The Lowland & Border Pipers’ Society (LBPS) has launched a composing competition to mark its 40th anniversary. The winner will receive a cash prize of £400.
The LBPS was founded in 1983 at the College of Piping in Glasgow with the twin aims of reviving the music and bagpipes of lowland Scotland. The LBPS would go on to succeed with these aims within a relatively short period.
LBPS Convenor, Stuart Letford, told Bagpipe.news: “The last time the LBPS held a composing competition was over a decade ago and some excellent pieces were submitted. The winning entry was composed by our President, Gary West, and titled The Jedburgh Ba’ Game. We now invite the piping world’s inventive composers to come up with a tune of at least four parts and for it to have a lowland ‘flavour’. For example, this could include a High B, a number of variations and arpeggios, minimal ornamentation, runs or … well, it’s up to the composers; we don’t like to set too many rules.
“The winning tune will be titled The Lowland & Border Pipers’ Society. Other piping organisations have given their names to excellent tunes – the Royal Scottish Pipers’ Society, the Eagle Pipers’ Society, the Glasgow Highland Club, for example – and the committee felt it was time the LBPS had one. It’s one way we intend to mark this year’s 40th anniversary.
“A panel of respected individuals in Lowland piping and Scottish culture will adjudicate, and the tune will receive its first airing at an LBPS event later this year.”
Competition rules:
- Tunes submitted should have at least four parts and be in the lowland idiom. The name of the tune shall be ‘The Lowland & Border Pipers’ Society’.
- Compositions should be emailed to LBPS Treasurer, Bridget Taylor in the first instance along with an entry fee of £10. The email address is: bridget_taylo61@hotmail.com
- The deadline for entries is Sunday, April 30th.
- Entries will then be collated and sent to the judges with the composers’ names deleted. A recording of the composition is not a requirement but is encouraged
- The winner will receive £400 plus a full run of the LBPS’ music collections and CDs.
- Copyright of the tunes will remain with the composers but by entering the competition, entrants grant the LBPS permission to distribute and publish the tune in all media (whether now existing or the future invented) anywhere throughout the universe for all time.
