Key signature: Amajor
Submitted on May 25th 2001 by Jeremy.
This tune has been added to 395 tunebooks.
Also known as Athol Highlander, Athole Highlanders, The Athole Highlanders, Atholl Highlanders, The Atholl Highlanders March, The Scottish .
Recordings of a tune by this name:
X: 1
T: Atholl Highlanders, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Amaj
|:e2e ecA|ecA Bcd|e2e ecA|Bcd cBA|
e2e ecA|ecA Bcd|eae fed|cdB A3:|
Ace Ace|Adf Adf|Ace Ace|Bcd c2B|
Ace Ace|Adf Adf|eae fed|cdB A3:|
|:a2a aec|a2a aec|a2a aec|Bcd cBA|
a2a aec|a2a aec|eae fed|cdB A3:|
c2c cBA|d2d fed|c2c cBA|=G2=G BA=G|
c2c cBA|d2d fed|eae fed|cdB A3:|
This is a classic pipe tune, presumably Scottish in origin.
The four parts are basically variations on a theme. The end of each part is always the same, so the tune isn't as hard to learn as it at first seems.
This jig has a range of just one octave all the way to the fourth part where it drops down to a G. The G is natural, although the tune is in the key of A major.
If you feel up to playing a marathon set, you can play this jig with that other four-part tune, the jig of slurs.
# Posted on June 2nd 2001 by Jeremy
March
I've played this song as a march, mainly because that's the way I learned it. It makes a great march, with the Scottish ornaments, it was orginially a bagpipe tune, I believe.
P.S. I'd heard rumors that this was played as a jig, now I know they're true.
# Posted on September 5th 2002 by fiddlergirl15
It's Scottish
It is Scottish, it's the kind of tune i think everyone knows & plays. I only play it if I'm playing for dancing.
# Posted on May 13th 2003 by eilidhthefiddler
The Atholl Highlanders
This was originally a march,written for the Duke of Atholl's regiment,which still is the only private army in Britain.The Boys Of The Lough recorded it a long time ago on their album,The Piper's Broken Finger in a set with another march,Colonel Robertson,both played at a funereal pace compared to the way you hear it in sessions nowadays.Dave Swarbrick used to play it fairly slowly too. David Meredith
# Posted on March 1st 2003 by dafydd
Atholl Highlanders
I learnt this one originally as the Atholl Gathering - I think the source was one of the Kerr's books but I can't be sure as it was a long time ago. It only included the first two parts which is how I prefer to play it. It's probably just a subjective thing but I feel that the 4 part version is two parts too far. For what it's worth, I also feel the same way about the Mason's Apron and the Ship in Full Sail ( I feel the third part doesn't add anything to this jig) just to let you know where I'm coming from!
# Posted on October 2nd 2003 by Bannerman
Atholl Highlanders
Jocklet - you think the "Boys of the Lough" and Swarbrick play it slow ? If you ever get the chance , listen to the trio "Kirkmount" on their CD "The Robin". They play it as a slow air/lament, using fiddle, clarsach and cello, and the track is 10 minutes long - it works , too. [ With apologies to Will Harmon ! ]
# Posted on October 2nd 2003 by Kenny
Atholl Highlanders (Scots Guards version)
I learned this tune way back in my early piping days from the Scots Guards setting which has SIX parts....all variations. Although I play it as a march, I find that audiences unfamiliar with celtic music quickly 'tune in' to its repetitve pattern and often dance...it's a crowd pleaser. My band is now working on it with chords etc. to see how far we can take it. (!)
# Posted on December 30th 2003 by Lewespiper
A variation
I play an interesting variation of Atholl Highlanders. After playing it through in A major, I play it in A minor (raising the seventh to G#). Then I play it in A major again with open E double stops.
I like to play this tune in the following set: Irishman's Heart to the Ladies/Atholl Highlanders (Major/Minor/Major)/Scatter the Mud. Gaelic Storm does this set on their self-titled CD (without the Minor variation of Atholl Highlanders).
# Posted on August 23rd 2004 by lynx22281
Atholl jig
This is indeed as pipish as the Pipe in Rhum. A regimental classic, too. I have played this with Irish groups, without prior rehersal, and it works well. Only the jig version is rounded (but not 100%), of course, Highland pipe marches being heavily pointed. Funny how the multi-octave fiddle and accordian players love these pipe marches so much. At a wedding ceilidh last year in Dunblane, most of the accordian/fiddle tunes played were from the pipes.--Atholl Highlanders being a most popular classic.
# Posted on June 12th 2007 by israelpiper
Scottish touches
To add to the Scottish flavor of the tune, continually bow the A and E strings, keeping the string that isn't carrying the melody open. This "works" for large stretches of the tune.
In the final two measures that do not vary between parts, try treating the initial E as a grace-note for the immediately following high A. It won't matter if everyone in the session does this or not.
Variation tunes of this kind are <i>invitations to improvise</i>. Once the harmony of the tune gets into your head, you can invent new parts easily. See if you can convince your session to go around the circle contributing improvised parts.
# Posted on December 22nd 2007 by ACW