Tune Req: Cogadh no Sith

Subject: Tune Req: Cogadh no Sith
From: GUEST,cliff
Date: 29 Mar 07 - 06:21 PM

Looking for music to the tune "Cogadh no Sith" ("War or Peace"), supposedly played by piper Kenneth McKay, stepping out of the square and into the face of a French charge at Waterloo. (At least i now know where George Lucas got the name for the evil Jedi). Thanks

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Cogadh no Sith
From: Peace
Date: 29 Mar 07 - 06:48 PM

Site to look at. About three paragraphs down.

From The Fiddler's Companion:

COGAD/COGADH/CIGAUDG NA SITH (Peace or War/War or Peace). AKA – "S' coma leam fhèin cogadh no sith" (War or peace I care not which." Scottish, Pipe Air. D Minor. Standard. One part. Played to inspire the troops by gallant Kenneth Mackay piper to the Grenedier Company of the 79th Regiment (Cameron Highlanders) at Waterloo, when he bravely stepped outside the protection of his comrades' traditional square formation (formed to receive the charge of the French cavalry), walking too and fro before the enemy. O'Neill (1913) relates its similar use in India, when a piper in Lork McLeod's regiment, seeing the British army giving way before superior numbers, played "War or Peace" which inspired the Highlanders with such spirit that they rallied and cut through their enemies. For this circumstance Sir Eyre Coote, filled with admiration, presented the regiment with fifty pounds to buy a stand of pipes. Still another military anecdote has pipers of the 92nd Gordon Highlanders playing the tune at St. Piere during the Peninsular War. The first lines of the song set to it go:

***

War or peace, peace or war, its all the same to me,

In war I might be killed, in peace I might be hanged!

***

Morison (Highland Airs and Quicksteps, vol. 2), c. 1882; No. 3, pg. 2.

X:1

T:War or peace I care not which

T:S' coma leam fhèin cogadh no sith

M:6/8

L:1/8

R:Air

N:"Slow"

S:Morison – Highland Airs and Quicksteps, vol. 2, No. 3 (c. 1882)

Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion

K:D Minor

D | D>CD F>GA | c>dc c2c | dfd d>cA | G>AG F2F |

f>ed d>cA | G>Ac d2C | F>GF FGA | {G}F>DC D2 ||

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Cogadh no Sith
From: Jack Campin
Date: 29 Mar 07 - 08:43 PM

It's a pibroch, there is a hell of a lot more to it than that (it is also way older).

Look at the Piobaireachd Society books, or the Kilberry Book of Ceol Mor. There is a version on the web in BGP format (horrible to figure out without the program).

Here is a modern copy of the bare tune in a pipe setting. Not that the {ged} gracenote groups can't be represented properly in ABC - the e is as long as a melody note, so the bars aren't of even length.

X:2
T:Cogadh no Sith
S:Seaforth Highlanders book
M:C
L:1/8
Q:1/4=30
K:Hp
{ged}c>{GdGe}c    {g}B{GdGe}B {g}A>{GdGe}A {g}e{g}A |\
{g} B/{Gdc}d{e}d/ {g}c{GdGe}c {g}B{GdGe}B {ged}d{e}G|]

I'm not sure I can see any resemblance between these two tunes.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Cogadh no Sith
From: Peace
Date: 29 Mar 07 - 09:17 PM

I gather it's from the 1600s.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Cogadh no Sith
From: Mr Happy
Date: 29 Mar 07 - 09:26 PM

..........an anagram?


oh. gonads itch!!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Cogadh no Sith
From: GUEST,Cliff
Date: 30 Mar 07 - 08:55 AM

The Fiddler's Companion was one of the places i looked, but the abc given is only a small piece of, as it turns out, a much longer setting. I found it in "Highland Pipe Music", Angus Mackay, Aberdeen, 1838, pp 128-130. Thanks all-- especially for the cool anagram.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Cogadh no Sith
From:
Date: 30 Mar 07 - 01:33 PM

Cliff (as in McGann?), I finally found the tune in Effie Rankin's book on the Ridge MacDonalds - As a Bhraighe (Beyond the Braes). It was the tune used for Each an t-Sagairt (pg 88 for words and pg 188 for the music.) I'll get it figured out in abc in a few days and see how it matches with what is given above.