Many readers will be familiar with the 2/4 march, Helen Black of Inveran. The pipe score can be found in Bruce Campbell’s Caledonian Collection Of Highland Bagpipe 2/4 Competition Pipe Marches and in Iain MacCrimmon’s Music For The Great Highland Bagpipe (Book 1). Jimmy Ritchie, a well-known fiddler of the […]
By Bridget MacKenzie This article is based to a large extent on material kindly supplied by George Moss’s nephew, Jim (Hamish) Hamilton, Aberdeen, to whom I give my thanks George Moss (1903-1990) was an important figure in Highland piping who has not received the recognition due to him. Such men […]
By Jaco Koster It was a rainy Sunday afternoon in Scotland last summer [2018] when my girlfriend and I decided to pay a visit to Blair Castle near Pitlochry. We had visited the ruins of Caisteal Dubh – the Black Castle of Moulin – that morning, where I played my […]
By Seumas MacNeill Along with Lament for the Children and a few others this is one of the truly great tunes. It does not have the subtle twists and turns of the Children, nor even of Patrick Òg. It is a straightforward fairly simple melody developed along traditional lines and, […]
Transcribed by Norman Matheson We conclude the interview the late Dr John MacAskill conducted with Angus MacPherson, Invershin, in 1970. You were telling me that your father composed a few tunes. How many piobaireachds had he composed?I can’t tell you that; the only piobaireachd I got a copy of was […]
Transcribed by Norman Matheson We continue with our interview with Angus MacPherson, Invershin, conducted by Dr. John MacAskill in 1970. So he [Calum Piobair] played light music too, not only ceòl mòr?Yes, of course. He went to Paris on one occasion for a competition and got first for strathspeys and_ […]
Transcribed by Norman Matheson Angus MacPherson (1877-1976), a father figure in the piping world of his day, was one of the five sons of the renowned Malcolm MacPherson (Calum Piobair) who was piper to the MacPherson clan chief at Cluny Castle near Laggan. In 1898 Angus MacPherson, aged 21, became […]
2020, Bliadhna na Cobhid (the Year of Covid to those unfamiliar with Gaelic), the year that almost all piping activity took place in front of a laptop or Smart phone. Where every competition or band practice began like a seance: “Hello? Can you hear me … can you hear me? […]
By James E. Scott The Muillean Dubh [The Black Mill] is a very old tune and, at one time, was well-known and popular all over the Highlands, every piper having it in his repertoire. For some reason, it seems to have gone out of favour in later times and is […]
2020 was to be the year I made my first appearance for the Dunvegan Medal, for which I had been preparing mightily over the last three years. My four submissions are, out of interest, Lament for the Children, Lament for the Earl of Antrim, MacSwan of Roaig and Lament for […]
