Cumha Chlàibhears
Thàinig Goiridh
Primary Sources
J Lament for the Viscount of Dundee (1st Quarter of Urlar and 1st Eighth of cycles 3, 5 and 7) J:21r
C2 Thanig Gorrie C2.30: 74
KB Cumha Chlabhers / The Viscount of Dundee’s Lament KB.30: 74
Notes on Gaelic Titles
Cumha Chlàibhears Cumha Chlabhers / The Viscount of Dundee’s Lament KB. Lament for [Graham of] Claverhouse.
Thàinig Goiridh Thanig Gorrie C2. Godfrey’s come!. A war-slogan analogous to Thàin’ a’ Ghriogarach – see Fàilte nan Griogarach (PS 202).
Archive Recordings
1959 Calum MacPherson
1961 Pipe Major John D Burgess MBE
1961 Calum Johnston, Robin Lorimer (canntaireachd)
Thank you, Ronald. We now have Joseph MacDonald’s treatise on the site with links to and from this page. Joseph writes: “There is no Style more Martial than this; and when this March is well playd it certainly is Martial. The Contrasts of G & D joind, & A & C, makes the boldness and Singularity of the Style which is very obvious to a knowing Ear.”
So to answer your question – yes, this statement should affect how we interpret the piece. What I’d like to know is, how widely was it considered to be a lament before the 1830s?
It should also be noted that Joseph MacDonald in his Treatise quoted several bars of this tune (MS p37, pp72/3 ‘Compleat Theory…The Piobaireachd Society Edition, ed. R. Cannon) and described them as ‘martial’; so two of the earliest references to it do not call it a lament. Should this affect how we interpret the piece? Doe it mean the label ‘Lament’ was arbitrarily attached to some tunes?
Also, there is, on the Isle of Man, a children’s song called ‘Thanig Gorrie Crovan’ – a different air, but a similar title, and possibly the same person, Gorrie being Godfrey Crobhan, a medieval King of Man who invaded it three times before capturing the island.
In Irish dance music, there is an unrelated tune called ‘Corney is Coming’, showing this formula to have some currency as a title.