Hector the Hero, for Shug

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/ @neilclark-falkirkpiping
Trad two parted slow air, Instructional

[@pemacal57]

Thanks once more !....Hector the Hero is one of my prefered tunes, and thanks to your right version I will learn to play

[@NeilClark-FalkirkPiping]

Very welcome, thank you.

[@paulclifford6941]

If I hadn't just heard it myself, I would have never believed it could sound so wonderful on a practice chanter. Just lovely. I love your vibrato and articulations. You play it with real nuance and sensitivity! I arranged a somewhat different version in Musescore to provide a backing track for fiddlers or other treble instruments to play along with. in Muscscore you can change the key easily, so it might make a nice backing track for pipers. musescore.com/vetus-inceptus/hector-the-hero-by-james-scott-skinner-violin-piano-drumset The fiddle part is in only one audio channel, so players can quiet it to play against the backing track. For those who would like a little historical perspective: "Hector the Hero" is a popular fiddle tune by the great Scottish composer James Scott Skinner in 1903. This classic Scottish lament and funeral dirge memorializes the death by coerced suicide of General Sir Hector ("Fighting Mac") MacDonald, a popular war hero in Scotland and England, who had been the Commander-in-Chief of British forces in Ceylon. MacDonald was a brilliant military strategist, an accomplished commander, and a polymath -- he spoke Hindustani, Urdu, Pushtu, Arabic, French, and English as well as his native Gaelic. MacDonald joined the Gordan Highlanders at the age of 17. He served gallantly in Afghanistan, Egypt, the Sudan, India, South Africa, and Ceylon. At the time of his death he was the most popular and widely known war hero in Brittain, having been knighted for his service in the Second Boer War. Betrayed by the empire he so faithfully served, MacDonald committed suicide in 1903 instead of facing a court martial following accusations of homosexual activity with the local Sinhalese. The scandal reaffirmed his heroic status among his native Scots, who understood that a similar scandal involving any of the aristocratic English officers would have been hushed up. They understood too that MacDonald was facing charges not so much for his being homosexual, but because as a Scot he had always been an outsider in the British military. The charges were brought by a jealous British officer corps angered by MacDonald's real crime, that of being a low-born Scott who had risen through the ranks on merit alone, and who treated the local Sinhalese as equals, even worthy of love, rather than colonized inferiors. His funeral in Edinburgh was attended by 30,000 countrymen. Immediately after, the British government, which had been so eager to prosecute him, destroyed all records of the case against him, declared that there had been no basis for the charges, and pronounced him a glorious and unparalleled hero. This beautiful funeral march has become one of the most popular tunes in the fiddle repertoire. It can be played as a light air, or as a military march. See the Wikipedia article for a short biography of this amazing hero of Scotland.

[@pipingdogtooth]

Thanks. Very helpful!!

[@Highlander24873]

Hey Neil. Great, thanks for your help. Best regards from Germany

[@NeilClark-FalkirkPiping]

Excellent, just shout! Thanks

[@AnabarWriter]

Thanks Neil. This is great.

[@63jmjk]

A slow March like this, should be played at what bpm ?

[@windbag1980]

I am currently studying with the p/m of the local pipe band here. But he does not teach Pibroch, so hopefully I can get in touch and start up with you once I get myself up to snuff to play with the band!

[@djangxav]

FINALY!!! a correct version on youtube , tanx

[@NeilClark-FalkirkPiping]

+bedford cemetery piper Very welcome. Glad its correct, there must be a few versions, and I probably play it different every time. But this would have been from a Pupils music, so would certainly have been the correct version for him. If that makes sense!

[@paulclifford6941]

@@NeilClark-FalkirkPiping It sounds to me like you're following Skinner's written version, which is available at IMSLP, quite closely.

[@NeilClark-FalkirkPiping]

@@paulclifford6941 I might have been, this was a few years ago. I think I had a typeset copy of the original, but I do play with other instruments, so there's an influence there

[@paulclifford6941]

@@NeilClark-FalkirkPiping Here's Skinner's version (which I thought was at IMSLP, but I couldn't find it there, but here): www.abdn.ac.uk/scottskinner/display.php?ID=JSS0176 In the arrangement I did, cited below (or above?), I wrote it in 3/4 instead of 6/8, and replaced some of his 16th notes with triplets. But of course, Skinner just wrote down the outline of his playing, and I think he would have liked your ornaments.

[@NeilClark-FalkirkPiping]

You're very welcome

[@BB-hi5of]

Neil, where can i obtain the sheet music version you are playing?

[@acole2908]

Can you tell me where you found the sheet music?

[@NeilClark-FalkirkPiping]

Not sure for this one I'm afraid. Actually, theres a book of Piping Tunes by Scott Skinner, I think it MAY have came from that. Available from the College of Piping, or maybe Stirling Bagpipes.

[@NeilClark-FalkirkPiping]

Bradley, no probs at all re hearing it, thanks, and thats what its there for. You can start Piobaireachd any time u like, some actually used to play it first. Your best with a tutor for it tho, its.... different. Ever consider Skype? I teach over Skype, site can be accessed from here

[@windbag1980]

I feel a bit like a criminal getting to hear playing of this caliber for free. How long should a person be on Ceol Baeg before attempting to step up to Pibroch?

[@zander1011011]

How do you have so much vibrato?

[@NeilClark-FalkirkPiping]

Alex it's actually unintentional. I play whistle too, where I do use it, and it kind of crossed over. I do use the practice chanter in performance now and then, with other instruments, and it goes well there, but actually I'm trying to reduce it coming through on day to day stuff