At present 60 issues of the Piping Times are out of print, including almost all of volumes 2, 4, 13 and 16. We receive many requests for important articles which appeared in these issues so we have decided to reprint the most essential ones. Every piper should know something of […]
By Bruce Thomson The 6/4 time signature is not found frequently in pipe music, but I can quote a few examples. The most familiar is perhaps, Farewell to Nigg, by Duncan Johnstone on page 68 of the Scots Guards volume two. They are quite scarce. For example, there is only […]
GREY’S NOTES by Michael Grey Piping Today #66, 2013. Winning isn’t everything, but it beats anything in second place, said the American poet, William Cullen Bryant. Competing pipers and pipe bands might swear by Bryant’s words. The driven need to compete is firmly soldered very near the heart of the […]
Among the men who fought and died at the Alamo during the Texas War of Independence were several Scots. The best remembered of these brave Celts was John MacGregor. Born in Scotland, he was 34 years old and held the rank of Second Sergeant when the Alamo fell. During the […]
By John KS Frater Major General Charles Simeon Thomason, one of the leading figures of the great Highland bagpipe, died on July 12, 1911. The first President of the Piobaireachd Society (PS), he had become quite an obscure figure until fellow Sapper and piper, Brian MacKenzie brought him to life […]
By Arvey R. McFarland Over the years, I’ve read commentary in the Piping Times regarding the fact that piping receives very little of the same respect and appreciation afforded to other forms of classical music. After attending professional competitions in Scotland and the US, and most recently, one held by […]
By Seán Donnelly A Rock and Wee Pickle Tow (or The Linlithgow March) is a tune that needs no introduction. Like Cock o’ the North, a descendant of Joan’s Placket is Torn, first published in 1685 but referred to from the 1660s onward, A Rock and a Wee Pickle Tow […]
By Lt. Col. David Murray Forty years ago HM The Queen paid her usual autumn visit to Edinburgh, arriving by train which in those days still ran to time. The protocol was that she was greeted at the station by a Guard of Honour found by the Scots Guards, specially […]
By Ken Pickles O tell me, Harper, wherefore flow thy wayward notes of wail and woe, Far down the desert of Glencoe, where none may list thy melody? Say, harp’st thou to the mists that fly, or the dun-deer glancing by, Or the eagle, that from high screams chorus to […]
GREY’S NOTES by Michael Grey Piping Today #65, 2013. Summertime and the livin’ is easy; fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high. Great words; in fact, great lyrics from George and Ira Gershwin. And while it’s our standard holiday season, with weather that’s light on the back, summer isn’t […]
