Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
TRIPLING, n. In pipe-music: a grace note, esp. in pibroch or strathspey, produced when a melody note is divided into three more or less equal parts by the interposition of two cutting grace notes of brief duration. See also Doubling.Arg. 1896 N. Munro Lost Pibroch (1935) 9:
The Lost Piobaireachd asks for skilly tripling, but Macruimen himself could not get at the core of it for all his art.Sc. 1956 R. M. Barnes Sc. Regiments 262:
As there is no pause in the steady stream of sound, all passages from note to note are achieved by numerous grace notes, ‘doublings' and ‘triplings'.