PIBROCH (piobaireaciul, piping), music played on the bagpipe, which has a wonder ful power in exciting the martial instincts and hilarity of the Highlanders. Its rhythm is so irregular, and its notes in the quicker parts so much jumbled together, that a stranger has difficulty in following the modulations or reconciling his ear to them. The earliest mention of the military music of the bagpipe is in 1594, at the battle of nalrinues; indeed, prior to that period, the bagpipe can hardly be looked on as a national instru ment of Scotland. There are appropriate pibrochs belonging to various clans and dis tricts, but some of these may not be older than the beginning of last century. One of the oldest known pibrochs is called the "battle of Barlaw," but it may be doubted whether it was contemporary with that event (1411). In the ballad account of that battle, there is mention of trumpets and horns, but uoue of the bagpipe; and the pibroch style of music has so obvious a relation to the bagpipe that it is difficult to suppose that it pre ceded the use of that instrument. According to sir Walter Scott, the connoisseurs iu
pipe-music affect to discover in a well-composed pibroch the imitative sounds of march, conflict, flight, pursuit, and all the current of a heady fight. 3Iany remarkable instances have been recorded of time effect of the pibroch on the Highlanders. At the battle of Quebec, in April, 1760, whilst the British troops were retreating in confusion, the pipers were ordered to strike up a favorite pibroch, and the result was that the Highlanders, who were broken, rallied the moment that they heard the music, and formed with great alacrity in the rear.