PS 235 – The Vaunting

      A’ Bhòilich

Primary Sources

D2 A Bhoalaich / An intended Lament D2.39: 223
KB A Bhoilich / The Vaunting KB.27: 66
SC Bollich SC.34
Angus MacKay, ‘Specimens of Canntareachd’ (c. 1854), no. 34

Notes on Gaelic Titles

A’ Bhòilich A Bhoalaich / An intended Lament D1; A Bhòilich / The Vaunting KB; Bollich SC. Conventionally ‘The Vaunting’, but Donald MacDonald (D2) implies a different interpretation. His story is that the tune was composed by while the subject was still alive, but ill and expecting to die, but when he heard it played he was so delighted that he recovered. When asked what he would do with the tune, the subject replied ‘We’ll make a Boalich of it’ which according to MacDonald ‘signifies Drollery’. But MacKay (KB, p.8) calls it ‘Boasting’ and Dwelly defines it as ‘idle talk, vain boasting, blustering, bombast’. In old competition records the name is also translated as ‘The Rage of Drunkenness’, according to the Piobaireachd Society editors (PS Book 7, p. 194).

Roderick Cannon (2009)

Archive Recordings

1960 Pipe Major John D Burgess: Highland bagpipe
1961 Pipe Major John D Burgess: Highland bagpipe

Other Material

2001 William Donaldson: Set Tunes Notes

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