Piobaireachd enthusiasts need no introduction to James Campbell and to his father, Archibald Campbell of Kilberry, the compiler of the Kilberry Book of Ceol Mor and editor of Books 2 to 10 of the Piobaireachd Society Collection. Before his death in 2003, James Campbell had given a collection of his […]
GREY’S NOTES by Michael Grey Piping Today #69, 2014. There’s one thing I know: it was the sound of the bagpipe that attracted me, that made me want to find any damned way I could to learn to play the instrument. Haunting, stirring, soulful, inspiring, soothing, ethereal; bagpipe music touched […]
In the second part of the 2017 College of Piping Lecture, ALAN FORBES talked about the Royal Scottish Pipers’ Society. At the start of Alan’s presentation, the audience was treated to a performance of Roddy Campbell’s Royal Scottish Pipers’ Society by Andrew Frater, Robert Frater and John Frater. The Scottish […]
Norman Matheson, the well known piper and piping judge, died in hospital in Aberdeen on Monday. He was 89 and had been ill for some time. Matheson, who was a surgeon by profession, was born in Inverness but lived in Aberdeenshire for much of his life. He also had family […]
Neville and Ian MacKay – pioneers of piobaireachd in New Zealand. By John Hanning This is the story of how two brothers from the country town of Waipawa in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, together laid the foundations for organised instruction and development of the playing of piobaireachd in New Zealand. […]
By Jeannie Campbell MBE The Argyllshire Gathering of 1891 was spoiled by the weather. Rain fell continuously and in torrents, completely drenching everybody who was out of doors and converting the public park at Mossfield into a veritable quagmire. Many of those who would normally attend stayed away including competitors. […]
Jimmy McIntosh, who has just died, will be remembered as a major authority on piobaireachd. Yet, as many will know, Jimmy was quite late coming to the art. He only started to compete seriously when he was in his 40s. He was deeply appreciative of Robert Bell Nicol and Robert […]
There has been a call in recent years for change in the long-standing arrangements in the big piobaireachd competitions; that the Piobaireachd Society should stop naming its own settings as the preferred ones, or stop setting the annual tunes at all, allowing the performers free choice in which tunes they […]
Today’s tune in our irregular series, ‘Stories of the Tunes’ appears although the ‘story’ behind it is quite stragithforward: it is simply a tune composed by Pipe Major Donald MacLeod in tribute to the regiment in which he served for many years. As the notes in his book of ceòl […]
Roderick MacDonald was born on South Uist in 1901. He was a member of Glasgow City Police Pipe Band from 1923 to 1956. He served under two Pipe Majors, Willie Gray, then the famous John MacDonald, his brother. At the Argyllshire Gathering, Roderick won the March in 1928, the Strathspey […]
