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 […]
By Simon McKerrell At this time of the year, most pipers around the globe are busy learning the tunes they’ll play during next year’s competition season. Band and solo competitors are working hard on mastering the music, working on the the technical improvements in their playing and hopefully, as my […]
Ronald Lawrie of Oban (1927-2008) wasn’t called ‘Big Ronnie’ for nothing. But his broad-shouldered, 6ft 5in frame and imposing, square-jawed presence were almost incidental to his considerable stature in piping — and an involvement that began with direct influences from the 19th century and continues into the 21st century. He […]
By Brett Tidswell The oldest pipe band in the southern hemisphere is arguably the Pipes and Drums of the Royal Caledonian Society of South Australia. The band was first established in 1894 in Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. There is some argument that it was not a pipe […]
Theory Top-Up by Tim Cummings Piping Today #72, 2014. This article is the third in an on-going series focusing on specific musical keys found in our Scottish piping repertoire. Having already looked at the two most common musical keys in our light music, D-Major and A-Mixolydian, we’ll now put a […]
While not cut from the cloth of the competitive piper, Mike Katz is one of the world’s most successful American-born pipers. Born in the Los Angeles region of the San Fernando Valley, he broke his piping teeth in his older brother Steve’s high school pipe band – along with a […]
