Primary Sources
C2 Cor beg mhic Leain C2.76: 166
K3 Crosanachd an Doill / The Blind Pipers Obstinacy K3.19: 95
JK Crossanachd an Doill JK.9: 21
KS Crosanachd an Doill / The Blind Pipers Obstinacy… KS.6: 11
Notes on Gaelic Titles
Cor beag Mhic Ghill’ Eathain Cor beg mhic Leain C2. MacLean’s small … (?). The first word uninterpreted. Suggestions are (1) cor = a form of music (K. Sanger and A. Kinnaird, Tree of strings… a history of the harp in Scotland, Temple, Midlothian [1992], p. 190) and in this case cor beag a short specimen of the form; (2) perhaps less likely, cor = ‘state / condition’, hence ‘the low state of MacLean’ (R. Black, private communication) referring to the clan’s losses of territory (Dol Sìos Chloinn Ghill-Eathain, see C. Ó Baoill 1979), the source being a Campbell document. But Ó Baoill also points out (private communication) that musical meanings of cor are historically extensions of meanings such as ‘state’, ‘condition’ etc. In modern Irish cor can mean ‘a reel’.
Crosanachd an Doill Crosanachd an Doill / The Blind Pipers Obstinacy K3; Crossanachd an Doill JK; Crossanach an Doill JKA; Crosanachd an Doill / The Blind Pipers Obstinacy… KS. The Blind Piper’s Obstinacy. Attributed (K3) to Am Pìobair Dall, John MacKay, Gairloch, well known as both piper and poet. Although Dwelly defines crosanachd primarily as ‘obstinacy’ etc, he also adds the meaning ‘a certain form of versification’.
Archive Recording
1961 Pipe Major John D Burgess MBE