"Caber Feidh," Scots Guards 1950

One of the great old pipe marches, which may be the source of the Irish reel "Rakish Paddy." The drums in this arrangement have several rests to bring out the tension between the drones and melody notes. It's a challenge to listen through the online compression, aged vinyl and 60 year old engineering --and modern pipers may be put off by the 25hz lower pitch and melodic-style drumming-- but it was a dramatic stereo recording in its time.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• caber feidh
• scots guards
• pipes & drums
• pipes and drums
• bagpipe
• bagpipe band

[DrBetelgeuseMD]

AHH! The cane drone reeds and the lower pitch make for such a more haunting sound then modern piping. I never get to experience the glory days of anything : (

[Dayepipes]

@DrBetelgeuseMD Also the rope-tension snare drums used hide heads. I'm sure they had snares under both heads though for that crisp sound.I can't prove it but I feel like the drum heads may have been tuned to the pipes' E, the 5th note of the pipe scale.

[erracht]

@Dayepipes I don't hear an A (as a full note) between the Gs - listen to 0:07 and 0:17 - in usual arrangements there's a clear A there, but here it is presumably only as a gracenote.

[Dayepipes]

@erracht Email me at ddaye@daye1.com and give more detail. Happy to clarify anything I've said, consider what you're saying, and provide stretched audio if you want.

[erracht]

This is the first and BEST version of Cabar Feidh I know. They play it a little differently from most other settings I've heard. Note that in the first bar, there is no high A, only high Gs. Also, I wonder, @ 1:13, 1:14 and 1:15, are those taorluaths or (as standard in this tune), tachums on low A? Wonder if this was an original Scots Guards arrangement, or published somewhere.

[Dayepipes]

@erracht Hm, 1st notes are ga ge g so there's a high A in there definitely. As to 1:13 etc.: in the answer phrase of part 4 (with all the low A's) they're all taorluaths. What you label as "tachums" would just be g-d-e gracenotes separating low A's as in other versions. I learned this mid 60's from vinyl playing it at half speed; if you have audio software slow it down to half and it's plain as day through the dense echo of the hall. I just did and it's taorluaths all the way down.

[blizzofozz80]

yes i think the lower pitch sounds better. i like my low A around 474.. thanks for the post great stuff.always liked the canadian centennial celebration from 1967 the black watch of canada.(RHR) album also..thanks again..

[blizzofozz80]

its in the scots guards book vol 2 as a strathspeys arranged by pipe major w ross..great tune...

[ww24490383]

Nice sound, as ex- 'Q' 'O' Highlander still sends a wee shiver down ma spine, CABARFEIDH!!

[ecco256]

Sounds fantastic, instant goosebumps! I rather like the lower pitch, nowadays the low A going above 480Hz is just getting ridiculous imo.

[piperbob2]

One of the old classic LPs of pipe music ! I would have loved to have had this when my love for pipe music began in the mid-fifties (but I didn't find a teacher till 1965 - a long time for a passion to wait !)

I do have some other Scots Guards albums, though: from 1964 (1st Bn./P/M John.S. Roe); from 1972 (1st Bn./P/M Angus MacDonald); and from 1975 (2nd Bn./P/M Linden Ingram) as well as loads from Shotts, Glasgow/Strathclyde Police and other grade 1 bands.

Thanks for sharing !