Comments on Piobaireachd/ ピーブロック名言集

Some valuable comments on Piobaireachd／ピーブロック名言集

Great music seems tinted with the glint of evening sun:
First clear, then faintly, changing with the nimble beams,
Then stays for a moment, like one solitary wisp of cloud,
And fades, as fades the morning mist.
MacCrimmon - sending forth his very soul -
Indiscriminately flung as it were
With beauty in its every sparkling note;
To melt - to clash - with nightfall’s shadowy hand.
Then comes the moon with its vasty space of light,
Blanketing with silver that same enchanting sound,
And fixed so, warbling every note
("Twilight Piobaireach" by MacDonald Telfer from "Piping Times" Vol.1/No.1/October1948)

Piobaireachd is the ultimate challenge;
it challenges one's technique to the ultimate.
It challenges one's sense of musical perception to the ultimate and
it challenges the instrument to the ultimate.
(from "The Concise History of the Bagpipe | Piobaireachd" by Frank J. Timoney)

This is the tune of the Pipes. This is what the instrument was made for.
(from "Tutor for Piobaireach" by Seumas MacNeill)

It actually takes this music to bring out the harmonics and tone of the bagpipe.
(from "The Concise History of the Bagpipe | Piobaireachd" by Frank J. Timoney)

The great Highland pipe comes fully into its own only when playing the music. The same in reverse - the music needs the pipe.
(from "General Principles of Piobaireachd" by Andrew Wright)

Piobaireachd is the term applied to a species of music composed solely for and played solely on the Highland pipe. It cannot be satisfactorily reproduced on any other instrument.
(from liner notes of "Piobaireachd -The Classical Music of the Great Highland Bagpipe" Lismor Recordings)

The great Highland bagpipe and piobaireachd are almost inseparable. The instrument was developed to its present form for the sole purpose of playing this music; and ceol mor was invented for the Highland bagpipe, and cannot be adequately performed on any other instrument, or group of instruments.
(from "Tutor for Piobaireach" by Seumas MacNeill)

"Piobaireachd" simply translating as "piping". The word "piobaireachd" indicated that the instrument was inextricably bound up with the music itself. There's was a symbiotic relationship, the one could not exist without the other.
(word by Robert Wallace from "Piping Press Blog" June 28, 2017 "Piobaireachd can touch the heart of every piper")

Piobaireachd is an art which stands in a very high postition. It influences the thoughts, and has a power over the emotions of the Highland heart that no other type of music can equal.
(from "Piobaireachd Its Origin and Construction" by John Grant/1915)

It is a melodic art, which is unmeasured and innovative.
(from "The Concise History of the Bagpipe | Piobaireachd" by Frank J. Timoney)

The first piobaireachd I heard made me feel weitghtless, so utterly beautiful and fascinating it was. I knew it was the only pipe music I wanted to play. I find piobaireachd to be of great depth and beauty; I love every note and every second of it; only in piobaireachd do the very notes sing.
(a young American's words from "Tutor for Piobaireachd" by Seumas MacNeilll)

I was electrified. I had never heard music like this before. It obeyed its own rules in timing, composition and performance. It had the power of one of Beethoven's symphonies, yet was performed on a solo instrument. My idea of music that was inherently Scottish, never mind bagpipe music was changed forever.
（from "Piping Times" Vol.49/03/December1996 | Evening Mail - P53 by Adam Sanderson ）⇒ 　"Piping Times" in retrospect

I loved Piobaireachd the very moment I heard it, and personally found it to be the most captivating and beautiful of pipe music for which the pipes were made !
(words by Earl from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

Up until a hundred and fifty years ago, almost all bagpipe music was ceol mor (piobaireachd), and so the two terms meant the same thing. Piobairaechd is music which has been composed deliberately and solely for the Highlnad Bagpipe.
(from "Piobaireachd - Classical Music of the Highland Bagpipe" by Seumas MacNeilll)

The word "piobaireachd" means, quite literally, pipe music, or to play the bagpipe. For the last 150 or so years, it has been a word that designates a particular - rather peculiar and exceptionally unique - form of music that has developed only in the Scottish Highlands. It does not appear on any other instrument in any other country.
(words by Chairman Mao from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

The great pipers of old considered the ceol mor to be the only music worthy of their attention.
(words by A.L.Lloyd from liner notes of John Burgess "King of Highland Pipers" / Topic Records 1969)

I have never seen, heard of, or read of a piper at the top of the tree of his profession who has not treated Ceol Mor ( piobaireachd ) as the highest expression of Highland bagpipe music.
(from "The Kilberry Book of Ceol Mor" by Archibald Campbell)

Piobaireachd is distinguished from the March, Strathspey, and Reel by being termed the "Great Music". The MacCrimmons would never permit their pupils to play such primitive music as "Ceol Antrom" within their hearing.
(from "Piobaireachd Its Origin and Construction" by John Grant/1915)

While I enjoy marches, airs, strathspeys, etc. in small doses, quite frankly most sound odd to me when played on the pipes. Sounds like they just don't belong on pipes, fiddle yes. Piobaireachd on the other hand, is the essential pipe music to/for me. In short, it just sounds right on the pipes.
(words by Aon Piobaire from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

When you consider the actual instrument, the interplay of drones with a lot of sustained notes, it is not hard to see how a jigs and hornpipes CANNOT take full advantage of the pipes.
(words by David from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

When I first learned to play pipes there was a clear line between those of us who were "just Pipers" and those who were the "Piobaireachd Players".
(from "How to Piobaireahd Manual and CD" by Archie Cairns )

The piobaireachd is the big music of the pipes that most solo pipers will aspire too.
The people that don't play piobaireachd tend to not like piobaireachd, because they don't understand it. I think you have got to play it to understand it.
It is the classical music of the pipes that was the original music of the pipes.
(words by Ann Spalding in "Noting the Tradition" project interview at Piobaireachd Society Conference 2014)

Without piobaireachd, there's NO way a piper can possibly understand the music of the Gael.
(words by Iain Sherwood from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

It may be the only survivor of the musical culture of the Gael as it was in its prime.
(from "The Concise History of the Bagpipe | Piobaireachd" by Frank J. Timoney)

This structure is amazingly akin to Celtic artwork, a simple framework filled with the most complex and minute detail.
(from "The Concise History of the Bagpipe | Piobaireachd" by Frank J. Timoney) ⇒ Reference articles

Piobaireachd is indigenous to the Highlands and Gaelic culture. It is one of the few remaining folk music forms that has never been 'popularised' by contemporary musicians. It will take someone of no small musical talent to adapt centuries-old melody lines to modern modes.
(words by Iain Sherwood from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

Playing a piobaireachd can be likened to a journey.
(from "General Principles of Piobaireachd" by Andrew Wright)

This is our "soul music".
(from "How to Piobaireahd Manual and CD" by Archie Cairns )

The light music is fun, but piobaireachd really speaks volumes to my soul.
(words by Bob Budesa from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

In the vernacular, piobaireachd is Highland 'Soul Music,' as it truly expresses the heart of the Gael of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.
(words by Iain Sherwood from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

I've discovered that the many of those who meditate, Buddhists, and other contemplative types really like it. Piobaireachd is very Zen...and Taoist
(words by Iain Sherwood from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

Perhaps there is a zen in the soul of piobaireachd. Everytime I play it I seem to find a sense of calm or being grounded in the moment.
(words by Gr8_Piper from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

I'm pretty new to this whole world of piping, but I've liked piobaireachd from the start. I find it kind of hypnotic and soothing. It's great yoga music.
(words by Moon Mouse from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

I wonder whether one's mind, when playing a piobaireachd, is rather near a yogi's mind, for when one has got a sufficient ease and when one plays quietly without any spirit of competition one enters a different world of music.　
(words by Jean Marie Ponsoda from "Piping Times" Vol.47/No.11/August1995) 　⇒　"Piping Times" in retrospect

This music, and I suspect all great 'classical' music, from western symphonic to the music of the sarod or the music of the Noh Drama express these deep emotional states.
(words by Ron Teague from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

I like the slightly hypnotic aspect of the music, it almost forces one to turn inward, to think and feel a bit more deeply about ones situation.
(words by Ron Teague from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

Pibroch is classical music rather than folk music, but it belongs to a current quite separate from the mainstream of European fine art music. In many respects it rather resembles the raga and magam compositions of the Indian and Arabic world - not that there's any direct connection.
(words by A.L.Lloyd from liner notes of John Burgess "King of Highland Pipers" / Topic Records 1969)

I think it is reasonable to regard piobaireachd as classical music in the same way that Indian ragas are regarded as classical music.
(words by Ian Robertson from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

One of my British friends and tutor, a top player himself, established a relationship and comparison between Ceol Mor and the traditional Indian music, named Ragas. In the Indian Sanskrit language the breath is named "Prana" and among people who act yoga Prana is the most important way to bring energy and spirit into the body. So we can say that we put life and sprit into an instrument first by the breath until it takes beautiful forms through the fingers.
(words by Jean Marie Ponsoda from "Piping Times" Vol.47/No.11/August1995)　⇒　"Piping Times" in retrospect

Piobaireachd is a completely original form, unique to the pipe, which is a single-line instrument; yet, the ear can rcoginaize as much subtlety and variation as in contained in a fugue of J.S. Bach.
(words by Dr Edward Reardon form "Piping Time" Vol.41/No.12/September 1989/P28）　⇒　"Piping Times" in retrospect

It's the connection with the days of yore. Ceol Mor was written to commemorate battles lost and won. Great losses of love and life and many other events that shaped our homeland. It always makes me feel at home wherever I am.
(words by Ross McMahon from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

It was supposed to be a musical poem telling of the beauty of hill and dale, of gentle love, joys, wars, of battles, victory, defeat, and sorrow. The Highlander to whom the airs are familiar is naturally stirred by the music of the pibroch.
(from "A School in South Uist" by Frederick Rea）

A symphonic poem, the music is actually constructed as prose and is the telling of a story by phrases.
(from "The Concise History of the Bagpipe | Piobaireachd" by Frank J. Timoney)

The music plays off the sound of the instrument, the blend between chanter and drones. Call it a 'tone poem.' If the sound isn't good, the music doesn't work. If the music isn't good, the sound loses its magic. When it works, it's hypnotic.
(words by Jim McGillivray from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

This music is about the player telling a story. I think one must be a player to understand the story being told. It’s always better to play than it is to listen. To analyze the music by hearing, is to have a bad vantage point. It can only be really understood by playing it yourself. The voice can only really be heard by having the drones humming on your shoulder and the chanter alive in your hands. The player is the one who understands the story being told.
(words by David Gallagher from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

It is one of the most elaborately artificial forms of music known to the modern world.
(from "The Concise History of the Bagpipe | Piobaireachd" by Frank J. Timoney)

The authentic voice of the carrying ceol mor stream – music handed down over the generations and available now to calm us all in this mad, frantic, cyberstruck world.
(word by Robert Wallace from "Piping Press Blog" June 28, 2017 "Piobaireachd can touch the heart of every piper")

I think the deepness of meaning and culture are a huge part of Piobaireachd. Some people only examine things technically and lots of people don't like anything without a beat. But "if you feel it, you know it"..as Rita Marley sang..and Piobaireachd can make you feel it.
(words by Kitfox from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

I find it more musically challenging to play than anything else and certainly a challenge to set an instrument up to hold well for the duration. I find the concentration and control empowering, but as a listener I am only impressed when I hear good harmonics and expression. To me it is the ultimate expression of what our instrument and we as performers are capable of.
(words by PMT from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

Sometimes a slowness of finger could actually assist the delivery of pleasing ceol mor.
Rather than being clipped to extinction, with slower, softer hands movements were allowed to breathe and their true embellishing beauty thus came forth. So here was encouragement for all the adult learners on the course.
(word by Robert Wallace from "Piping Press Blog" June 28, 2017 "Piobaireachd can touch the heart of every piper")

Singing music, as a standard practice routine, makes the music your own. Thus, the music is in you and a part of you, just as emotions or any other mental process. Therefore, since the song is part of you, rather than a part from you, the relationship of player and instrument can have an added dimension. The instrument need no longer be a prosthesis, but rather, an extension of the player. There are no clandestine secrets to the enjoyment of fine music. It is up to us, as musicians, to render our art in as complete a manner as possible. Great composers have passed on into history, but have left us an amazing legacy. As with all fine music, it has always been true, and always will be true, that the musicality of piobaireachd will live on for as long as there are young hearts to echoe the heritage, and fine musicians to sing it and do pass it on.
(words by Dr Edward Reardon form "Piping Time" Vol.41/No.12/September 1989/P28）　⇒　"Piping Times" in retrospect

When I play piobaireachd, I imagine I am not here... I need to have a very large and nice view to make me feel like I am in a dream. And my fingers can fly over my chanter... it is heaven on earth. It is like being bewitched. Now, I think, I am dependent on piobaireachd.
(words by Anne Lore from an article on the "PIPING TODAY" No.20 2006) ⇒ Music In My Life

It is interesting because piobaireachd expresses something of the life of the people in earlier times in Scotland ; the strong Scottish temper, and the history of Scotland through the laments, salutes and gatherings and the stories that accompany them. People can learn a lot about early Scottish life through this expressive music.
(words by Anne Lore from an article on the "PIPING TODAY" No.20 2006) ⇒ Music In My Life

It is the oldest form of pipe music still extant and requires a lifetime dedication demanding analysis and deep study. One can study a Piobaireachd for a lifetime and yet find new depth in it.
(from "The Concise History of the Bagpipe | Piobaireachd" by Frank J. Timoney)

It is music of great depth, and one can study or ponder over a piobaireachd for a lifetime, and still progress in one's understanding of the music and find new depths in it.
(from "The Art of PIOBAIREACH" by Ian L McKay)

It has been described as Scotlnad's major contribution to world culture, and one piece, "Lament for the Children", has been hailed as the finest single-line melody in Europian music.
(from "Piobaireachd - Classical Music of the Highland Bagpipe" by Seumas MacNeilll)

I rejected a career as an orchestral flute player because the pibroch repertoire is musically richer than that for flute, and the prospects for improvisation and new music just as exciting.
(words by Barnaby Brown from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

I have loved pipes since I was a little girl. The violin was my first true love. And still is. At the same time, there is nothing quite as amazing as hearing pipes that sing to the skies, bouncing off rocks, buildings and the odd stand of trees. There is that magic. Wizardry perhaps. And that is the gift of pipes and, in fact, all music. It doesn't matter a bit what the style of playing is, the type of music or the audience. When musicians sing from their hearts to those listening, I believe they sing, as Bach might have said, with the very voice of God.
(words by FiddlingLizzie from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

One final thing: for me it's piobaireachd which "makes" the pipes. I have been listening to piobaireachd for years, but only learning to play it recently. For me, if piobaireachd did not exist, the GHB would not be an instrument worthy of intense study, and I would remain a classical musician.
(words by Alasdair MacAndrew from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

I am a classically-trained musician, who has taken up the pipes in my mid-30's. The first time I heard piobaireachd being played was a recording of P/M John MacLellan, MBE, playing The Lament for Colin Roy MacKenzie. It immediately brought to mind the minimalist music of the mid 60's (Steve Reich, Terry Riley, etc.) and I was also reminded of that very famous orchestral piece, Ravel's Bolero. These are tunes with a very long arc, musically speaking, and don't really compare to the music of, say, Mozart. I love the feeling of being enveloped in the music that Piobaireachd creates, and it's the same feeling I used to get when listening to Bolero. I guess it's a kind of trance music.
(words by drivebypiper from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

Trance music covers a big range of styles, but what connects them all is usually a repetitive, almost minimalist, tune with gradual changes or embellishments to the original tune. This kind of music can be found all over the world from the Indian Ragas (hope I've spelled that right!) to Navajo peyote songs to Tuvan throat singing and modern electronic music, like ambient house. In that sense piobaireachd is more like those kind of musics than western classical music like Mozart.
(words by drivebypiper from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

A piper from Stornoway advised me not to listen intently to the music, but to let it just wash over me. That is how one gets into the trance-like state that Jim McG spoke of, and how the beauty of the music gets into you.
(words by Prompey Piper from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

I played The Big Spree for a big festival of poetry and music here. It was very well received; and afterwards a poet from Québec rushed up to me exclaiming "Man! That cosmic music!" (This was in the early 70s.) I regard that as one of the nicest compliments I have ever received.
(words by David Waterhouse from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

It has greater freedom than the requirements of modern instrumental music.
(from "The Concise History of the Bagpipe | Piobaireachd" by Frank J. Timoney)

The principal difference between ceol mor and other types of classical music is that it is purely melodic and has great freedom in time and pitch.
(from "The Concise History of the Bagpipe | Piobaireachd" by Frank J. Timoney)

Most conventional Western music is calculable in terms of traditional staff notation. However, piobaireachd contains rhythmic nuances which are found only in specific vocal idioms, such as the nuances found in the free speech rhythm of Gregorian Chant, or in the shading found in operatic recitative.
(words by Dr Edward Reardon form "Piping Time" Vol.41/No.12/September 1989/P28）　⇒　"Piping Times" in retrospect

The only things needed to convey these subtleties are a capable transmitter and a ready receptor. This is also the only means to best understand the proper portrayal of any tune, since conventional staff notation cannot accommodate such aspects of piobaireachd as accurate rhythm, and light and dark shading.
(words by Dr Edward Reardon form "Piping Time" Vol.41/No.12/September 1989/P28）　⇒　"Piping Times" in retrospect

However, in print music, this system might prove useful if it were complemented with an approximation of the note values, and with the bar lines deleted. Rather, each phrase can be written as a musical sentence, thus freeing the reader from the bondage of bar lines and necessitating thinking in phrases.
(words by Dr Edward Reardon form "Piping Time" Vol.41/No.12/September 1989/P28）　⇒　"Piping Times" in retrospect

Once piobaireachd got imprisoned in bars that it lost its soul.
(words by Angus MacPherson　in Binneas is Boreraig）

I love pibroch because there's more responsibility on the performer interpreting the score and it's the distilled genius of the Highlands' greatest musicians over 200 years, packed with moments as profoundly moving as anything in the transnational traditions for choir, symphony orchestra or keyboard.
(words by Barnaby Brown from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

Piobaireachd sings to me somehow. It's the primary reason I wanted to play the instrument. The more I learn of it, the more I hear it, the more I love it.
(words by Ayrhead from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

Its interpretation depends on one's mood or even age, a sophisticated contrived mosaic, with a very personal story.
(from "The Concise History of the Bagpipe | Piobaireachd" by Frank J. Timoney)

Playing good light music is the art of making the chanter sing.
Playing good piobaireachd is the art of making the chanter talk.
(words by Chris Eyre from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

He/she had to play (ceol mor) from head to heart to fingers NOT head to feet to fingers as the ceol beag player was bound to do.
(word by Robert Wallace from "Piping Press Blog" June 28, 2017 "Piobaireachd can touch the heart of every piper")

All I can say is it is terribly hard to explain to the public and other pipers that Piobaireachd isn't music. Piobaireachd is more like a conversation than music. That's how I see it. You are storytelling, you are relating something to the audience that is deeper than sound. Each variation is like a wave washing over the listener. So in something like Mary McLeod you hear love, respect and longing. You hear the sad undertones and the overtures of friendship.
(words by Desert Piper from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

One aspect of the piobaireachd that appeals to me is the way it allows you to REALLY hear the tuning of the pipe, what's going on with the harmonics between the drones and chanter, etc. You can hear the subtleties of the individual notes against the drones in a way that is hard to appreciate in the light music.
I think you need to study piob a bit before you can begin to really appreciate it; the way the tunes are structured, what's going on with the pulsing/phrasing, how the shades of light and dark are achieved in the music. It's that understanding of how all these elements are put together that enables the accomplished piob player to bring the tune to life rather than have it sound as just some kind of tuning exercise.
(words by Ed Via from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

All persons most eminent in the profession of piping esteem piobaireachd far above any other class of pipe music. It is certainly difficult music to understand but in a well played piobaireachd on a well tuned pipe, sounds can be produced which are never heard in marches, strathspeys or reels and which satisfy the ear of a skilled piping musician in a way that no other sounds can do.
(Words by Archibald Campbell, Kilberry from "Piping Times" Vol.5/No.6/March 1953 ＆ Vol.47/No.6/March1995）

For me it ain't about the audience or about the judges, I rarely play for others and never compete, it is always about that place in the human soul where the composers of this music discovered this great music.
(words by Ron Teague from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum) ⇒ MacCrimmori's reply

I've always thought music was an art and not a sports, so I have never involved myself in competition and hard training. More important for me is the time spent in thinking, singing, wondering... to know and reach the deep heart of piobaireachd.
(words by Eric Freyssinet from an article on the "PIPING TODAY" No.29 2007)

I read or heard a report given by a World Champion Pipe Major that he felt Piobaireachd was a 'selfish' form of music, in that only the player is actually enjoying the tune.
(words by Roger Huth from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

I was watching a documentary on the pipes yesterday. The piper, while being interviewed, noted that when playing piobaireachd, he can become so involved with the joy of playing that he forgets where he is. In a way piobaireachd is about the self as the sublime benefits are for the piper to experience. For me piobaireachd is about selflessness.
(words by Earl from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

Piobaireachd is one of those forms which is more often appreciated by the performer (or other players) than by the casual listener, although people who are into meditation and/or Eastern philosophy find it interesting.
(words by Iain Sherwood from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

Piobaireachd needs an ability to fly off the earth - spirituality and depth - and if you cannot set aside other things, like busy lives and work, you cannot withdraw into your mind and think only and wholly of your music. But some people can do that.
(words by Anne Lore from an article on the "PIPING TODAY" No.20 2006)

For years I considered the piobaireachd as being much too complicated and something of a mystery. But I knew that it was the true music of the pipes. It touched something in me. Sometimes it would make me weep. Not in sadness, but in awe. I felt as if I was listening to God's music, perhaps the sound of history itself.
(words by Gr8_Piper from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum）　⇒　 MacCrimmori's reply

PIobaireachd is easier to play than marches, strathspeys and reels.
(from "Tutor for Piobaireach" by Seumas MacNeill)

Re: Why Piobaireachd ???
Because it's easy, and I have no sense of rhythm.
(words by CM from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

The finger dexterity required for one(=piobaireachd) was half that for the other(=MSR).
Learn a crunluath and the top hand movements well and you were ready to go at least in the fingerwork department.
(word by Robert Wallace from "Piping Press Blog" June 28, 2017 "Piobaireachd can touch the heart of every piper")

Piobaireachd technique is much easier than M/S/Rs, though that is not to say it's easy. However, the music of piobaireachd is very, very difficult. That is to say, it's a lot easier to maintain the listener's interest with light music than with piobaireachd.
(words by Jim McGillivray from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

This was simple music which only required an understanding of the medium on which it was performed, its tonal shifts, its rhythms and its structure, to be appreciated.
(word by Robert Wallace from "Piping Press Blog" June 28, 2017 "Piobaireachd can touch the heart of every piper")

My extremely simplified layman's view of piobaireachd is that it's an elaborately developed excuse to play sustained notes on the most beautiful sounding instrument. Sustained notes on the pipes have a lovely churning or shifting harmonic layer that is not apparent in light music. Like moths to a flame, we just want to get closer to The Big Drone. If you love the sound the instrument makes then you have enough to be able to listen to piobaireachd.
(words by Doug Campbell from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

I would say that when the MacCrimmons added the third drone, it was to enhance the sound for their piobaireachd compositions. Therefore the bagpipes we play today were indeed made for piob, and not vice versa.
(words by Roger Huth from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

The master pipers of the old days used to have a boy attendant or gillie whose duty it was to carry the pipes for him. When the player came to the end of a piobaireachd, he used to throw the pieps disdainfully away from him - generally over his sholder - as showing that the music lay in the soul and fingers of the piper rather than in the instrument. It was the boy's duty to catch the pipes and to lay them by with more care than his master showed, at least in public !
(from "The Bagpipe Fiddle and Harp" by Francis Collinson)

Ceol mor has as much artistry as any classical art form. Artistry breathes life into this lovely ancient art form. More than any other music for the piob mor, artistry is key for the performance of ceol mor. It is called ceol mor because it is indeed the BIG MUSIC for the pipe.
(words by Ron Teague from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

A piobaireachd may require you to have a perfect bagpipe for twenty minutes or so, so instrument maintenance and control are for more exacting.
(words by John Bottomley from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

Learning ceol mor takes a lot of time to get the basic flavor of the music. Once the basic idiom is mastered, more or less, then artistic expression takes over and one is playing music not just tunes. It is sort of like method acting where ones past emotional experiences are brought to the performance to give it authenticity. the more serious emotional experiences the piper has the better his music will be.
(words by Ron Teague from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

It took years of study and application – and an ability to wind, control and set the bagpipe – before it could be delivered satisfactorily to the tutored ear.
(word by Robert Wallace from "Piping Press Blog" June 28, 2017 "Piobaireachd can touch the heart of every piper")

It has been said that piobaireachd is learned as a youth to be mastered in ones age.
(words by Ron Teague from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

Pibroch is foreign to most pipers and, like a language, I believe should be being taught early, not late. The grammar of pibroch timing can be understood by an adult learner, but an innate, native feeling for this music comes more effortlessly if we hear good models at an early age.
(words by Barnaby Brown from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

My four-year old grandson will sit and listen to a six hour videotape of a piobaireachd competition. I noticed that during one tune he was fooling around more with a toy car than paying attention, so I asked him if he was finished watching the video. He told me no, he just didn't like this tune as much as some of the others.
(words by Lyle Walker from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

I was listening to a CD (Andrew Wright) a few days ago on my headset, and my 8 year old daughter listened to three tunes before I finally asked for the headset back.
(words by Edward Smith from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

I am excited by the thought of really high-level, well-informed, performers of piobaireachd (like (Barnaby) Brown and (Allan) MacDonald) experimenting with new ideas--and maybe trying to resurrect old styles of performance that were lost and/or suppressed by the PS.
(words by Ian Robertson from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

Barnaby Brown’s （Nameless）Chehotrao hodro is one of my favorite pibrochs. It’s short and sweet but has the dynamic structure at a faster pace like soma you guys were talking about earlier. I don’t like every pibroch I’ve heard but when I hear something good be it an ancient caruso record or my favorite rock band blasting on a crusty boom box I get a chill down my spine...and I get that feeling sometimes when I hear a good pibroch.（fixed some spellings）
(words by ghettopipes from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

My first tune was "The Desperate Battle of the Birds". I did not at all understood what was behind the kind of music, with no real beat and such. But I could not stop to listen to it. A few weeks later someone gave me a CD "A Concert of Piobaireachd - Ceol Na Pioba - Piob Mhor" Fingerlock then took me into another world. It seemed to me that I was able to hear two tunes in one. From that point I knew I wanted to be able to play such music. After Mr. Barnaby Brown’s - Hihorodo Hiharara I was looking for a bagpipe teacher.（fixed some spellings）
(words by koxe from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

There is interest in piping in many parts of Japan, and piobaireachd seems to apeal to the Japanese mind. One day at the Games in Dornoch, a Japanese lady paused to listen at the piobaireachd platform, never having encountered the music before. She was held by it, and seventeen piobaireachd performances later was begging to be told where she could hear more. Many Japanese people have an instinct for patterns, and this lady was able to discern those of the structure in each tune, on first hearing.
(from "Piping Traditions of the Outer Isles" by Bridget MacKenzie）

Perhaps if light music pipers would ease up on trashing piobaireachd, it would reach a wider audience. This isn't to say that all light music pipers trash it, but there are LOTS out there who do.
(words by phxy from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

It is saddest of all that fellow pipers can be the most vocal critics of their own musical lineage.
(words by Desert piper from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

I've discovered, relatively late on, that playing piobaireachd in public can be a much greater success than you might imagine it to be. Even to us, piobaireachd is a slightly esoteric art, which you learn to appreciate, but if it is delivered smoothly and well in tune people may not know what is coming next but will often sense what is going on there is not quite the normal thing.
(words by Roderick Cannon at Piobaireachd Society Conference 2014）

Handled properly, piobaireachd has the potential to appeal to a wide audience, including classical, folk, world music, the North American "Celtic" market, and even the alternative crowd. I have converted a couple of goths who now not only listen to piob, but one of them has taken up the instrument with the hope of learning the big music.
(words by Adam Sanderson from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

Whether it be at mess dinners, highland games, practising in my back yard, playing for friends or the occasional recital/bagpiping 'PR' gig often the greatest response I get is after I play some of the big music. Being a musician 'outside' of piping my professors and fellow uni students are also very intrigued by the form and style of the music as well as varing styles of interpretation. I've also had people who are not pipers, have no musical training etc. who will say that the piobaireachd is their favourite piece of what I may have played.
(words by SACSung from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

Once I was busking and I noticed contributions to my case very really slowing down. Soooo, this plus the fact that I was getting tired of playing Scotland the Brave and Amazing Grace, I thought what the heck, I'll just play Lament for Donald of Laggan before I pack up and go home. I was part way through the ground when I noticed someone standing there listening, not just rushing by. I played all the way through and when I finished, he came over and put $20.00US in my case and said he had never heard anything so beautiful！　This was a good lesson for me. Do not assume the preference for your audience. Play what you like and if you play with feeling and musicality, that will come through and people listening will like it.
(words by piob player from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum)

Above comments are quoted from books and tutors etc.…, and many from Bob Dunsire's Piobaireachd forum with late Bob's permission. Every quotation from the forum have link to the specific thread.

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