A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Coronach
CORONACH (Gaelic, a funeral cry, from Co, 'together'—analogue of the Latin con—and ranach, 'a shrieking or weeping': root rān, 'a shriek or cry'). This was the dirge chanted in former times in Celtic Scotland by the Bard or Seannachie on the death of the chief or other great personage of a clan. In some degree it resembled the song of praise composed and led by special bards: the genealogy, the virtues, and the great deeds of the deceased were recounted in pathetic verse to plaintive wild music, the bard giving vent to his own grief, while the sounds of the harp and the waitings of women excited that of the hearers. However rude, it appears to have been rhythmical, and was chanted in recitative. Although the great funeral ceremonial, of which the dirge was only a part, must have been confined to persons of distinction, yet in all cases the coronach was indispensable, as without it, according to popular belief, the spirit was condemned to wander forlorn bewailing its miserable fate that this rite had been denied to it. These ceremonies had, however, no religious significance; the virtues, heroism, and achievements of the dead were alone their subject; and the rite continued thus to be observed in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland long after the conversion of the people to Christianity. Dr. Stewart of Nether Lochaber—perhaps the highest living authority on such matters—writes:—
Our oldest Gaelic Laments are to this day to be chanted rather than sung and I can recollect an old seannachie in the Braes of Lochaber, some thirty-five years ago, chanting Macintosh's Lament to me, in a style of recitative that impressed me greatly; his version of the well-known and beautiful air being in parts very different from that printed in our books; and if ruder and wilder, all the more striking because of its naturalness.
Sir Walter Scott mentions the coronach as a part of the funeral rite when the body of the chief of clan Quhele was borne to an island in Loch Tay (Fair Maid of Perth, chap, xxvii.); and again in 'The Lady of the Lake' (canto iii.) he introduces the coronach in the beautiful verses:—
He is gone on the mountain,
He is lost to the forest,
Like a summer-dried fountain
When our need was the sorest.
In a note he also gives a translation of a genuine Gaelic coronach. In ordinary cases of death this dirge was simply the expression of the grief of the women of the clan for the loss of a protector or breadwinner, intensified by the genius of a poetic and highly imaginative people.
These funeral customs must have prevailed in Scotland before the advent of the Romans, and been handed down from pre-historic times, for they were confined to the Gaelic-speaking districts, north of the wall of Antoninus, and Mr. W. F. Skene has now proved beyond a doubt that the Picts, the inhabitants of that region, were a Celtic race, their language being Gaelic with traces of Cornish. In Scotland in modern times the rhapsody of the bard and the wail of the women are no longer heard: the name Coronach has been transferred to the Cumhadh or musical lament, a kind of pibroch now played by the pipers who lead the funeral procession. These pibroch laments are in a peculiarly weird, wild style, well suited for the bagpipe, but not capable of being reproduced on any other instrument. They begin with a simple motivo, and this is worked up, with ever-increasing intricacy and rapidity of notes, through a number of divisions or variations, till the same simple wild strain reappears as the close. Some of these laments have a high reputation, such as those of Macintosh, MacLeod, Mac Rimmon (Cha till mi tuille—I return no more). The last is often played as the emigrant's farewell to his country.
In Ireland these funeral rites would seem to have been celebrated in early times on a much grander scale than in Scotland. Professor Sullivan, in his excellent Introduction to O'Curry's Lectures on the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, quoting from the Book of Ballimote and other Irish MSS., shows that in many cases a funeral pyre was erected, the favourite dogs and horses of the deceased slain and burned with the body, and that, in one instance at least, there was an extraordinary addition to the ceremonial. This took place at the funeral of Fiachra, the son of Eochad Muidhmeadhan. He had won a great battle in Munster, and was returning home to Temar (Tara) with the spoil and hostages taken from the enemy:
When he reached Ferud in Meath Fiachra died of his wounds there. His Leacht (stones set up to protect the urn) was made; his Fert (mound of earth) was raised; his Cluiche Caintech (pyre) was ignited; his Ogham name was written; and the hostages which he had brought from the South were buried alive round the Fert of Fiachra, that it might be a reproach to the Momonians for ever, and that it might be a trophy over them.
The Cluiche Caintech here used for the pyre was properly the whole funeral rite, and included the burning of the body, the enclosing of the ashes in the urn, the recitation of dirges, and the performance of games. When in Christian times burial took the place of cremation, some of these observances survived, in particular the dirge or wail, while the lighted candles are supposed to represent the ignition of the pyre. Much information of a most interesting nature will be found in Professor Sullivan's work, and not altogether confined to matters of antiquity.
These observances seem to be a survival of rites common to the Aryan nations of antiquity. The funerals of Patroclus and of Hector, as related in the Iliad, may be taken as descriptions of a traditionary custom, thousands of years older than Homer, practised by the progenitors of these nations before even the earliest swarm had left its fatherland.
Much interesting matter regarding Celtic customs will be found in O'Curry's Lectures; Walker's Memorials of the Bards; Logan's Gael, edited by Dr. Stewart, and an admirable chapter on the ethnology of the country in W. F. Skene's Celtic Scotland. Mr. George MacDonald is thanked not only for the Gaelic etymology, but also for kind hints on the subject.