The Lowland & Border Pipers’ Society (LBPS) returns to Glasgow at the end of this month for its annual competition.
The competition is usually held around Easter and this year it is on March 28. The venue is The National Piping Centre Otago Street, the former College of Piping, in the west end of Glasgow. The competition is open to all and entries can be made on the day. Entry is £2.50 per category for members or £5.00 for non-members. Audience entry is £3.50. The day kicks off at 10.00am.
A spokesman for the LBPS, Anne Duncan, said this year’s competition would feature an invitational solo piping element, held to mark the 700th anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath. “Our annual competition always features various categories, such as Open Smallpipes, Open Border, Pipe and Song, Duets and so on.
“These categories feature again but we decided to introduce an extra one-off category this year. We’re aware that there are to be various events held to mark the 700th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath [April 6] and as our competition date falls very close to this, we’ve introduced a one-off category to mark this historic event in a musical way.
“We’ve invited up to 10 elite, professional pipers to compete for a cash prize plus other prizes and we’d like to thank The Borders Distillery for its generous sponsorship of this. Each piper will make a musical ‘declaration’ and it will be the audience that settles on the winner. The players have been asked to present a short selection celebrating the music and culture of Scotland. We’re finalising things so will release the names of the invitees later.
“We will have a copy of the document made from a 19th century plate by Lizars the bank note engraver (now in the care of the National Archive of Scotland) available to view on the day.”
More information on the competition can be found here.
The Declaration of Arbroath is thought to have been drawn up on April 6, 1320 by the Abbot of Arbroath Abbey. Essentially, it is a letter, written in Latin, that was submitted to Pope John XXII in Avignon with the intention of confirming to him the country’s preferred coronation of Robert the Bruce rather than John de Balliol, and of its sovereign right to use military action when unjustly attacked. It was signed with the seals of the leading nobles of the day. The original copy was lost.
*Read Stuart Letford’s article on the 2019 LBPS competition here.
