Saturday 28 May 2011
Tune of the Day: Lochaber No More
Traditional Scottish air
This slow air has been a favorite tune of Scottish pipers, who use it as a funeral march or lament. It was the poet Allan Ramsay who in 1724 set the words “Lochaber No More”, about an enlisted Highlander's nostalgia. As related by J. Murray Neil in The Scots Fiddle, “It is on record that, in the old days, the playing of this nostalgic Gaelic air to the Highland regiments on active service abroad had such a profound adverse effect on the morale of the men, that eventually it had to be banned.”
The tune is known in Ireland as “Limerick's Lamentation”.