The National Piping Centre. Friday, August 13. As compère, Fergus Muirhead noted, Piping Live! has always showcased the huge diversity of bagpipe music. This concert was a great example of that. Funding was received from the PRS Foundation Open Fund to commission five Scottish composers to make new pieces for […]
By Michael Grey Silver Chanter (August 7) The 55th MacCrimmon recital for the Silver Chanter was a fitting start to this year’s Piping Live! festival. With six pipers from among our very best, a well-lit stage and a breathing, drinking, honest-to-goodness live audience, festival organisers chose well. Of course, this […]
Any artist creates based on their own experiences and influences. Many will seek to develop new ideas evolving from the art which inspires them. Stravinsky developed tonal and rhythmic ideas from Rimsky-Korsakov, for example. Others will clinically remove the factors they enjoy the most from their favourite art and layer […]
Three Orkney businesses all contributed to bringing you this very well presented book: The Orkney Brewery, Sheila Fleet Jewellery and The Brig Larder restaurant. I suppose that’s a sign of the character of this collection as a whole. To me, the central themes that radiate from this collection are Family, […]
I think it’s safe to say that ceòl mòr is enjoying its perhaps fourth revival. The post Jacobean/Ossianic era produced much interest and began the culture of competitive piobaireachd as we know it. Queen Victoria’s Scottish obsession spawned much of the fundament of piobaireachd recording and performance we have today […]
I once thought it would be a funny idea to assemble, during the Worlds, all the beardy, speccy blokes in Grade 1 pipe bands for a photo. Me, Andrew Bova, Ross Miller, Callum Watson, Johnny Simpson, Scott Wallace, Gus Sicard, Emmett Conway, that guy with the big red number that […]
By Stuart Letford Duncan Johnstone wasn’t really one for competitions – his 1964 victory in the Scottish Pipers’ Association’s Knockout series was pretty much his only foray into solo piping contests. As he put it himself: “I was never interested in whether I could beat this man or the next. […]
Many names in piping are just that to most of us: names. Quoted by so and so from such and such. I pride myself on having a very good knowledge of the history of the Highland Bagpipe and its culture but I must admit Pipe Major Evan Macrae BEM was […]
By John Mulhearn There are few pipers in the Highland piping tradition that command the depth of respect that Fred Morrison enjoys. His entertaining and highly charged solo performances on the concert stage are legendary and unique. Equally, his thoughtful and deeply musical performances on the competition stage have earned […]
By David V Kennedy Yes, indeed: to watertrap or not to watertrap, that is the question! Some say that the trap is necessary in all climates. In an eight month 100˚F average summer? With less than an average 20% relative humidity? Sounds dreadful, doesn’t it? Logical? Well, not at first […]
