The 2/4 march is not as commonly used for marching to by pipe bands, but solo pipers in competition will march to this tune. The marching that they do would be slower than that of the pipe band marching to the 4/4 or 6/8 march.
The 2/4 march is very dotted in rhythm, i.e:
There are only two beats in each bar. A popular ceilidh dance, the Canadian Barn Dance, is commonly done to this type of tune, where the tune would usually be played on an accordion or a fiddle.
One of the most popular 2/4 marches today is The Centenary Jewel, written by the accordion player Phil Cunningham. This tune became familiar to a lot of people during the 100th anniversary of The National Mod (an annual Gaelic festival of concerts, ceilidhs and competitions) when it was the theme tune for the daily television programme that was a round up of the day's events. Other popular 2/4 marches are Father John MacMillan of Barra, Donald Maclean's Farewell to Oban and The Sprig of Ivy.
High Road to Gairloch
This is a bagpipe version of a 2/4 march which takes many different forms, including
being the tune for the nursery rhyme London Bridge is Falling Down! Here
is a recording of High Road to Gairloch
(accordion - Angus MacPhail).
Go to the Parts section
for this unit to download parts for a classroom arrangement of High Road
to Gairloch.