pibroch

[Jonathan Lighter]

I've never encountered this word as applied to anything other than a kind of bagpipe music, nor, apparently, has the OED.  
 
Neverthless, here's an example. My tentative definition is "a long Gaelic song melodically reminiscent of a pibroch and performed in a free, highly ornamented style." 
 
1856 Samuel G. Goodrich _Recollections of a Lifetime_ (N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan) 199 [ref. to ca1815]: There had come to Abbotsford, a wild Gaelic peasant from the neighborhood of Staffa, and it was proposed to him to sing a pibroch, common in that region. He had consented, but required the whole party present, to sit in a circle on the floor, while he should sing the song, and perform a certain pantomimic accompaniment, in the center. All was accordingly arranged in the great hall, and the performer had just begun his wild chant, when in walked a small but stately lady, and announced herself as Miss [Maria] Edgeworth! 
 
JL





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