Tryst, the ten-piece piping ensemble based in Glasgow, Scotland today releases its debut recording. The track, In Praise of the Pioneers, was composed by Finlay MacDonald, Director of Piping at the National Piping Centre and premiered at the afternoon piping concert of 2020’s Celtic Connections festival. The band reprised it […]
After only two days, the National Piping Centre’s crowdfunder target for the project to digitise the Piping Times and Piping Today magazines has reached one third. It would appear that this campaign is clearly resonating with the piping world. For younger readers, it may be instructive for us to take […]
The Scottish Pipers’ Association’s (SPA) annual solo-piping contest for professional pipers will be held online for this year, the organisation has confirmed. Entries close on June 5, with each competitor notified of the tunes assigned to them by Sunday, June 9. In addition, the SPA hopes to broadcast the A […]
The National Piping Centre (NPC) today launches a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to protect the legacy of its two magazines, the Piping Times and Piping Today. The two-strand project involves the digitisation of the magazines’ archive – a resource that will be free to access online – and the […]
The subject of this short article is a common one amongst pipers: pipe band drumming. Many pipers – and some drummers – feel that pipe bands have now become far too percussion oriented and driven, to the point that the fundamentals of the Great Highland Bagpipe – it is pentatonic, […]
1906-1908 By Jeannie Campbell After the resignations of the previous years, the remaining members continued the work of the Piobaireachd Society and produced a second book of six tunes in 1906. The six tunes in the book were set for the 1906 competitions and the rule was stated that, “No […]
• Our thanks go once again to the indefatigable Iain Bell for this month’s Donald Drone cartoon strip. Kevin MacLean of Simon Fraser University Pipe Band sent us this video of the Canadian Grade 1 band’s latest virtual recording. The band recently recorded Finlay MacDonald’s composition for his son, Elliot […]
By Jeannie Campbell MBE The “Piobaireachd Society of Scotland” gave notice in the autumn of 1903 that it would hold a competition at the 1904 Argyllshire Gathering at which it would award a total of £30 in prizes. The first prize shall be £20 and a Gold Medal, second prize […]
Last August we uploaded to Bagpipe.News a great article on Calum Campbell that had been written by Joe Wilson 13 years ago and published in the July 2008 edition of the Piping Times. As a teenager Calum had enlisted in his father’s old regiment, the Seaforths, before being appointed some […]
By Jeannie Campbell MBE In 1899, the Argyllshire Gathering placed an advert in the Oban Times of August 26. Alex Shairp, the Gathering’s secretary, listed all the piping events (and prize money): 1. Strathspeys and Reels (Champions), Champion’s Prize. Gold Medal and £3.2. Piobaireachd. Highland Society of London’s Gold Medal […]
