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Bagpipe tune

23 Jul 11 - 08:02 AM (#3193411)
Subject: Bagpipe tune
From: GUEST,Eliza

It's driving me mad! Being semi-senile, I can't remember the name of this tune! It's played by a pipe band (or maybe brass band with pipes) and it's called 'A Farewell to..." or even 'A .... Farewell' (possibly beginning with A) I think it might be a fairly recent composition. Very haunting and beautiful, does anyone know what I'm talking about please?


23 Jul 11 - 08:09 AM (#3193414)
Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Jack Campin

There are maybe hundreds of "farewell" tunes for pipe band.

My fave, which is relatively recent (1970s) is Duncan Johnstone's "Farewell to Nigg".


23 Jul 11 - 08:31 AM (#3193428)
Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: GUEST,loki

is it The 51st Highland Division's Farewell to Sicily?


23 Jul 11 - 09:30 AM (#3193452)
Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Leadfingers

As Jack C said , hundreds of them - Just about every time a Scottish regiment was posted out , the pipe Major(Usually) wrote a 'Farewell tune .
One of MY faves is 'The 79th H L I Farewell to The Barren Rocks of Aden' , though i KNOW that would never be described as Haunting


23 Jul 11 - 10:06 AM (#3193467)
Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Big Mick

Could it be "Farewell to Erin"? That has been recorded over the years by any number of bands and under a number of names. The Bothy Band did it on their wonderful Afterhours recording.

All the best,

Mick


23 Jul 11 - 11:50 AM (#3193540)
Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: GUEST,leeneia

Modern? Farewell to A---?

Could it be Ashokan Farewell?

Click on this link, scroll down to the video, be patient during a mere 15 seconds of talking, and listen to the tune. Is that it?

ashokan?


23 Jul 11 - 12:07 PM (#3193555)
Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: GUEST,Eliza

Yes! Yes! Thank you leeneia, that's the one! And thank you everyone who posted. It's awful when you can hear a tune in your head yet the name evades you. I spent most of last night trying to remember. Mudcat comes up with the goods yet again! (Now, where did I put my glasses....?)


23 Jul 11 - 12:38 PM (#3193576)
Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Jack Campin

Ashokan Farewell is not playable on the bagpipes. It has far too wide a range and that chromatic note in the B part.

For which most pipers will be eternally grateful.


23 Jul 11 - 01:08 PM (#3193599)
Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: GUEST,leeneia

I'm tickled that that was it. I wish there were a way to use a computer and find glasses, but there isn't. As a person who constantly loses and finds and re-loses three pair, I know what you mean.

I play Ashokan Farewell on my piano, which is now 105 years old. It's good for when I need something peaceful.


23 Jul 11 - 01:18 PM (#3193605)
Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Crowhugger

One of the handbell choirs I ring in plays it. When I hear it elsewhere, i.e. when I'm not busy minding my bell notes, the tune always bugs me because it's so rangy that unless it's in just the right key I can't comfortably sing along without switching back and forth between unison and octavation. A hazard of being a singer when hearing stuff written form instruments of wide range. For me A.F. is one of those tunes that requires another tune to take its place as the only way to get it out of my head.

Not being a pipe tune, (someone told me it was a fiddle tune but I don't know their source and haven't checked myself) it's no small miracle anybody guessed it; well done outta left field, Leenia.


23 Jul 11 - 01:41 PM (#3193630)
Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Leadfingers

To play Ashokan Farewell in the written key (D Major) without octave jumps requires a G whistle and playing in One Sharp .The C# becomes Cnatua in the B music ! FUN !!


23 Jul 11 - 02:00 PM (#3193653)
Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Jack Campin

It's easier on an A whistle.

Easier still to play My Cape Breton Home instead (much better tune, and if you throw it into a tune session you can sometimes derail a progression that's heading towards Ashokan Farewell).


23 Jul 11 - 02:38 PM (#3193687)
Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Leadfingers

How do you play the bottom G note on an A whistle Jack ?


23 Jul 11 - 02:44 PM (#3193697)
Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: GUEST,Eliza

I have a feeling (everyone groan!) that when I heard it, it was on a military-type CD, a brass band and there were pipes playing along in the background. It was a new CD in aid of Heroes or something. It was definitely the pipes that got my attention, as they always choke me up! (Lived in Scotland for ten years, starting with Uni at Edinburgh, so went to the Tattoo several times) Have found my glasses, but forgot to get potatoes at Tesco's so it's rice tonight! Wish I could order a new memory online!


23 Jul 11 - 03:06 PM (#3193716)
Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Howard Jones

A request for a tune where the OP has only part of the name, with the words in the wrong order and only an initial letter for one of them, described as a bagpipe tune when it isn't - and it's nailed in 5 replies!

Isn't Mudcat amazing!


23 Jul 11 - 04:07 PM (#3193768)
Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: GUEST,Eliza

OP or OAP, Howard?


23 Jul 11 - 06:04 PM (#3193835)
Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Jack Campin

How do you play the bottom G note on an A whistle Jack ?

Cheat. (I think the version played in sessions round here may be a little different from the standard one). In practice if I absolutely have to play the thing I'll do it on an alto flute or G alto recorder, which finger much like an A whistle but have a low G as well. Don't recall having to use that low G on this tune, though.


23 Jul 11 - 06:25 PM (#3193860)
Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune - Ashokan Farewell
From: GUEST,Ebor_Fiddler

I have trouble on the D/G melodeon around the bottom end of the D row, so I simply cheat by playing other notes in the chord - others I know use notes from the bass end. Jay Ungar, who wrote AF is a fiddler and I find it easiest on the fiddle too - but then I'm biased!


23 Jul 11 - 06:29 PM (#3193862)
Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Little Robyn

I can play it on my Northumbrian pipes.
Robyn


24 Jul 11 - 12:23 PM (#3194278)
Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: GUEST,loki

the tune originates from a fiddle camp at Ashokan NY and was the farewell tune Jay Ungar wrote as a final communal piece

http://www.ashokancenter.org/