The Bagpipe Society

A Northern Catch

I was idly leafing through an old book of rounds, catches and the like, when I came across this interesting tune. A catch for three voices, it has two nice bagpipe references, and links them to the north country. It references both ‘Piper’ and ‘Drone’ leaving no ambiguity that this describes a bagpiper.

‘Strike it up Piper, let’s have a spring good’, and ‘Hark how the Drone, below a tone, doth hum’. So, he falls for a rich girl, they dance, enjoy the ‘Juice of Barley’ and ‘Sport all night’! Where did I go wrong!

It is interesting that this catch seems to have a section that goes into the bass register. I have transcribed the tune, including raising the bass parts an octave, and found that the tune works well and is within the range of Jon Swayne’s and Grand Cornemuse type bagpipes, though you need to be comfortable with the upper octave, and most accidentals. Should you like to attempt this, but are unsure of how it works, the second player comes in when the first reaches the indicted mark. Then the third player comes in when the second reaches that mark. I would suggest that the first plays it four times for full effect, and the others will know where to stop!