a setting based on Simon Fraser's son Angus Fraser's MS. It is reputed to have been composed by the aristocratic wire-strung harper John Garbh MacLean, Laird of Coll, on the execution of Charles the First.Keith Sanger, Alison Kinnaird, Tree of Strings: {{lang|gd|Crann Nan Teud|italic=no}}: A History of the Harp in Scotland, Edinburgh: Kinmor Music, 1992, pp. 124, 171 & 246. The tune was documented and transcribed for the piano by Simon Fraser from repertoire that had survived in his family.See also: Simon Fraser, Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland, 1816.

A pibroch that is considered to be one of the oldest in the repertoire appears in the {{lang|gd|Campbell Canntaireachd|italic=unset}} with the title "{{lang|gd|Chumbh Craoibh Na Teidbh}}"[http://www.altpibroch.com/PrimarySources/082-C1_81-Lament_for_MacDonald_of_Kinlochmoidart.pdf "{{lang|gd|Chumbh Craoibh Na Teidbh|nocat=y}}"], in Campbell Canntaireachd Volume 1, no. 81, available online from the Alt Pibroch Club website. which translates as "Lament for the Tree of Strings", a possible poetic reference to the wire-strung harp.[http://www.altpibroch.com/resources/tunes/ps82/ PS 082 "Lament for MacDonald of Kinlochmoidart"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150218154832/http://www.altpibroch.com/resources/tunes/ps82/ |date=2015-02-18 }} Comparative tune resources available on the Alt Pibroch Club website.

Another better known pibroch published by Angus MacKay with the Gaelic title "{{lang|gd|Cumhadh Craobh nan teud}}" is translated as "Lament for the Harp Tree."Angus MacKay, A Collection of Ancient Piobaireachd or Highland Pipe Music, 1838, p. 85-8. See also: Dr. William Donaldson, [http://www.pipesdrums.com/ObjectFile.aspx?sys-Portal=57&sys-Class=Set+Tune&sys-ID=17141&sys-Attr=File "Lament for the Harp Tree"], in 09 – "Lost Pibroch": Introduction to the Set Tunes Series 2009, Piper & Drummer Magazine, 2009, available on www.pipesdrums.com website. In MacKay's book James Logan notes: "This {{lang|gd|piobaireachd}}, so unlike all others, is evidently from its style, of very high antiquity. We have not been able to procure any satisfactory account of {{lang|gd|Cumhadh Craobh nan teud}}, which is usually translated, "Lament for the Harp Tree", i.e. the tree of strings. It strikes us that this is a bardic expression for the instrument itself, as we should say "the Bag of Pipes."James Logan in Angus MacKay, A Collection of Ancient Piobaireachd or Highland Pipe Music, 1838, p. 10. This pibroch appears in the Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=unset}} manuscript as "MacLeod's Lament."[http://www.altpibroch.com/PrimarySources/135-C2_51-Lament_for_the_Harp_Tree.pdf "MacLeod's Lament"] in Campbell Canntaireachd Vol. 2, no 51.[http://www.altpibroch.com/resources/tunes/ps135/ PS 135 "Lament for the Harp Tree"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150218170257/http://www.altpibroch.com/resources/tunes/ps135/ |date=2015-02-18 }} Comparative tune resources available on the Alt Pibroch Club website.

A related tune was published by Angus Fraser in 1816 with the title "{{lang|gd|Cumha Craobh nan teud}}/Lament for the Harp Tree".Angus Fraser, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/fraser.htm Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland], 1816. William Matheson argues that the title is a corruption of "{{lang|gd|Cumha crann nan teud}}" or "Lament for the Harp Key". He identifies the pibroch composition with the song "{{lang|gd|Feill nan Crann}}" attributed to one of the last Scottish wire-strung harper poets Rory Dall Morison ({{circa|1656}} – {{circa|1714}}), also known as {{lang|gd|Ruaidhri Dall Mac Mhuirich|italic=no}}, written in his later years as a satirical lament to his declining sexual potency.William Matheson (editor), The Blind Harper (An Clarsair Dall) The Songs of Roderick Morison and his Music, Edinburgh: Scottish Gaelic Texts Society, 1970, p. 154-6. The lyrics translate as: "I find it no easier than death to suffer the scorn of women; I may not go near them since my ability to please has failed me. "Of what use can he be?" is what they say. "His instrument has gone out of tune since he lost his harp-key." See also: Alison Kinnaird, The Harp Key: music for the Scottish harp, Edinburgh: Kinmor Music, 1986.

As Scottish Gaelic aristocratic patronage and traditions began to break down through political and cultural changes and the ever-increasing influences of European and English cultural values and mores, the role of the wire-strung clarsach harp went into a decline. The patronage of high prestige professional hereditary harpers was largely gone by the mid-17th century, although there are records of harpers such as Rory Dall Morison who were still being maintained by leading families up until the early 18th century.Colm O'Baoill, "Highland Harpers and their Patrons", in James Porter (Ed), Defining strains: the musical life of Scots in the seventeenth century, Peter Lang Publishing, 2006, p. 181-196.

{{lang|gd|Ceòl mór}} repertoire is likely to have transferred from the harp to the newly developed Italian violin in the late 16th century as fiddlers began to receive aristocratic patronage and supplement the role of the harpers. Evidence of concurrent patronage can be found in a notary report sent to the Laird of Grant in 1638 detailing that his fiddler John Hay and his harper had injured each other in a fight.John Graham Gibson, Old and new world highland bagpiping, McGill-Queen's Press MQUP, 2002, p. 93. The heightened social and cultural status for fiddlers was consolidated by Clan Cummings of Freuchie who became the hereditary fiddlers and subsequently also pipers to the Laird of Grant from the early 17th century until the late 18th century.John Graham Gibson, Old and new world highland bagpiping, McGill-Queen's Press MQUP, 2002, p. 145.

A distinctive body of {{lang|gd|ceòl mór}} known as fiddle pibroch developed in this period with melodic themes and formal variations that are similar to, but not necessarily derived from or imitative of concurrent bagpipe pibroch, as the name "fiddle pibroch" might suggest. The two forms are likely to have developed in parallel from a common shared source in earlier harp music and Gaelic song.David Johnson, Scottish fiddle music in the 18th century: a music collection and historical study, John Donald Publishers, 1984, p. 122-146.

Fiddle pibroch performance techniques included double-stops, different bowing patterns, complex ornamentation and expressive rubato rhythmic freedom. Pibroch fiddlers employed alternative scordatura tunings to play this repertoire, such as the "A E a e" tuning recommended by violinist/composer James Oswald. Around seventeen fiddle pibroch compositions survive in various 18th- and 19th-century manuscripts and publications, collected by Walter McFarlan,David Young & Walter McFarlan, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/macfarlane.htm MacFarlane MS], c. 1740, NLS ms. 2084 & 2085. Daniel Dow, James OswaldJames Oswald, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/oswald.htm The Caledonian pocket companion, containing all the favourite Scotch tunes, with variations for the German flute, with an index to the whole], London, 1750. Also published as: James Oswald (edited by John Purser), [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/emporium/books/oswald.htm Caledonian Pocket Companion CD-Rom], Nick Parkes, 2006 & 2007. and others. Notable fiddle pibrochs include compositions likely to have been transcribed from the wire-strung harp repertoire such as "{{lang|gd|Cumha Iarla Wigton}}/Lament for the Earl of Wigton,""Cumha Iarla Wigton/Lament for the Earl of Wigton", in Daniel Dow, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/dow.htm Collection of Ancient Scots Music], Edinburgh, 1776. and "{{lang|gd|Cumh Easpuic Earra-ghaoidheal}}/Lament for the Bishop of Argyll,""{{lang|gd|Cumh Easpuic Earra-ghaoidheal}}/Lament for the Bishop of Argyll", in David Young & Walter McFarlan, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/macfarlane.htm MacFarlane MS], c. 1740, NLS ms. 2084 & 2085. This pibroch composition was listed in a poem written in 1720 by {{lang|gd|Sileas na Ceapaich|italic=no}} ({{circa|1660}} – {{circa|1729}}) as one of her favourite harp tunes played by blind harper Lachlan Dall that she lamented never hearing again as the old harper had died. and compositions for the violin within the pibroch form such as "{{lang|gd|Marsail Lochinalie}}""Marsail Lochinalie" in James Oswald, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/oswald.htm The Caledonian pocket companion, containing all the favourite Scotch tunes, with variations for the German flute, with an index to the whole], London, 1750. Also published as: James Oswald (edited by John Purser), [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/emporium/books/oswald.htm Caledonian Pocket Companion CD-Rom], Nick Parkes, 2006 & 2007. and "Mackintosh's Lament.""Mackintosh's Lament", in Robert Riddell's Collection of Scotch, Galwegian and Border Tunes, 1794. This musical lineage had gone into decline around the time the fiddle pibroch repertoire was documented in the late 18th-century manuscripts, culminating in the laments by and for the Scottish fiddler and composer Niel Gow (1727–1807).

Aristocratic Scottish Gaelic {{lang|gd|ceòl mór}} harp repertoire and practices are assumed to have begun to transfer across from the harp to the bagpipes in the 16th century.The earliest Scottish references to the bagpipes occur in records of payment made by the Lord High Treasurer in 1489 and 1505 to English bagpipers who played before King James IV of Scotland. See: Henry Christmas, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ErrbM26IipIC&dq='To%20a%20certain%20youth%20with%20a%20bagpipe%20piping%20before%20the%20King%2C%20the%20King%20himself%20gave%202%20shillings&pg=PA66 "Review of new books: Ancient Scottish Melodies, from a manuscript in the time of King James VI by William Dauney"], in The Literary Gazette: A weekly journal of literature, science and the fine arts, no. 1150, Volume 23, London: H. Colburn, February 2, 1839, p. 66. Other early Scottish references to bagpipers appear in "{{lang|gd|Leabhar Deathan Lios Mòir}}/Book of the Dean of Lismore" c. 1513, compiled by James MacGregor (Seumas MacGriogair), in the Campbell writs for Craignish of 1528 with a piper listed as a witness, and in a legal document from 1541 that records 'Evano Piper' (Eoghann) as a witness to a land transaction on behalf of William MacLeod of Dunvegan. See also: "The Bagpipes" in Scots Heritage, Vol 47, 12/08/2008.While the bagpipes are likely to have been introduced to Scotland from England, the triple-pipe or {{lang|gd|cuisle}} is a related precursor to the bagpipes with a double chanter and no bag, that had been played in Scotland and Ireland until the late-Middle Ages when it was supplanted by the bagpipes. See: Barnaby Brown, [http://www.triplepipe.net/history.html "The Triple Pipe - History,"] triplepipe.net website. A North Uist tradition identifies the first MacCrimmon as a harper.Rev Duncan Campbell, "Gaelic Proverbs", Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, XLV, (1967-8), p. 6 referenced by Hugh Cheape, "Traditional Origins of the Piping Dynasties", in Joshua Dickson (Ed), in The Highland bagpipe: music, history, tradition, Volume 2008, p. 114. The MacCrimmons asserted that they received their first training in a school in Ireland.Angus MacKay, A Collection of Ancient Piobaireachd or Highland Pipe Music, 1838, p. 2. Alexander Nicholson (b. 1844) in his book History of Skye originally published in 1930, recounts a tradition that the MacCrimmons were "skilful players of the harp, and may have been composers of its music, before they began to cultivate the other and more romantic instrument."Alexander Nicolson, Alasdair Maclean, History of Skye: a record of the families, the social conditions and the literature of the island, Maclean Press, 1994, p. 129.

There were a number of musicians across the period from the 17th to the 18th centuries who were noted multi-instrumentalists and potentially formed a bridge from the harp to the fiddle and bagpipe repertoire. Ronald MacDonald of Morar (1662–1741), known in Gaelic as {{lang|gd|Raghnall MacAilein Òig}}, was an aristocratic wire-strung clarsach harpist, fiddler, piper and composer, celebrated in the pibroch "The Lament for Ronald MacDonald of Morar." He is the reputed composer of a number of highly regarded pibrochs including "{{lang|gd|An Tarbh BreacDearg}}/The Red Speckled Bull",[http://www.altpibroch.com/PrimarySources/237-D2_46-The_Red_Speckled_Bull.pdf "{{lang|gd|An t arm breachd derg, Se'n t'arm mharbh me|nocat=y}}"] in Donald MacDonald's Manuscript, Vol 2. NLS MS 1680. 1826. Available online from the Alt Pibroch Club website.[http://www.altpibroch.com/resources/tunes/ps237/ PS 237 "The Red Speckled Bull"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150219020218/http://www.altpibroch.com/resources/tunes/ps237/ |date=2015-02-19 }} Comparative tune resource on the Alt Pibroch Club website. "{{lang|gd|A Bhoalaich}}/An Intended Lament,"[http://www.altpibroch.com/PrimarySources/235-D2_39-The_Vaunting.pdf "A Bhoalaich/An Intended Lament,"] in Donald MacDonald's Manuscript Vol 2. Available online from the Alt Pibroch Club website. also published in Angus MacKay's book as "{{lang|gd|A Bhoilich}}/The Vaunting","{{lang|gd|A Bhoilich}}/The Vaunting" in Angus MacKay, A Collection of Ancient Piobaireachd or Highland Pipe Music, 1838, p. 66-7. MacKay appears to have mis-translated the title which is more likely to have been "{{lang|gd|A Bhalaich}}/The Boy." This tune was significantly altered by the PS editors when compared with the earlier MacDonald MS. [http://www.altpibroch.com/resources/tunes/ps235/ PS 235 "The Vaunting"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150219005742/http://www.altpibroch.com/resources/tunes/ps235/ |date=2015-02-19 }} Comparative tune resource on the Alt Pibroch Club website. and "{{lang|gd|Glas Mheur}}" which MacKay translates as "The Finger Lock.""{{lang|gd|Glas Mheur}}/Finger Lock" in Angus MacKay, A Collection of Ancient Piobaireachd or Highland Pipe Music, 1838. This pibroch is entitled "{{lang|gd|Glass Mhoier}}" in the Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=unset}}.[http://www.altpibroch.com/PrimarySources/132-C2_48-The_Finger_Lock%20.pdf "{{lang|gd|Glass Mhoier|nocat=y}}"] in Campbell Canntaireachd Volume 2, no. 48. Available online from the Alt Pibroch Club website.[http://www.altpibroch.com/resources/tunes/ps132/ PS 132 "The Finger Lock"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150218213140/http://www.altpibroch.com/resources/tunes/ps132/ |date=2015-02-18 }} Comparative tune resource on the Alt Pibroch Club website.

There are two other pibrochs in the Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=unset}} manuscript with the related titles "{{lang|gd|A Glase}}",[http://www.altpibroch.com/PrimarySources/050-C1_49-A_Prelude-Hioemto_hinem.pdf "{{lang|gd|A Glase|nocat=y}}"] in Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=unset}} Volume 1, no. 49. Available online from the Alt Pibroch Club website.[http://www.altpibroch.com/resources/tunes/ps50/ PS 050 "A Prelude: Hioemto hinem"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150219020545/http://www.altpibroch.com/resources/tunes/ps50/ |date=2015-02-19 }} Comparative tune resource on the Alt Pibroch website. and "A Glass".[http://www.altpibroch.com/PrimarySources/127-C2_43-A_Prelude-Hohorodo_hioenoem.pdf "A Glass"] in Campbell Canntaireachd Volume 2, no. 43. Available online from the Alt Pibroch Club website.[http://www.altpibroch.com/resources/tunes/ps127/ PS 127 "A Prelude: Hihorodo hioenoem"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150218212242/http://www.altpibroch.com/resources/tunes/ps127/ |date=2015-02-18 }} Comparative tune resource on the Alt Pibroch Club website. "Glas" is also a key term found in the Irish wire-harp tradition, as noted down by Edward Bunting from harpers such as Denis O'Hampsey who was one of the last musicians still playing the traditional Gaelic repertoire in the late 18th century.Edward Bunting, The Ancient Music of Ireland, Dublin, 1840. Bunting uses glass as a variant of {{lang|gd|gléis}} in relation to tuning.The Bunting term "Tead a leith glass – String of the half note" is probably unrelated to the pibroch title above. Colm Ó Baoill and Simon Chadwick identify this usage of "glass" with the Irish term gléis which may here mean tuning as in the tuning of the f string to f# "(and then setting its octaves also to f#) the harp is set in the 'sharp or natural tuning', that is the natural major scale of G." – Simon Chadwick, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/Irish_Terms/18.htm "Irish harp terms - Tead a' leithghleas,"] Early Gaelic Harp website. He also lists the term glas as a specific fingering technique, which he translates as "a joining", a simile for lock. He describes this as "double notes, chords etc" for the left treble handSimon Chadwick, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/Irish_Terms/42.htm "Irish harp terms: Glas - A Joining (for the left hand) by first and third fingers, a fourth," with video demonstration], Early Gaelic Harp website. and right bass hand.Simon Chadwick, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/Irish_Terms/42a.htm "Irish harp terms: Glas - A Joining (for the right hand) by thumb and third finger, an octave" with video demonstration], Early Gaelic Harp website.Bunting's notation for "Glas – A Joining (for the right hand)" indicates a descending sequence on the bass strings of the wire-strung harp, but this is not workable as it does not allow for the dampening of the sustained resonance of the instrument. Ann Heymann argues that a confusion has arisen between "Glas" and "{{lang|gd|Ladhar}} – spread hand" which Bunting describes as "Double notes, chords, etc. (...) for the right hand" played "with forked fingers, first and third fingers, an octave." See: Simon Chadwick, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/Irish_Terms/43.htm "Irish harp terms: Ladhar - Spread Hand (for the right hand)" with video demonstration], Early Gaelic Harp website. Bunting notates this as an ascending sequence which again does not allow for dampening. Heymann proposes swapping the directions so that {{lang|gd|Lahdar}} is played as a descending sequence and Glas is played as an ascending sequence allowing for a corresponding dampening of the sustained resonance of the wire strings.

William McMurchy ({{circa|1700}} – {{circa|1778}}) from Kintyre, was a noted poet, wire-strung harper and piper, reportedly attached to MacDonald of Largie in 1745.Hugh Cheape & Keith Sanger 'Mock eulogy on a bad piper and his pipe' Scottish Gaelic Studies 25, 2009. An edition of a poem by piper and harper William McMurchy, c. 1750, with some comments on the rise of the pipes and the decline of the harp. In correspondence regarding McMurchy's collection of Gaelic poetry that was passed to the Highland Society, Duncan Stewart of Glenbuckie, Argyle's Chamberlain in Kintyre, commented that "The eldest of them (the McMurchy brothers) William who was a great genius put all the pibroch and many highland airs to music." McMurchy may well then have been one of the key transcribers of pibroch.Keith Sanger, [http://www.ralstongenealogy.com/number13kintmag.htm#second "William McMurchy,"] in The Kintyre Antiquarian and natural History Society Magazine, Issue Number 13 June 1983.

The rise of the bagpipe and the corresponding shift away from the harp and its associated traditions of bardic poetry is documented with a confronting disdain in the satirical dispraising song "{{lang|gd|Seanchas Sloinnidh na Piob o thùs}}/A History of the Pipes from the Beginning" ({{circa|1600}}) by {{lang|gd|Niall Mòr MacMhuirich|italic=no}} ({{circa|1550}} – 1630), poet to the MacDonalds of Clanranald:

"John MacArthur's screeching bagpipes, is like a diseased heron, full of spittle, long limbed and noisy, with an infected chest like that of a grey curlew. Of the world's music Donald's pipe, is a broken down outfit, offensive to a multitude, sending forth its slaver through its rotten bag, it was a most disgusting filthy deluge..."Derick Thompson "Niall Mòr MacMhuirich", Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, 49, 1974, p. 21–2. Translation by John Logan Campbell, in Francis Collinson, The Bagpipe, 1975, p. 186–7, cited in Alan MacDonald, Dastirum (CD), 2007, Siubhal 2, liner notes, p. 37-38;

This can be contrasted with the celebration of the heroic warrior associations of bagpipe pibroch at the expense of the harp and fiddle by later Clanranald poet Alasdair {{lang|gd|mac Mhaighstir|italic=no}} Alasdair ({{circa|1695}} – 1770) in the song "{{lang|gd|Moladh air Piob-Mhor Mhic Cruimein}}/In Praise of MacCrimmons Pipes":

"Thy chanter's shout gives pleasure, Sighing thy bold variations. Through every lively measure; The war note intent on rending, White fingers deft are pounding, To hack both marrow and muscles, With thy shrill cry resounding... You shamed the harp, Like untuned fiddle's tone, Dull strains for maids, And men grown old and done: Better thy shrill blast, From gamut brave and gay, Rousing up men to the destructive fray..."Alexander Macdonald, The poetical works of Alexander Macdonald, the celebrated Jacobite poet : now first collected, with a short account of the author, Glasgow : G. & J. Cameron, 1851, cited in Dr. William Donaldson, [http://www.pipesdrums.com/ObjectFile.aspx?sys-Portal=57&sys-Class=Set+Tune&sys-ID=2400&sys-Attr=File "Lament for Donald Bàn MacCrimmon"], Piper & Drummer magazine, 2003–04.

Bardic verses traditionally celebrated the {{lang|gd|clàrsach}} harp and made no mention of bagpipes.Keith Sanger, Alison Kinnaird, Tree of Strings: Crann Nan Teud: A History of the Harp in Scotland, Edinburgh: Kinmor Music, 1992, p. 111–128. Hugh Cheape argues that the bagpipes gained popularity and prominence through the need for a martial instrument in a period of increasing military engagements.Hugh Cheape, "Traditional Origins of the Piping Dynasties", in Joshua Dickson (Ed.) The Highland bagpipe: music, history, tradition, Volume 2008, p 107. Bagpipes were grafted on to existing structures of aristocratic cultural patronage and aesthetic appreciation in the mid-17th century and became the primary {{lang|gd|ceòl mór}} instrument, appropriating and supplanting the high cultural and musical role of the harp.Hugh Cheape, "Traditional Origins of the Piping Dynasties", in Joshua Dickson (Ed.) The Highland bagpipe: music, history, tradition, Volume 2008, p. 113.

This is reflected in the patronage offered to a succession of hereditary poets, harpers and subsequently pipers who were retained by leading Clan families, including pibroch dynasties such as the MacCrimmons, pipers to the MacLeods of Dunvegan, and the MacArthurs, pipers to the MacDonalds of Sleat. Cheape identifies accounts of a MacArthur college of piping instruction in ceòl mór as a continuation of a pre-existing Irish bardic model.Hugh Cheape, "Traditional Origins of the Piping Dynasties", in Joshua Dickson (Ed.) The Highland bagpipe: music, history, tradition, Volume 2008, p. 113–115.

In the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden in 1746, the old Gaelic cultural order underwent a near total collapse. Pibroch continued to be played by bagpipers, but with diminished patronage and status, and was perceived to have gone into a decline. The modern revival of pibroch was initiated by the newly founded Highland Society of London. They funded annual competitions, with the first being held at the Falkirk Masonic Lodge in 1781. Over the course of the 19th century, with the opening up of communications within the Highlands, in particular, the railways, a competing circuit emerged with the two most pre-eminent competitions being held at Inverness and Oban, the former descended directly from the first Falkirk competition.

The orally transmitted pibroch repertoire was collected and documented in a diverse range of manuscripts mostly dating from the early 19th century.Pibroch Network website – [https://pibroch.net/sources/ Notations of pibroch before 1854], comprehensive notated listing of and links to early pibroch manuscripts available from the Pibroch Network website. The first comprehensive collections were the canntaireachd notations in the Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=unset}} MS (1797 & 1814){{cite web |url=https://pibroch.net/c1/ |title=1797 – Colin Campbell: Vol. 1 |date=3 Feb 2023}} 1797, NLS MS 3714. {{cite web |title=1797 – Colin Campbell: Vol. 2 |url=https://pibroch.net/c2/ |date=2 Mar 2023}} 1814 copy, NLS MS 3715. Available online at the Pibroch Network website. and the Neil MacLeod Gesto Canntaireachd MS (1828) collected from John MacCrimmon prior to his death in 1822.[http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=151&Itemid=135 Niel MacLeod, A Collection of Piobaireachd or Pipe Tunes, as verbally taught by the McCrummen Pipers in the Isle of Skye], Edinburgh, 1828. A series of manuscripts in the early 19th century documented pibroch in staff notation, including the Hannay – MacAuslan MS ({{circa|1815}}),[http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=42&Itemid=102 Hannay - MacAuslan MS] available on the Piobaireachd Society website. a primary source for the Donald MacDonald MS (1820)[http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=43&Itemid=100%20 Donald MacDonald MS, Vol 1.], 1820, and [http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86&Itemid=101 Donald MacDonald MS, Vol 2.], 1820, available on the Piobaireachd Society website. the John MacGregor/Angus MacArthur MS (1820),Angus MacArthur MS (1820), NLS MS 1679. See: Frans Buisman, Andrew Wright, Roderick D. Cannon (Ed), The MacArthur-MacGregor manuscript of piobaireachd (1820), The Music of Scotland, Volume 1, Glasgow: University of Glasgow Music Department Publications, 2001. the Donald MacDonald Jnr. MS (1826),[http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=150&Itemid=134 Donald MacDonald Jnr. MS], 1826. and the John MacKay MS (1840).[http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=153&Itemid=136 John MacKay Manuscript], NLS Acc. 9231. Available online via the Piobaireachd Society website.

Angus MacKay's book A Collection of Ancient Piobaireachd or Highland Pipe Music, published in 1838, documented and presented the pibroch repertoire in staff notation with supplementary commentary by antiquarian James Logan.Angus MacKay, A Collection of Ancient Piobaireachd or Highland Pipe Music, 1838 MacKay simplified many of the pibroch compositions, editing out complex ornamentation and asymmetries that were evident in documentation of the same compositions published in earlier manuscripts such as the Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=unset}} MS.Dr William Donaldson, [Set Tunes], www.pipesdrums.com. Donaldson's analysis of the annual set tunes for the Pìobaireachd Society competitions consists of a detailed comparison of the MacKay published versions of each pibroch and all other, often earlier canntaireachd manuscripts and published musical scores for each composition with accompanying commentary. He also specified regular time signatures that standardised and regulated a music that was traditionally performed with expressive rubato rhythmic interpretation of the musical phrasing and dynamics.Allan MacDonald, Ch. 1.2 "Scholarship and Research" in [http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/musicfiles/manuscripts/allanmacdonald/ The Relationship between Pibroch and Gaelic Song: its Implications on the Performance Style of the Pibroch Urlar], M. Lit. Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1995, p. 27. MacKay's staff notated edited version of pibroch became the authoritative reference for the 19th- and 20th-century revival of pibroch, and greatly influenced subsequent modern pibroch performance.Barnaby Brown, "Introduction", in Allan MacDonald, Dastirum (CD/Book), Barnaby Brown (Ed), Siubhal, 2007, p. 14-15. Siubhal 2. {{ISBN|978-0-9546729-1-1}}. See also: William Donaldson, The Highland Pipe and Scottish Society, 2000, p. 242.

In 1903, The Pìobaireachd Society was founded with the aim of recording the corpus of existing pibroch tunes, collating the various versions, and publishing an authoritative edition. Those normative tune settings have been the basis on which {{lang|gd|ceòl mór}} competitors at the various Highland Games have been judged ever since, with the piping judges themselves being appointed by the Society.

Pipers and researchers such as Allan MacDonald, Barnaby Brown and William Donaldson have questioned the editing of the tunes that went in the Pìobaireach Society books.Allan MacDonald, [http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/musicfiles/manuscripts/allanmacdonald/ "The Relationship between Pibroch and Gaelic Song: its Implications on the Performance Style of the Pibroch Urlar,"] M. Lit. Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1995.Alan MacDonald, "Liner Notes", in Allan MacDonald, Dastirum (CD), 2007. Siubhal 2.Barnaby Brown, [http://www.pibroch.net/articles/dastirum_intro.pdf "Introduction,"] in Allan MacDonald, Dastirum (CD), 2007. Siubhal 2. Many compositions appear to have been edited and distorted to make them conform unnecessarily to particular recognised tune structures.Dr William Donaldson, [Set Tunes], www.pipesdrums.com. Donaldson's analysis of the annual set tunes for the Pìobaireachd Society competitions consists of a detailed comparison of the published Piobaireachd Society sanctioned versions of each pibroch and all other, often earlier canntaireachd manuscripts and published musical scores for each composition with accompanying commentary.[http://www.pipesdrums.com/ViewObject.aspx?sys-Portal=57&sys-Class=Article&sys-ID=19158 "p|d Set Tunes Series 2013 – collection approaches 150 piobaireachds"], Pipe|Drums, May 28, 2013, an interview with Dr William Donaldson discussing the innacurracies of the Piobaireachd Society sanctioned published settings of piobaireachds when compared with earlier manuscript sources. The standardisation of the notated pibroch tunes has made the judging of competitions easier at the expense of the ornate complexity and musicality of an art-music that had passed down from teacher to pupil through the oral transmission of repertoire and technique.

Independent documentation of this tradition of oral transmission can be found in canntaireachd manuscripts, chanted vocable transcriptions of the music that predate the normative musical scores authorised by the {{lang|gd|Pìobaireachd|italic=unset}} Society and enforced through prescriptive competition judging criteria. The Pibroch Network website has made a range of these Canntaireachd manuscripts available online as a comparative resource.Pibroch Network website – [https://pibroch.net/sources/ Notations of pibroch before 1854]For an example of Campbell Canntaireachd pibroch see: [http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/images/stories/CampbellVol2/chehotraohodro.pdf "Chehotrao Hodro,"]{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Campbell Canntaireachd Vol 2, no. 33. with a bagpipe performance demonstration by Peter McCalister, a member of the Pìobaireachd Society who has been researching and reviving this repertoire: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex3CdFqBw_k "Chehotraho Hodro"], video available via YouTube. {{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

There was reportedly a third lost volume of the Campbell canntaireachd manuscripts dating from the late 18th century. The first two volumes were also lost in 1816 but rediscovered in 1907 in the possession of Anne Campbell, a descendant of Colin Campbell. Roderick Cannon and Peter McCalister have recently initiated a public campaign to track down any living relatives of Campbell or other parties who might have acquired the document without realising its historical and musical significance.Peter McCalister, [http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=303&Itemid=180 "The Search for the Lost Volume of the Campbell Canntaireachd Manuscript"], Pìobaireachd Society website; Peter McCalister, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M893z11FuNU The Campbell Canntaireachd at The National Library of Scotland], video available via YouTube. See also: Roderick D. Cannon, "The Campbell Canntaireachd manuscript: the case for a lost volume" in The Highland Bagpipe, Music, History, Tradition, Joshua Dickson (Ed.) Ashgate, 2009. {{ISBN|978-0-7546-6669-1}}.

The oral transmission of pibroch also survives as a living tradition through diverse lineages of teachers and pupils, traceable back to the earliest accounts of the form. Distinctive approaches to performance technique and interpretation developed through different lineages of pibroch playing and instruction, with two of the most influential coming to be known as the Cameron style, which is more rounded, and the MacPherson style, which is more clipped.Brett Tidswell, [http://www.schoolofpiping.com/articles/two-schools-of-thought.pdf "Two schools of thought"], October 2009, School of Piping website. The Cameron and MacPherson schools are traceable back to Donald Cameron, piper to Seaforth and Angus MacPherson, piper to MacPherson of Cluny, who were both pupils of John Mackay (1767–1848), the father of Angus Mackay. Some distinct variations in style and interpretation developed and diverged in the intervening 150 years.

Recordings by acclaimed practitioners such as Robert Reid,P/M Robert Reid, Classics From the College Vol 1, (CD). College of Piping COMPACTDISC830. a leading proponent of the Cameron style, and Donald MacPhersonDonald MacPherson, A Living Legend (CD/Book), Barnaby Brown, Bridget MacKenzie, James Campbell, David Murray (Editors), Glasgow: Siubhal, 2004. {{ISBN|0-9546729-0-9}}. offer exemplary documentation of these performance traditions.

Alternative lineages have also survived in unlikely settings. Simon Fraser (1845–1934), whose family emigrated to Melbourne, Australia in the 19th century, passed down a distinct body of pibroch repertoire via {{lang|gd|canntaireachd}}, staff notation and through the training of students. These ornate and highly musical pibrochs predate the standardisation of the music by the Pìobaireachd Society. Melbourne-based piper Dr Barrie Orme, who was trained in a lineage traceable back to Simon Fraser, has documented this parallel body of around 140 pibroch through tutor publications,Barrie J. MacLachlan Orme, The Piobaireachd of Simon Fraser with Canntaireachd, Melbourne: Barrie J. MacLachlan Orme, 1979; 2nd edition, Melbourne: Brown Prior Anderson Pty. Ltd. 1985.Barrie J. MacLachlan Orme, Piobaireachd Exercises with some selected Ceol Mor in the style of Simon Fraser, Melbourne: privately published, 2005.Barrie J. MacLachlan Orme, Ceol Mor in the Style of Simon and Hugh Fraser of Australia, Melbourne: privately published, 2006. a six volume series of archival recordings of the Simon Fraser pibroch repertoire,Barrie Orme, Piobaireachd: Old Settings, vol. 1 (CD), Highlander Music Label, 2008, HPCD301. Simon Fraser sourced pibrochs include: "The Bells Of Perth"; "Lament For Patrick Og MacCrimmon"; "The Cave Of Gold"; "The MacFarlane's Gathering"; "The Massacre Of Glencoe"; "The Lament For MacDonald Of Kinlochmoidart"; "Isabel Mackay".Barrie Orme, Piobaireachd: Old Settings, vol. 2 (CD), Highlander Music Label, 2008, HPCD302. Simon Fraser sourced pibrochs include: "The Sutherlands' Gathering"; "The Big Spree"; "Glengarry's March"; "Lament For Donald Ban MacCrimmon"; "The Rout Of Glen Fruin"; "Lament For The Earl Of Antrim"; "The Marquis Of Argyle's Salute"; "The Finger Lock." and a DVD video demonstrating the performance techniques passed down to Orme by his teacher Hugh Fraser, Simon Fraser's son.

J.D. Ross Watt was a Scottish-born, South African-based piper who also published a further small number of distinctive pibroch sourced from Simon Fraser. Watt's own bagpipe compositions are influenced by Simon Fraser's pibroch style.J.D. Ross Watt, "Empire Book of Pipe Tunes and Tunes for the Pipes", London: Paterson's Publications Ltd, Vol 1, 1934, Vol 2, 1936; republished as J.D. Ross Watt, The Empire Collection of Pipe Tunes, Volume 1 and 2 (CD Book), Ceol Sean PBMB137. [http://www.tartantown.com/images/music_on_cd/empire_collection.pdf Tune list (pdf)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716192955/http://www.tartantown.com/images/music_on_cd/empire_collection.pdf |date=2011-07-16 }}. Simon Fraser sourced pibroch include: "Fairy Glen", "Lament for Rory Mor II", "Red Hand in the McDonald's Arms" attributed to Patrick Og McCrimmon, and "MacLeod of Talisker's Lament." See also Barry Orme "The Piobaireachd of Simon Fraser with Canntaireachd", 1979, p. 9.

An emerging model of historically informed practice-based research into pibroch is being conducted by innovative piper/scholars such as Barnaby Brown and Allan MacDonald. Brown has researched pibroch documented in historical manuscripts, focusing particularly on the Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=unset}} MS. He has revived and recorded lesser known pibroch such as "Hioemtra Haentra" and "Hihorodo Hiharara" from the Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=no}} MS that have not been publicly performed for hundreds of years and plays them on replica early bagpipes from the period.Barnaby Brown, "Hioemtra Haentra", and "Hihorodo Hiharara" on Various, Ceol Na Pioba (Music Of The Pipes) – A Concert Of Piobaireachd (CD) 2000. Greentrax CDTRAX5009 He has made his analysis of pibroch canntaireachd, ornamentation and performance techniques available as an online resource with recorded audio demonstrations.Barnaby Brown, Pibroch, triplepipe.net website. An introduction with audio sample demonstrations, available online: http://www.triplepipe.net/pibroch.html See also: Barnaby Brown [http://barnabybrown.info/publications/ publications], bibliography and discography, on barnabybrown.info. website Brown is composing and recording new works of pibroch and related musical traditions informed by this research.Band Re, Strathosphere (CD), 2006. Siubhal CD021. This recording is a collaboration between Barnaby Brown on voice, whistles, smallpipe and triplepipe, and Gianluca Dessi, on guitar and Irish bouzouki, who is a Sardinian musician drawing on local music traditions that share many of the characteristics of pibroch. See particularly the new pibroch composition by Barnaby Brown, "Pioparich aon Cnocan." [http://www.triplepipe.net/MP3s/pibroch/AonChnocan.mp3 Audio sample available online at triplepipe.net]. Barnaby Brown has collaborated with harper Bill Taylor and violinist Clare Salaman on the recording of bagpipe pibroch arranged for the Clarsach wire harp, lyre, hardanger fiddle, hurdy-gurdy, vielle, bone flute, bagpipes and canntaireachd vocals, released in 2016.Barnaby Brown, Clare Salaman, Bill Taylor, [http://www.delphianrecords.co.uk/pdf/Delphian_Cat_1409_01.pdf Spellweaving: Ancient music from the Highlands of Scotland] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427062538/http://www.delphianrecords.co.uk/pdf/Delphian_Cat_1409_01.pdf |date=2016-04-27 }}, Delphian Records, 2016.

Allan MacDonald is a competition winning piper who has been investigating the relationship between Gaelic song and the melodic theme or urlar ground of pibroch as a means to inform the rubato rhythmic and musical interpretation of the performance of this pipe repertoire. He has researched and recorded pibroch and chanted canntaireachd on the recent album DastirumAllan MacDonald, Dastirum (CD), 2007. Siubhal 2. that restores and interprets repertoire that was "tidied up" and edited out by Angus MacKay and subsequent PS editors. His performances on this recording draw on early manuscript sources such as the Colin Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=no}} (1797 & 1814) that pre-date MacKay's standardised versions.[http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=122&Itemid=125 Campbell Canntaireachd Volume 1], 1797, NLS MS 3714; [http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=136&Itemid=127 Campbell Canntaireachd Volumes 2], 1814, NLS MS 3715. Available online at the Piobaireachd Society website.

Allan MacDonald is a noted composer of new pibroch works such as {{lang|gd|Na-h-Eilthirich}}, a wrenching lament for those who suffered ethnic cleansing in the 18th and 19th centuries, commissioned for the BBC series of the same title.Allan MacDonald "{{lang|gd|Na-h-Eilthirich}}" on Allan MacDonald & Margaret Stewart, Colla Mo Run, 2001 (CD). Greentrax CDTRAX132. He has also extemporised pibroch variations to the early Scottish song "{{lang|gd|Dol Dhan Taigh Bhuan Leat}} (Going to the Eternal Dwelling with You)" reviving a lost compositional practice described in early accounts.Allan MacDonald, "Dol Dhan Taigh Bhuan Leat (Going to the Eternal Dwelling with You)" (trad. with extemporised variations) on Allan MacDonald & Margaret Stewart, {{lang|gd|Fhuair Mi Pog}}, 1998 (CD). Greentrax CDTRAX132. His recordings include collaborations with musicians outside the piping fraternity who are researching and playing {{lang|gd|ceòl mór}} and related musical traditions on other instruments, notably acclaimed pibroch fiddler Bonnie Rideout,Bonnie Rideout, Scotland's Fiddle Piobaireachd Volume 1, (CD) 2010. Tulloch, TM504. Gaelic singer Margaret StewartAllan MacDonald & Margaret Stewart, Fhuair Mi Pog, 1998 (CD). Greentrax CDTRAX132; Allan MacDonald & Margaret Stewart, Colla Mo Run, 2001 (CD). Greentrax CDTRAX132. and wire-strung Gaelic harp player Javier Sainz.

A variety of new pibroch recital performance events have been initiated recently as an alternative format to the more conservative and insular competition circuit. Breton piper Patrick Molard organised the first pibroch recitals in Brest and Paris in 1992.Barnaby Brown, [http://www.pibroch.net/articles/dastirum_intro.pdf "Introduction"] in Allan MacDonald, Dastirum (CD/Book), 2007. Siubhal 2. The newly founded Glasgow Piping Centre hosted a series of pibroch concert recitals in 1996–1998 documented in a series of live recordings.[http://www.templerecords.co.uk/newwebsite/cdshop/cdshop.php?&func=searchproduct Piping Centre Recital Series] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717182928/http://www.templerecords.co.uk/newwebsite/cdshop/cdshop.php?&func=searchproduct |date=2011-07-17 }} (CD), Temple Records, 19966-98.

Allan MacDonald and Iain MacInnes curated the first dedicated pibroch recitals at the Edinburgh Arts Festival in 1999 as a series of nine concerts including performances by Allan MacDonald, William McCallum, Roderick MacLeod, Robert Wallace and Barnaby Brown, who premiered the public performance of two Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=no}} pibrochs. A live CD "{{lang|gd|Ceol na Pioba}} (Music of the Pipes) – A Concert of Piobaireachd" documented these performances.Various, Ceol Na Pioba (Music of the Pipes) – A Concert of Piobaireachd (CD) 2000. Greentrax CDTRAX5009See also: Barnaby Brown, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QH1-gf8-LE "Hioemtra Haentra"] (Campbell Canntaireachd Volume 2, no. 48), live performance, Concerto Perda Pintà, 2003, video available via YouTube. At the Edinburgh Festival in 2004 MacDonald arranged the "From Battle Lines to Bar Lines" series of battle pibroch performances on cello (Neil Johnstone), viola, flute, fiddle, wire-strung clarsach (Karen Marshalsay), piano (James Ross), small pipes and big pipes with associated Gaelic songs.

Matthew Welch and Robinson McClellan are emerging composers who offered a recital at Yale in 2007 of 17th-century pibroch performed on bagpipes by Welch and new works informed by pibroch for string quartet and organ, composed by Welch and McClellan respectively.Robinson McClellan and Matthew Welch, [http://www.robinsonmcclellan.com/pibrochrecitals.htm Pibroch Recital: Classical Bagpipe Music, New and Old], Dwight Chapel, Yale, March 30, 2007. Video and audio documentation of the event available online on Robinson Mcclellan website.

Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA) created the first degree in bagpiping, a BFA in Music Performance (Bagpipe). The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama started a similar music degree program in partnership with the National Piping Centre.[http://www.thepipingcentre.co.uk/tuition/piping-degree/ B.Arts (Scottish Music - Piping) degree] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100930202046/http://www.thepipingcentre.co.uk/tuition/piping-degree/ |date=2010-09-30 }}, National Piping Centre, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD). They host a series of concerts that featured Barnaby Brown in 2010 performing the pibroch "Desperate Battle" arranged for the triple pipe or {{lang|gd|cuisle}}.Barnaby Brown, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6_hKK06hSs "Desperate Battle of the Birds"] at the RSAMD Plug Concert, 2010. This pibroch shares a related theme to the "Battle of Hara Law" harp ceol mor with different variations. Brown has revived the triple-pipe or {{lang|gd|cuisle}}, a medieval precursor to the bagpipes with a double chanter and no bag. See also: Barnaby Brown, [http://www.triplepipe.net/history.html Triple-pipe], website.

The Pibroch Network website has recently been founded to support the revival of historically informed pibroch performance through the sharing of scholarship and practice based research. The site makes freely available a comprehensive resource of largely unpublished early manuscripts of pibroch notation and canntaireachd from the late 18th and early 19th century.[https://pibroch.net/ Pibroch Network]

A parallel body of practice-based research is being undertaken by wire-strung Gaelic harp players who are transcribing the {{lang|gd|ceòl mór}} repertoire back to its reputed harp origins via pibroch compositions from early manuscripts sources, particularly the Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=unset}} manuscript and from fiddle pibroch compositions documented by Daniel Dow and others.

Manx harper Charles Guard was the first to record arrangements of bagpipe pibrochs performed on the wire strung clarsach harp in 1977.Charles Guard, "{{lang|gd|Craobh nan teud}}" and "{{lang|gd|Cumha an Chlairseora}}" on Avenging and Bright, Claddagh records, 1977. Scottish Harper Alison Kinnaird recorded revived pibroch related {{lang|gd|ceòl mór}} repertoire on the harp along with other early Scottish harp music genres such as ports the following year. In her early recordings she played this music on a modern lever harp,Alison Kinnaird, "{{lang|gd|Cumha Crann nan Teud}} (The Lament for the Harp Key)" and "{{lang|gd|Caoineadh Rioghail}}/The Royal Lament" on The Harp Key (CD), 1978. Temple Records. Alison Kinnaird has performed and recorded these compositions on a modern lever harp in settings based on Simon Fraser's son Angus Fraser's MS. "The Royal Lament" ({{circa|1649}}) is a harp composition by John Garbh MacLean, Laird of Coll with a similar structure to pibroch. Kinnaird plays the ground and second variation. "{{lang|gd|Cumha Crann nan Teud}}/Lament for the Harp Key" is closely related to the bagpipe pibroch "{{lang|gd|Cumhadh Craobh nan teud}}/Lament for the harp tree." She plays the ground, the first and second variations, and the amplified ground and is joined by Jimmy Anderson on small pipes playing an excerpt of the related bagpipe pibroch.Alison Kinnaird and Christine Primrose, "{{lang|gd|Cumha Crann nan Teud}} (The Lament For The Harp Key)" on The Quiet Tradition (CD), 1990. Temple Records, COMD 2041. Kinnaird has composed three new variations for this tune originally sourced from the Angus Fraser MS. and plays the tune on a modern lever harp. She has recorded {{lang|gd|ceòl mór}} related compositions with Ann Heymann who plays a replica early Irish clairseach wire-strung harp.Alison Kinnaird, "{{lang|gd|Cumh Easbig Earraghaal}} (Bishop of Argyle's Lament)", and Ann Heymann, Alison Kinnaird, "{{lang|gd|Bas Alastruim}} (The Death of Alasdair)/McAllistruim's March" and "The Harper's Land (Hi ri ri ri ho)" on Ann Heymann and Alison Kinnaird, The Harpers Land (CD), 1983. Temple Records COMD 2012. "{{lang|gd|Cumh Easbig Earraghaal}} (Bishop of Argyle's Lament)" is a fiddle pibroch that is likely to have originated on the harp. It is transcribed from an arrangement sourced from Daniel Dow, Collection of Ancient Scots Music, Edinburgh, 1776. "{{lang|gd|Bas Alastruim}} (The Death of Alasdair)/McAllistruim's March" are Irish harp compositions with Scottish associations that share similar characteristics to pibroch themes. "The Harper's Land (Hi ri ri ri ho)" is a possible harp tune with a vocable title collected by Oswald that consists of a recurring theme and two variations. Kinnaird plays a modern lever harp and Ann Heymann plays a replica early Irish wire-strung clairseach harp. Kinnaird has recently also performed and recorded revived ceòl mór on a replica early Scottish wire-strung clarsach harp.Alison Kinnaird, "{{lang|gd|Cumh Ioarla Wigton}} (Lament for the Earl of Wigtown)" and "Cumha Eachainn Ruaidh nan Cath (Lament for Red Hector of the Battles)", on The Silver String (CD), 2004, Temple Records CD2096. Kinnaird plays a replica early wire-strung clarsach harp. "{{lang|gd|Cumh Ioarla Wigton}} (Lament for the Earl of Wigtown)" is a fiddle pibroch that is likely to have originated on the harp. "Lament for Red Hector of the Battles" is bagpipe pibroch with an {{lang|gd|ùrlar}} theme that may originally have been a song. Kinnaird plays a version of the theme collected by Duncan Currie with variations that she has composed for the clarsach.

Veteran Breton harper Alan Stivell began performing and recording on the revived wire harp with bronze strings in the early 1960s. His recordings have included arrangements of three Bagpipe Pibroch {{lang|gd|ùrlar}} performed on wire harp, released in 1985.Alan Stivell, "Piberezh: {{lang|gd|Cumh chlaibhers}}, Lament for the Children, McDonuill of the isles; Cumha na Chloinne", Harps of The New Age, Keltia III/WEA, 1985.

There is a growing community of harpers performing early Scottish and Irish music on replica early clàrsach harps, strung with brass, bronze and silver wire, and increasingly with precious gold bass strings, based on historical and applied research by Ann and Charlie Heymann and Simon Chadwick.Ann and Charlie Heymann, [http://www.annheymann.com/gold.htm "Strings of Gold"] The Historical Harp Society Journal, Vol. XIII no.3, Summer 2003, pps. 9-15.

Heymann has led the revival of sharpened fingernail-based techniques of playing the wire-strung harp documented by Edward Bunting in the late 18th century from the playing of Denis O'Hampsey, one of the last traditional Irish wire-strung harp players. The sustained resonance of the wire-strung clàrsach harp allows for intricate ornamental effects through various striking and dampening techniques.Barnaby Brown and Bill Taylor (eds.), An Introduction to Playing the Wire-strung Harp — a DVD & music book of lessons with Ann Heymann, Javier Sàinz & Bill Taylor, Glasgow: Siubhal, forthcoming

Heymann has recorded pibroch transcribed from early manuscripts such as the Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=unset}} MS, in arrangements that employ a mobility of drone effects on the resonant wire strings, reverse engineering the shift to fixed drones that would have occurred in an appropriation of harp music by the bagpipes.Ann Heymann, "{{lang|gd|Chumbh Craoibh Na Teidbh}}, #2 (Lament For The Harp)", on Queen of Harps (CD), 1994, Temple Records COMD2057. This tune is transcribed from the Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd}} pibroch with the title "{{lang|gd|Chumbh Craoibh Na Teidbh}}" which translates as "Lament for the Tree of Strings." Another better known pibroch published by Angus MacKay this same title, translated as "Lament for the Harp Tree" appears in the earlier Campbell MS as "MacLeod's Lament". Heymann plays on a replica early wire-strung clarsach harp.Ann Heymann, "{{lang|gd|Cumha Ioarla Wigton}}", "{{lang|gd|Cumha a' Chléirich}}", and "{{lang|gd|Sith co nemh}}" on [http://www.harpofgold.net/ Cruit go nÓr • Harp Of Gold] (CD), 2006. Ann Heymann, CMC0706D. "{{lang|gd|Cumha Ioarla Wigton}}" is a fiddle pibroch collected by Dow that is likely to have originated on the harp. "{{lang|gd|Cumha a' Chléirich}}/The Bards Lament" is titled "one of the Irish {{lang|gd|Pìobaireachd}}" in the Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=unset}} MS and may have originally been an Irish harp composition. This version is transcribed from the John MacGregor/Angus MacArthur MS (1820). "{{lang|gd|Sith co nemh}}" sets the 16th-century Irish bee charm {{lang|gd|rosc}} poem "{{lang|gd|Cath Maige Tuired}}" to the pibroch "{{lang|gd|A Mhil Bhroacanach}}/A drizzle of honey" from the Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=unset}} MS. Heymann plays on a replica early wire-strung clarsach harp. Charlie Heymann sings in Gaelic on "{{lang|gd|Sith co nemh}}".

Violaine Mayor is a Breton wire-strung harper who has mastered {{lang|gd|canntaireachd}} chanting. She has recorded transcribed pibroch together with revived Breton harp repertoire such as medieval bardic lays.Violaine Mayor, "{{lang|gd|Cumh Easbig Earraghaal}}", and "{{lang|gd|Cumha Mairi nighean Alasdair Ruaidh}}", on [http://www.henttelennbreizh.net/Strujenn-Haleg.htm Strujenn Haleg] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100910015733/http://www.henttelennbreizh.net/Strujenn-Haleg.htm |date=2010-09-10 }} (CD), 2001, Vocation VOC039. She performs "{{lang|gd|Cumha Mairi nighean Alasdair Ruaidh}}" in a direct transposition from the Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=unset}} MS and sings the corresponding {{lang|gd|canntaireachd}} in the latter section. "{{lang|gd|Cumh Easbig Earraghaal}}/Lament for the Bishop of Argyll" is a transcribed fiddle pibroch collected by Dow that is likely to have originated on the harp. Mayor plays on a replica early wire-strung clarsach harp. Sample mp3 audio files of this album are available online on the album webpage.

Karen Marshalsay is a Scottish harper who performed with Allan MacDonald in his 2004 Edinburgh International Festival series of pibroch concerts From Battle Lines to Bar Lines, performing The Battle of The Bridge of Perth and other pibrochs on wire-strung clarsach. She also performed pibroch on wire-strung clarsach and music from the Robert ap Huw ms on bray harp at the National Piping Centre's 2013 {{lang|gd|Ceòl na Pìoba}} concert. She later recorded The Battle of the Bridge of Perth in a 2019 released solo CD.The Road to Kennacraig 2019 Cramasie Records.

Simon Chadwick is a harper and scholar who founded the [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/ Early Gaelic Harp Info] website, which is a comprehensive online resource on the revival of wire-strung clarsach harp repertoire and playing techniques. He has recorded transcribed pibroch, fiddle pibroch and medieval Irish harp {{lang|gd|ceòl mór}}, played on a replica early Scottish Queen Mary wire-strung clarsach with brass, silver and gold strings.Simon Chadwick, "{{lang|gd|Cumh Easpuic Earra-ghaoidheal}} (Lament for the Bishop of Argyll)", "Battle of Hara Law" and "Burns March" on [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/CnaB/ Clàrsach na Bànrighe] (CD), 2008, Early Garlic Harp Info EGH1. "Lament for the Bishop of Argyll" and "Battle of Hara Law" are transcribed fiddle pibrochs collected by Dow that are likely to have originated on the harp. "Burns March" is a late medieval Irish harp ceòl mór composition collected by Bunting from late 18th-century harpers that had survived as a harp training tune.Simon Chadwick, "{{lang|gd|Cumh Easbig Earraghaal}} Lament for the Bishop of Argyll", "{{lang|gd|Uamh an Òir}} The Cave of Gold" and "{{lang|gd|A' Ghlas Mheur}} A bagpipe lament, attributed to Raghnall Mac Ailein Òig (1662–1741)" on [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/laments/ Old Gaelic Laments] (CD), 2012, Early Garlic Harp Info EGH 2. "{{lang|gd|Cumh Easbig Earraghaal}} Lament for the Bishop of Argyll" is a fiddle pibroch variant of "{{lang|gd|Cumh Easpuic Earra-ghaoidheal}} (Lament for the Bishop of Argyll)" also likely to have originated on the harp. The pibroch "{{lang|gd|Uamh an Òir}} The Cave of Gold" is associated with a Gaelic song of the same title recounting the tragic fate of a bewitched piper and/or harper. The title of the pibroch "{{lang|gd|A' Ghlas Mheur}} A bagpipe lament" which translates as "The Fingerlock" possibly refers to the wire-strung harp technical term glas, a joining or lock of the fingers in an ascending sequence of notes (see ref. notes 74-77). He has recorded a dedicated album of pibroch attributed to the composer Raghnall Mac Ailein Òig (1662–1741) performed on the wire harp, released in 2013.Simon Chadwick, "{{lang|gd|An Tarbh Breac Dearg}} The Red Speckled Bull", "{{lang|gd|A' Ghlas Mheur}} The Finger Lock", "{{lang|gd|Beinn Eadarrainn}} The Headless Body", "{{lang|gd|Maol Donn}} MacCrimmon's Sweetheart", "{{lang|gd|A' Bhòilich}} The Vaunting" on [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/tarbh/ Tarbh] (CD), 2013. He has also made a body of live performances of pibroch and early Irish {{lang|gd|cèol mór}} on the wire harp available online on video via YouTube.Simon Chadwick, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yjWf8ufvOc&list=UU2pLIbfDsKJyBQOaaMd2LHw&index=1&feature=plcp "{{lang|gd|An Tarbh Breac Dearg|nocat=y}}/The Red Speckled Bull"] pibroch transcribed to the harp, live performance available online via YouTube; Simon Chadwick, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAIle8GoPe8 "Burns March"], Irish medieval harp composition, live performance available online via YouTube; Simon Chadwick, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEAlOHhIL0k&list=UU2pLIbfDsKJyBQOaaMd2LHw&index=48 "Burns March"], demonstration of ornamental playing techniques, live performance available online via YouTube; Simon Chadwick, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxEOznfzWYs&index=17&list=UU2pLIbfDsKJyBQOaaMd2LHwd "{{lang|gd|Piobaireachd Dhomhnuill Dhuibh|nocat=y}}"], pibroch song transcribed to the harp, live performance available online via YouTube; Simon Chadwick, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfQdz9SoeUI&index=10&list=UU2pLIbfDsKJyBQOaaMd2LHw "{{lang|gd|Maol Donn|nocat=y}} (MacCrimmon's Sweetheart)"], pibroch transcribed to the harp, live performance available online via YouTube; Simon Chadwick, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-ULo1UKVHM&list=UU2pLIbfDsKJyBQOaaMd2LHw&index=31 "Battle of Harlaw 1411"], medieval Scottish composition transcribed back to the harp from Fiddle pibroch published by Daniel Dow (1776); Simon Chadwick, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJfwGOS7BF8&list=UU2pLIbfDsKJyBQOaaMd2LHw&index=21 "Forked Plait demonstration - used for crunnludh variation on the harp"], pibroch ornamental variation performed on the harp, live performance available online via YouTube; Simon Chadwick, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsYUWXwYGcY&list=UU2pLIbfDsKJyBQOaaMd2LHw "{{lang|gd|Cath nan Eun|nocat=y}} - the Battle of the Birds"], pibroch transcribed to the harp, live performance available online via YouTube; Simon Chadwick, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHDd1l34uPU&index=6&list=UU2pLIbfDsKJyBQOaaMd2LHw "Grant of Sheuglie's contest betwixt his Violin, Pipe and Harp"], harp transcription of a song attributed to Alexander Grant of Shewglie (early 1700s) celebrating the different and related roles of pipe, fiddle and harp music, live performance available online via YouTube. Simon Chadwick gave a presentation on Harp Ceol Mor at the Piobaireachd Society Conference in 2016 which included performances of Burns March, Caniad San Silin and his arrangement for Clarsach wire harp of the bagpipe pibroch {{lang|gd|A Bhòilich}}/The Vaunting composed by Raghnall Mac Ailein Òig.Simon Chadwick, [http://clarsach.scot/2016/03/piobaireachd-society-conference.html Pìobaireachd Society Conference] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414065501/http://clarsach.scot/2016/03/piobaireachd-society-conference.html |date=2016-04-14 }}, clarsach.scot website

Chris Caswell is a multi-instrumentalist wire-strung harp player and maker, flautist and piper who studied harp with Alison Kinnaird and bagpipes with Donald MacPherson and Donald Shaw Ramsay. He began playing pibroch on the harp in 1973 and has transcribed and recorded the pibroch Catriona's (Catherine's) Lament played on a bronze-strung harp.Chris Caswell, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpoTk4DHCbs "Catriona's (Catherine's) Lament"] on Holy Wood (CD), Gargoyle, 2001. This track is available online via YouTube.

Brendan Ring is a multi-instrumentalist all Ireland champion piper, pipemaker, low-whistle player and wire harper. He has recorded pibroch transcribed to the wire harp alongside revived Irish harp repertoire and original compositions, performed on a replica of the Trinity College clairseach harp with brass, silver and gold strings, released in 2014.Brendan Ring, "Pibroch Chlann Raonailt", "{{lang|gd|Cumh Easbig Earraghaal}}", "Nancy Cooper Pibroch Prelude Sheila's Cumha", on [https://www.facebook.com/brendanringmusic Cumha] (CD), 2014. A preview of the track [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0gM-5VRm3I "Nancy Cooper Pibroch Prelude Sheila's Cumha"] is available via youtube. He has made live performances of pibroch and early Irish music on the wire harp available online on video via YouTube.Brendan Ring, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJbIUbAZQVg "Clan Ranald's March to Edinburgh"], live performance available online via YouTube; Brendan Ring, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBR3YOP3buU Lament for the Bishop of Argyll], live performance available online via YouTube. A promising emerging generation of wire-strung harpers and scholars are also disseminating transcriptions of pibroch performed on the harp via YouTube.Recent youtube uploads include: Sue Phillips, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmjORaTkkV8 "Duncan MacRae of Kintail's Lament"], live performance available online via YouTube. This pibroch is a variant of the Irish harp tune "{{lang|gd|Ruairidhe Va Mordha}}/Rory O Moor, King of Leix's March" transcribed by Edward Bunting from the repertoire of Irish wire-strung harpists in the late 18th century; Dominic Haerinck, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_dAAWWrdRg&index=18&list=PLZM9yT8vav_LvhiiTTQtAH4ev88ktK5Cd Company's Lament Pibroch], live performance available online via YouTube; Bernard Flinois, [http://criddh-heart.e-monsite.com/pages/pibroch/glengarry-s-lament/ Pibroch: "Glengarry's Lament"], a series of video demonstrations by a Breton wire-harper of the chanted Canntairead and the Urlar, Dithis, Dithis S.-D.Tourluath Crunluat, Crunluath and Hi o din sections of this pibroch transcribed and played on a replica Queen Mary wire-harp, live performance available online via YouTube.

Bill Taylor is a Scottish and Welsh early harp scholar and performer who has collaborated with pibroch piper Barnaby Brown and violinist Clare Salaman on the recording of bagpipe pibroch arranged for the Clarsach wire harp, lyre, hardanger fiddle, hurdy-gurdy, vielle, bone flute, bagpipes and {{lang|gd|canntaireachd}} vocals, released in 2016.Barnaby Brown, Clare Salaman, Bill Taylor, [http://www.delphianrecords.co.uk/pdf/Delphian_Cat_1409_01.pdf Spellweaving: Ancient music from the Highlands of Scotland] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427062538/http://www.delphianrecords.co.uk/pdf/Delphian_Cat_1409_01.pdf |date=2016-04-27 }}, Delphian Records, 2016. This recording includes arrangements of the pibrochs "{{lang|gd|Cumha Mhic Leòid}}" on clarsach wire harp, "{{lang|gd|Fear Pìoba Meata}}" on wire harp with {{lang|gd|canntaireachd}} vocals, "{{lang|gd|Port na srain}}" on revived early 7th-century North European gut strung lyre and "{{lang|gd|Ceann Drochaid' Innse-bheiridh}}" on wire harp, vielle and {{lang|gd|canntaireachd}} vocals. Taylor and Brown have made available documentation of their collaborative research on the arrangements of bagpipe pibroch for wire strung Clarsach via the alt-pibroch website.Barnaby Brown and Bill Taylor, [http://www.altpibroch.com/learning/bill-taylor-ps135-on-harp/ Pibroch on the Harp], Alt Pibroch website.

Virtuoso violinist and Scottish fiddler Edna Arthur was one of the first musicians to revive fiddle pibroch in performances and recordings with cellist David Johnson in the McGibbon Ensemble.McGibbon Ensemble with Edna Arthur, "Fiddle Pibroch and Other Fancies – 18th century Scottish Violin Music" (Cassette), 1989. Scottish Cultural Heritage SCH002. For related recordings of 18th-century Scottish fiddle variation sets see also: McGibbon Ensemble with Edna Arthur, "Scots Fiddle – High Style" (LP), 1976. Scottish Records 33SR117. Violinists such as Rachel Barton Pine and Bonnie Rideout are continuing this revival of the performance of fiddle pibroch repertoire on the violin, viola and cello with outcomes that are notable for their expressive musicality. Pine is a classically trained violinist who has recorded music by late 19th-century composers such as Max Bruch and Alexander "Pibroch" MacKenzie that incorporated Scottish fiddle repertoire into extended classical works.Rachel Barton Pine, [http://industry.rachelbartonpine.com/rep_notes_view.php?id=6 "Program Notes,"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715143027/http://industry.rachelbartonpine.com/rep_notes_view.php?id=6 |date=2011-07-15 }} in Scottish Fantasies for Violin and Orchestra (CD), 2005. Cedille CDR 90000083. (Alasdair Fraser, fiddle; Scottish Chamber Orchestra; Alexander Platt, conductor). Pine argues that MacKenzie composed a homage to the fiddle pibroch form in the Second Movement Caprice of his "Pibroch Suite" without strictly following that form. Granville Bantock is another classical composer who drew on pibroch, reworking "MacIntosh's Lament" for the composition "Pibroch, a Highland Lament for cello and harp" (1917).Andrew Fuller, cello, Lucy Wakeford, harp, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdxPSBG-Buc "Pibroch, a Highland Lament for cello and harp"] (1917), Granville Bantock (composer), available online via youtube. Pine's live repertoire includes revived fiddle pibroch compositions such as "MacIntosh's Lament"Rachel Barton Pine, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQy-WjdQPv4&list=PL5144D36A9B217EAA MacIntosh's Lament (1784)], live performance, September 12, 2006. Video available online on YouTube. and "Pibroch."Rachel Barton Pine, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SG5WZ7rHqM "Pibroch" c. 1740] accompanied by violist Paul Vanderwerf, on November 3, 2007. Video available online on YouTube.

Bonnie Rideout is a fiddler who has researched and revived fiddle pibroch repertoire and performance techniques. A number of her recordings feature extended fiddle pibrochs such as "MacIntosh's Lament"Bonnie Rideout, "MacIntosh's Lament", on Soft May Morn (CD), 1994. Maggies Music.Bonnie Rideout, "MacIntosh's Lament", Bonnie Rideout Scottish Trio with Special guest piper Jerry O'Sullivan, on Live-the Barns At Wolf Trap (CD), Tulloch Music, 2005. and "Marsail Lochinalie."Bonnie Rideout, "Marsail Lochinalie", on Scottish Inheritance (CD), Tulloch Music, 2002. Rideout and early Gaelic and Welsh harper and scholar Bill Taylor have recorded an arrangement of the early Scottish air "Minstrel of MacDonald" with newly composed pibroch variations.Bonnie Rideout and Bill Taylor, "Minstrel of MacDonald's", on Hesperus, Celtic Roots (CD), 1999. Maggies Music. Rideout has composed fiddle pibroch variations to this air sourced from the collection of Patrick McDonald (1784), with wire-strung harp accompaniment from Taylor. They then reverse roles and Rideout accompanies Taylor on another version of the tune from the collection of Angus Fraser (c. 1874). Rideout was commissioned to compose and record a new extended work in the fiddle pibroch form entitled "Kindred Spirits."Bonnie Rideout, "Kindred Spirits", on Kindred Spirits (CD), 1996. Maggie's Music MM214. This is a new commissioned fiddle pibroch composition by Rideout. Scottish violinist Ian Hardie was also commissioned to compose and record the new extended fiddle pibroch "The Highlands of Nairnshire."Ian Hardie, "The Highlands of Nairnshire" on Westringing (CD), 2007. Ian Hardie IJHCD001. This is a new commissioned fiddle pibroch composition by Hardie.

Rideout has begun the release of a series of dedicated recordings of fiddle pibroch produced by her mentor John Purser. Scotland's Fiddle Piobaireachd Volume 1 features collaborations with pibroch bagpiper and scholar Allan MacDonald, Alan Jackson on gut-string harp and Chris Norman on baroque flute.Bonnie Rideout, Scotland's Fiddle Piobaireachd Volume 1, (CD) 2010. Tulloch, TM504. This is a dedicated recording of fiddle pibroch. It includes: bagpipe pibroch "MacDougall's Gathering – {{lang|gd|Cruinneachaidh MacDhughail}}" on viola with cello and bronze age trumpet drones; bagpipe pibroch "MaGrigor's Search" as a medley of pibroch and song theme variants with Allan MacDonald dueting on bagpipes; harp and fiddle pibrochs "Lament for the Bishop of Argyll – {{lang|gd|Cumha Easbuig Earraghaidheal}}", and "Lament for the Earl of Wigton – {{lang|gd|Cumha Iarla Wigton}}" arranged as a baroque flute duet with Chris Norman; fiddle pibrochs "{{lang|gd|Bodaich nam Briogais}} – The Carles with the Breekes" and "Marsail Lochinalie"; 19th-century pibroch "{{lang|gd|Dargai}}" with Alan Jackson dueting on gut-strung harp; new Rideout fiddle pibroch composition "The Selchie" and traditional song "{{lang|gd|Ion-do, ion-da}}" arranged for cello with Allan MacDonald singing canntaireachd on both.

Rideout performs the early harp and fiddle pibroch "The Battle of Harlaw" and the related bagpipe pibroch "The Battle of the Birds" on the John Purser produced album Harlaw 1411–2011.[http://www.bonnierideout.com/welcome.htm Announcements] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110304020430/http://www.bonnierideout.com/welcome.htm |date=2011-03-04 }}, bonnierideout.com website. Rideout first performed "The Battle of Harlaw" on the BBC radio series Scotland's Music hosted by John Purser,Bonnie Rideout, [http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/player/?item=4450795 "Battle of Hara Law"], live performance, on Scotland's Music, Episode 9, BBC Scotland. This is likely to be a transcribed wire-strung harp composition commemorating the Battle of Harlaw in 1411. See: Simon Chadwick, "Battle of Hara Law" on Clàrsach na Bànrighe (CD), 2008, Early Garlic Harp Info EGH1. [http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/scotlandshistory/warsofindependence/angusogmacdonald/index.asp Audio music file] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100731135808/http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/scotlandshistory/warsofindependence/angusogmacdonald/index.asp |date=2010-07-31 }} available online via ltscotland.org.uk website. Chadwick plays on a replica Queen Mary early wire-strung clarsach harp. This {{lang|gd|ceòl mór}} composition was published in Daniel Dow, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/sources/dow.htm Collection of Ancient Scots Music], Edinburgh, 1776. The earliest version appears in the Rowallan lute manuscript {{circa|1620}} as "Battle of garlan." A pibroch variant of "Battle of Hara Law" with a related urlar theme and different variations is published in the Angus MacKay Manuscript, Volume 2, 72, NLS MS 3754 with the title "{{lang|gd|Cath n a'n Eun, na An Càth Gailbheach}}/The Birds Flight or Desperate Battle", and in the Duncan Campbell of Foss MS, ff.150–152 as "The Desperate Battle – Harlaw." See: Dr. William Donaldson, [http://www.pipesdrums.com/ObjectFile.aspx?sys-Portal=57&sys-Class=Set+Tune&sys-ID=17149&sys-Attr=File "The Desperate Battle"] in "Lost Pibroch", 2009, Pipe and Drum website. The title "Battle of Harlaw" translates as "{{lang|gd|Cath Ghairbhich}}". With the corruption of Gaelic spelling to "{{lang|gd|Cath Gailbheach}}" this translates as "The Desperate Battle". along with the harp and fiddle pibroch "Cumh Ioarla Wigton (Lament for the Earl of Wigtown)"See Bonnie Rideout, [http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/player/?item=4451402 "Lament for the Earl of Wigton,"] live performance, on Scotland's Music, Episode 19, BBC Scotland. This is likely to be a transcribed wire-strung harp composition. See: Alison Kinnaird, "{{lang|gd|Cumh Ioarla Wigton}} (Lament for the Earl of Wigtown)" on The Silver String (CD), 2004, Temple Records CD2096. Kinnaird plays this composition on a replica early wire-strung clarsach harp. The Harlaw CD features key {{lang|gd|ceòl mór}} revivalists including pibroch bagpipers Allan MacDonald and Barnaby Brown, early Scottish luter Ron MacFarlane, flautist Chris Norman and early Gaelic and Welsh harper Bill Taylor.

Bonnie Rideout's CD Scotland's Fiddle Piobaireachd Volume 2, produced by John Purser was released in 2012. It features Rideout on fiddle and viola, Allan MacDonald on Highland bagpipes, small pipes, and voice, Barnaby Brown on revived triple pipes, William Jackson on clarsach harp and Matthew Bell on bodhran. It includes arrangements of traditional fiddle pibrochs and two new compositions in the fiddle pibroch form by Rideout.Bonnie Rideout, Scotland's Fiddle Piobaireachd Volume 2, (CD) 2012. Tulloch, TM506.

Scottish Fiddler and composer Paul Anderson incorporates revived fiddle pibrochs and transcribed bagpipe pibrochs in his live repertoire, documented on YouTube, and has composed the new work "Lament for the Gordons of Knock" in the fiddle pibroch form.Paul Anderson, "Lament for the Gordons of Knock" in Land of the Standing Stones (CD), 2013. Birnam, FINCD505.

Multi-instrumental violinist Clare Salaman has collaborated with harper Bill Taylor and pibroch piper Barnaby Brown on the recording of bagpipe pibroch arranged for the hardanger fiddle, hurdy-gurdy and vielle, released in 2016.Barnaby Brown, Clare Salaman, Bill Taylor, [http://www.delphianrecords.co.uk/pdf/Delphian_Cat_1409_01.pdf Spellweaving: Ancient music from the Highlands of Scotland] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427062538/http://www.delphianrecords.co.uk/pdf/Delphian_Cat_1409_01.pdf |date=2016-04-27 }}, Delphian Records, 2016. This recording includes arrangements of the bagpipe pibrochs "{{lang|gd|Cruinneachadh nan Sutharlanach}}" on Hardanger fiddle, "{{lang|gd|Pìobaireachd na Pàirce}}" on Hurdy gurdy and "{{lang|gd|Ceann Drochaid' Innse-bheiridh}}" on wire harp, vielle and canntaireachd vocals.

{{lang|gd|Ceòl mór}} is being situated within a broader medieval cultural milieu in the British Isles through the revival of early Welsh {{lang|cy|cerdd dant}} ("string music").The term {{lang|cy|cerdd dant}} in its common modern Welsh usage has become synonymous with {{lang|cy|canu penillion}} (verse singing) which originated in the 18th century. This was improvised singing over European and particularly Italian baroque influenced Welsh melodies that were largely composed from the 1700s onwards and played on chromatic European triple harps or later modern pedal harps. It has little relationship with medieval or early {{lang|cy|cerdd dant}} bardic art music composed up until the 1600s and played on diatonic bray harps. This genre of Irish influenced medieval Welsh music offers a precedent for Scottish pibroch as an aristocratic extended art music played on the harp with a repeated melodic theme or ground and elaborate formal variations.Frans Buisman [http://welshjournals.llgc.org.uk/browse/viewpage/llgc-id:1175725/llgc-id:1177095/llgc-id:1177104/get650 "A Parallel between Scottish Pibroch and Early Welsh Harp Music"], {{lang|cy|Hanes Cerddoriaeth Cymru}} / Welsh Music History Volume 6, November 2004. Welsh Cerdd Dant repertoire from the late-Middle Ages was documented in the {{lang|cy|ap Huw}} manuscripts in the 17th century by Robert ap Huw as a binary system of tabulature notation.[http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/ap_huw/ The Robert ap Huw manuscript, Musica], B. M. Addl. MS 14905, Cardiff: University of Wales Press Board, 1936. Hinrichsen Edition, #378.See also: [http://www.bangor.ac.uk/music/CAWMS/robertaphuw.php.en Music of the Robert ap Huw Manuscript], Bangor University.

Bill Taylor is an early Scottish and Welsh harper who is researching, reconstructing and recording definitive performances of early {{lang|cy|cerdd dant}} music on replica historical gut-strung Romanesque harps and late-medieval bray harps.Bill Taylor, [http://spanglefish.com/billtaylor/index.asp?pageid=235174 Two Worlds of the Welsh Harp], (CD) 1999. Dorian DOR-90260. Audio samples of [http://www.triplepipe.net/MP3s/measures/00110011.mp3 "{{lang|wlm|Kaniad y gwynn bibydd|nocat=y}}/Caniad of the white piper"] (Robert ap Huw MS, pp.36-37) and [http://www.triplepipe.net/MP3s/measures/11001011.mp3 "{{lang|cy|Gosteg Dafydd Athro|nocat=y}}"] (Robert ap Huw MS, pp.15-17) from this CD, played on a replica bray-harp, are available online on http://www.triplepipe.net/measures.html, a web resource by Barnaby Brown on the binary measures that characterise the {{lang|cy|ap Huw}} harp notation.{{cite web|url=http://spanglefish.com/billtaylor/index.asp?pageid=235174 |title=CD notes from Two Worlds of the Welsh Harp (Dorian DOR-90260) by William Taylor |access-date=2010-08-24 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110611002457/http://spanglefish.com/billtaylor/index.asp?pageid=235174 |archive-date=2011-06-11 }}Bill Taylor, [http://spanglefish.com/billtaylor/index.asp?pageid=235173 Musica], (CD) 2010. Taith, TRCD011. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110611002452/http://spanglefish.com/billtaylor/index.asp?pageid=235173 |date=June 11, 2011 }} Taylor has published extensive online resources outlining this applied performance-based research.Bill Taylor, "Medieval Welsh Bardic Music: Interpreting the Robert ap Huw MS.", available online: http://spanglefish.com/billtaylor/index.asp?pageid=74247; Bill Taylor, [http://spanglefish.com/billtaylor/index.asp?pageid=69030 video of live performances of music from ap Huw MS.], The Sound World of {{lang|cy|Dafydd ap Gwilym|italic=unset}}, Symposium on the poetry of Dayfdd ap Gwilym, Swansea, 4 April 2007. {{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} Taylor and Irish wire-strung harpist Paul Dooley discuss and perform demonstrations of the ap Huw music in the recent BBC documentary History of the Harp.Bill Taylor and Paul Dooley, in History of the Harp with Catrin Finch, Television Documentary, BBC4, 2007. Videos available online on YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPylNyV3-4E Part 1 (from 9.15sec)], continued on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zw9v6px9x4 Part 2].

There is debate over the interpretation of references in Welsh manuscripts to the role of gut-strung and horse hair-strung bray harps in the late-Middle Ages. Taylor considers these to be the authentic instruments for the performance of {{lang|cy|cerdd dant}}.Bill Taylor, [http://www.spanglefish.com/BillTaylor/index.asp?pageid=74247 Medieval Welsh Bardic Music: Interpreting the Robert ap Huw MS.] Bill Taylor website. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110216120945/http://www.spanglefish.com/BillTaylor/index.asp?pageid=74247 |date=February 16, 2011 }} Heymann and Chadwick are contributing to a research project to reconstruct an early Welsh horse hair-strung bray harp, testing this theory through application.[http://www.telynrawn.org/ {{lang|cy|Prosiect Telyn Rawn|nocat=y}} - Project Telyn Rawn], website, with audio file excerpt of a demonstration performance of "{{lang|cy|Gosteg Dafydd Athro}}" by Ann Heymann on an experimental horse-hair strung Ardival Gothic bray harp or {{lang|cy|Telyn Rawn}}.

Peter Greenhill's reading of the manuscripts has led him to conclude that the pieces were played on a wire strung harp and that they were instrumental pieces, though he theorises that the {{lang|cy|Clymau Cytgerdd}} section may have been used for poetical accompaniment.Peter Greenhill, [http://www.pauldooley.com/aphuw_pages/silvervoice2.html The Forgotten Silver-voiced Harp of Wales: The Accompaniment Lyre & the Accompaniment Harp], on PaulDooley.com website. He argues that instrumental early {{lang|cy|cerdd dant}} music was originally played on the highly resonant wire-strung harp using similar sharpened nail-based string striking and dampening techniques and ornamentation employed in Irish and Scottish {{lang|gd|ceòl mór}} harp music.Peter Greenhill, [http://www.pauldooley.com/aphuw_pages/silvervoice1.html The Forgotten Silver-voiced Harp of Wales], on PaulDooley.com website. A plausible reconciliation of these positions is that the early Cerdd Dant genre developed on the aristocratic precious metal wire-strung harp during a period of close contact with Ireland in the early Middle Ages and shifted to the more modest bray harp, with its own distinctive resonant characteristics in the late Middle Ages in response to diminished patronage following the collapse of the indigenous Welsh aristocratic cultural order, preceding similar changes in Ireland and Scotland.

Paul Dooley has researched and recorded a dedicated album of ap Huw compositions played on a replica early Irish wire-strung clairseach harp.Paul Dooley [http://www.pauldooley.com/albums/Volume%20I.html "Music from the Robert Ap Huw Manuscript Vol 1"] (CD), 2004. Paul Dooley. Ann Heymann has researched the ap Huw manuscript with a particular focus on the interpretation of the notation of playing techniques that are comparable to the Irish wire-strung harp techniques noted down by Edward Bunting in the late 18th century.Ann Heymann, [http://www.annheymann.com/biography.htm "Biography,"] Ann Heymann.com website. She has recorded "{{lang|wlm|Kaniad San Silin}}", one of the oldest compositions in the {{lang|cy|cerdd dant}} repertoire on a replica early Irish wire-strung clairseach harp.Ann Heymann, "{{lang|wlm|Kaniad San Silin}}", on {{lang|ga|Cruit Go nÓr}} • Harp Of Gold (CD), 2006. Ann Heymann, CMC0706D. Simon Chadwick also includes this piece in his live repertoire, played on a replica early Scottish Queen Mary wire-strung clarsach harp.See also: Simon Chadwick, "Kaniad San Silin", Robert ap Huw MS, a live demonstration performance on a replica Queen Mary medieval wire-strung clarsach harp. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M16AoDmP8DQ Video excerpt available online via YouTube].

Barnaby Brown has identified characteristics of the Welsh and by extension Irish medieval harp tunings recorded in the ap Huw manuscript that are also present in Scottish bagpipe tuning.Mike Paterson interview with Barnaby Brown, in Piping Today 38, 2009, p. 26-29; Barnaby Brown, "Scottish Traditional Grounds", in Piping Today 38, 2009, p. 44-47. [http://go2.wordpress.com/?id=725X1342&site=pibroch.wordpress.com&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpibroch.net%2Farticles%2Fbjb%2F2009-1.pdf&sref=http%3A%2F%2Fpibroch.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F02%2F05%2Fgreenhill-2%2F Available online: http://pibroch.wordpress.com] The common source of influence for these shared musical practices is likely to be found in the formal conventions of medieval aristocratic and religious Irish Gaelic wire-strung harp music.

Further clues to the broader cultural context of bagpipe pibroch can be found in the small body of compositions that have an Irish association.Frank Timoney, "Who Was The Earl of Antrim? A Discussion: On the Possible Influence of Scottish and Irish Ceol Mor on Each Other", The Piping Times, November/December, 1997; Frank Timoney, "In response to readers' questions regarding 'Who Was The Earl of Antrim?'", in The Piping Times, 1998. [http://www.bagpipehistory.info/piobaireachd.shtml Available online via http://www.bagpipehistory.info] The pibroch "{{lang|ga|Cumha a Chleirich}}" which translates as "The Cleric's Lament" and is commonly known as "The Bard's Lament" is entitled "one of the Irish piobarich" in the Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=unset}} manuscript.[http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/images/stories/Campbellcant/one%20of%20the%20irish.pdf "One of the Irish Pioparich,"]{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} in Campbell Canntaireachd volume 1, no. 30, 1797, NLS MS 3714. See also: Barnaby Brown, "One of the Irish piobarich — {{lang|ga|Cumha a' Chléirich}}", in [http://www.college-of-piping.co.uk/acatalog/Piping_Times_Back_Issues.html Piping Times], 51/3, (1998). {{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} This {{lang|gd|canntaireachd}} provides possible surviving documentation of an Irish harp {{lang|gd|ceòl mór}} repertoire. Ann Heymann has recently transcribed, performed and recorded this pibroch played on a replica early Irish wire-strung clairseach harp.Ann Heymann, "{{lang|ga|Cumha a' Chléirich}}" on {{lang|ga|Cruit go nÓr|italic=unset}} • Harp Of Gold (CD), 2006. Ann Heymann, CMC0706D.

At the Highland Society of London pibroch competition in Edinburgh in 1785, John MacPherson is listed as having played "{{lang|ga|Piobrachd Ereanach}} an Irish Pibrach."Alexander Duncan Fraser, Some reminiscences and the bagpipe, Edinburgh: W. J. Hay, 1907. [https://archive.org/stream/somereminiscence00fras#page/n499/mode/2up Available online.] A pibroch in the Angus MacKay MS Vol 1 entitled "{{lang|ga|Spiocaireachd Iasgaich}}/Scarce of Fishing" appears in the earlier Donald MacDonald Jnr. MS. (1826) with the very Irish title of "O'Kelly's Lament.""O'Kelly's lament", in Donald MacDonald Jnr. MS. [http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/images/stories/MacDonaldjnr/okellyslament.pdf Available online from the Piobaireachd Society website] {{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

The Irish wire-strung harp standard "Brian Boru's March"Gráinne Yeats, "{{lang|ga|Máirseáil Bhriain Bóirmhe}}/Brian Boru's March", on The Belfast Harp Festival 1792–1992 (CD), 1992. Gael-linn, CEFCD 156. Yeats has restored this tune to the wire-strung harp, informed by documented performance techniques of Patrick Byrne (c. 1794 – 8 April 1863), the very last noted wire-strung harp performer. appears with pibroch variations and a range of titles in the Scottish bagpipe repertoire: Angus MacKay and General C.S. Thomason both give two titles "{{lang|ga|Taom-boileinn na Coinneamh}}/The Frenzy of Meeting" and "Lament for Brian O'Duff", which concurs with the Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=unset}} title "Brian O'Duff's Lament";[http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/images/stories/CampbellVol2/brianoduffslament.pdf "Brian O'Duffs Lament"]{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} in Campbell Canntaireachd volumes 2, no. 40, 1797, NLS MS 3715 {{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} Simon Fraser lists the tune as "A Lament for King Brian of Old"; and the Niel MacLeod of Gesto book of {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd}} gives the title "{{lang|ga|Tumilin O'Counichan}} an Irish Tune".[http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/images/stories/NeilMacleodGhesto/irishtune.pdf "Tumilin O'Counichan an Irish Tune"]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} in Niel MacLeod, A Collection of Piobaireachd or Pipe Tunes, as verbally taught by the McCrummen Pipers in the Isle of Skye, Edinburgh, 1828, no. 19. {{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

At the William Kennedy International Piping Festival (2009), held in Armagh, Barnaby Brown conducted workshops on the chanting of Irish associated pibroch {{lang|gd|canntaireachd}} from the Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=unset}} manuscript.Artists: [http://www.armaghpipers.org/artists/bandRe.html bandRe - Workshop Ceòl Mór with Barnaby Brown], William Kennedy International Piping Festival, Armagh, Northern Ireland, 2009. www.armaghpipers.org website. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718105531/http://www.armaghpipers.org/artists/bandRe.html |date=July 18, 2011 }} These Irish {{lang|gd|ceòl mór}} workshops focused particularly on the {{lang|gd|canntaireachd}} transcriptions of "One of the Irish Piobarich" also known as "The Bard's Lament", the "Brian Boru's March" pibroch variant "Brian O'Duff's Lament/An Irish Lively Tune" also known as "{{lang|ga|Taom-boileinn na Coinneamh}}/The Frenzy of the Meeting", and "{{lang|ga|Ceann na Drochaide Bige}}/The End of the Little Bridge,"[http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/images/stories/CampbellVol2/theendofthelittlebridge.pdf "{{lang|ga|Ceann na Drochaide Bige|nocat=y}}/The End of the Little Bridge."], Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=unset}} Volume 2, no. 85. {{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} a battle pibroch associated with an expedition to Ireland in 1594 by an army of Scottish Isleman to support Red Hugh O'Donnell's rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I.Allan MacDonald, "{{lang|ga|Ceann na Drochaide Bige}}/The End of the Little Bridge", on Dastirum (CD/Book), Barnaby Brown (Ed), 2007, p. 46-48. Siubhal 2. {{ISBN|978-0-9546729-1-1}}. The pibrochs "Hugh's Lament,"[http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/images/stories/Campbellcant/hughslament.pdf "Hugh's Lament"]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} in Campbell Canntaireachd volume 1, no. 48, 1797, NLS MS 3714. See also: William McCallum, "Lament For Hugh" on Various, Ceol Na Pioba (Music Of The Pipes) – A Concert Of Piobaireachd (CD) 2000. Greentrax CDTRAX5009 {{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} "Samuel's Black Dog"[http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/images/stories/CampbellVol2/samualsblackdog.pdf "Samuel's Black Dog"] in Campbell {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd|italic=unset}} Volume 2, no 24. {{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} or "Lament for Samuel", and "Lament for the Earl of Antrim"[http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/images/stories/AngusMacKayManuscript/earlofantrimlament.pdf "Cumha Iarla Antrim/Earl of Antrim's Lament"] in Angus MacKay's MS. Volume 1. NLS MS 3753. {{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} also have an association with this Irish conflict. Frank Timoney argues that "Lament for the Earl of Antrim" is another possible Irish wire-strung harp composition.

The bagpipe pibroch "Duncan MacRae of Kintail's Lament" is a variant of the Irish harp tune "{{lang|ga|Ruairidhe Va Mordha}}/Rory O Moor, King of Leix's March" notated by Edward Bunting from the repertoire of Irish wire-strung harpists in the late 18th century.Gráinne Yeats, "Ruairí Ó Mórdha/Rory O'More", on The Belfast Harp Festival 1792–1992 (CD), 1992. Gael-linn, CEFCD 156. Yeats has recorded an historically informed reconstruction of the performance of the Irish tune on wire-strung harp based on Edward Bunting's notation. Allan MacDonald has played and recorded these two closely related compositions as a bagpipe medley, with the harp tune informing his revisions of the standard pibroch settings.Allan MacDonald, "Duncan MacRae of Kintail's Lament (Pibroch)/March of the King of Laoise (Martial Piece)", on Allan MacDonald and Gordon Walker, The Piping Centre 1998 Recital Series – Volume 2 (CD), 2001. Temple Records, COMD2088. He has also performed an arrangement of this medley with an ensemble of Irish musicians on modern instruments for the BBC documentary The Highland Sessions.Allan MacDonald, "{{lang|ga|Cumha Dhonnchaidh Mhicrath}} – March of the King of Laois", on The Highland Sessions, television documentary, BBC 2005. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB9FxF2fAeU Video available online via YouTube].

The only composition in the Irish wire-strung harp repertoire similar in structure to ceòl mór that is documented with intact formal variations is "Burns March", notated by Bunting and revived on the wire-strung harp in recordings by Charles Guard,Charles Guard, "Burns March" on Avenging and Bright, Claddagh records, 1977. Gráinne YeatsGráinne Yeats, "{{lang|ga|Máirseáil Uí Bhroin}}/Burns March", on The Belfast Harp Festival 1792–1992 (CD), 1992. Gael-linn, CEFCD 156. and more recently by Simon Chadwick.Simon Chadwick, "Burns March", on [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/CnaB/ {{lang|gd|Clàrsach Na Bànrighe|nocat=y}}] (CD), 2008. Early Gaelic Harp Info EGH1. This medieval composition survived in the repertoire as a training tune for wire-strung harp students that provided a vehicle for the mastery of characteristic ornamental performance techniques.Simon Chadwick, "Burns March", live demonstration performance on replica early Irish wire-strung clàrsach harp. [https://www.youtube.com/user/simonmchadwick#p/u/14/vEAlOHhIL0k Video available online via YouTube.]

• {{lang|gd|Canntaireachd}}
• {{lang|gd|Ceòl beag}}
• {{lang|gd|Ceòl meadhonach}}
• Donald MacLeod

{{Reflist|2}}

• {{cite journal |last=Brown |first=Barnaby |title=The Design of It: Patterns in Pibroch |journal=The Voice |issue=Winter, Spring & Summer |date=2005}}
• {{cite book |last=Campbell |first=Archibald |title=The Kilberry Book of Ceol Mor |edition=3rd |location=Glasgow |publisher=College of Piping |orig-date=1969 |date=2006 |isbn=1-898405-22-0}}
• {{cite book |editor-last=Cannon |editor-first=Roderick D. |title=Joseph MacDonald's Compleat Theory of the Scots Highland Pipe (c. 1760) |location=Glasgow |publisher=Pìobaireachd Society |date=1994 |isbn=1-898405-41-7}}
• {{cite book |last=Cannon |first=Roderick D. |title=The Highland Bagpipe and Its Music |location=Edinburgh |publisher=John Donald Publishers |date=1995 |isbn=0-85976-416-8}}
• {{cite book |last=Collinson |first=Francis |title=The Bagpipe: The History of a Musical Instrument |location=London |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul |date=1975 |isbn=0-7100-7913-3}}
• {{cite book |editor-last=Dickson |editor-first=Joshua |title=The Highland Bagpipe: Music, History, Tradition |location=Farnham |publisher=Ashgate |date=2009 |isbn=978-0-7546-6669-1}}
• {{cite book |last=Donaldson |first=William |title=The Highland Pipe and Scottish Society 1750–1950 |location=East Linton |publisher=Tuckwell Press |date=2000 |isbn=1-86232-075-6}}
• {{cite book |last=Haddow |first=Alexander John |title=The History and Structure of Ceol Mor – A Guide to Piobaireachd, the Classical Music of the Great Highland Bagpipe |location=Glasgow |publisher=Piobaireachd Society |orig-date=1982 |date=2003}}
• {{cite book |last=Johnson |first=David |title=Scottish Fiddle Music in the 18th Century: A Music Collection and Historical Study |location=Edinburgh |publisher=John Donald Publishers |date=1984 |pages=122–146}}
• {{cite book |last=MacNeill |first=Dugald B. |title=Sight Readable Ceol Mor Book I |location=Edinburgh |publisher=Dugald B. MacNeil |date=2007}}
• {{cite book |author=MacNeill |first=Seumas |title=Classical Music of the Highland Bagpipe |location=Glasgow |publisher=College of Piping |orig-date=1948 |date=1976 |isbn=0-563-07487-6}}
• {{cite book |last=MacNeill |first=Seumas |author2=Highland Society of London |editor=Angus MacKay |title=A Collection of Ancient Pìobaireachd |year=1972 |edition=1838 |publisher=EP Publishing Limited |location=Yorkshire |isbn=0-85409-821-6 |ref=Preface |page=183 }}
• {{cite book |editor-last=Ó Baoill |editor-first=Colm |translator-last=Bateman |translator-first=Meg |translator-link=Meg Bateman)| title=Gàir nan Clàrsach. The Harps' Cry: An Anthology of 17th Century Gaelic Poetry | location=Edinburgh | publisher=Birlinn |date=1994}} (includes associated songs)
• {{cite book |author=The Piobaireachd Society | title=Piobaireachd Society Books, Volumes 1-15 |location=Glasgow |publisher=Piobaireachd Society / Holmes McDougall}}
• {{cite book |editor-last=Ross |editor-first=Roderick S. | title=Binneas is Boreraig, The Complete Collection, 1959| location=Glasgow |publisher=College of Piping |date=1992 }}
• {{cite book |last1=Sanger |first1=Keith |last2=Kinnaird |first2=Alison |name-list-style=amp |title=Tree of Strings: Crann Nan Teud: A History of the Harp in Scotland |location=Edinburgh |publisher=Kinmor Music |date=1992}}

• [https://pibroch.net/ Pibroch Network]. Free web resources for contemporary Ceol Mor revival performance practice and research. The site is making available downloadable copies of all of the significant early pibroch manuscripts from the 18th and 19th centuries, including the Campbell Canntaireachd vol 1 and 2, the Gesto Canntaireachd, and the early staff notated pibroch manuscripts that predate the edited and standardised versions of modern pibroch published by Angus MacKay and authorised in the Piobaireachd Society books.
• [http://ceolmor.org/ CeòlMòr.org]. Resource for the study of Ceòl Mòr on the great highland bagpipes. Includes scholarly articles and instructional resources.
• Ross Anderson, [http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/music/index.html Ross's Music Page], University of Cambridge.
• Barnaby Brown, [http://triplepipe.net/pibroch.html Pibroch], triplepipe.net. Analysis of the structure of pibroch with 11 audio file examples.
• Simon Chadwick, [http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/ceolmor/ Ceòl Mór], Early Gaelic Harp Info website.
• David Johnson, [http://scotchmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Archive-1.3-Fiddle-Pibroch.pdf 18th Century Texts of Fiddle Pibroch], A typescript list of musical items compiled by Dr David Johnson and given to Stuart Eydmann during a talk on the subject at the Scots Fiddle Festival, Edinburgh, 28.11.1999. The talk was recorded by Stuart Eydmann. [http://scotchmusic.com/ A Scottish Musical Miscellany] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615102209/http://scotchmusic.com/ |date=15 June 2013 }} website, [http://scotchmusic.com/archive Archive]: Summer 2011, 1.3.
• Robinson MacClellan, [http://www.robinsonmcclellan.com/pibroch "Pibroch Rhythm: Translating Early Gaelic Bagpipe Music in the 21st Century"], Doctor of Musical Arts Thesis, Yale School of Music, 2007.
• Allan MacDonald, [http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/musicfiles/manuscripts/allanmacdonald/ "The Relationship between Pibroch and Gaelic Song: its Implications on the Performance Style of the Pibroch Urlar"], M. Lit. Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1995.
• [http://www.roddymacleodpiobaireachd.com/ Roddy MacLeod Piobaireachd] website.
• Dr William Donaldson, [https://www.pipesdrums.com/set-tunes/ Set Tunes], www.pipesdrums.com. Analysis of the annual set tunes for the Pìobaireachd Society competitions with comparisons of the various published and early manuscript scores of each of the tunes and accompanying commentary.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100904151212/http://www.thepipingcentre.co.uk/about/ National Piping Centre] website.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100930202046/http://www.thepipingcentre.co.uk/tuition/piping-degree/ B.Arts (Scottish Music - Piping) degree], National Piping Centre, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD).
• [http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/ Pìobaireachd Society] website.
• [http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=85&Itemid=97 Manuscripts and Fascimiles], Pìobaireachd Society website.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080929052337/http://www.pipetunes.ca/browseproducts.asp?catID=186 Piobaireachd Manuscripts], PipeTunes website.
• [http://www.rubrown.org.au/ R U Brown Piobaireachd Society] website.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080724221841/http://www.scottishpipingsocietyoflondon.com/ Bratach Gorm Competition], Scottish Piping Society of London website.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080517163837/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/system/topicRoot/Piping/ The Times Piping Reports], The Times online website.

{{Scottish folk music}}

Category:Bagpiping

Category:Music of Scotland

Category:Celtic music

Category:Classical and art music traditions