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Sleep, Dearie, Sleep is a traditional Scottish lament for the bagpipes. The tune is used as a taps signal in Highland army regiments. It gained prominence when it was played during the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on 19 September 2022.
Part lullaby and part lament, "Sleep, Dearie, Sleep" has lyrics in Gaelic and Scots, although it is generally played without lyrics. [1] [2]
Soldier lie down on your wee pickle straw
It's not very broad and it's not very braw
But Soldier it's better than nothing at all
(So) Sleep, Soldier, sleep.
Dearie lie down on your wee pickle straw
It's not very broad and it's not very braw
But Dearie it's better than nothing at all
(So) Sleep, Dearie, sleep.
Sleep, Dearie, sleep.
The Gaelic title, Caidil mo Ghaoil, translates as "Sleep my love." The tune is still used as a taps signal call in Highland army regiments. [3]
"Sleep, Dearie, Sleep" was played at the end of the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey. [4] The Queen's piper, Warrant Officer Class 1 (Pipe Major) Paul Burns, whose task was playing the bagpipes outside the Queen's window each morning to wake her up, performed the traditional lament. [5] [6]
"Sleep, Dearie Sleep" is also the title of the series finale of The Crown . The episode depicts the Queen planning her own funeral and the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles. [7]
Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, Northern Africa, Western Asia, around the Persian Gulf and northern parts of South Asia.
The uilleann pipes, sometimes called Irish Bagpipes, are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Earlier known in English as "union pipes", their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms píobaí uilleann, from their method of inflation. There is no historical record of the name or use of the term uilleann pipes before the 20th century. It was an invention of Grattan Flood and the name stuck. People mistook the term 'union' to refer to the 1800 Act of Union; this is incorrect as Breandán Breathnach points out that a poem published in 1796 uses the term 'union'.
The great Highland bagpipe is a type of bagpipe native to Scotland, and the Scottish analogue to the great Irish warpipes. It has acquired widespread recognition through its usage in the British military and in pipe bands throughout the world.
A pipe band is a musical ensemble consisting of pipers and drummers. The term pipes and drums, used by military pipe bands is also common.
Flowers of the Forest, or The Fluuers o the Forest, is a Scottish folk tune and work of war poetry commemorating the defeat of the Scottish army, and the death of James IV, at the Battle of Flodden in September 1513. Although the original words are unknown, the melody was recorded c. 1615–1625 in the John Skene of Halyards Manuscript as "Flowres of the Forrest", although it might have been composed earlier.
"The Skye Boat Song" is a late 19th-century Scottish song adaptation of a Gaelic song composed c.1782 by William Ross, entitled Cuachag nan Craobh. In the original song, the composer laments to a cuckoo that his unrequited love, Lady Marion Ross, is rejecting him. The 19th century English lyrics instead evoked the journey of Prince Charles Edward Stuart from Benbecula to the Isle of Skye as he evaded capture by government soldiers after his defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
Pibroch, piobaireachd or ceòl mòr is an art music genre associated primarily with the Scottish Highlands that is characterised by extended compositions with a melodic theme and elaborate formal variations. Strictly meaning 'piping' in Scottish Gaelic, piobaireachd has for some four centuries been music of the great Highland bagpipe.
Puirt à beul is a traditional form of song native to Scotland that sets Gaelic lyrics to instrumental tune melodies. Historically, they were used to accompany dancing in the absence of instruments and to transmit instrumental tunes orally.
Gordon Duncan was a Scottish bagpiper, low whistle player and composer, born in Turriff, Aberdeenshire.
Chì mi na mòrbheanna is a Scottish Gaelic song that was written in 1856 by Highlander John Cameron. The song's tune was performed on the bagpipes during the state funerals of John F. Kennedy in 1963, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 2002, Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, Former Ontario Lieutenant Governor David Onley in 2023 and Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 2024.
This article defines a number of terms that are exclusive, or whose meaning is exclusive, to piping and pipers.
William Millin, commonly known as Piper Bill, was a Canadian musician who played bagpipes, and was personal piper to Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat, commander of the British 1 Special Service Brigade at D-Day.
Martial music or military music is a specific genre of music intended for use in military settings performed by professional soldiers called field musicians. Much of the military music has been composed to announce military events as with bugle calls and fanfares, or accompany marching formations with drum cadences, or mark special occasions as by military bands. However, music has been employed in battle for centuries, sometimes to intimidate the enemy and other times to encourage combatants, or to assist in organization and timing of actions in warfare. Depending on the culture, a variety of percussion and musical instruments have been used, such as drums, fifes, bugles, trumpets or other horns, bagpipes, triangles, cymbals, as well as larger military bands or full orchestras. Although some martial music has been composed in written form, other music has been developed or taught by ear, such as bugle calls or drum cadences, relying on group memory to coordinate the sounds.
Roderick 'Roddy' (R.S.) MacDonald is a pipe major, living in Brisbane, Australia, and a composer of tunes for the bagpipes.
The MacCrimmons is a Scottish family that served as pipers to the chiefs of Clan MacLeod for several generations. The MacCrimmon kindred was centred at Borreraig near the Clan MacLeod seat at Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye. At Borreraig the MacCrimmons conducted one of the best known "piping colleges" in the Highlands of Scotland.
Irish warpipes are an Irish analogue of the Scottish great Highland bagpipe. "Warpipes" is originally an English term. The first use of the Gaelic term in Ireland was recorded in a poem by Seán Ó Neachtain, in which the bagpipes are referred to as píb mhór.
Gordon Walker is a Scottish bagpiper.
Megan Beveridge (born 1994 or 1995 is a Scottish soldier who became the first regular army, female "lone piper" at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. The Lance Bombardier from Burntisland, in Fife was also the first female to pass the army's pipe major course. Aged 21, she is also the youngest person to date to have passed.
The Siol Murdoch were an ancient Scottish family and a sept of the Clan Donald or MacDonald, a Scottish clan of the Scottish Highlands. Siol Murdoch in Scottish Gaelic means seed of Murdoch with the full Gaelic being Siol Mhurchaidh and may also be known by the Anglicised Gaelic surname of MacMurchie. They inhabited North Uist.
"Sleep, Dearie Sleep" is the series finale of the Netflix historical drama series The Crown. The tenth episode of the sixth season and the 60th overall, it was released on 14 December 2023.