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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

PIBROCH, n. Also pibr(o)ugh (Abd. 1790 A. Shirrefs Poems Gl.), pibrach, peebruch, -broch. The music of the Scottish bagpipe, now limited to traditional gatherings (gaither), marches, salutes, laments etc. (in Gaelic called ceòl mor literally = great music); a piece of this, consisting of a theme (the urlar) and a series of variations. Gen.Sc. Sometimes loosely used of pipe music in gen., and erron. of the instrument itself. Also fig. Comb. ¶pibroch-reed, the reed of a bagpipe, a bagpipe. [′pibrɔx]Sc. a.1719 Ramsay Ever Green II. 256:
Quhyle, playand Pibrochs, Minstralls meit Afore him stately strade.Sc. 1757 Smollett Reprisal i. ii.:
Donald, ye may gang and entertain her with a pibroch of Macreemon's composition.Sc. 1761 Magopico 39:
He breaks your rest with a jigg, and rushes on you with all the martial strains of a peebruch.Edb. 1773 Fergusson Poems (S.T.S.) II. 38:
At glomin now the bagpipe's dumb, . . . Sae sweetly as it wont to bum, And Pibruchs skreed.Sc. 1784 P. Macdonald Highl. Airs 13:
A pibrach, or cruineachadh, still rouzes the native Highlander, in the same way that the sound of the trumpet does the war-horse.Ayr. 1787 Burns Amang the Trees i.:
'Twas Pibroch, Sang, Strathspeys and Reels.Sc. 1810 Scott Lady of Lake ii. xx.:
Proudly our pibroch has thrill'd in Glen Fruin.Edb. 1821 W. Liddle Poems 299:
I'd rather be a highland laird, To play upon a pibroch reed, Than be a prince.Sc. 1886 Stevenson Kidnapped xxv.:
Robin only held out his hand as if to ask for silence, and struck into the slow measure of a pibroch.Sc. 1901 W. L. Manson Highl. Bagpipe 79:
Pibroch . . . The word does not, properly speaking, denote any class of tune — it means pipe-playing — but it is generally applied to a class which in itself includes three classes — the cruinneachadh or gathering, the cumhadh or lament, and the failte or salute.Sc. 1935 Times (12 Sept.):
There is this in common with almost all pibroch tunes: they are very old, and the ground or theme is played slowly and deliberately.Sc. 1940 Michael Innes The Secret Vanguard (1958) 30:
He would travel with the train for a time, playing at each stop, playing now a wild and broken pibroch and now some Scotch comedian's banal tune.ne.Sc. 1952 John R. Allan North-East Lowlands of Scotland (1974) 43:
Now, whatever you may call the bagpipe, it is not modest. It is the steam organ of an earlier age, the Calliope of the human lung. I admit there is the pibroch, the fugue of the bagpipe.Sc. 1960 A. Baines Bagpipes 116:
The traditional repertoire of variations (piobaireachd, “pibroch”) and dances (reels, strathspeys) which are still the main solo items at piping competitions.Sc. 1963 Scotsman (16 Nov.) Suppl. 3:
He is an authority on piping with an extensive knowledge of pibroch.Sc. 1988 Roderick D. Cannon The Highland Bagpipe and its Music (1990) 55:
A pibroch consists of an air with variations. The air, called ùrlar in Gaelic, 'ground' in English, is always slow and is often much longer than a typical march or dance tune. Some grounds have extremely simple melodies, made up from a few short phrases repeated in certain patterns, others are free-flowing and song-like.Sc. 1991 Dirty Linen 36. (Oct.-Nov.) 41:
Pibroch (the classical music of the bagpipes) these days ... has become 'humdrum' because it is no longer handed down orally.Sc. 1994 D. B. Mack in William Klempa The Burning Bush and a Few Acres of Snow 155:
Gordon remembered, as a boy, the mournful majesty of his father pacing the manse floor in Zorra and playing a pibroch - but he himself could not play the pipes and did not understand what his father mourned.Sc. 2000 Herald (4 Mar) 16:
The excellent Tuckwell Press have once again made a valuable contribution to Scottish publishing with this large (nearly 500 pages) volume on the piob mhor, the great Highland pipe, and more particularly the rightly named ceol mor, the great music or piobaireachd, the word rather lazily anglicised as "pibroch".Sc. 2001 Herald (15 Oct) 28:
PIPING B360 Pibroch (James R. Johnston Memorial Quaich) 1 Gordon J Walker, Glasgow. 2 Donald MacPhee, Alexandria. 3 Greg Wilson, Falkirk. 4 P/Maj Brian Donaldson, Midlothian.Sc. 2002 Herald (27 Mar) 13:
The second half was much better, with the pipers performing an ensemble pibroch on pipes and vocals and solo sets ...