In his far-reaching blog posted on this site last week, Stuart Letford questioned whether the Set Tunes should continue to be set solely by the Piobaireachd Society’s Music Committee. I suggest it is time to actually abolish the Set Tunes altogether. I have spoken on this topic before. Indeed, this […]
“We will not succeed in navigating the complex environment of the future by peering relentlessly into a rear view mirror. To do so, we would be out of our minds.” – Ken Robinson, Out of Our Minds (Capstone, 2001). Like most of you, I have now spent eight weeks self-isolating. […]
From The International Piper of January 1981. Simon Fraser’s next contribution to the Oban Times is dated September 11, 1909 and describes the Secrets of Canntaireachd. He writes: I take up my pen to explain to the best of my ability the mysterious music called ‘Sheantaireachd,’ or pipe language, as […]
By Major D. M. Henderson, Women’s Royal Army Corps TA The following article is reprinted from British Army Review of 1988. We are grateful to Brigadier P. H. O’meara and to the author, Dr Diana Henderson, for permission to publish it here. Through an arched grey stone walkway of Edinburgh […]
Dr. Angus MacDonald 2020 marks 200 years since Donald MacDonald produced his first volume of piobaireachd in staff notation. This is the oldest comprehensive written record of ceòl mòr by a piper. A pioneering work, he tackled the difficult problem of committing intricate piobaireachd embellishments to staff notation. He was […]
• From the June 1997 Piping Times. By Captain John A. MacLellan My second illustration is a typical page of the manuscript in what is thought would be the original form for the whole manuscript. As you can see it is really a framework with the notes written in crotchet […]
• From the January 2008 Piping Times. By Angus Nicol The End of the Great Bridge or ‘Ceann Drochaid Mhoire’ (ceown drochitch voiruh) is something of a mix-up. Drochaid is feminine, so it should, in the genitive, be drochaide. But with the article it na drochaide (nuh drochitchuh). So the […]
The Piobaireachd Society has announced the tunes required for the 2020 Argyllshire Gathering and Northern Meeting ceòl mòr competitions. The Senior events (the Clasp at Inverness and Senior Piobaireachd at Oban) comprise some of the most demanding pieces in the repertoire whilst pipers competing for the Gold Medals and Silver […]
By Peter McCalister For better or worse, tune settings in the Kilberry book, and in the Piobaireachd Society’s (PS) collection, have become known as the ‘usual’ versions – and other versions as ‘alternative’ settings. Why play an alternative setting of a tune? The PS has, over the last 80 years […]
