Rummaging through my music files trying to find a piece of music, I came across several lists of tunes that I used to play a few years or perhaps a decade ago. I find lists of tunes interesting as they tell of what a musician was interested in at that time; if one compared those melodies with what one is playing today then one can see a shift in musical style, taste and interests.
I will list the tunes on the piece of paper, they are tunes for the Border Pipes; all in a 1 octave range. Some of the tunes I still played today and will be continued to be played as I love them, some date back earlier to when I first started playing Northumbrian Small Pipes in 1987. They are old friends…and still remain so.
The tunes come from various musical manuscripts/books; with a guess it is a list from about 2012. I also think the list contains melodies that I was playing with the “Half-Long” bagpipe repertoire in mind, its repertoire represented by the Cock’s Bagpipe Book, that I had bought in the 1980s.
My Border pipe has a upper sharpened 7th note making in more a Half-Long chanter than a Border chanter (which has a flattened 7th). The list was written at a time when I decided to call my Border pipe, a Half Long pipe; which is a term not often used today in piping circles.
I do not play some of these melodies today, perhaps it is a list that reflects my intentions… a “to do list”, the majority of these tunes I have memorized. I seem to remember I was rehearsing for gigs in Spain during that time; and perhaps this is why I have included Spanish tunes as well as Belgian tunes?
Perhaps I was looking for a repertoire to play at the concert on my Half-Long pipes that give a balanced repertoire from both sides of the English and Scottish Borders; as well as including a European connection, the list would suggest this.
The Half-Long Pipes List:
Peacock Manuscript (Northumbrian Small Pipe repertoire of 1800) tunes commonly played:
Bonny Pit Laddie
Millar’s Daughter
Butter’d Peas
O’er the Dyke
Highland Laddie (both versions)
Newmarket Races
Jackey Layton
Frisky
A Mile to Ride
Welcome to the Town Again
Bonny Lad
Fare Well
I’m O’er Young to Marry Yet
Sr. Charles Rant
General Toast
Oyster Wife’s Rant
Holmes Fancy
Wylam Away
Tolloch Goram
(Peacock tunes that I play occasionally, not fully memorized):
The Bonnie Mare and I
All Night I Lay with Jockey
O’er the Border
My Dear Sits O’er Late Up
I Saw My Love Come Passing by Me
Parks of Yester
Holey Ha’penny
Fenwick O’Bywell
Cock’s Half-Long Bagpipe Book (1950s)
Fair Main of Whickham
Sandhill Corner
Till the Tide Comes In
Noble Squire Dacre
Sunderland Lasses /Lads of Alnwick
Chevy Chase
Peacock’s March
Brave Willie Forster
Follow Her over the Border
Felton Lonning
Christmas Day in the Morning
The Lass and the money is All My Own
Peacock’s Tune
The Piper’s Maggot
Blackett O’Wylam
Matt Seattle’s Workshop Notation:
O’Stumpie
Sky Crofters
Highland Bagpipe Tune
The Battle’s o’er
Over the Hills and Far Away (Border Bagpipe Book Collection of Tunes)
I’ll gang nae mare tae yon toun
Galician tunes:
Muineira Des Hio
Rumba Des Cortes
4 Belgian Tunes
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