Major General CS Thomason was one of the great figures in piping at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. His monumental 400-page work ‘Ceol Mor’ paved the way for the formation of the Piobaireachd Society and its seminal collection of Books 1-16. The Oban Times of July 10, 1909, reported on a dinner held that month in his honour in the Union Hotel, Edinburgh…..
The committee which organised the recognition of Major General Thomason’s services to pipe music have every reason to feel gratified with the splendid response…..the album containing 800 signatures of admirers amply testified to the esteem in which the recipient is held.
Captain Campbell, Kilberry presided over a company of about 50 gentlemen. The address was as follows: ‘We whose signatures are appended hereto desire to express to you our deep appreciation of the great work you have accomplished in the interests of pipers and the music of the great Highland bagpipe.
‘Not only have you rescued from oblivion much of our national music, and placed on record a vast store of historical and traditional information which was rapidly being forgotten, but your enthusiasm, zeal and example have been the means of reviving and encouraging interest in bagpipe music all over the world.
‘The extraordinary patience, time and labour you have devoted to your monumental work ‘Ceol Mor’ have placed piobaireachd music on a footing which it has never held since the days of the MacCrimmons, and we can assure you that the fruits of your labours will ever be highly prized and valued by us, and also future generations.’
The address was subscribed by pipers and others interested in piping among whom the following names were conspicuous: Macleod of MacLeod, MacKintosh of MacKintosh, MacNeil Ugadale, Shf. Grant, Rothiemurchus, Dr Charles Bannatyne, Campbell of Kilberry, Mr MacDonald of Dunach, Mr John Bartholomew, Scottish Pipers’ Society, Rev. Neil MacLeod Ross, Miss Elspeth Campbell, Archibald Campbell, Kilberry, MacLean of Pennycross, MacDougall Gillies, Roderick Campbell, John MacColl, Pipe Majors Ross, Meldrum, McLennan….
The Chairman said General Thomason was in every way worthy of receiving such an honour. He was a Highlander born and bred. [When home from India, Thomason lived in Grantown on Spey.] His father was the greatest Revenue Administrator that Northern India ever knew.
When young he took to the Army and was at the first blow struck against the rebels in the Indian Mutiny. He then fell to the duties which were the lot of the engineer officer in India. But to those who were Highlanders he had rendered other services which in their eyes seemed more important – the service to the cause of ceól mòr.
The General, as he had told them in the preface to ‘Ceol Mor’, had always been a collector of piobaireachd since his boyhood. He already had a large collection of manuscript music in his possession when the Mutiny broke out, but at the Siege of Delhi it was all destroyed.
That would have discouraged any ordinary person, but he set about the task of replacing the lost documents, and by degrees, by labour and pains, most of it was done.
He devoted the whole of his leisure hours in the accurate study, the writing down and the correction of piobaireachd. He could picture General Thomason while personally supervising the construction, sitting on the banks of a canal in the intense heat of an Indian sun, sounding his chanter and trying to record the correct notes while the perspiration fell from him….
When ‘Ceol Mor’ was published one would have thought some interest would have been raised. It was not the case. The piping world was entirely indifferent….but… a start was made and some professional masters became interested and the very slightest study convinced them that the so-called difficulties in understanding ‘Ceol Mor’ had been exaggerated.
It began to be talked about, and the neglect with which General Thomason’s book was treated when first published did not exist now. It was the most important fact in the history of Highland music since the Act abolishing the Highland dress.
General Thomason was received with cheers when he rose to reply……
- To be continued.
Easy and Intermediate Level 2/4 Marches