Piping Today Issue 96 – Free Sample Issue by Designfolk Ltd

PROMOTING

THE

MUSIC,

HISTORY

STUDY

THE

BAGPIPES

FREE

SAMPLE ISSUE

THE PLAY

An interview with David Colvin Malin Makes Music

Malin Lewis – pipe maker and musician

New Zealand Pipe Band Championships From Dunedin 2019

Seinn Air a’ Phìob

Singing the pipes with the Big Music Society

Grey’s Notes by Michael Grey Reservoirs for the heart

Theoretically Speaking by Tim Cummings Simple matters

He Derum Ho Derum

An account of the 2019 Piobaireachd Society Conference

May 2019

The Flanders Red Cross Trio competition

Hockey Lessons by Bill Livingstone

The Dan of La Mancha by Dan Nevans Nine Notes with James Harper

INCORPORATING THE COLLEGE OF PIPING

N Y P B o S N ew s l et te r N o . 9 1

PRICE – UK £3.30 • EUROPE

ISSUE NUMBER 96 • 2019 5 • CANADA AND USA $6.50

FRONT COVER: The graphics from Gordon Duncan’s Thunderstruck album, CDTRAX241, released by Greentrax Recordings in 2003 See feature on pages 6-13.

Editorial Roddy MacLeod

Gordon Duncan: Thunderstruck An interview with David Colvin

Seinn Air a’ Phìob Singing the pipes

Malin Makes Music Malin Lewis – pipe maker and musician

NYPBoS Youngstars Q&A with Kenneth Macfarlane

New Products Book review

Theoretically Speaking by Tim Cummings Simple matters

The Dan of La Mancha by Dan Nevans

Hockey Lessons by Bill Livingstone

The New Zealand Pipe Band Championships

Nine Notes with James Harper

Flanders Red Cross Trio Competition

He Derum Ho Derum An account of the 2019 Piobaireachd Society Conference

Grey’s Notes by Michael Grey Reservoirs for the heart

contents

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THEORY

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www.thepipingcentre.co.uk EDITOR: Roddy MacLeod MBE, BSc • FEATURES MANAGER: John Slavin • PUBLISHER: © The National Piping Centre 2019 CORRESPONDENCE: The National Piping Centre, 30-34 McPhater Street, Glasgow, Scotland. G4 0HW. Tel. +44 (0)141 353 0220 EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES: pipingtoday@designfolk.com • ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES: hwilkinson@thepipingcentre.co.uk DESIGN & ADVERT ARTWORK: John Slavin/DesignFolk – email: pipingtoday@designfolk.com • www.designfolk.com

Sixteen World Grade 1 Titles

EDITORIAL

Editorial Patron HRH The Prince Charles Duke of Rothesay, KG, KT, GCB

T The National Piping Centre Founders Sir Brian Ivory CVO CBE FRSE MA CA Lady Ivory DL MA ARCM FRSA Sandy Grant Gordon CBE MA The National Piping Centre Board Sir Brian Ivory CVO CBE FRSE MA CA Lady Ivory DL MA ARCM FRSA Alan R. Forbes BSc FFA Allan G. Ramsay BA CA Fraser Morrison MA CA Colin J. MacNeill WS, LLB, NP The National Piping Centre is a company limited by guarantee with charitable status. Registered in Scotland No. 139271 Registered Charity No. SC020391 The National Piping Centre 30-34 McPhater Street Glasgow, Scotland. G4 0HW Tel: +44 (0)141 353 0220 Fax: +44 (0)141 353 1570

PIPING TODAY ISSN 1479 7143 Editor: Roddy MacLeod MBE BSc Features and all editorial enquiries: John Slavin/Designfolk email: pipingtoday@designfolk.com Mob: 0781 513 1116

HE National Piping Centre launched a new website at the beginning of April – www.Bagpipe.News This is our new information service for the world of piping. We hope that this service will be engaging, entertaining, educational and supportive. Our aspiration is to connect with individuals, bands, innovators, organisers, educators and all those who work towards the promotion of the music and study of the Highland Bagpipe. The National Piping Centre’s website (www.thepipingcentre.co.uk) provides an extensive range of information which is primarily about the services we provide and the opportunities we provide for learning. At Bagpipe.News we will provide a daily service with news, features, reviews, hints and tips and resource material drawn from the massive archive at our disposal from Piping Today, Piping Times and our library. We are hitting the ground running, having already populated the site with a large store of resources so that you will be able spend hours enjoying fascinating articles. We want your news to be our news. We want Bagpipe.News to be your go-to place to publicise your information, news and events. The events calendar should also be your events calendar with each entry creating a separate page on the site to provide the detail you wish to put out there. For us, this will strengthen and widen our connections to the piping community. We are a national organisation with global reach and we exist purely for the purpose of promoting pipe music so this new website absolutely gives us all tangible connectivity. So far, the site is proving to be extremely popular and a great way for us all in the piping world to send out our news and events information. In other news, we recently completed our Italian Spring School which was held in Calambrone, near to both Pisa and Livorno. The entry to the school was capped at 32 students this year but it certainly looks like that number will continue to expand. The beautiful setting of the beachside resort certainly adds to the fun and ambience of the school which, in true Italian style, is always fun and relaxed. This combined with the students’ boundless enthusiasm for playing for the sheer joy of it. The camaraderie of being together made it a great time for all and the playing went into the wee small hours most nights. What is noticeable now is that the standard of playing within the group has risen steadily and the more advanced players are armed with a strong repertoire of light music and piobaireachd. A number of students are now ready to participate in solo competitions such as those run through CLASP. Many of the students are taking regular lessons and Alberto Massi continues to be the leading figure in terms of teaching and standard setting. He has done a fantastic job and the future of Italian piping looks to be rosy. Look out for reports on the Italian school experience on Bagpipe.News. Ciao! by RODDY MacLEOD MBE, BSc Principal, The National Piping Centre

PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL PIPING CENTRE 2019 Unless otherwise noted, the text, photographs and adverts are copyright © of the writer, photographer or designer. All rights reserved. The contents may not be copied or reproduced in any manner without written permision of the editor, Roddy MacLeod. Excerpts and entire reviews may be printed as long as credit is given to the author, artiste and/or photographer and the Piping Today magazine.

PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

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PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 â&#x20AC;¢ 2019

THUNDERSTRUCK

by Chris MacKenzie

THE PLAY

An interview with David Colvin

ORGIVE the hyperbole, but it’s up there with when people heard Elvis, the Beatles or David Bowie for the first time, and it changed their view of what was possible with music, and so it was for many pipers (and indeed non-pipers) when they first heard Gordon Duncan play the Great Highland Bagpipe back in the eighties and nineties. Suddenly a whole new horizon appeared that was bright, vibrant and laden with possibilities. Eyes, or should that be

ears, were opened, and the humble bagpipe became a instrument with a future and not just a past. That impact had a lasting effect on many, and some of them went on to build on Gordon’s legacy to get us to the place where we are now, where it’s the music that counts, and the old and the new sit very comfortably side by side. This is not in anyway to diminish the impact of a whole host of other players in this story such Fred Morrison, Martyn Bennett, PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

Robert Mathieson, Dougie Pincock, Duncan McGillivary, Gary West, Finlay MacDonald and Chris Armstrong to name but a few, and plays, films or operas, may well come to be written about their impact on the piping world but Thunderstruck by David Colvin has at it’s heart the impact that first hearing the man, that Hamish Moore called a National Treasure, had on him and how he thought about music. I had the pleasure of seeing the play as part of Celtic Connections in January and was then PAGE 7

THUNDERSTRUCK COMPETITION lucky enough to catch up with writer and performer David Colvin for pizza, beer and conversation on how the play came about. The obvious place to start was how does an actor in one of the most successful plays of recent years come to write and perform a tribute Gordon Duncan? “I was in a big play with the National Theatre of Scotland called Black Watch”, explained David. “For about two and a half years it was the biggest play in the world. The writer of that play was an amazing Fife writer called Gregory Burke. I think Gordon’s story had rattled round my head as an actor for a long time, because ‘Dave the actor’ thought, ‘there aren’t going to be many actors who can do it. I’m pretty much a shoo-in for whoever decides to write it, because I can do the job and I can just about do the thing as well’ – ‘Dave the actor’ just wanted someone to have a look at it. I spoke to Gregory Burke and he very patiently listened to me and then carried on with his Channel 4 stuff. I then worked with Communicado and the same thing happened when I spoke to them. Despite saying you should have a look at this guy Gordon, he did amazing things and he had all these conflicts in his life, really theatre is about conflict, and if you have a life with all these conflicts, not just personal but professional, that essentially creates great theatre, I couldn’t get anyone interested. “I was at the Globe Theatre in London and in conversation with an English actor, and when he found out I was a piper he showed me a video clip entitled Thunderstruck which involved a bagpiper playing Thunderstruck, but he wasn’t really playing it. The backing was playing Thunderstruck and he was just adding random notes over the top but he had flames coming out of the top of his pipes. I’d had a few drinks and I was so frustrated that Gordon’s modern masterpiece was being butchered in such a way that I just schooled this poor guy for the best part of forty five minutes on the real Thunderstruck, and the real man and the real genius – and how I’ve always wanted someone to do the play. To his benefit John just said, ‘you should write it’. He didn’t think there was anyone else who should write it. That took me back a bit and I thought, ‘Yeah I should write it’. “Around about the same time, and it is related, my dad died, and I think I was in a place where I was fed up working for other people, I was fed up grafting for what theatre actors get – it’s not great and it just seems everybody above you, the writers, producers, directors are doing very well for themselves, and the actor does very well for three, four or five months of the year if you are lucky. “So I got a credit card with £5,000 on it, I planked myself in a coffee shop and thought I’m going to write this, and I racked up £4,992 worth of coffee, biscuits PAGE 8

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David performing the play at Piping Live! 2018

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THUNDERSTRUCK

Photo: John Slavin@designfolk.com

and sometimes a doughnut, and I just sat there and wrote a play. My girlfriend, bless her, must have been absolutely terrified as I just sat in a coffee shop all day and tried to immerse myself in a world that I have at times tried to forget.” Those who have never put a play into production may well think that is all there is to it, drink a tanker full of coffee, eat a mountain of biscuits, and the play will emerge fully formed. Not so. That was just the beginning, as David explained: “We did a thing in London, in November 2016, called a scratch night. It basically means you put fifty or sixty people in a room and regurgitate what you’ve got so far, some of it was recited, some of it was as it is, some of it was very very different – there was bits of music and other things in there. This was the first time it had ever been performed, and a lot of the humour that’s in the play wasn’t as well constructed as it is now, so it wasn’t quite hitting the mark. A lot of the humour was there, but it just hadn’t been built right to hit the funny bone, but one scene turned up and got a huge laugh and a spontaneous round of applause. That was a lovely moment. The two bits of the play that haven’t moved since then are that moment (redacted to avoid being a spoiler) and what we call the Mozart moment – Lorient Mornings.” Perhaps the most difficult decision to make when writing a play is what perspective to take and David’s perspective on the right approach morphed as the play went into the development process. This clearly played heavily on David’s mind as he looked to find the key to unlocking the essence of Gordon Duncan. That key presented itself in the form of one of piping’s seminal moments, one that has passed into the annals of piping lore. That moment was the 1993 Piping Times Knockout competition final between Gordon Duncan and Gordon Walker. Held in Studio One of Broadcasting House (the event was recorded and later broadcast by the BBC) in Glasgow. The final saw both players play brilliantly. Gordon Walker won, with perhaps a cannier selection of ‘light music’ with a smattering of ‘false fingered’ tunes at the end, while Gordon Duncan’s set was full on Gordon from start to finish. The music was greatly enjoyed by most there and indeed by most who heard the broadcasts later, but most certainly not by Seumas MacNeill who in his prize giving speech said, ‘If this is piping I’m going back to the fiddle’. He didn’t hold back, either, in his editorial in the July 1993 Piping Times, when he wrote, ‘What appears to be happening is that the fingering suitable for the Lowland bagpipes and the Irish uilleann pipe are being transferred to our classical instrument – with the worst possible results. The shakes and trills which form an essential part of the uilleann pipe-playing only reduce the Highland

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‘The whole episode did, of course, inspire Gordon to call his first solo album Just for Seumas with the title track having everything but the kitchen sink thrown in to make the point’ pipe to the level of the street musician in Sauchiehall Street, or, as Liam O’ Buachalla said, ‘the sound of the ould beezers round the Pillar in O’Connor street on a Saturday night’. This was seismic, here was the doyen of the piping world, founder and principal of the College of Piping and editor of the Piping Times (note to younger readers The National Piping Centre was merely plans on bits of paper back in 1993). Seumas was ‘piping’, and here he was slating a young player for making the music that he wanted to make on an instrument he loved. Naturally this split the piping world into those that agreed with Seumas and those that thought Gordon’s music was fabulous and something they wanted to hear more of. Ultimately there were far more in the latter camp. The whole episode did, of course, inspire Gordon to call his first solo album Just for Seumas with the title track having everything but the kitchen sink thrown in to make the point. This then was the key for David Colvin: “Seumas MacNeill’s words became part of Gordon’s folklore – that phrase ‘If that’s piping I’m going back to the fiddle’. That moment was an enormous moment for Gordon’s folklore, Gordon’s history – it’s the moment where people started looking at this ‘kitchen piping’ differently. The theatrical truth is, piping was one thing one minute and then because of this series of events that happened, started to become something completely different. “If you read an early version of the play, which no one will ever read, you’ll see a lovely monologue about someone who loves Gordon Duncan and his music, with no discernible conflict what so ever, and that’s not theatre – that’s a lecture. So I realised after that first version that if I’m theatre I needed Seumas MacNeill, as Mozart needed Salieri. I realised this play was so in need of a Salieri – I also realised I was the only person on the stage so I was going to have to embody this moment. So I just took how I felt about it and dialled it up really high.” Having found the conflict the theatre needs, there was then another key decision to make around how to cast the play. Many of the episodes in Gordon’s life would make terrific scenes on the stage, why then did David decide to make it a one man (and a band) show? David explained: “The use of other actors was considered when we did the first script. The director we had then was quite keen to see what it would look like with other actors, so we had a few days workshop, where we got some really good improvise actors and we turned some of the storytelling into scenes. No matter how many days we went through it, I had the thought in my head that as soon as you have one more actor on the stage it’s then a play with characters, and you then have to write a backstory and motivation, and they then need to have this through composed line. But when only one actor is on the stage they are telling you what happened. PAGE 10

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THUNDERSTRUCK “There were moments with the other actors that were really good, when we were improvising but I couldn’t get away from the fact that it now felt like a play. Good plays don’t feel like plays, they feel like you are part of something, but in my head I couldn’t get away from the fact that I was now listening to a play, and I didn’t want to listen to a play, I wanted to listen to one guy telling me what happened – it felt to me that the authenticity was diluted. The authenticity of what it felt like when you first saw Gordon play, and I felt if I turned that into a scene then it just became something else, it then became about my relationship to him rather than my relationship to you the audience. This changed everything and I need you to know this.” This is all very well for those of us steeped in the piping world, but I asked David about the challenge in presenting this in a way that’s accessible to people with no interest in the pipes. “Indeed. I think there is enough of Gor

don in the play that people with no interest in bagpipes will want to know more about him. I want this play to play in London and I want the audience to have as satisfying an experience as they did at The National Piping Centre. What’s wonderful is, especially when we did it in London, people really wanted to know.... one of the nights in London I forgot to say the line about Gordon’s end. I just did the Mozart line picked up my pipes and played Thunderstruck and the number of people that came up to me and asked what happened to him, people who had no interest in piping, no interest in music even, but they wanted to know what happened to him.” One of the more surprising episodes, and one that seems to delight everyone, is the scene where Hector the Hero is performed using canntaireachd. It’s an odd choice as it’s not particularly a tune associated with Gordon. David explained: “The truth about its development within the play is hilarious, because when I PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

did the heedrum hoodrum stuff I was worried about it. I thought it was a bit too Scottish, a bit too biscuit tinny, it felt like it was part of the play I didn’t want to write about – some Highland Scotsman with a ginger beard, heedrum hoodruming his way through the Highlands. I didn’t want that feeling, but it was there. I finished the play and my beautiful lady friend, who is an amazing actress in her own right, got to the end of the very first version which was much longer than it is now, and she said I love that thing you sang, I said ‘You mean the heedrum hoodrum thing’ she said, ‘yes do much more of that, much more of it’. So I put a bit more heedrum hoodrum in and she said ‘I want more’. “When we did Dunfermline, Tom Freeman who directed the play, and did an amazing job sprinkling little bits of fairy dust over it to highlight little corners of it so beautifully, we got to the end of the first read through and he was like ‘I want more heedrum hoodrum PAGE 11

THUNDERSTRUCK stuff ’, so then we get to the concert and I’m doing Pressed For Time and then we get to Thunderstruck and we are doing the old way they used to learn tunes and to me it’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve done in my life, but in itself tells a story about the way that language can’t really deal with what Gordon was doing. In a way the heedrum hoodrum stuff has it’s own little narrative through the play that’s so clever. It’s also a tribute to a man (Hector MacDonald) whose life also ended prematurely, albeit under a different circumstance, but with the same ultimate resolution. Hector the Hero was always in my head part of the play, I just didn’t know what context it would take. “It also pays a little bit of a tribute to a musical I saw in London that it had a bit of Indian Bhangra music in it, where the girl sang this unbelievable wedding song, which in their culture they mourn the loss of the child, she sang solo accompanied only by Shruti box. And the Hector the Hero sets plays a little tribute to the power of that little box and just a voice.” Despite the effort to get the play to the point where it feels like something that can be presented on stage and will engage audiences, the real challenge then becomes actually getting it on in a theatre. Despite the fact pipers tend to think along the lines of Bob Paisley: ‘It’s not life and death, it’s more important than that’, mere PAGE 12

‘...the second you say you are doing a play about bagpipes everybody switches off. They politely laugh and put the phone down – but Roddy booked us for Piping Live!’ mortals often tend to have a love hate relationship with the Great Highland Bagpipe in that they love to hate it (queue bagpipe jokes). So how do you get a play about a piper on? “What was wonderful, was that when we did the Camden show in London, Roddy MacLeod was in London on his way back from The National Piping Centre Winter School in Brüggen. He was trapped there by the ‘Beast from the East’ snowstorm, and as a consequence met for a beer with John Angus Smith, who said you know where I’ve been – I went to see a play tonight about Gordon Duncan and you have to take it to Piping Live!. “We were a proper dead-end at that moment, as due to the weather very few people had come to see it, so I didn’t have any money left to pay anybody to do anything, even to pay the band for their performance – but this one piper saw PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

it and then Roddy got stuck in London and that little moment was the luckiest thing that ever happened to the play. Roddy phoned me the next week, and the play then took a big left turn from trying to find theatres to do the play in and being universally ignored – the second you say you are doing a play about bagpipes everybody switches off. They politely laugh at you and put the phone down – but Roddy booked us for Piping Live!.” Fortunate without a doubt, but now a play that is designed for every-man/woman is now going to play in front of arguably the most knowledgeable piping crowd outside of the Northern Meeting, with most likely a good smattering of people who knew Gordon well. Tough gig to start with although perhaps the easiest given the fondness for Gordon in the audience. “Yes Piping Live! was wonderful for

THUNDERSTRUCK that – the love that I found at Piping Live! for Gordon – I found it quite emotional sometimes because he is now so looked after by piping folk, by all of us, that I just thought it was so beautiful. What was funny for me at the time was, before the show I think people were worried about me, and about the play, I think we got chucked on late on a Sunday, the day after the Worlds because, ‘we don’t know what he is going to say, what he is going to do, what he is going to talk about’. There are certain aspects of Gordon’s life that people don’t want out there, they were worried about, even the Gordon Duncan Memorial Trust, and I’d emailed them almost every step of the way. I think early on they thought I was some mad guy in London and as it got later and Piping Live! came up they knew it was going to happen – even then I think they were a bit worried about it. As it turns out I don’t think they have anything to worry about, it’s very much a love story to a man we are all very passionate about. ‘Chris and Ian Duncan turned up ahead of the play at Piping Live! and dropped some material off for the Gordon Duncan Memorial Competition. When I heard they were in the building I ran downstairs to catch them and joined them at their table. At that moment I was as humble as I’ve ever been, as I realised I had written a play about someone’s brother and brother-in-law and that terrified me, more than any critical reviews we will get in the press. “The Trust asked for one more ticket and I’d used all my comps so I asked Helen if they had any more – I was oblivious to the fact that it was for Ian. Helen sorted another ticket and Ian came, then we did the show and afterwards Ian said he loved it and honestly I could have burst into tears. I said ‘really?’ and he said ‘Yes – I loved it’, and that was enough for me. The analogy I make is if

‘...my optimism about what this play can do is almost there because when I was 13 somebody said I was a World champion, and all of a sudden the world is somewhere I could conquer’ someone else wrote a play about my dad dying of cancer, and I went to see the play, it would be enormously difficult, and I would be terrified about what they would say about my dad, you want something that pays sufficient tribute – I suppose that was a balance for me. I didn’t want to write a Disney cartoon version of Gordon or the pipe band world, there had to be an honesty about his struggles and his relationship with alcohol. Scotland has a very funny relationship with talent, genius, it’s this really funny Scottish thing – the self deprecating thing I like to a certain extent, but only if it’s a self confident self deprecation and despite ‘building America’ with our inventions we have this confidence issue sometimes.” Suffice to say the Piping Live! gig went down a storm with those that saw it recommending it to their friends. An invitation to do two nights at Celtic Connections followed with both nights selling out. Things are moving and the ‘big one’ is now lined up – a run at the Edinburgh festival, and I predict it will be a sensation there. This ‘success’ is of course no fluke, it is down to one man’s hard graft and great belief in what he is doing. David sees this determination as something instilled from his days in the Lochgelly Pipe Band (under PM Tom Brown). “To take a boy from a proper mining village, PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

Ballingry, in Fife, and to go to the World Championships, and for that announcement to be made – I went from a boy from a small mining village to a World Champion (the band won the Novice Juvenile World Championship followed by the Juvenile in the two years following) which was something that my brain couldn’t even comprehend at the time. Actually the world became smaller – and even better than that – it became somewhere I could conquer. “So when I started writing this play, people asked me what I wanted to do with it and I always say I want to conquer the world with it, and they go, ‘Ah, come Dave stop that’, but what’s the point of having goals if all you say is, ‘I’d quite like a wee Scottish tour’? “I would like a wee Scottish tour, don’t get me wrong, but my optimism about what this play can do is almost there because when I was 13 somebody said I was a World champion, and all of a sudden the world is somewhere I could conquer. There is a direct line between what happened when I was 13 and what I’m doing today – there must be. I didn’t recognise that at the time.’ What shines through like the Bell lighthouse on a clear dark night, is that David was profoundly affected by hearing Gordon play, and the play is testament to the privilege that was. “The one moment for me, and it’s a true moment in the play, was when I saw Gordon play in a pub somewhere in Fife and I was 13 or 14 – it was a magical experience. I was musical, I was musical enough to know that it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever heard – but I wasn’t good enough to do it and there was frustration in there for me. I wanted people to experience that conflict and frustration. I loved Gordon’s music from the first second I heard it I thought it was the most magical thing I had ever heard, but I did question how I had been taught, which is something I explore in the play.” The play will run at the Edinburgh fringe in August this year and will, I’m sure, be an hit and there will doubtless be some American, Japanese, French and German tourists who will have a much deeper understanding of the Fife vernacular than they had before the show – let’s hope they are careful how they use it. One thing they will have a clear view on is the impact one young man had on the music of his country’s national instrument, and the love he inspired because of that. Thunderstruck will leave them thunder struck, and that is as it should be. l PAGE 13

PIOBAIREACHD

by Andrew Bova

Seinn Air a’ Phìob – singing W

HEN I was pursuing my undergraduate degree in Piping Performance at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, I received piobaireachd tuition from Jimmy McIntosh, MBE. One of the lessons he instilled in me was the importance of singing piobaireachd. Previously, I had focused on things such as phrase structure and repetition to memorize tunes. While those things are still important for gaining a deeper understanding of the music, Jimmy taught me to look for the melody in tunes and try to memorise the melody rather than the structure. A key way he taught me to do this was by singing my tunes rather than playing them on the chanter. I took this advice to heart, and began working on my tunes by singing through them

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and looking for a melodic line that I could sing rather than focusing on technique and structure. I’m sure that as I walked around the Carnegie Mellon campus singing canntaireachd and nonsense syllables between classes, a fair few folk must have thought me crazy! However, this technique of singing my tunes greatly helped me in the memorization process and in understanding the melodic line of various piobaireachds. Last January, during Celtic Connections, the Big Music Society hosted a concert entitled Seinn Air a’ Phìob, or ‘Singing the Pipes’, featuring the prolific piper and Gaelic singer Allan MacDonald. The focus of the concert was on the relationship between piobaireachd and Gaelic song. This interested me greatly, partly because I’ve attended Big Music Society gigs in the past and have never been disap-

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pointed, but also because I was interested to see how piobaireachd, a type of music I have mostly experienced through the solo competition scene, could be joined with singing and other instruments to recontextualise the music in new and exciting ways, especially given my history with singing the music. I had the opportunity to attend the concert, as well as interview John Mulhearn, Calum MacCrimmon, and Allan MacDonald before the concert to gain some insight into their creative process and what they thought of the project. This article should really begin with a discussion of the Big Music Society for those who are unaware of this inspiring and forward thinking project. The project was started by pipers John Mulhearn and Calum MacCrimmon. A short description, taken from their website, says: “The Big Music Society is a

PIOBAIREACHD

the pipes Calum reflected on the BMS and Seinn Air a’ Phìob. “Myself and John started trying to come up with opportunities for cèol mòr to be on concert stages in various, different ways. … and so since then we’ve tried to do a bunch of different, contrasting concerts. Seinn Air a’ Phìob, I suppose, is a really important and a really obvious one, which is the direct connection between ceòl mòr and Gaelic Song. And immediately that was something we knew we would have to try to put together in a way that was respectful to the tradition but also lent itself to new audiences who maybe weren’t aware, there might be people who are aware of the songs but maybe aren’t aware of the piping connection. There might be people there who have no idea about Gaelic but they just go along and hear some songs with accompaniment and bagpipes for a night. But

piobaireachd being at the root, and that’s the idea for Seinn Air a’ Phìob.” Allan was complimentary of the project, and excited to be a part of it. A version of this concert was performed back in 2015, but the opportunity to revisit the project, expand on it, improve it, and continue bringing piobaireachd to new audiences excited Allan. He said: “I think the idea is taking piobaireachd out there and playing it with other instruments. You know, there is a hardcore group thinking that piobaireachd can only be played on the pipes. You know, piobaireachd is for the pipes and nothing else. So it’s brilliant to see The Big Music Society doing this. There’s a vast repertoire, there’s so many things we can build on, some more things can happen, people will come to it and rethink piobaireachd.” This theme of the relationship between

Photo: John Slavin@designfolk.com

multi-platform musical venture with the aim of creating new and exciting performance contexts for ceòl mòr”. Having spoken with John and Calum about this, they have indicated that they want to create environments where piobaireachd is accessible to a more diverse audience, wherein they can explore the breadth of what piobaireachd has to offer as a music in new and exciting ways. I’ve been to a few of the BMS concerts, and have never been disappointed by the performances. Featuring artists such as Murray Henderson, Fraser Fifield, and Matthew Welch, I’ve witnessed performances featuring extremely high levels of musicianship and ingenuity in a wide variety of musical styles and performance venues. Audiences have been varied in their makeup, and in this way I argue that the BMS is achieving their goal of bringing piobaireachd to a wide audience.

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PIOBAIREACHD song and piobaireachd, of combining pipes with other instruments, was a focal point of my discussion with John, Calum, and Allan. Calum spoke on this, saying: “I think the main theme that we keep coming back to is the connection. It’s not so much thinking about competitive piping, and it’s not so much just thinking about songs, it really is the connection that already exists and has survived between piobaireachd melodies, which are also song melodies, looking at the variations that exist in one role and not the other, and bringing them together into one thing just to showcase how these powerful pieces of music are absolutely linked and can sit together in an entertaining night.” John expanded on this, specifically with regard to the concert’s title. “The title of the concert, Seinn Air a’ Phìob, is really pointing at the fact that in Gaelic you don’t play the pipes you sing the pipes. So that’s the title of the show and that’s the common thread that unites the song to the pipes, really.” I really quite like this idea of singing the pipes rather than playing the pipes. Maybe it has to do with my instruction at CMU, but I’ve always liked the idea that great melodies, around which piping is built, can, and should be, be sung. With our conversation over, the gentlemen took to preparing for the concert, and what a concert it was. A large crowd filled the stunning

Mackintosh Church, the venue for the evening’s performance, and I was struck by the beautiful architecture and stunning visual setting for the musical performance we were about to hear. Held in January, friends came in from the cold and met, exchanging greetings, all eager for the evening to commence. The evening began with John playing a beautiful rendition of the appropriate I am Proud to Play a Pipe as snow fell gently on the windows, followed by a warm welcome by Calum. The first half of the concert featured Lewis singer Margaret Stewart and Lochaber harpist Ingrid Henderson. However, Ingrid’s talents weren’t restricted to the harp, as she joined Margaret in singing as she played. With solo verses and jointly sung refrains, I found myself wanting to join in, though I am not a Gaelic speaker, let alone singer. At the sight of a singer and harpist in an evening centred around song it might be easy

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By George Balderose

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PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

to perceive the roles as singer and accompanist, however, this performance was a clinic in the principle of ‘collaborative musicianship’, wherein both members played an equal role in the presentation of the duets. They made their way through a number of songs including Deirdre of the Sorrows, Lament for MacLeod of Raasay, and The Otter. Most of the songs were set in 6/8 and the duo achieved a stunning lilt to their music, and I noticed the heads of those around me beginning to naturally sway to the inescapable rhythm of the music. Ingrid treated us to a solo set on the harp, beginning with a slow air and moving into jigs, including a few that I recognized from solo piping albums. The audience, again, was moved by the music, becoming a pseudo rhythm section, a chorus of tapping feet filling the church and providing a sense of engagement with the music. Margaret also treated us to a beautiful solo song about the same story as the famous pipe tune Cave of Gold, albeit with a different melody, but equally gorgeous as our pipe tune. To finish, they were joined by Ewan and Megan Henderson on fiddle, and rounded things off with a bit of excellent port à beul. Following an intermission of drinks and mingling, the Big Music Society ensemble took the stage for the main thrust of the evening. They began with MacIntosh’s Lament, with Allan MacDonald performing his trademark skill of singing while playing smallpipes. He was joined on the choruses by the instrumentalists singing along. Seeing the large ensemble, which consisted of a string section, percussion section, pipers, and whistles, all join in to sing the Gaelic, me knowing full well that not all of those present on stage were Gaelic speakers, was inspiring. The stage dripped with musicianship and the effort that all present had put in to learn to sing the Gaelic was evident, paying off with an impressive musical package. The ensemble then moved into The Old Woman’s Lullaby with the double bass providing a drone for the urlar, which was played on

whistle. This moved into the pipes playing with the strings and finished with solo pipes. It must be said that the arrangements in this concert were outstanding, moving from Gaelic song to feelings of solo piping to highly intricate arrangements. The concert moved on through MacCrimmon’s Sweetheart, Isabel MacKay, The Finger Lock, and I Got a Kiss of the King’s Hand, amongst others. All were presented with stories and background, and all were beautifully arranged and expertly executed. Coming from a primarily competitive background when it comes to piobaireachd, it was a treat both musically and intellectually to hear these tunes performed in new ways that inspired and excited me. The crowd listened with rapt attention, and it seemed the concert was over before it began. I would have been happy to sit and listen for another hour, the music was so well arranged and performed. As a piper, I found the performance enlightening. It was an environment that encouraged me to think about piobaireachd in a different way. Allan touched on this during our chat: “When you extrapolate on that [the connection between piobaireachd and song], and you’re doing one of the ones that aren’t connected to song with text, and you extrapolate from there, and you treat the other piobaireachds in the

repertoire the same way you’ll find some amazing melodies and rhythms. So it’s a much bigger picture then. Once you see what happened to the whole tradition, how things were put in and slowed down and that rhythm, that song, that melody was lost, and then you discover the richness of piobaireachd that allowed it to survive.” I have an affinity for competition piobaireachd. I don’t believe that it’s any less valuable or ‘authentic’ than the connection between piobaireachd and Gaelic song. To me, they’re linked but each is musically valid and beautiful in their own way, and I won’t be changing the way that I play piobaireachd in competition. However, it’s always a good idea for musicians to pursue new ideas, and this concert provided new and unique ways to think about piobaireachd and its origins. The Big Music Society aims to provide new contexts and environments for ceòl mòr, and they have certainly achieved that goal in with this concert. Beautiful music, a beautiful setting, informative discussion from the artists, and a large audience that seemed eager to not only listen, but participate in the music shows that The Big Music Society is achieving its goals. Additionally, they expertly demonstrated the nexus between piobaireachd and Gaelic song. I know I’ll certainly be returning to singing my own piobaireachds on the streets of Glasgow. l

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PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

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PIOBAIREACHD

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PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 â&#x20AC;¢ 2019

Photo: John Slavin@designfolk.com

PROFILE

MALIN MAKES MUSIC

ALIN Lewis, aged 19, is possibly the world’s youngest pipe maker, and a rising name in the music world. Malin started playing at eight and had made their first set of smallpipes by 14. For Malin, playing and making have always been intrinsically linked, and there has never been any question of doing anything else with their life. For Malin, music is about creating human connections and helping others to feel things by provoking thought. It is through their own journey in life and music that Malin wants to achieve this. Malin’s music making is deeply personal, and as a trans person, they hope to create more music inspired by gender. What Malin enjoys most are the bits they don’t understand – the note between C and C# – the sense that one sound is happy but another is sad. The hows and whys of expressing emotion in sound are what keeps Malin engaged. Music is a way to explore what it means to be human, and also what it means to be oneself.

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PROFILE

by Elizabeth Ford

Elizabeth Ford’s Ph.D. thesis won the National Flute Association’s Graduate Research Award. In it she explores the connections between flute playing and piping in 18th-century Scotland.

PROFILE Photos: John Slavin@designfolk.com

Background

Malin’s own pipes have some quirks such as hempless joints – which never need re-hemping

MALIN grew up on the Isle of Skye, with a creative and supportive family. Though not musicians themselves, Malin’s parents were always encouraging and interested. Though pipes are Malin’s primary instrument, Malin’s grandfather gave them their first fiddle and their fiddle playing is highly influenced by the style of Duncan Chisholm. Malin studied for two years at Sgoil Chiùil na Gàidhealtachd in Plockton, and is now finishing their first year as a student in the BMus Traditional Music – Piping course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland as a student of Willie McCallum and Finlay MacDonald. Malin and Willie have radically different styles of playing, and Malin believes this has been very formative as Willie’s teaching has helped them understand that while the possibilities are endless, every decision should be questioned and made with reasoning. Malin has recently found a love for teaching as well, and finds it very rewarding, as well as helping their own playing.

Making pipes MALIN had wanted to make a practice chanter since they started playing at eight. Without PAGE 20

any grand plans, they experimented by handdrilling sticks and adding reeds. Predictably these did not work, but the seed was planted. Through a friend, Malin met Alan Soulsby, a wood turner, who had no experience in making pipes. Between them, they figured it out, and Malin produced their first set of smallpipes at 14. Driven by the question ‘how does it work?’, Malin feels the need to understand the workings of the instrument was significant in their making the instrument. Malin has now made three sets of smallpipes of their own design as well as wooden versions of the Lindsay System chanter. Malin believes that the Lindsay System opens up new possibilities for piping and is experimenting with playing the pipes through effects pedals. This creates unique sounds through use of a microphone and pedals like delay, reverberation, chorus, loopers and harmony. Malin’s favourite pedal is the octave which gives the pipes a truly different sound. Malin’s own pipes have some quirks such as hempless joints – which never need re-hemping – and individual drone switches on the common stock. The first set of pipes Malin made

PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

PROFILE

PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 â&#x20AC;¢ 2019

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Photo: John Slavin@designfolk.com

PROFILE were in the key of C, with a plain design and ferrules made from antler from their childhood home in Ardnamurchan. Ross Calderwood, a pipemaker from Lochalsh near Skye, helped with marking the fingerholes out on the first set as Malin did not have access to a C chanter. Malin’s other two sets are in A with brass-lined drones. Malin also makes the bellows and hand-sews the leather bags and has learned that bag making is an art unto itself – their admiration for the hand-sewing bag makers is high! They are currently working to make the Lindsay System chanter more chromatic with a fuller tone. Malin finds the science of pipe making very engaging, and loves how it allows them to create exactly the instrument wanted. They find playing an instrument they’ve made joyous. Malin tends to use decorative woods and wants their instruments to be a thing of beauty as well as sounding good. Other woods used include African blackwood, ebony, boxwood, snakewood, antler and tagua nut. The billets of wood are drilled on the lathe and rough turned, then ferrules of other types of wood are added. Malin then shapes and cuts the profile, sands and polishes. They prefer wax finishes which give the pipes a beautiful matte surface and make them look almost antique. The first set took around 40 days, but the second 30 and the third about 20 days. Malin financed their tools with money earned busking. While making pipes full-time isn’t necessarily Malin’s intention, they do hope to make and sell some very bespoke pipes as a few orders are already coming in. Because of their current residence in Glasgow away from their workshop and tools, progress is limited to visits home to Skye. Malin would like to take this opportunity to ask any readers in the greater Glasgow area who have a spare workshop space to please get in touch! Malin describes themself as a perfectionist, so nothing will be let out until it is absolutely ready. Pipe-maker Fin Moore says: “Hearing about Malin making their first couple of sets of smallpipes while still in high school is a testament to their great interest and passion. It is wonderful now to hear and see the fruition of this early energy. They are well made with a unique innovative design and most importantly, a rich full tone. If the next generation of smallpipe makers are like Malin, the tradition is in safe hands.” As Malin observed, instruments are continu-

‘It takes a curious, creative and persistent musician, able to navigate without the aid of a map...’ PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

ally but slowly being ‘improved’ over time. Five hundred years ago, the Great Highland Bagpipe had only two drones, and now is perceived to be in a finished state by many. Malin however questions this and asks what possibilities there are to improve and adapt the instrument, and the same is true of smallpipes. With so much room to push ahead and explore boundaries, Malin believes it would be wrong not to experiment along the instrument’s evolutionary pattern. The technique of pipe making is an ability Malin finds necessary for self-expression, and this is very influential on their playing. While a set of pipes is a finished work, music is rarely finished.

PROFILE Making music MALIN loves playing music. They currently play a keyed Border pipe chanter by Nigel Richards, and Malin frequently hears that they play in a unique way and not like a “piper”. This could be because of the strong fiddle influence on their playing, or it could be because of their interest in all the other aspects that encompass music. Malin’s favourite note is the note between C and C#, that makes the fiddle resonate most. Their favourite key signature is F# minor, and favorite meters are 3/4 or 7/8. These are not usual choices for pipers, but Malin’s desire is to respect the tradition while pushing it forward. Their goal is to create good energy and have people enjoying their work. Malin recognises the challenge in creating something truly new in traditional music, but is up for the challenge. Traditions, having evolved over centuries, need musicians like Malin to propel them forward to the next phase. Citing Martyn Bennett as an influence, Malin’s music is often rhythmically driven, and

very eclectic. They recently formed a trio with Sam Mabbet on melodion and bouzouki player Luc McNally, in which Malin plays the Lindsay System chanter with pedals. The trio have had some very well recieved gigs in the Highlands already and are looking forward to future gigs including Piping Live! 2019 and Celtic Connections in January 2020. Donald Lindsay, who met Malin last year and has been very encouraging and supportive of their work, says: “Developing technique and repertoire on a new or redeveloped instrument (as both of these chanters are), is a very different proposition to learning a well-established instrument or tradition. It takes a curious, creative and persistent musician, able to navigate without the aid of a map, and I think Malin is certainly that.” Piper Ross Ainslie says: “Malin is someone who thinks outside the box and I like that forward-thinking approach to expanding the instrument and also creating tunes to merge with the advancement. I’m really looking forward

to seeing where the music goes in the future.” Another venture Malin is working on is exploring pìobaireachd with jazz harmony, in collaboration with a tenor saxophone and piano. The intention is to explore the variations with extended harmony and look at how the two share much in common and can sit side by side. While many pipers enjoy playing pìobaireachd, Malin claims fewer enjoy listening to it, especially outside the piping community. This is a way to hopefully display the beautiful, ancient music and make it more accessible. Malin says: “Bagpipes are simply the tool I have to express myself. I love playing them and they are a part of who I am and I want to use them to help explore and help others to express themselves and explore in any way possible.” With that in mind, and the already strong and promising accomplishments, there will be much more to hear from Malin in the near future. l To contact Malin for gigs or queries for instruments email: malinlewis34@gmail.com Facebook/instagram: Malin Makes Music

Donald MacDonald Cuach Friday 7th June 2019

The competition starts at 7.30pm in the Stables Café. Finger buffet served after the competition. Tickets £10 (U-16s free)

P IP ERS AND T UNES CALLUM BEAUMONT A Ghlas-mheur (The Fingerlock) GLENN BROWN Sean Chumha a Chlaidheimh (The Old Lament for the Sword) IAIN SPEIRS Spaidearachd Bharrach (The Pride of Barra) FINLAY JOHNSTON Lament for the Departure of King James (Siubhal Sheumais) STUART LIDDELL Fàilte Fear Bhaghasdail (Boisdale’s Salute) PETER McCALISTER An T-arm Breac Dearg (The Red Speckled Army) ADJUDICATOR: COLIN MacLELLAN SINGER: GRIOGAIR LABHRUIDH Tickets available in advance online or by post. The event will be filmed and live streamed.

Visit our website for details: www.armadalecastle.com/events Armadale Castle, Gardens & Museum of the Isles, Armadale, Sleat, Isle of Skye IV45 8RS

The event is part of Clan Donald Gaelic Arts Week, Scottish Clan supported by Event Scotland. Event Fund

PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

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ALISDAIR McLAREN

The NYPB Development Band in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall Main Auditorium at Celtic Connections 2019

Director, National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland

Youngstars

Q&A with PIPER

Kenneth Macfarlane Q. Where are you from and how old are you? I’m 20 and from Bearsden just outside Glasgow, but live in the city centre now. Q. How did you get into piping and when? I remember hearing my local pipe band (Milngavie) playing in the precinct when I was about four and then pestered my mum to get me lessons. I eventually started lessons at the National Piping Centre when I was around six or seven. Since then I haven’t stopped. Q. Who is your tutor and what pipe band do you play with? I currently receive tuition from Willie McCallum and Finlay MacDonald at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and play with the Glasgow Skye Association in Grade 1. Q. How many hours a week do you spend on piping and how much practice is on your own, with a band or on the pipes/chanter? I aim to have a blow through the pipes every day, even if it’s just for 20 or 30 minutes. What I practise completely depends on what is coming up – if there’s a band competition, I’ll be playing those sets, or sometimes even

just sitting down with the practice chanter memorising tunes for uni. Q. What are your piping strong points and what do you most need to improve on? I’d say my strong points are my expression and technique, however I’d like to work on the overall sound of my pipes. Q. What do you want to achieve in piping? I’d love to have my own trad band, similar to that of RURA or Scott Wood, and maybe someday win the Grade 1 Worlds too. Q. What is your favourite tune and why? It changes all the time. Right now it’s probably Anne Weir’s Jig by Finlay MacDonald. Q. Have you written any tunes? Yes, I write quite a lot of stuff, mainly for whistle rather than pipes as there are less limitations. Q. Would you care to share any with our readers? I certainly would, and thanks for the offer. Here you go...

Douglas Mair's March

Douglas Mair's

Kenneth Macfarlane

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March

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PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

Supported by

Youngstars

Kenneth Macfarlane playing in the NYBPoS tag-team solos at Celtic Connections 2019

Photo: John Slavin@Designfolk Ltd

The National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland Newsletter No.91

PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 â&#x20AC;¢ 2019

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YOUNGSTARS

David's March David's March

March

Kenneth Macfarlane

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The Wrong Coaster

Reel

Kenneth Macfarlane

Kr Krr Kr Kr Kr œœ œ œ œ™ Macfarlane œ œœ œ œ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œœ œœ œœKenneth œ œ J ™™ œ œ Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr œ œ œKr œ Kr œKr œ œœ œ œœ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œKr œ œ œKr œœ œ # œ œ œ œ œ Kr 2. 4 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ™ œ # K 18 r œ Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr œK œ 1.œ œ Kr œ œ Kr 5&# œ4œ œ œKr ™ œ Kœ Kr Kr œ œ 2.Kr œ Kr r œ œ œ œ œœKr˙ œ œœKr œ œœ œœ KrœœKr œ ©œœKenneth r œœ œ œ œ K œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ # Macfarlane 2019 r œ œ œ # œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Krœœ œ œœ & # œ ™ œ œ Jœ œœ œœœœ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ Kr œ œ ™™ œ œ œ œ œ œ Kr œ œ œ & œ œ 1.K 2.K 5 Kr K K Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr r r r 2019œr œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œMacfarlane ## œ œ œ œ œ œKrœ œKrœ œ œœ œ œ œ Krœ œ œ œ ©œKenneth œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Kr œ œ ™™ œ œ œ œ œ œ Kr œ œ & œ 10 Kr Kr Kr œ Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Krœ œ œœ œœ œœ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œKrœ œ œKr œœ œ ## ™ Kr œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Kr œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ & ™œ K œ K 10 Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr r r œ œœ œœ œœ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œœ œ ## ™ Kr œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Kr œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ K 1.Kœ 2.K & ™ œ Kr 14 Kr œ Kr œ Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr r r r ## œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Krœ œ ™ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Krœ œ ™ 2.œ œ œ œ œ & œ œ 1.K 14 Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr r œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Krœ œ ™ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Krœ œ # œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ © Kenneth œ 2019 œ œ œ ™ œ œ Macfarlane &# œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Kr Kr K Kr K K K K ### œ4œ œr œœ œ œ œœrœœœ œ œœ œœœ œœrœœ œKr œ œœKrœœ œœ œ œœr œ œœ œ œ œ Kr œ œr œ œ ™ # ™ œ & œ œ J œ œ œœ ™ & 4

Reel

1.K

Q. What make of pipes do you play, and are they set up with sheep skin and cane or synthetic? I play a set of c.1920 Hendersons with a sheepskin bag. My pipes are usually set up in B flat, so it’s usually easier to stick in synthetic reeds, but occasionally a cane bass when playing in the band during the season. Q. What is the best trip or playing experience you have had with the NYPBoS? I’ve been fortunate enough to have some fantastic experiences with the NYPBoS but I think my favourite has to be last year’s trip to Ortigueira in Spain – playing on stage to crowd of 10,000 people was incredible. It was with a great bunch of people so the craic was good too. Q. What is your favourite part of being in the NYPBoS? Definitely the people I’ve met through the project – some of them will be life-long friends. Q. What are the other band members likely to say about you, or what are you most known for in the band? I’m not sure to be honest – hopefully something nice. I’m usually one of the jokers so probably something about that.

PAGE 26

Kr œ œ

Q. What is the secret of your success? I was kept on the practice chanter for two years so that I could nail my technique before even being allowed to touch a set of pipes, so that is probably a big factor. Q. What would be your ideal uniform if you were allowed to choose it for your band? I think something similar to what the band have now would be good. The brown is a bit of a ‘love it or hate it’ type thing but it’s grown on me. We don’t have any kilt pins, so maybe I’d get those, and change the tie. Otherwise, I’m pretty happy. Q. What would you do or say to encourage other youngsters to learn the pipes? At the start it can be frustrating but if you stick in, the rewards are endless, and you could end up all over the world playing pipes. Q. Do you have any superstitions or any pre performance rituals? Not really, I try not to think too much about what’s going on around me and get on with the job at hand. Q. Who is your pipe idol? Ross Ainslie, however, my old teacher and friend Graham Richardson deserves a mention too. PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

Q. What are your interests outside of piping? I enjoy going out with my mates, going to the gym and playing a bit of FIFA now and again. Q. What do you want to do for a career? I’d love to teach pipes during the week and be part of a band that performs at festivals etc at the weekend. Q. What other music do you like? What’s on your MP3 player? I probably have the most eclectic music taste there is. There’s stuff on my phone from the 1920s all the way up to present day. I’m listening to a lot of Mac Miller right now. Q. Who are your heroes? Honestly, I’ve never really had any. My parents have supported me a lot over the years to allow me to get to where I am today with piping, so for that I’m thankful. I guess they’re my heroes. Q. Are you sporty, and do you follow any teams? I’m a keen football fan and support my dad’s local team Dumbarton. I also follow Manchester United and have been to several games. l

REVIEWS BOOK REVIEW

The Balmoral Guide to Playing Bagpipes for Community Dances by George Balderose

EFORE achieving status as a performer and scholar of bagpipes from the British Isles, author George Balderose spent nearly a decade as a clawhammer banjo player making music for countless square and contra dances in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The knowledge and experience he gleaned from these overlapping realms of tradition are put to excellent use in The Balmoral Guide to Playing Bagpipes for Community Dances, a tutorial many bagpipers have been awaiting for years. The book offers practical guidelines for bringing Highland pipes, smallpipes and Border pipes into the realm of British and American community dances (in particular, contra dances), outlining the basics of integrating bagpipes with other instruments in the band. Following an engaging foreword by Burlington, Vermont, Border piper Hollis Easter, The Balmoral Guide moves on to present a solid overview of contra dance history, protocol and dancer/dance musician interaction.

Most indispensable to a piper, however, are tips on how to deal with bagpipe pitch, volume and dynamics, tempo and pace, tune medleys and arrangements, instrumental embellishments and keeping to the basic dance rhythm. Cautionary wisdom is imparted throughout: “The event is not a concert, it’s a dance run by the caller.”

… “To perform as a member of a contra dance ensemble, rehearsals are important. It is the foolish piper who shows up at a contra dance without going through a few rehearsals with the other musicians.” … “For musicians it is important to keep in mind that the dancers are not there to hear you, but to dance.” The Balmoral Guide suggests several contra dance sets, along with a sample list of tunes found at a standard dance. Sheet music (with chords) is provided for 38 tunes comprising 13 marches, 12 jigs, nine reels, four waltzes. The book includes a 12-minute DVD shows an ensemble of smallpipes, Border pipes, uilleann pipes, two fiddles and piano performing six tunes from the book at a live contra dance. There are four appendices including tablature renderings of the Highland bagpipe scale and Lowland bagpipe scale, two pages of bibliographic sources, audio and video recordings, and relevant website links, plus an insightful descriptive overview of a typical contra dance event and what a newcomer might expect to find upon entering the dance universe. While being of obvious value to a wide range of bagpipers, The Balmoral Guide to Playing Bagpipes for Community Dances will also be of interest to anyone looking for new timbres and textures ito enliven their dance experience. l BY L.E. MCCULLOCH WWW.LEMCCULLOUGH.COM

INCORPORATING THE COLLEGE OF PIPING

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The National Piping Centre, 30-34 McPhater Street, Cowcaddens, Glasgow G4 0HW. Tel. +44 (0)141 353 0220 • Fax: +44 (0)141 353 1570 • www.thepipingcentre.co.uk PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

PAGE 27

THEORY

by Timothy Cummings THEORETICALLY SPEAKING:

Simple matters

‘The Music Theory Police would sternly point out that we ought to change either the way we play that section of music, or change the way we write it’

N the last episode of Theoretically Speaking, we took an initial look at some of the theory behind rhythm and metre – specifically, decoding time signatures (or metre signatures). In case you missed it or would like a quick refresher: time signatures are all about the organisation of beats and beat groupings in written music. The top number of a time signature refers to the number of beats in a bar (which was compared to the number of pickets in between the support posts of a picket fence). The bottom number refers to what note value is assigned the beat (or the width of the pickets). Our main example was the time signature of 2/4, which was revealed to mean a rule of two quarter-note [or crotchet] beats per bar.

## 2 œ & 4

One,

Also in that article was a particularly lame pun involving sheep, but I’ll spare ewe the agony of repeating it. Today I’d like to talk a bit less about sheep, and a bit more about the 2/4 metre and others that fall into the “simple time” category. And then I want to take a side trip to re-examine one remarkably common error involving the notation of pipe tunes that are in simple time. But first, the term “simple time”. Time signatures that fall into this category are those whose primary beats can each be divided by two notes of a shorter duration. For example, in a metre of 2/4, each of those quarter-notes (crotchets) can be subdivided into two eighth-notes (quavers) as shown below:

œ Two

One and

Two

and

“One, Two” followed by the subdivided “One-and Two-and”. It’s binary. It’s very simple. We play a lot of tunes that fit under the simple time umbrella. First, here is a sampling of those typically notated in simple duple time, with two primary pulses in each bar:

THE 79th FAREWELL TO GIBRALTAR Guards, vol.1 setting) 2/4 (Scots - quicksteps, polkas, hornpipes, 2/4 marches, and a few slow marches Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr 2/2 [or ‘cut time’] Kr- reels Kr œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ Those in simple triple time: œ œ

IC TœHEOœ RYœ ## 2 œ™ œUSœ™ & 4 EM TH

œ œ™ œ œ™ œ

œ™ œ

œ œ

œ œ™ œ

3/8 - bourrées 3 temps [from central France, par exemple] 3/4 - retreat marches, waltzes and some slow airs 3/2 - ‘triple-time’ hornpipes [from the Lowland & Border tradition] Those in simple quadruple time:

4/4 [or ‘common time’] - strathspeys and 4/4 marches

(revised notation #1) Kr Kr œ œ

Kr œ

## 2 œ™ œ œ™ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & 04 2

P I P I N G TKO r

(revised notation #2) Kr Kr œ œ

Generally speaking, a time signature with a 2, 3, or 4 on the top denotes a simple time metre. Time signatures with 6, 9, or 12 on the top involve metres in compound time, a topic we’ll look at in a forthcoming issue of Piping Today. Kr Kr Kr Kr Time with œ œ 5, 7, œ8,œ11, œ referredœto asœcomplex. œ œ signatures œ etc. on œthe œtop are œ Those will also be investigated a little furtherœdown the road. œ toœ think this is all But let’s get back to the simple time signatures. I like pretty straightforward for the majority of Piping Today readers. If you find the above concepts aren’t sinking in as well as you’d like, it’s OK! I guarantee you’re not alone, and I’d suggest finding an experienced musician to help explain things in a way that may better match your learning style.

19 œ œœœœ œ

Kr œ

Y A D

Kr œ ## 2 œ™ œ œ™™ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œœ œ & 4 PAGE 28

œ œ™ œ œ™ œ

Kr Kr œ œ œ œ PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

œ™ œ

œ œ™ œ œ™ œ œ œ œ œ™ œ

œ œ

œœ

Kr œ

œ œ™ œ Kr œ

œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ™ œ

One,

Two

One and

Two

and

But I have one more item to discuss, one that may catch some seasoned pipers by surprise. It involves the incorrect notation of a particular rhythm found in many 2/4 marches and hornpipes. Sing this old chestnut in your head for a moment, or pick up a chanter and play it, and see if anything strikes you as not being notated as accurately as it could be. [Go ahead, try it!]:

THE 79th FAREWELL TO GIBRALTAR (Scots Guards, vol.1 setting) Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œœ œ œ œ œ

## 2 œ™ œ œ™ œ & 4

œ œ

œ œ™ œ œ™ œ

œ™ œ

œœ

Kr œ

œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ™ œ

Any guesses? Well, here’s another question 3/4s or 0.75 of a beat in 2/4 time; therefore the way we write it. Assuming the latter is the for you: have you ever been accused of not a double-dotted eighth note is worth 7/8s or more palatable option – because we really like holding that first downbeat, the dotted E, long 0.875 beats in the same metre. The doublehow we’re playing that bit – it would indeed enough? Or have you ever accused someone dotted eighth note leaves room for only 1/8 seem that we need to re-think its written else – a student or fellow bandmate, perhaps – or 0.125 of a beat, which is precisely the same rhythm. But how? (revised notation #1) of the same? It’s very likely, and it’s not entirely value as the D in the pick-up beat. I can think of two solutions shown in the Kr Kr Kr Kr Kr K Kr K the fault of the softwareœr were to of which willœrlook œ If you or œyour computer œ piper. œ œ œ œ œ revised œ notation below, both œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Still can’t figure it out? Here’s another a little strange œ œ to you, and the second of which play that initialœE and F© asœ itœhas always been œ question: Are you giving the F© immediately written, ignoring stylistic convention and stayis less visually cluttered, and thus gets my vote. following that dotted E the exact same rhythmic ing true to that single-dotted E and semiquaver These are both technically correct notations value as the D in the pick-up beat at the very F© rhythm, I guarantee someone will complain for the way in which we pipers perform this start of the tune? I’m guessing so, but then that the E is not being held long enough. Again, familiar rhythm in a 2/4 march. (revised notation #2) why aren’t those two notes written with the it is only being held for I find, however, that the first is not only Kr Kr Kr Kr KrOne, Kr Two this is because Kr 3/4s or One andKr Two and same note value? that first more œ Uponœcloser inspection, œ œ œ the œ œ visually cluttered,œbut œ would œ also confuse, œ œ œ 0.75 œ œ of theœbeat.œ (Subdivide œ œ beat into œ quarter F© has two beams, signifying a sixteenth-note even quarters,œ giving the last to the F©, momentarily at least, anyone sight-reading it for œ œ œ œ œ (semiquaver), which gets 1/4 of a beat in this and you’ll see what I mean.) the first time. The second looks much more time signature; and the D has three beams, sigClear as mud? like the pattern we’re used to seeing, only the nifying a thirty-second-note (demisemiquaver), Never mind. Just know that with the douE is double-dotted, and the F© is now carrywhich gets 1/8 of a beat in this time signature. ble-dotted rhythm, that speedy little F© is now ing an extra beam... “Wait, did you just say THE 79th FAREWELL GIBRALTAR (Scots Yes, Guards, vol.1 setting) written in a way that more accurately matches This discrepancy has never stoppedTO the world ‘double-dotted’?” I said double-dotted. Kr K K Kr but how it is played. AndKrnow, my fellowKr pipers, from spinningKr because we’ve been taught toKr It’sr certainly less frequent in written r music, œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ that special œ œ œ œ œ conveyed hold that dotted E for an especially long I œ time it is completely correct and for real. The same œ œhaving œ knowledge, œbit of œœ œ before snapping out the F© in the remaining charge you to go forth and manually goes for minims, double-dotted œ double-dotted œ œ œ double-dot nanosecond before the next beat arrives. It’s all those sorry, little, falsely written, singlyquavers, double-dotted semiquavers, and so on. always been a matter of style and convention. dotted eighth notes in your piles and piles of Many of you know that one dot adds half the But The Music Theory Police would sternly 2/4 march music. Not until every missing value of the original note to itself. The second point out that we ought to change either the double-dot is avenged will our troubled, weary dot adds half of that—the other dot’s – value. way we play that section of music, or change world find lasting peace! l A dotted eighth note (dotted quaver) is worth

## 2 œ™ œ œ™ œ œ & 4

œ œ

## 2 œ™ œ œ™™ œ & 4

œ œ œ

## 2 œ™ œ œ™ œ & 4

œ œ

(revised notation #1) Kr Kr œ œ

## 2 œ™ œ œ™ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & 4 (revised notation #2) Kr Kr œ œ

Kr œ

œœœœ œ

Kr Kr œ ## 2 œ™ œ œ™™ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œœ œ & 4

œ™ œ

## 2 œ & 4

œ œ™ œ œ™ œ

œ™ œ

œ œ

œ œ™ œ œ™ œ

œ™ œ

œ œ

œœ

œ œ

œ œ œ™ œ œ œ™ œ œ œ œ œ™ œ Kr

œ œ œ™ œ œ œ™ œ œ œ œ œ™ œ

PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

œœ

Kr œ

œ œ™ œ

Kr œ

œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ™ œ Kr œ

Kr œ

œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ™ œ PAGE 29

THEORY

## 2 œ & 4

MENTAL HEALTH

by Dan Nevans

The Dan of La Mancha

HOOO. Ok, this is difficult to explain… In 2009 I had a mental health crisis. I realised I was mentally unwell and had reached an extremely low point. Although I was still able to function day to day I consider it to be one of the most painful and haunting episodes of my life to date. A mixture of events, some positive in reflection and some negative, left me riddled with anxiety which stretched over into my piping and daily life to the point where I found it difficult to eat, sleep or enjoy any activity or experience. I still fight my anxiety on a daily basis. In the decade since what I guess was my lowest ebb I have come to terms with some of the more negative aspects of my otherwise bubbly and proactive personality. Sometimes I fall into panic attacks when I feel particularly vulnerable. Every time I come towards a performance I have to steel myself mentally to be able to perform. Even day to day conversations and interactions can be a struggle and can leave me emotionally drained and terrified. ☛ cont. on page 32

PAGE 30

PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

MENTAL HEALTH

Whatever. I am safe. I am not alone.

PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 â&#x20AC;¢ 2019

PAGE 31

MENTAL HEALTH What is it about humanity that makes us so obsessed with fear and death? Fear is a survival instinct. We are all afraid of death on some level. Our fears, ultimately, all stretch back to this instinctual need for survival. When we perform we put ourselves into a situation where we are vulnerable to scrutiny, to being judged, to failure really. The concept that failure results in extinction makes a lot of sense if you were a hunter gatherer roaming the wilds fifteen thousand years ago where every choice could have consequences that result in the death of you and your tribe. Today, not so much but we are left with a hunk of grey matter that still keeps the old danger senses ticking. In our current culture it’s becoming more and more acceptable to speak about our mental health. I really don’t think my anxiety is particularly exotic or special, especially in our performance zeitgeist. This is not a long article. In fact I’m trying to keep it short. If you suffer from anxiety, performance or otherwise there are several approaches to coping with your situation. For some these feelings are transient, for others it is a lifelong battle. Your first port of call should be to arrange an appointment with your doctor and discuss your specific feelings directly with a trained professional. Neither I nor any member of staff here at the NPC is qualified to treat your individual mental health needs. The topic discussed below is a short overview that likely will not be that well informed but comes from a place of care and love. If you are like me you may feel trapped by your anxiety. In fact you may feel like it’s not anxiety at all but something worse. That’s kind of how it works. Your danger buttons are pushed and your brain frees chemicals that surge through the body to prepare your body for the fight or flight response expect there’s nothing to respond to so you end up in a loop of terror. I am not alone. I am safe. Two statements that begin the fight back. In my mind two of the most important statements I use as a performer. The third most important is: Whatever. Anxiety, performance or otherwise, manifests itself in various forms. Sometimes you feel like you have to bargain with the feeling, as if you can soothe it away. Soothe what away? PAGE 32

It’s you. In the moment the feeling is titanic, unsurmountable and in control. Because of the danger response you are experiencing your feelings of contentment and personal control dissolve and are replaced with uncertainty and fear. Time for the good news. You are the captain of your ship. Anxiety is a wee, snotty bully. A spoilt child throwing a tantrum. The more you seek to placate it the more power it will exert upon you. How do you deal with a tantrum? WHATEVER! Let the feeling go. The more you try to put the fire out, the higher the flames go. If you let it go, let the feeling wash past, the feeling will get better. You will not blackout, you will not have a heart attack, you will not soil your breeks. You will regain control. Here’s a quick dialogue between me and my anxiety at a recent band practice: Anxiety: Your left arm is getting sore. Must be a heart attack. Dan: It’s not a heart attack. Anxiety: You said Heart Attack. You’re going to induce a heart attack thinking like that. Dan; No. It’s not a heart attack. Anxiety; Still sore. Is that getting worse? Mind Kevin Smith (writer/director/podcaster) had a heart attack last year and nearly died and he thought it was food poisoning. Dan: It’s just a bit tired, I played my pipes for an hour today and now I’m at the band practice playing again. It’s not a heart attack. Anxiety; You’re playing all the time, this is unusual. You’re going to have a heart attack in the middle of this MSR. Dan: Whatever. Anxiety: What? Dan: Whatever. Anxiety: Heart Attack Dan: Whatever. I am safe. I am not alone. And thus I sated the feeling for a moment and let it wash over me. This conversation was reprised a while later and dealt with in the same manner. This system is a coping mechanism. Not a magic fix all. This dialogue above is repeated several times over an anxiety event. With time I have been able to use this format to combat the feeling of anxiety and allow me to maintain control of the situation. In his novel “The Ingenious Gentleman Sir Quixote of La Mancha” Cervantes presents us with an analogy for the duality of humanity (Which I believe is the title of the Wu Tang Clan’s first EP) in the bold, titular character of PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

Alonso Quixano, Don Quixote De La Mancha and his humble, earthy sidekick Sancho Panza Quixote is fearless and chivalric, concerned only with his personal goals. Unwavering to the point of seeming insane to the rest of the world. Sancho Panza is grim and realistic, romantic but scornful. You don’t need to know much about seventeenth century literature to appreciate the metaphor put forward by the author. The idea we can be both the fearless knight and the anxious peasant is powerful and appreciating that we can be many different people inside of one person is a freeing notion. Some days I am “The Dan of La Mancha” fearless hero and some days I am “Sado Pantzer” who struggles getting out of bed for fear of what the day may bring. I am proud to say I am both of these archetypes and so much more. When we confront our fears we can see them for what they are, mostly smoke and mirrors. We fear failure so we make up excuses or create situations where we can avoid the fear. The only thing we can do is fight the fear, be the knight errant. Fighting takes energy, it takes strength. You will find that strength in the love of your friends and family. In the brotherhood of your teammates and the pursuit of what makes you happy. Be under no illusion. YOU DESERVE TO BE HAPPY. I felt it was important to use Piping Today as a soap box to speak about this issue. For my whole career I have witnessed players burn out or lose the love of the game because they couldn’t find peace of mind with the performance aspect of what we do and found no support from their colleagues, who likely were in much the same position but too afraid to discuss it. I would rather the art form loses no more people to fear. If I’m honest, I fear the consequences of writing an article of this nature in case it’s taken the wrong way or misinterpreted like I’m in danger of a mental health crisis. I am healthier than I ever have been and feel like I’m making steps forward as a person and a musician. Your issues will be different to mine but I implore you to talk to your friends and family, visit a professional or seek out understanding of yourself. The purpose of this article was to insight a conversation. Till next time, I’ve been “Dan Quixote” wishing you the best of tunes and the best of mental health. l

BILL WRITES

by Bill Livingstone

Hockey lessons ‘This is not meant to depress, or cause despair amongst my countrymen who love this music...’

Photo: John Slavin@Designfolk Ltd

grew up in the town of Copper Cliff in Northern Ontario, and completed my secondary education (“high school” in some quarters) in Copper Cliff High School (CCHS) which boasted a total enrolment of about 300 students in Grades 9 through 13. The town had a population of perhaps 3000, and it acted as the economic driver of the entire Sudbury district, founded on the mining and smelting industry, managed entirely by International Nickel Company (INCO). The school had a senior hockey team called the Copper Cliff Braves – be a little forgiving here of the racial overtones, as it was a different time. This hockey team became legendary, routinely defeating teams from much larger schools in the area. More than that, the team went on to win seven All Ontario Championships, and had countless other appearances in the All Ontario Finals. This amazing team (actually teams, for their reign continued for many years) also won many Northern Ontario titles, Ontario being so vast that it had to be subdivided to accommodate the large distances. I’ve been thinking of the fairly sorry state of Ontario pipe bands, there now being only one Grade 1 band in the province. As I wondered what had happened, my attention turned to the storied success of the CCHS Braves...how could they have prevailed for so long against much bigger schools with many more students to draw on? Two things popped out at me. The first was “ice time”. Stanley Stadium was an arena built in the mid 1930s, named after a major INCO bigwig. It provided the only artificial ice surface in the region for a great many years. The CCHS Braves were given top priority where ice time was allotted, so there was always a great practice facility available. The other factor that stood out was one Bert McLelland. After a short stint working in the machine shop at INCO, Bert was hired by CCHS to teach “shop” as it was then called, though his skills on the various lathes, drill presses, carpentry tools and the blacksmith’s forge (you read that correctly) made it clear that he was really hired because he was a good

their own teaching system with the Robert Malcolm Memorial Pipe Bands. Since this organisation became part of the SFU family in 1994, 2000 piping and drumming students have gone through their ranks, and they now field bands in Grades 2, 3, 4 and 5 with many of their alumni moving up to the SFU Grade 1 band. The band have ensured their future and longevity at or near the top, with this ambitious programme. There may not be anything quite like it elsewhere in the world (except perhaps in Dunedin, Florida.) And what do we do in Ontario? At the moment, not much of anything. The Pipers and Pipe Band Society of Ontario (PPBSO) claims there are teaching programmes, but a search of SFU pipers celebrate their last World Pipe Band Championship win in 2009 their website will not produce the name of one instructor associated with the “hockey man”... which indeed he was. He organisation. coached the CCHS Braves to all of the honours It seems the organisation thought it best to described above. leave this kind of initiative to individual bands The result was an intensive programme of but that has not been effective. We will never top-notch coaching and instruction, coupled close the gap unless outfits like the PPBSO with nearly unlimited opportunities to play and step into the breach... without that, our time, practice. Success was pretty much inevitable. I fear, has come and gone. Schools in Canada Train your sights to Scotland now, in parcould never be persuaded to offer piping and ticular the more than 2000 students enrolled drumming lessons... they’d have more success in piping and drumming in the state sponsored offering Ukrainian dance. Scotland has skin in schools, plus The National Youth Pipe Band the game, this being their national instrument of Scotland, the George Heriot’s School Pipe – we don’t have the same deep interest. And the Band, the Dollar Academy Pipe Band and the drop in immigration from Scotland means we Scottish Schools Pipes and Drums Trust, and have fewer native Scots to encourage their kids who knows how many other private initiatives, to take it up. This is reflected in the sad number with kids being taught everywhere by highly of spectators at Highland Games and band competent instructors. contests, as well the loss of so many pipe band Little wonder that Canadian or North contests during what used to be a hectic season. American bands have a daunting challenge at This is not meant to depress, or cause despair the Worlds. Since 2009 when Simon Fraser amongst my countrymen who love this music. University were first, a Canadian band have It’s offered as a call to arms. People, we must not won the Worlds. SFU have maintained a DO something. l strong presence at the Worlds because they have PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

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COMPETITION

New Zealand Pipe Band Championships Dunedin 2019

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PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 â&#x20AC;¢ 2019

COMPETITION

by Fraser Bruce

The vast expanses of the Otago Cricket Oval as the contest venue provided ample room all round, with a packed main stand and the most delightful grass under foot for a steady march in. Though staged two weeks later than its traditional mid-March slot, this year’s event was blessed with sunshine and pleasant temperatures throughout its two-day running. One of the New Zealand scene’s signature features is the Saturday morning street march, which brings town centers to a standstill as large crowds clamour to see what all the noise is about and get an up-close look at the legions of bandspeople who have invaded their city. The concept also serves well to highlight the almost ‘Olympic’ feel of the entire event, as the National Championship moves to embrace a new location each year. Though there’s a full panel of judges across all disciplines dotted along the route, with bands encouraged to dress to impress to meet the drill and deportment aspects, this doesn’t mean there is a lack of scope for innovation. No-one showed this better than the ILT City of Invercargill under

Photo: Susanna Buckton

HILE many bands in the northern hemisphere dust off the cobwebs ahead of their summer competition season, all eyes and ears turned to the piping and drumming world’s furthest outpost for the New Zealand National Championships in late March. Held this year in the distinctively Caledonian-flavored city of Dunedin – which incidentally hosted the first truly nationwide pipe band competition back in 1926 – the setting itself couldn’t have been much better for bands. Known as a lively university town, the vibrancy of Dunedin with its plentiful green practice space and wealth of motel-style accommodation made it a fine stop for the traveling circus of pipe band people to do their thing.

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COMPETITION All photos: Susanna Buckton

Drummers from the Hamilton Caledonian Development Band

Band members from Waimatuku Southern Scenic

New Zealand Police Pipe Band Hawke’s Bay Caledonian Pipe Band

the direction of pipe major Ali MacKenzie and lead drummer Davy Clark. Their inventive street march set gets underway with a headturning drumming intro which snubs the sacred three-pace roll medium, leading into a couple of lively hornpipes to saunter confidently down the street. The Invercargill group would later go on to comprehensively secure the Grade 2 title in amongst a strong field, paving the way perhaps for a return to the top grade if they can continue the momentum of their fine teaching programme. As it has been for the last three years, the Nationals were livestreamed and broadcast around the world thanks to the team from Brassbanned, run by Australian Tim Kelly, with bass section pioneer Tyler Fry providing colour commentary and a series of on-field interviews to add a new scope to the coverage with his distinctive dose of enthusiasm. This much welcomed technological advance allowed enthusiasts the world over to tune into all the action, culminating in the hotlycontested Grade 1 competition. Featuring four first-rate bands, all of which have been regular visitors and, indeed, finalists at the World Pipe PAGE 36

the level of hype and standard of the competition. First up was the Manawatu Scottish Society, who have for years punched well above their weight on the world stage, peaking with 9th place finishes at both the 2007 and 2013 Worlds. Led by long-serving pipe major Stewart McKenzie with distinguished New Zealand solo piper Stuart Easton as pipe sergeant, the Palmerston North-outfit were again strong contenders. Also Young Benjamin Berry in the piping ranks was Boghall enjoying the marchpast and Bathgate-stalwart Jonathan Simpson, owing to a connection Band Championships over the last decade, the with pipe major McKenzie, who National Championship serves up the toughest himself enjoyed a summer with Boghall in and most challenging single day of competition the mid-2000s. The band’s energetic medley outside of the Worlds itself, with bands drawing set featured the Gordon Duncan classic Just a MSR set on the line, before returning shortly for Seamus, and a pair of tidy performances in afterwards to air their Medleys. It’s perhaps this both circles brought the band into the mix for full-on element – not to mention the stunning the big prize. The drum corps, led by Perth, Kiwi scenery and hospitality – that regularly Australia-based South African Gary Potter, and draws in many pipers and drummers to have a boosted by regular guest player and World Solo tune in the off-season, all of which helps elevates Drumming runner-up Gareth McLees, came PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

COMPETITION Manawatu Scottish Pipe Band

Lindisfarne College Pipe Band

Waimatuku Southern Scenic Highland Pipe Band

Canterbury Caledonian Society Pipe Band

through to capture the drumming title. The Auckland and District pipe band from the country’s northernmost and most populated city fielded a huge unit, with over 22 pipers lining up under the charge of pipe major Ben McLaughlin and former SFU-man Louis Norton heading the drum section. Like many of their rivals, they also welcomed players from afar, with several members of the high-flying Grade 1 Johnstone Pipe Band, including pipe major Keith Bowes Jnr, making the trip to aid Auckland’s assault. The New Zealand Police came into the event as the reigning champions after dominating proceedings at Tauranga the previous year. Now

led by pipe major Scott Giffin, a Glasgow-native now based in Wellington, with the back-end being driven by the unmissable beard of lead drummer Angus Crowe, the group welcomed a large contingent of overseas players to bolster their title defence. Their medley featured a number of well-known favourites such as The B52 hornpipe by Eric Rigler, and hit a rousing finish with Murray Blair’s classic New Paradigm reel. Despite a considerable turnover in key personnel since its 2018 win, the band remained well and truly in the hunt again, and in fact headed the field after a tight MSR contest. Last up was the Canterbury Caledonian Society, hungry to reclaim the crown after losPIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

ing out in 2018 following a six-year winning streak under the stewardship of Richard Hawke and James Laughlin. Now led by Richard’s son Jamie, with Brayden Drummond taking the helm of the drum corps, they drew the rarelyheard march David Ross of Rosehall in their MSR before presenting a new medley with original compositions from Australian Simon Blackshaw. In the end, the band did enough over the two runs to emerge top of the pile and duly captured its seventh title in eight years. Given the tragedies which occurred just two weeks prior at the Al Noor Mosque, it was an emotional win for the Christchurchbased band. Fitting tributes to those who lost their lives were also made with laments and a minute’s silence held during the massed band proceedings, as the quintessentially Kiwi spirit shone through strong. While this year is likely to see only the Canterbury Caledonian make the huge pilgrimage to Glasgow Green, the high standard and young talent on display from across New Zealand bodes well for the future, as the top bands continue to raise their game and push each other on to new heights from down under. l PAGE 37

NINE NOTES

Nine Notes from J

A M E S H a r p e r, 2 3 , f r o m A y r s h i r e i s p u t t i n g t h e f i n a l t o u c h es to a new project under the name of James Harper & The Border Crossing Band. James is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s BMus Trad Music – Piping course and for the last three years has been a member of the band Dosca and more recently become a member of the Red Hot Chilli Pipers. Piping Today caught up with James just after he returned from a month long US tour with the Red Hot Chilli Pipers and he gave us a quick Nine Notes to bring us up to date with his musical life.

‘Over the four years I attended the RCS I picked up vital skills that are pretty important in the life of a full-time musician’

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Q. Tell us briefly about you and your piping history. Have you always been on the path of a traditional musician rather than a competing piper? I competed in some of the junior solo competitions when I was younger but it was never something that really excited me so I ended up falling away from it. I’ve also played with a number of pipe bands and was with Strathclyde Police for about four years. I had always admired the performance aspect of traditional music as opposed to competitions, so I jumped at the chance to start playing with other musicians. Q. How did the band ﬁrst come together? The Border Crossing Band is a fairly new concept but I have been playing with Jean Damei, David Lombadi and Craig Baxter for years. I’ve been in Dosca since it was formed about three years ago and I have been touring with the Red Hot Chilli Pipers for the past eight months, although the band’s been on the go for almost 15 years! PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

NINE NOTES Q. What would be your all time favourite pipe tune, or set of tunes, and do have a current favourite tune or set that you enjoy playing at the moment? I love a lot of tunes so it’d be hard to chose just one. Right now I really enjoy playing a tune called The Lost Time Reel by Jeremy Kittell. I play at the Ben Nevis bar in Glasgow almost every week when I am not on tour so I constantly pick up new tunes from other instrumentalists and not necessarily pipers. Growing up, I loved Fred Morrison’s Up South album so I learned it from just having it on repeat all the time! I also loved the Finlay MacDonald Band’s albums which showed me the pipes in a different light. Q. What make of pipes do you play and how do you have them set up for playing on stage? (Sheepskin/synthetic/cane/plastic/moisture control, chanter type etc.) Within Dosca I play a set of silver and ivory McCallums, a wooden B¨ McCallum chanter and a Bannatyne synthetic bag. With the Chilli Pipers I play a set of nickel and imitation ivory Wallace Bagpipes with a plastic Wallace B¨ chanter and a Canmore synthetic bag. These are great to tour with as there is hardly ever any trouble at airports and they are super light. With the Border Crossing Band I’m using the same set up as I use in Dosca, but I’ve moved over to the new McCallum Cèol chanter which I’m a big fan of. Q. How important was/is the RCS and the BMus Trad Music – Piping in your musical development? Very! Over the four years I attended the RCS I picked up vital skills that are pretty important in the life of a full-time musician. Finlay MacDonald, who was my principal study tutor when studying for the degree, influenced me massively. He encouraged me to attend folk sessions, learn the whistle and really push the boundaries of my playing. Q. Can you tell us about any other important inﬂuences on your piping and development as a musician? I’ve always admired Gordon Duncan’s work. His compositions blow my mind and it’s safe to say that lots of my repertoire comes from him. I know many stories about him and I’m pretty gutted that I never got to meet him. I really feel that he paved the way for the style of piping thats in such high demand so I don’t think I’d be doing this if it wasn’t for him. My parents have always been very supportive as well.

James Harper Q. What is the most memorable or prestigious gig you have ever played — and why? Well, two come to mind. I played with Dosca at the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards a couple of years ago when we were nominated for ‘Up and Coming Artist of the Year’. Unfortunately, we weren’t successful in getting the award but on a personal level we were over the moon with our performance. And secondly, on the Dosca summer European tour we played alongside our friends in Treacherous Orchestra at the Montelago Celtic Festival in Italy. The main stage held about 20,000 people so it was probably the biggest crowd I had ever played to. The weather was incredible and we nailed our set. I’ll never forget that! Q. What contribution do you add to the tunes and songs the band choose to play? Do you try to get piping tunes included where you can? Do you compose tunes? My new album Culzean will feature mostly my own compositions, with a couple of modern classics finding their way onto the record. Within Dosca, we play a couple of my own tunes alongside some great pieces from the bagpipe tradition. Luc McNally and Charlie Stewart, who are in the band, compose great tunes that fit on the pipes, so we play their compositions as well. Six of my new compositions are also on the new Chilli Pipers’ album Fresh Air which will be out June 6!

Q9. What do you do when you are not playing music? Studies, hobbies, day job…? I tour full-time, so whenever I’m not on the road, I’m rehearsing or in the studio writing new music. I try to go to the gym and stay healthy as touring isn’t the healthiest lifestyle, but it is all I have ever wanted to do so you take the good with the bad I guess. I am also really into other styles of music other than folk/traditional music, so I try to get to as many gigs I can.

Q. How enjoyable was the recording process for your new CD and what is the next step for getting it released? The process is going great for Culzean. The guys are really passionate about my music and there is a great energy in the studio right now. We are recording the album with my good friend Scott Wood at Oak Ridge Studio. Scott’s got a great ear and he’s a top professional and I would highly recommend him to anyone looking to record in Scotland. Q. Tell us something signiﬁcant about yourself, or the band, or your music, that you would like to share with the readers. I am really excited about my new album! I’ve been pretty anxious and nervous about releasing music under my own name since the album process began. Thankfully, I have three amazingly talented friends to help combat this. I think people will be surprised as some of the tracks are pretty different to what I have done before. You can pre-order it now from jamesharper.bandcamp.com and you can keep up to date with how it’s going on my social media accounts! l

Find James on Instagram: @jamesharpermusic_ and on Facebook: JHarperMusic

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COMPETITION TRIBUTE

by Stuart Milne

Flanders Red Cross trio I

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Greg McAllister, Anthony Doherty & Rory Grossart – the judges trio from Inveraray & District Pipe Band

All photos: Angelino Dejaegere

N the Northern Hemisphere the coming of spring, changing of the clocks and anticipation of Easter signal an important phase in the pipe band competition calendar: the indoor contests. Many bands use these to test their latest material, blood new players and dust off pre-season cobwebs sheltered safely from the wind, rain and sleet they might well encounter in the so-called Scottish summer once the season begins in earnest. One such contest – with a twist – can be found in the small town of Hamme between Antwerp and Ghent in northern Belgium. The Flanders Red Cross Pipe Band have been welcoming pipers from Belgium and the Netherlands to their practice facility in the Hamme Red Cross building for seven years, with the latest edition taking place on February 24, 2019. Holding a trio contest, as opposed to a more traditional quartet, has two advantages in this part of the world: it offers an unusual format to help the local scene stand out, and it allows bands to submit more entries, particularly among those less focused on the competitive aspect of the hobby. The adjudication panel was a reason to attend in itself, with Rory Grossart, Greg McAllister and Anthony Doherty of Inveraray & District Pipe Band flying in specially to assess the thirty-odd performances, and of course give their hosts a few tunes over the course of the weekend. While the relatively small Red Cross facility might not stand out as a natural choice for a piping competition (the Great Highland Bagpipe being notoriously loud in confined spaces), organiser Joris Panis and his team of volunteers have developed a clever system – soundproofing two tuning rooms close to the main hall as best they can with blankets, with each trio given twenty minutes to prepare for their performance. This arrangement clearly works well, since the audience were generally able to enjoy the performances in the main hall despite the next batch of competitors tuning up just a few metres away.

PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

COMPETITION

competition ‘...here was a classic case of a band winning by performing the fundamentals well. This result is another significant boost for Inter Scaldis, who won every contest they entered in 2018’

The competitors and judges, and a busy audience (right), at the Flanders Red Cross trio competition 2019

The contest began at 9:30am with the host band, led by pipe major Luk Devillé, ultimately emerging victorious in the Grade 5 contest ahead of the Wallace Pipe Band in second and the Cape Breton Highlanders of Friesland in third. Flanders Red Cross are not one of the most established competitive bands in Belgium, but on the evidence of this clean playing and good tuning, they have potential to succeed in the lower grades. Grade 4 was the largest grade by far, with various trios from six bands (Wallace, Antwerp

& District, Flanders Memorial and Blue Stone from Belgium and Inter Scaldis and the Dutch Pipes & Drums from Holland) taking the music into lunchtime. The standard of playing was generally strong, barring a few unfortunate mishaps, but sustaining the sound throughout the performance became the biggest challenge for most trios, with those able to hold their tone naturally finishing higher up the list. It was the start of a very good day indeed for Inter Scaldis, whose first trio won the march competition ahead of Antwerp & District’s Trio 1 and the PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

Dutch Pipes & Drums. Blue Stone Pipes & Drums were awarded the prize for most musical performance at Grade 4 level. Three trios – two from Wallace and one from Inter Scaldis, stepped up to test themselves in the Grade 4 MSR. Wallace showed ambition in playing up to this level with reduced numbers in the 2018 outdoor season and still seem to be finding their feet in this discipline, as the Inter Scaldis trio again took top spot. The Grade 3 medley contest featured six trios, with three Grade 4 bands pitting themPAGE 41

COMPETITION All Phot0s: Angelino Dejaegere

The Inter Scaldis trio who were winners of Grade 4 and also the Open Grade MSR

The Antwerp & District trio, winners of Grade 2

selves against the top two bands in Belgium: Antwerp & District and Belgian Blend, with the latter fielding two trios. The format allowed the lower-grade bands to try out some more adventurous material with their strongest players, although evidently there can be such a thing as trying too hard. Nonetheless, the Dutch Pipes & Drums, led by pipe major Thomas Kerkhof, were the surprise package of the grade, delivering a solid performance of a characteristically musical medley reminiscent of Thomas’ tenure at the helm of Antwerp & District in the 2000s, with a mixture of well-known tunes and what may have been some of his own arrangements/ compositions. It is good to see one of the most creative talents of the Benelux piping scene active in competition again. Tom Noels of Wallace has also crafted an enjoyable medley, featuring the sumptuous slow air Sarah’s Song and ending with the reel The Famous Bridge, a tune once used by the 78th Fraser Highlanders to end their concerts. Belgian Blend have made one change to their medley from 2018, replacing their hornpipe opener with 13th Fredrick Street, a march PAGE 42

by the new Lomond & Clyde pipe major Don Bradford. Antwerp began their selection with Rev. AWR Mackenzie’s Revenge and ended with what appears to be a new arrangement by pipe major Dries Papen of Fred Morrison’s instant-classic jig Skye, previously played by Inveraray & District and now many others. They were the only band to take advantage of the contest rule allowing bands to tune in the performance area for up to three minutes, but only briefly to make sure the drones had settled in the new environment. Antwerp were victorious in Grade 3, with Belgian Blend’s two trios finishing either side of the Dutch Pipes & Drums in third. It was much the same story in Grade 2, with the three Grade 3 trios finishing in the same order. The headline result of the day, however, came in the Open Grade MSR, as a visibly shocked pipe major Gilbert Hekhuis accepted the first-place trophy on behalf of Inter Scaldis, who upset their higher-grade Belgian opposition with a well-delivered performance of their Grade 4 MSR on well-set pipes. Belgian Blend and Antwerp played more complex material but PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

The Flanders Red Cross trio, winners of Grade 5

did not have the most perfect of runs or bestdefined gracenote work in all cases: here was a classic case of a band winning by performing the fundamentals well. This result is another significant boost for Inter Scaldis, who won every contest they entered in 2018, and on current form they are one of the bands to watch in Grade 4B when they travel to Inverness for the European Championships in June. Before the results were announced, the appreciative Belgian/Dutch audience enjoyed a short performance from the three judges in a trio of their own playing some Inveraray tunes, closing ranks at the end to play strikes on each other’s chanters in the last part of The Mason’s Apron. The competition was an unusual, inclusive and intimate event that set up some intriguing storylines for the outdoor season ahead and let the lower-grade bands show off material we will likely not hear from them in a full-band setting. It is worth going to next year if you find yourself in this part of Europe in February – and if you happen to over-indulge in the notoriously potent Belgian beer, there are worse places to have an accident than a Red Cross facility. l

PIOBAIREACHD

by Dan Nevans

He Derum, Ho Derum An account of the 2019 Piobaireachd Society Conference

HE Piobaireachd Society is a force often overlooked in our competitive piping world. The Society quietly and thoughtfully works away promoting and curating our shared history of ceòl mòr while The National Piping Centre, The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association and The Competing Pipers’ Association and many more are all much more public and vocal in the media. The annual Piobaireachd Society Conference is an opportunity for the brightest minds in Piobaireachd to present research, music and have constructive discussions on the half of the art form most exclusive in its nature and elusive in its exact history and musical context. This year’s conference was held in the auditorium of The National Piping Centre, the move from the Birnam Hotel to Glasgow has already been applauded as a hugely positive move by many and I would happily add my own thanks and kudos to the committee for their wise choice. Wasn’t that an eloquent introduction? I’m all pleased with myself for writing that, my high school English teacher would wipe a tear of pride from her eye. If you’re still reading this article at this point well done. A worry I share with many of my fellow piobaireachd enthusiasts (I cringed writing that. I feel like I’ve just admitted to some capital crime against coolness. I’m sure in heaven Joe Strummer has rolled his eyes and sighed heavily.) is that our active performers in piobaireachd have little interest in the history, cultural development or composition of the music but have focussed their sights so strongly on competitive success that it is easy to feel like the art form has lost its way. That’s probably not a sensible worry, more pipers are playing piobaireachd and studying the music to greater depths than the previous generations were able to, and the Piobaireachd Society’s hard work over the past century has paid off in that we now have access to more settings of tunes and research about the socio/ historical context of the tunes. A fine example of this research was our first speaker of the day, Dr Jack Taylor who treated us to his talk “A New Look At Old Competitions”. Dr Taylor’s lecture revolved around the

Falkirk Tryst Gold Medal contests through the 19th century, 1806-1844 (although Dr Taylor points out that by this point the contest had in fact moved to Edinburgh). The details of these contests give us an insight into some of the developments in piping contests that in the modern day we take for granted. Personally, I greatly enjoy these sort of “deep dives” into the societal history of the art form. Dr Taylor is a deft guide through the world these pipers would have lived in, explaining that many of these performers would have served in Spain and later France in the Napoleonic war as regimental pipers, that the Romantic era of orchestral composition was in full swing and its effect on the Scots populace was to envision the dynamic Highland piper sounding the resounding notes of a bittersweet piobaireachd. A piece of information that truly turned my ear was the mention of the two bodies that supported the event; The Highland Society of Scotland and The Highland Society of London. In short the Society of Scotland organised the event and the Society of London paid for it. A situation which draws a keen parallel in the politics of our contemporary Britain. To highlight the development of the pieces played in this era, Dr Taylor was joined by Iain Spiers, who performed The Prince’s Salute and Young MacLeod of Colbeck’s Lament and John Dew who played the Donald MacDonald setting of The Massacre of Glencoe and The Marquis of Argyle’s Salute, the latter of this was performed on a Donald MacDonald replica pipe which was kindly loaned for the performance by Mr Andrew Frater. The full transcript of the lecture and its slide presentation is available on the Piobaireachd Society website, www.piobaireachd.co.uk. I’m going to move on to the rest of the conference pieces as I fear revealing any more will distract the reader from seeking out Dr Taylor’s talk on the above website and enjoying the intricacies of the 19th century piping world and the characters there in. Put it this way – I got six pages of notes by the end and looking back across them and reading the transcript I feel I’d be short changing you by revealing any more. You’re aye on your phone anyway, you’d be as PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

well reading something that doesn’t just rot your brain away. After lunch we were treated to some tunes by the Piobaireachd Society bursary beneficiaries from 2018; Jamie MacRae and Campbell Fraser. The panel discussion that followed I feel shows the passion and care that those of us who follow the art form are want to display. “My Piping Life and Times” featured Andrew Wright, James Burnet, Tom Spiers and John Dew. An intriguing panel which featured a man in his nineties who received lessons from Pipe Major Willie Ross, two Clasp winners who’s tuition ranges from Donald MacPherson and Donald MacLeod to Pipe Major James MacIntosh and Peter MacLeod Sr, and a young man of 20 at the beginning of his career who is currently being taught by Willie McCallum and Finlay MacDonald on the RCS’s BMus in Traditional Music (Piping) and is a hopeful contender for the Silver Medal. The panel was ably curated and directed by Gary West, perhaps best known as the presenter of BBC Radio Scotland’s Pipeline but who also holds a Personal Chair in Scottish Ethnology and is Director of the European Ethnological Research Centre at Edinburgh University. Gary opened the panel by asking each of the speakers to give an overview of where they got their piping and for all four contributors the list of tutors and the connections of their piping lineage was very impressive. Andrew Wright told us about the “Great Peter” of piping, Peter MacLeod Sr and the tuition he received in his boyhood in Govan, Peter MacLeod Jr’s almost supernatural ability to play was discussed and the fundamentals taught by these men. James Burnet enlightened us to his connections to some of the most influential piping names in the twentieth century: Pipe Major Willie Ross in his tower room in Edinburgh Castle, James Campbell of Kilberry and the Cambridge Piping Society of the mid to late nineteen forties, Cpt. John MacLellan and his almost holistic approach to interpretation. Tom Spiers told us of his tuition from his father John Spiers in the Ayrshire town of Darvel but his piobaireachd had came from a family PAGE 43

PIOBAIREACHD friend, Jim Jeffries who lived in Glasgow and would travel down to Ayrshire to teach Tom. Later Tom would attend lessons with legendary exponents of cèol mòr, Donald MacPherson and Pipe Major James MacIntosh. John Dew told us of his time with Anne Spalding and Cameron Drummond as well as his current tuition with the gentlemen at the RCS mentioned above. With the introductions finished the panel took questions on the type of pipes played in the early twentieth century and how pitch had affected the performance. I’m trying here to not give away that this panel discussion kind of got out of hand. No one chucked a glass at anyone but at points it did feel like the wheels were wobbling if not activly shaking off. What caused this disharmony? Same as always; new compositions in competition. I’m just going to step out of this article for a second to voice a pet peeve: “modern” and “contemporary” can be used as interchangeable terms. Can we as a culture stop referring to tunes written in the mid-twentieth century as “modern” please? Fine pieces, as many of them are, they are not “of the moment” as the title would suggest. The works of Pipe Major Donald MacLeod and Cpt. John MacLellan are the most obvious examples but when we think of these men as performers we firmly place their great successes between 1945 and 1981, yet their true immortal legacy of composition

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is often seen as a novelty or annexed beyond the classical canon. Just play the tunes already. Anyway, back to the rammy… I’ll give you the highlights, I tried to keep track but if I’m honest I was fair enjoying myself with the to and fro of the discussion. The major points raised were: •Pipers are frightened to put in twentieth century/oblique settings of classic/obscure/ contemporary or original tunes in case they are shunned by the judges on the day or develop a “brand” which is unsuccessful. •The Piobaireachd Society should be praised for their inclusion of twentieth century tunes in the Silver Medal two years previously and the Music Committee’s awareness and research into the tunes contemporary or otherwise. •The classic compositions evolved over generations and a contemporary piece would not have had that kind of gestation period. •Limits of composition on the instrument. •Pipers being taught to be successful in contests but not how to independently interpret and compose. Pretty hairy stuff right? Now it’s at this point I should tell you that I asked a few questions myself and instead of observing like a good boy got involved and asked “Is competition an appropriate venue for new composition?” Tom Spiers replied: “What would you suggest we do?” I offered: “We could book a venue, sell tickets and hand out the scores”. Tom, quite

PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

rightly, told me he’d leave it in my hands. Buy the next Piping Today and I’ll tell you the rest. Gary West calmly and effiicently brought the ship to shore and we were all gee’d up for Patrick Molard; The Movie as opposed to the TV series. The film is actually called MacCrimmon’s Gold and is a journey through Patrick Molard’s piping life as well as an insight into his work as a teacher at the Music School of Carhaix. The film is a delicate and tasteful affair which treads lightly through Patrick’s history with the Great Highland Bagpipe framed with music taken from Patrick’s collaborations with a jazz trio to explore the innate rhythms and tonality of various piobaireachds. Molard takes from Brittany to Aberdeenshire, across Scotland and back again. A fine adventure and an enjoyable watch. I didn’t hang about for the dinner but I heard it was a good laugh. In the end I guess I should say that piobaireachd is in good hands – yours. The Piobaireachd Society continues to do good work for the Big Music but I implore you if you are still young enough to get up without going “oouggghh” and have even a passing interest in the history and structure of ceòl mòr please attend next year’s Society Conference. You’re bound to learn something new and be able to contextualise and share that wisdom and after all that is what The Piobaireachd Society is really all about. l

GREY’S NOTES more than two dozen medals on display: Strathpeffer, Atholl and Breadalbane Gathering, Inverness – the north and west of Scotland was well represented – and all were sterling silver or assayed gold. “These come from the estate of a close relation to John MacDonald of Inverness,” said the canny, knowing shopkeeper. He opened the case and allowed me to handle the pieces. For that is surely what they were (and are), pieces, museum pieces. There were no bargains here. This High Street gent knew what he had on offer. An especially fine gold medal, pictured on the preceding page, caught my eye. The hallmark indicated it was made in 1905. On the medal’s front, impressive and fine work by an early 20th century goldsmith; on the back the words, “Won by John MacDonald”. I was thrilled to hold something that the great piper – one of the greatest ever – had once held in his own deft hands. I didn’t really have the cash to buy the medal. But I did. You’ll have figured that out by now. This is why God made credit cards, I rationalised. This medal was won by MacDonald and awarded, I reckon, for his first “senior piobaireachd” win (as the contest is known today) at the Argyllshire Gathering in 1904. As I get older I question more and more the value of things; you know, material things. Possessions. Beyond things like chairs and cutlery and shoes and all that – utilities, stuff that makes living livable – what about baubles and bling? John MacDonald twice married but never had kids. I surmise that this lot of medals – “possessions” – landed in the hands of a niece or nephew, and they timed out with their progeny not much interested in stuff that belonged to a great uncle. We know that this medal mattered to MacDonald. In fact, we can see that medals mattered to the great man. Information from

The Piobaireachd Society’s website offers a timeline of MacDonald’s life. Here is the entry related to his Argyllshire Gathering win:

John MacDonald of Inverness

“13 Sept 1904. First Piobaireachd Society competition, Oban, won by JM.Results and tunes played are said to be on record, John’s being The King’s Taxes. The prize included a gold medal and there was a delay in awarding as it was not ready on the day, the Society not having yet settled on the design. As late as November 1904 John wrote two stiff and business-like letters complaining about the delay.”

The medal I’m looking after is dated 1905. It seems likely to me that this is the medal John MacDonald (eventually) received well after his winning 1904 King’s Taxes. Again, when I look at MacDonald’s Oban medal I’m reminded of a lot things: the high craftsmanship common a century ago, that a great piper named John MacDonald lived and made wonderful music, that this medal mattered to him and that this medal did not matter to his ancestors, those care-taking his stuff. Or better put: things he once possessed. My dad was a great collector of things. He appreciated old stuff: from the quirky to the highly crafted. He never apologised for it. “I enjoy these things,” he’d say. He knew that he was care-taking objects and the day would come when he wouldn’t care – the day of his last breath – and it was to someone else to treasure, or sell, or, for that matter, destroy. And so, in my effort to reconcile the idea that “things” matter, at least a little, I came across a quote that speaks to me. From author and podcaster, Fennel Hudson: “fine things are reservoirs for the heart”. John MacDonald’s medal, this cold gold thing, strangely, projects warmth. In this thing I’m reminded of him. I hope the caretaker that follows feels even half as much. l

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INCORPORATING THE COLLEGE OF PIPING

PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

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Reservoirs for the heart

T was a bleak, frosty, light-starved January day in Edinburgh about 20 years ago that it found me. The kind of day where the only cure for quaffing a little too long – and often – from things in Glasgow connected to things Celtic called for a long walk in the cold. Oddly, it’s that special kind of lugubrious, frigid grey that is the Old Town in winter, that can be the most curative. And so I walked. From Waverley station to the occasionally punishing uphill steps of Fleshmarket Close, to Cockburn Street and finally “The Royal Mile” – High Street. It seems to me that today Edinburgh’s tourist areas are never really quiet, even at times when the days are shortest. It hasn’t always been this way. On this January afternoon, streets were muted. Locals, students and a hungover piper aside, the place, then, was slim pickings for the determined piping busker offering his tunes near the gobby Heart of Midlothian. To the distant – and untuned – soundtrack of a gracenote-free rendition of Skye Boat Song – I was drawn, pulled as if otherworldly, to a city centre antiques shop. The place, with name carefully etched on the storefront, had been around a reliably long time. The faded gold leaf letters on the window gave away as much. A push of the door and a corresponding ring of the horse bells that hung from the handle marked my entrance to the small shop – that, and a blast of humid, faux-tropical air. As if in a willful attempt to create his own private city centre Caribbean retreat, the elderly shopkeeper had heaters blazing to the max. This place was no Jamaica. Jammed to the beams with shimmering silver and gold plates, brooches and every shape of Scots Victoriana ever conceived, the shop had a smell just like the basement of the home of my first teacher, Aberdonian George Walker. The basement of George’s suburban Toronto home was the place where he would teach. Come to think of it, basements – rare to homes in Europe (and dare I say, Scotland, too) – are the go-to spot for piping activity in Canadian homes, at least the ones where pipers live. The aroma was a quirky mix, heavy with notes of cowhide, mustiness and Airtight bag seasoning. Though the smell of it suggested otherwise, this Edinburgh shop wasn’t a piping place. And I loved it. Bread baking and George Walker’s basement: fantastically evocative scents – two of my most liked. And yet, for this moment in time, this High Street antiques hot house was a piping place. On this day, under the scratched glass of the old display case were glowing pieces of treasure: shimmering gold and silver. Medals. Piping medals. Holy Hannah! “What’s this, good sir?” (I didn’t really put on any BBC4 voice). I do recall my surprise, though,

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‘An especially fine gold medal caught my eye. The hallmark indicated it was made in 1905’

PIPING TODAY ISSUE 96 • 2019

when I found he did hear my question through the impressive tufts of hair sprouting from his ears. Hirsute lugs seem strangely common to shopkeepers of the antiques kind. “Yes, we just got this lot in last week,” he said. The medals were of a very high quality, a kind not often seen today where disposable plastic or chrome trophies often rule the waves of prizegiving at piping events. Cast-molded images, the names of well-kent places and downright fine artwork was everywhere. There had to be

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