By Seumas MacNeill Probably no period in the history of piping will see such changes as did the 19th century. At the beginning of it, all pipers were Gaelic-speaking highlanders, solo performers whose repertoire consisted almost entirely of piobaireachd. All teaching was by canntaireachd, for no piper could read staff […]
By Hugh Cheape, MBE Pìobaireachd is not an easy subject but Roderick Cannon was its master. This was his chosen field in the study of the music of the Great Highland Bagpipe and, more particularly, of the type of composition regarded as its ‘classical music’. In spite of the prominence […]
By T. M. Gibson (introduced by J. Ernsting). R.A.F. Institute of Aviation Medicine, Farnborough, Hants Pipers contend that playing the bagpipes is extremely strenuous. Cases have been experienced by piping teachers of neophytes fainting while trying to play the pipes. Watson (1972) suggested that hypocapnia caused the faintness. He reported […]
By Pipe Major Jim Henderson John McLellan, as I remember him, was a very shy and quiet individual, not given to pushing himself or promoting the great talent he possessed. Besides being a quite outstanding bagpipe music composer, he wrote songs, was a poet of some distinction and had a […]
