By Roderick Cannon In 1651 a small book was published in London by John Playford, entitled The English Dancing Master. It contained the tunes and instructions for 105 country dances, and it was evidently successful, as it was quickly followed by revised and enlarged editions. The last edition was the […]
Stocks By Seumas MacNeill Having dealt with the bag situation the next obvious consideration is the state of the stocks you intend to tie on to your bag. Most people probably feel there is not much in the way of maintenance to be done on the simple five wooden tubes, […]
By Seumas MacNeill Archie MacNeill composed Donald MacLean’s Farewell to Oban in 1938 at a time when he was probably at his most prolific in producing tunes. That was the year of the ‘Crisis’ (which itself was responsible for the production of a tune by Willie Fergusson), the time when […]
Delvinside, according to Keith Norman MacDonald (1835-1913), is one of our finest strathspeys and also one of our older ones. It is idle to speculate as to who composed it at this time of day as it has been for so long printed anonymously. The locality of the tune has […]
This lovely tune is one of the many from the pen of John – Jock – MacLellan, Dunoon. It is quite simply a beautiful 3/4 march and, like most of Jock’s compositions, stands the test of time. In 1892, MacLellan, aged 17, enlisted with the Highland Light Infantry. He saw action […]
By Jeannie Campbell During that first British tour in 1904, Albert and the Kilties played for King Edward VII at Balmoral and a newspaper reporter in Dundee asked about the experience. “Yes,” he said, “the King was certainly pleased. … I piped and danced for Queen Victoria many a time. […]
By Jeannie Campbell Some time ago, I received a letter from Dale Brown with a request for information on an unknown piper from the past. He told me that he had been asked to look at a piece of music found in a pipe box few years previously by a […]
This article from the April 2000 Piping Times looked at changes made to hallmark regulations as a result of a ruling by the European Court of Justice a few months previously. Read also ‘Know your hallmarks’. By Robert Wallace Anyone buying new silver-mounted pipes would do well to heed the […]
By John J.van OmmenKloeke So many times questions are asked about the age of hallmarked silver mounts on the pipes, that it seems wise to offer some more precise information on just how to interpret those hitherto quizzical hieroglyphs on the luxury parts of our favourite musical instrument. On close […]
