• From the June 1997 Piping Times. By Captain John A. MacLellan My second illustration is a typical page of the manuscript in what is thought would be the original form for the whole manuscript. As you can see it is really a framework with the notes written in crotchet […]
Features
The John MacKay manuscript, pt. 1
• From the May 1997 Piping Times. By Captain John A. MacLellan Some time ago the late Captain John A. MacLellan made a study of the John MacKay Manuscript and gave his findings in a paper to the Piobaireachd Society Conference. We are pleased to publish this important study. We […]
Remembering James MacMillan, 1911-2005
• From the September 2005 Piping Times. By Jack Lee I have often wondered how piping would have turned out in Vancouver if Jimmy McMillan hadn’t taught here. Would Terry and I have stuck with piping? Would the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band (SFU) even exist? Jimmy was the defining […]
Hornpipes – from jaunty dance to finger fireworks in a few years
• From the January 2012 Piping Times. By Iain Bruce The hornpipe has had a long run in the history of music but it is not clear how long. The Oxford Companion to Music describes two meanings of the word ‘hornpipe’. In the first place it refers to an obsolete […]
The Black Chanter of Clan Chattan
• From the October 1984 Piping Times. By Diana M. Henderson “As fierce as the tiger that prowls in their forest, Those sons of the Orient leap to the plain;But the blade striketh vainly wherever thou wanest, Black Chanter of Chattan bestir thee again!”1 A Mrs Ogilvie wrote these lines […]
Boreraig – the first pipers at the cairn
• From the August 1994 Piping Times. A letter from William A. Cromarty of South Orange, NJ, reminded us of the inauguration of the cairn at Boreraig in 1933. He enclosed a cutting from an Ontario newspaper of the time, which contained a report of that famous day. The story […]
Piobaireachd names in Gaelic – curios, mix-ups and puzzles
• From the January 2008 Piping Times. By Angus Nicol The End of the Great Bridge or ‘Ceann Drochaid Mhoire’ (ceown drochitch voiruh) is something of a mix-up. Drochaid is feminine, so it should, in the genitive, be drochaide. But with the article it na drochaide (nuh drochitchuh). So the […]
A MacCrimmon relic
• From the August 1994 Piping Times. The late John MacFadyen obtained permission from Dame Flora MacLeod of MacLeod to examine some of the MacLeod papers in Dunvegan Castle, with a view to finding references to the MacCrimmon pipers. He was fortunate to be allowed to take photocopies of some […]
Bob McFie: a life of piping and teaching
Asked about his early days in piping, Bob McFie leans back in his chair in a teaching room in The National Piping Centre Otago Street and raises his eyes to the sky. “I was six when my father gave me my first practice chanter and about nine or ten when […]
Sovereign’s Piper on the Army payroll and a tune called ‘Mallorca’
• From the July 2000 Piping Times. The final part of our story on the office of Sovereign’s Piper, with excerpts from articles by Neville T. McKay and Bryan Douglas, Royal Scottish Pipers Society, the latter an interesting tale concerning King Edward VIII and Society member, Colonel CM Usher. In […]