IN THIS ISSUE Letters(3): Mouth Blown Pipes(4): North Hero 2003(7): Summer School 2003(8): Hamish Moore Concert(12): Interview - Robbie Greensitt Ann Sessoms(15): Dance to Your Daddy tune (23): Washington s march(24): "Bagpipes and Border Pipers"(26): Jackie Latin(32): Harmonic Proportion(34): Collogue 2003(38): Reviews(52): Letters appropriate key were again made. From Peter Aitchison Sets pitched in D with Highland Dunbar, Scotland fingering had actually been made in the mid-19 t century by the Glasgow Looking back into the Common Stock maker William Gunn. Sets fitted with issue of Dec 2002 [Vol 17 No.2], practice chanters exist but they suffer Nigel Bridges writes about the from the poor intonation and tone of strathspey "The Gruagach" by P/M the miniature pipes. D.R.MacLeennan on page three. On In my opinion the revival of any page fourteen Iain Maclnnes mentions instrument or tradition depends upon D.R.MacLellan. Maybe it should be several factors. There must be an D.R.MacLennan? P.S. I knew him. interest or demand for the particular instrument, there must be music appropriate to the instrument, and From Robbie Greensitt there must be instruments available. Monkseaton Northumberland This implies that there must be EDITORIAL hit the streets and, judging by the [abridged - Ed] makers, players and music publishers, The cover picture of a musette was orders and comments, has been well I was surprised by Colin Ross and as well as other enthusiasts like purchasd by Ian Mackay in Bombay! The received. assertion in the June issue of Common historians, working together to promote the revival. All of these have musette is considered by many to have Border pipes continue to grow in Stock that he alone was responsible for influenced the development of the the revival of the Scottish small pipes, contributed to the success of the popularity as the reports on the modern Scottish small pipes. It cannot Scottish and Northumbrian smallpipes.... North which he claims originated in Hamish Moore concert and Northumberland. My perception is be laid at the feet of one man. Those who attended the AGM in Hero meeting illustrate. And all four totally at variance with his. If you have anything to add November will be aware of changes to trophies from Border pipe Over the past few weeks I have concerning the revival of the Lowland the committee - some of which appear at competitions in 2003 (LBPS, NPS, made a nuisance of myself by phoning tradition and the early days of the the top of this page. Changes have also Rothbury TMF, Moth Gathering) and talking to many of the leading Society, please pass it on to me or been made to the web site to try and deal are at the moment held by one piper - lights of the Scottish traditional music Jeannie Campbell so that we can with enquiries more effectively. Those Matt Seattle. Surely a first? field. What has been confirmed is that produce a more definitive history. seeking assistance with their pipes are the original interest in the small pipes Now the LBPS Summer School has a occurred in Scotland in the early pointed towards the new Technical new venue (again!). Auchincruide From Colin Ross Advisers - Jon Swayne, Richard and seventies when several traditional near Ayr. Although the move to the bands were looking for an alternative Monkseaton Northumberland Anita Evans and Julian Goodacre. And Glasgow University Campus (see p.8) , to the Great Pipes in their line up. The withquestionnaire this edition there s a received the thumbs up from all the miniature pipes suffer from poor tone Can I make it clear that in my letter to committee designed to help the LBPS , participants, the University decided to and intonation and, whilst the Common Stock in June regarding the judge more accurately w you, the up the hire charge to an unacceptable Northumbrian small pipes found a revival of the Scottish small pipes I members, want from your Society. Delay level. Now it will be held with the limited acceptance for some styles of was not claiming that I was entirely not a moment, but fill it in and post it off. already established "Common Scottish traditional music, they were responsible for the revival of the As most readers will know, the Manua! Ground Scotland". inappropriate to the Highland style. instrument. I may have started it, but other local Northumbrian makers soon at last This was when attention was first and CD-ROM (review p.54) have Jock Agnew jockagnew@n,aol.com focused on the Scottish small pipes. put to use their skills in making the Existing examples in museums Northumbrian small pipes into differed only slightly in detail from developing the Scottish small pipe that the early Northumbrian small pipes - was then taken up later by the makers i.e. very small chanter and an North of the Border. inconvenient pitch. This was when sets with larger chanters in a more The recent Session pipe [see CS 18.1 p.42 - Ed] structurally is like a modified - MOUTH BLOWN SMALLPIPES AND Border pipe with volume of tone somewhere between that of the piob mhor and GARVIE SESSION PIPES a Border pipe. It is made of Mopane wood [though blackwood is an altrnative], with boxwood mounts and gold plated tuning pins. Bag seems to be elkhide. the David Kennedy shares his experience of playing mouth-blown pipes in Drones fully combed and beaded. The chanter holes have been sited to allow for climate extremes of California, and some of the problems found and solved semi-tones [cross-fingered accidentals] - along with the usual Highland when using cane and plastic reeds. fingering [for the standard scale]. The chanter has a conical bore and the reed is scraped to allow a small amount of moisture only on the blades and to be blown The [mouth-blown] Shepherd smallpipe which I play has tonic note D 293.66 lightly. Moisture control is achieved by a rather elaborate water trap - long cps ETS. Its structure is essentially African blackwood: drones, tuning pins and plastic tube with a chamber at the end filled with hygroscopic small particles, slides, and chanter. Drone reeds are single beating plastic tongues affixed at base and thin walled sponge below that chamber. I have experimented with this of tongue by a glue spot with an "0" ring tuning bridle. The bass drone is single apparatus and for me, at any rate, a removal of about 1 cm of particles and the jointed and all drones (bass, baritone and tenor) are in a common stock. Chanter use of the sponge, I can play the pipe continuously for about 35 minutes. Nigel reeds are double reeds made of a white plastic and wrapped with Teflon tape - [Richard], the maker, says that if all the water trap devices are left in, it should presumably to stop leaks and to tune the reeds. Their tone is almost as good as a play for about an hour - and then to remove the water trap and put in the comparable arundo donax reed. The bag appears to be Gortex or a similar alternate trap. However I find that leaving everything in the trap makes for material. Some chanter reeds sent to me by Gordon Shepherd have a brash rather hard blowing - so possibly my removal of the particles in the catch coarse tone, so I smooth them out by wrapping an orthodontic rubber band chamber has limited the continuity of playing. At first I removed the green around the blades just above the top Teflon windings. The tone of those reeds is sponge, but now have decided that it is a necessary feature if the chanter reed is more plastic than comparable arundo donax reeds, and, like many plastic chanter not to be wetted too much. Evidence of too much moisture on the reed blades is reeds they tend to sgriach 1) if fingers do not quite close a hole and 2) if blowing that bottom A goes flat, as does C#, and top A goes too sharp. Nigel warns the pressure is too slack. Tuning drones to chanter is tricky because occasionally piper not to fool around with the chanter reeds. And that is good advice; but with `sympathetic overtones occur when the bottom D is played; but minute the vagaries of our climate here the piper will have to continually watch the adjustments of the tuning slides on the drones can correct that. Once the pipe is "setting" of the reed and ensure it is snug in its reed seat and not set too far out. tuned and is playing well, I leave everything as it was set up, and store the But unless you have made chanter reeds, I d say that squeezing the brass tuning instrument in a long enough box so that I don t have to move the tuning slides. bridle on the chanter reed to open it up is inadvisable, and will absolutely wreck The drone reeds have lasted many hours of playing and still have a good tone the modal scale. and "come in" readily. The chanter reeds last longer than arundo donax ones but eventually do conk out. All plastic reeds are susceptible to changes in moisture On my Session pipe I ve had a quirky difficulty in tuning the bass drone. The and temperature but much less than we d expect from arundo reeds. And all drone reeds are modified Easy Drone plastics. If you move the rubber tuning reeds are difficult in our hot, dry climate here in the interior valleys of bridle up even a smidgen, the drone will come in at the same note as the two California. If the drones are disassembled, re-tuning them will take time. The tenors (by the way, no baritone drone), and if you open the tongue up too much chanter itself is short so the finger holes are closely spaced. The piper will find the drone will "roar". There is but one setting for the slides on my model - and that disconcerting at first, especially if he/she has been playing a longer chanter one setting of the tuning bridle. So that to bring the bass drone [in] accurately on another smallpipe. When all the reeds are " "t" cor rectly, the blowing the top slide should be up on the pin near the hemp, and the bottom slide down pressure should be light, but moderate enough to get a steady tone from the pipe. on its pin close to the projecting mount. To get all these items to perform as they The drones should rest across the chest and not on the shoulders. should the blowing will have to be constant and moderate - not too light and not too heavy. The eventual tone is on pitch A 440 cps ETS; has the quality of a Audience reaction to its sound can be negative 1) because the D is high and has Border pipe but perhaps more mellow, and the scale is well balanced. The a flute-like tone, and 2) because non-pipers have the impression that Scots play chanter is excellent BUT fingers have to be well placed and cover the holes the piob mhor only and are in a standing posture, and 3) because the piob mhor entirely or there will be some strange sgriachan. I do not think that this pipe is conical chanter gives the hearer the impression that it is higher than it actually for a novice. But when you have it going it is a fine instrument and just about is, but has the tone which is unique to that instrument, and THAT is what the any tune can be played on it. The big caveat is not to let too much heat and bagpipe should sound like!!! The wee chanter is very acceptable to fast moisture get to the reeds. I plan to use this pipe for professional gigs, as well as fingering, as for Nova Scotia reels and jigs, for example. But as I said, listeners the D Shepherd pipe. do prefer a lower pitched pipe.
4 The Piping Brigadoon on Lake Champlain A seminar on accompanying border pipes with guitars and citterns in which Dan Houghton - yet another phenomenal young border piper - showed his A report on the 2003 North Hero Pipers Gathering www.pipersgathering.org stuff while Nigel Richard - Edinburgh-based maker of BP, SSP and stringed Michael McWilliams is a technology marketing executive and writer from instruments - demonstrated how it all works with some truly fine folk-jazz Cohasset, Massachusetts, USA. He took up the Highland Pipes in 1999 and is chords on the cittern. Ian Mac Harg and Aron Garceau conducted a similar currently extending his novice skills to the Scottish Smallpipes. seminar earlier in the program. In the constellation of the world s annual piping events, there is nothing quite like • A demonstration and discussion about accompanying the pipes with fiddles, The North Hero Pipers Gathering, which has been going on since the first gathering entertainingly conducted by the pipemaking father and son team of Fin and in 1985. Hamish Moore. As in previous gatherings, this year s event featured a full curriculum of seminars • An elegantly presented depiction of the Cape Breton style of piping for step- and tutorial sessions with some of the world s most accomplished pipers. Those dancing, as demonstrated by Barry Shears on the Smallpipes and the precise instructors also provided what can only be called an all-star lineup of talent for the footwork of his talented daughters. two evening concerts. • A hands-on beginners session for newcomers to the Northumbrian Veteran attendees have now come to expect the extraordinary from North Hero Smallpipes, patiently led by pipemaker Richard Evans and several concerts, and this year will be noted for surpassing even that high expectation. experienced NSP players. There were much-anticipated performances across the board from a host of North Hero regulars. • A standing room only seminar on basic Uilleann Pipe technique conducted by one of the instrument s most renowned modem masters - Jerry • Jerry O Sullivan, Benedict Koehler, Deborah Quigley, and Jimmy O Brien O Sullivan. Moran on the Uilleann Pipes. • A presentation on the expansive musical possibilities of traditional double- • Ian MacHarg and Barry Shears on Scottish Smallpipes (SSP). chanter pipes, led and demonstrated by the inimitable Julian Goodacre. • Ian Lawther and Chris Ormstrom on the Northumbrian Smallpipes (NSP). A traditional hallmark of the North Hero Pipers Gathering is that it gives experienced and prospective pipers alike an uncommon opportunity to talk with In addition, the audiences enjoyed some unexpected flourishes such as Jimmy pipe makers from around the world and to play their instruments before making a O Brien Moran s singing, Hilari Farrington s harp accompaniment to her UP- choice. Pipemakers on hand with their wares this year included Richard and Anita playing husband Benedict Koehler, and the precise Scottish step-dancing of Barry Evans, Hamish and Fin Moore, Nigel Richard, BC Childress, Michael Mac Harg, Shears daughters. David Quinn Benedict Koehler, Kate Mark Cushing, Julian Goodacre, Seth Gallagher, David Boisvert, and Michael Dow. Ultimately though, the 2003 gathering will likely be remembered as the point when Border Pipes (BP) emerged on the North American piping scene by virtue of Of the many other offerings, one stands out for its novelty and pure historic value: dramatic concert performances from young Fin Moore and Graeme Mulholland. On the ongoing demonstration of treadle-lathe pipemaking by woodworker George both evenings, Fin and Graeme treated awestruck audiences to driving, musically Lott. Working away continuously on a treadle of his own design, George provided intense BP numbers - both solo and in duo -- that were roundly" acclaimed with an emblem of the deep sense of roots and tradition that distinguishes the North such adjectives as "riveting", "sensational" and "mesmerizing. They left no doubt Hero event. that the border pipe is clearly coming back into its own, with the young bucks leading the charge. Since 1985, pipers have come from far and wide to savour this kind of experience. As the last sound of pipes echoed away from the 2003 event, and North Hero Island Some exceptional performances were discretely embedded throughout the three- once again returned to its rural peace, the common refrain was "see you next year." day program as well. This writer was especially impressed by several sessions that represented the sheer musical breadth of the North Hero Gathering. For the North Hero Pipers Gathering, there s always another Brigadoon.
6 GALLOWAY SUMMER SCHOOL 2003 Now, those evenings. It has been a feature of the Galloway Summer School that the evenings are arranged not only as a spell of relaxation and entertainment, but the pipers can gain experience in playing before strangers and along with other Six years ago David instruments and with other musicians. And although these evenings form only a Hannay opened his home voluntary part of the course, few pipers opt out. Families can meet up and listen to a group of bellows pipers and organised a or take part. week of tuition and On the first, day, the Monday, all the pipers and any family members are diversion, and with (now encouraged to get together for a meal. This a great chance to complete the legendary) lunches process of putting names to faces. Then when the tables have been cleared and provided by Janet, his the chairs pushed back, pipes and other folk instruments appear, and tunes are wife. Born from a long shared. This year there was an English concertina, two or three fiddles, any held wish to encourage number of whistles, a mandola, and a harmonica or two. Some play from the piping in the Southwest of written music (and here the LBPS Session book is frequently in evidence) while Scotland, it became an others might look on and listen and maybe learn a thing or two annual fixture known as the Galloway Summer Session - Jim Buchanan, lain Maclnnes and Jock Agnew With the course now based in Dumfries, the folk clubs of previous years were, School. Now, along with the Melrose weekend, Collogue, Competition and for the most part, denied to us because of distance. Instead, an evening was held Burns Supper, it is included as an LBPS annual event, and the venue has been in the Globe Tavern in Dumfries (famous for having been one of Burns regular moved to the Scottish Agricultural College, Auchincruide, near Ayr, as part of watering holes), and where local musicians meet from time to time. And `Common Ground Scotland . Now Jock Agnew, who has been one of the tutors Tuesday night was one of those times! The beer glasses fair rattled with the since the Summer School was first started, assesses the effect of this move. swing of the music from smallpipes, Border pipes, Cornish pipes, whistles and Any change to a well-tried formula can bring uncertainties. fiddles. On that evening Matt Seattle drove over from Galashiels, thereby doubling the number of Border pipes in evidence. And Robert Burns himself The first week in August, the height of the holiday season, was purposely looked benignly down from his frame on the wall as tunes from Dixon and chosen for the Summer School so that pipers could bring their families along to Peacock and other sources filled the air. this popular and beautiful holiday are. . Then, leaving the pipers to squeeze new techniques out of long-suffering bellows and bags, the families can go visiting Wednesday saw us all at the pub in Corsock, where the local folk musicians or exploring or take part in the many village Galas that spring up at this time of joined in when they could and led the field when they couldn t - playing the year. And for the evening activities - folk clubs. dinners, session playing - incredibly rapid Irish jigs (why use only one note when 12 will do!). Thursday, they can join in. And it can also be good camping weather, and that saves on the the final evening, we stayed on the campus, and were joined by Wendy Stuart B B bill - though Neil Corbett might not whole-heartcdly agree about the and a class of clarsachs. There was also a massed band of smallpipes - well, ok, weather as he explains on page 10. that was us - encouraged by the other tutor, Iain Maclnnes.
There is no conflict of interest between the Melrose weekend and the Galloway When quiet descended on the Friday afternoon and the last car had left the Summer School. Indeed, they complement one another. The weekend allows premises. there was time to take stock. Those attending the course had been v pipers to be shown new methods and techniques and be introduced to new tunes in ited to complete an appraisal of the venue, the facilities, the food, the to take home and practice. Given a whole week of tuition, though, as is provided organisation and the teaching. For the most part it was `thumbs up , with just in the Galloway Summer School, pipers can build on technique and musical some minor hiccups on room availability. The campus itself, with the open knowledge and monitor their progress. There is a positive development of skills, outlook (the river Nith not far below), seems ideally suited to this sort of week. and an increase in understanding and repertoire. Tutors have a better chance to assess individuals. They can build on existing skills, and steer the piper away So now the indefatigable David Hannay is organising the next one on behalf of from any doubtful practices that may inhibit development. There is also the the LBPS for 2004 - for which the dates and details are on the back cover of CS. opportunity to give individual tuition away from the group environs.
8 according to our ability. To do these exercises tree from distraction, we were Fear and trepidation able to take advantage of the many vacant rooms in the building, so we each had cured in a lunatic asylum - our own private space which Jock would come and visit in turn. There were university staff still working in the building and quite what they thought of a week s therapy at the strangled sounds of doublings etc. being practised over and over from every nook and cranny I can only imagine. To their eternal credit, they just smiled! LBPS Summer School We novices were a mixed bunch. Two had border pipes, I had my A smallpipes, and the fourth member, Fergus, had none! He was a singer who wanted to try Nei/ Corbett gives his impressions of the teaching week in Galloway and hopes that it might give encouragement to similarly hesitant novice pipers. out bellows pipes to see how they would work as an accompanying instrument. Amazingly he had never set hands on pipes before. So it goes to show that you It was with some trepidation that I drove up the M6 on my way to the LBPS don t have to be an expert to attend the summer school. Jock lent him a set of summer school at Dumfries. I m only a novice piper, and self taught at that. smallpipes, and by the end of the week Fergus was making all the right noises. How would I fare under the scrutiny of the proper pipers? Would it all be beyond me? The last thing I needed was a blow to my confidence (or what little I m not sure what the top group were up to, but they all seemed busy. I think I had) with my smallpipes. quite a few new tunes were learned. We all met up at breaks of course, so we didn t feel segregated. Well, Monday dawned somewhat dismally. I had elected to camp at a site just outside Dumfries, camping being one of my other hobbies, and the LBPS week After a very acceptable lunch each day, there would be a bit more basic work, turned out to be one of the few wet weeks this summer -just my luck! The followed in mid afternoon by a workshop for the whole school. By then I was event is held on the site of a former lunatic asylum, and I was beginning to feel usually too exhausted to practice much more and welcomed the break. My that was personally appropriate. favourite workshop was "making your pipes easier to play" by Richard and Anita Evans, in which I learned a lot about setting up and maintaining Arriving at the site was however a pleasant surprise, because it s a lovely place smallpipes. Other sessions were on border repertoire and on modes and scales. - elegant buildings in well manicured parkland. Anyway, clutching my natty plywood pipecase, I took a deep breath and stepped inside the building to be met Each evening the group would gather for a session somewhere in Dumfries or a by a very genial chap who turned out to be David Hannay and was quickly made short drive away, and we were often joined by local session musicians. The best to feel welcome. Other students were assembling and introductions were soon of these session was in the Globe Inn, apparently Rabbie Burns old local, where sorted. At least people seemed friendly enough. I began to relax just a bit. we had an appreciative audience, and we were joined by Matt Seattle who had driven over from Peebles. These sessions gave us novices a chance to hear the After the usual introductory session we split into two groups, in which we proper pipers, notably the brilliant Iain Maclnnes who tutored the top group, and remained for the rest of the week. I was safely in the beginners / novices lot of course Jock. along with just four others. Next day it was one less because one of us was rightfully promoted to the top group. So us novices had a lot of personal Sadly, I had to miss the final day in order to get home for a funeral, but the week attention, and of course we were to be tutored by the redoubtable Jock Agnew, was more than worth the effort. So my initial fears were groundless. Thanks to who as many of you will know, has tact, patience and understanding by the Jock I learned a great deal, and really felt I had had a lot of individual help. Not bucketful. Not that Jock will let you get away with sloppy playing, and woe only that I had made some new friends, and generally had a good time. I betide anyone who lets their chanter dangle. wouldn t hesitate to recommend it to pipers of any standard. My thanks and congratulations go to David, Jock and lain for a great week I very much hope to The general pattern of each morning was a group lesson in some aspect of basic return next year, although I don t aspire to move up groups. I ll be very happy technique, with each of us being called upon to have a go under Jock s watchful and comfortable to keep my L plates on for a while longer. eye. After that each of us would be set an individual practice exercise by Jock
10 HAMISH MOORE CONCERT OF PIPING really did them justice as he powered through some tunes from his St Lawrence TOWN HALL .FRIDAY 31st OCTOBER, 2003. O Toole band days; The Man from Skye hornpipe along with a set of jigs; and PITLOCHRY his final set of strathspeys such as Dell in the Kitchen, and King George s going Report by Rona Macdonald. into the King s Reel, Glenlivet and a Scot Skinner tune, The Left Handed Fiddler. Malcolm demonstrated great technical ability in his use of natural notes and cross It was a mad dash through Friday night rush hour traffic to make it to Pitlochry in fingering, which at that speed, on Border pipes needs some skill (not that we are time for this event, but well worth the hassle factor. Arriving in time to grab a jealous or anything!). quick fish supper, there was no need to enquire as to the whereabouts of the venue - it was obvious from the queue snaking out of the door and halfway down Last on before the half time break was star of radio and local favourite, Gary the street where the concert was to be held. Extra seats were being found and laid West. Gary commented that it was almost 30 years to the day since he had had out for those who hadn t bought tickets in advance so that no-one went away his first chanter lesson in that very hall - he must have started at a tender age disappointed, although this did mean rather a "West Highland" approach to the indeed! Despite a few problems with tuning his pipes (apparently the tuning nominal start time of 7.30pm. room was much cooler than the hall itself) Gary made his way through a pleasant set including Kilworth Hills, Clan Alba March and some border tunes such as Ian Green came briefly to the stage to appeal for quiet and to explain that the Linkumdoddie, Bobbing John and Dixon s Highland Laddie which were an ideal event was being recorded for a future CD [and the live album will also include contrast to what had preceded. Had we been at the Northern Meeting (again) Anna Murray and Graham Mulholland], before the MC for the night, Andy Gary would almost certainly have been shown the red light for the length of time Hunter, introduced the first piper. he tuned, but the result was worth it for his final set, slow air Drumcorrie, Galician Jig, Scarce o Tatties and Langstrom s Pony. Fittingly it was Fin Moore who kicked off the evening with three short sets on a fine sounding set of Border pipes in A. After Horsburgh Castle and the Famous The event was sponsored by Edradour Distillery and during the interval the raffle Baravan - a Fred Morrison tune - he was joined by Simon Bradley, the fiddler, prize of a bottle .of their 12 year old malt was won by some undeserving soul (ie whose contribution was slightly lost under the volume of the pipes, which was a not me), the rest of us receiving a miniature with our ticket. This was very well shame. During Fin s final set Frank MacConnell came on stage and did a few received and most of these were consumed during the concert. steps to some fab Cape Breton style strathspeys and reels and a huge cheer from the audience. A very accomplished, relaxed performance with faultless attention The second half commenced with undoubtedly the most popular piper, Gordon to rhythm. Duncan who came on to a huge cheer. Gordon was the only Highland piper in the line-up and characteristically he did not make any attempt to introduce any of Duncan MacGillivray, by contrast, seemed ill at ease in this setting - indeed he his tunes, however we recognised lots of "big" tunes in his set and he finished commented that this was a more nerve wracking experience than playing for the off with a March (with variations), Strathspey....and Jig. (Highland Wedding, gold medal! Duncan was the first piper with Battlefield Band and a lone voice Susan MacLeod and Alan Macpherson of Mosspark). We do not feel that (chanter?) for many years on the folk piping scene and many have trodden in his Gordon was on form on this night - he had several noticeable lapses and his pipe footsteps since then, but he is rightly famed more for his Highland piping than for made some uncharacteristic squawks. the Smallpipes he played at this event. Had we been at the Northern Meeting however, he would undoubtedly have won the Best Dressed Piper award for his 3 One of our personal highlights of the evening was the "quiet man" Iain piece green tweed suit and checked shirt! MacDonald who played a set of lignum vitae Smallpipes in the key of A. Initial lack of a bass drone was quickly sorted as lain launched into a fluid set of 9/8 jigs Hamish has a passion about acoustic events: all the pipers played without including Lochaber Dance. He was joined by Malcolm Stitt on guitar, which was amplification - which of course is the way our music is best heard, but the lack of a fantastically subtle touch and gave a great lift to lain s faultless playing. We a PA system left much of the audience completely at a loss to make out any of got a selection of old style reels and quicksteps and tunes of his own making all Andy Hunter s introductory comments, or to hear the muttered rantings of many of which blended into a quickly established groove, the only pity being we of the pipers who were supposed to be announcing their tunes, but who could couldn t hear the names of any as they were announced. only have been addressing their comments to their own feet, which was rather disappointing. lain s brother Allan was the next performer, with a change of pipe key to C Smallpipes. Allan gave us a set of tunes featuring Inverness Gathering, No such difficulty with Malcolm Robertson, one of 4 local boys playing in this Macpherson s Strathspey and a plethora of reels including Girls are fond of concert. His chosen instrument was a set of boxwood Border pipes in A, and he Gossiping (the title of which seemed to particularly amuse Allan) and Ann
12 13 MacKechnie to warm up - although many pipers, we suspect, would be delighted to show off such dexterity as their piece de resistance! As many will be aware, Allan has a good singing voice and he sang a song of the 45 about John Roy IN CONVERSATION Stewart in Gaelic while accompanying himself on this very mellow set of pipes. His set concluded with audience participation in a nonsense song by Alex with MacKenzie which was a fun item. ROBBIE GREENSITT ANN SESSOMS
Iain Maclnnes chose a set of pipes in D for his set and he played a number of Anxious to be politically well known tunes such as Murdo MacKenzie of Torridon by Bobby MacLeod, correct, 1 enquired as to MacDonald of the Isles March to Harlaw, Because he was a Bonny Lad and the whether they wished to Lowland Dance. Sweet pipes, (our preferred key), Iain is always a well prepared be called Heriot and performer and a great supporter of the LBPS. He made passing reference to the BBC Pipeline website which apparently receives more hits than any other BBC Allan, or just Robbie and programme, a testament to his own sure handling of the production and Ann. "Well, we trade as presentation through the years and the strength of interest from pipers all over the Heriot and Allan. People world. know us as that.... "
Before the concert concluded, Hamish stood up to make the customary vote of thanks and to explain the concept behind the concert. Although she couldn t Ok. So how did you come attend, the originator was in fact Mairi Campbell, whose song The Piper and the by the name? Maker was the inspiration for the event [see CS Vol 16 No.1]. Mairi sang this song at our own Burns Supper two years ago and it tells of the maker who constructs the bare bones of an instrument, and the player who puts the life and R In the mid-to-late seventies, while living in the Watford 1 St Albans area, I met soul into it through the music. It s a powerful song and the concept took life with several makers and players of early musical instruments, gaining from them much these 8 great pipers showing just what a range and breadth of sound and feeling useful help and advice, especially in tuning and intonation. My interests extended can be had from this one instrument. All were playing pipes made by Hamish from woodwind to stringed instruments, particularly the clarsach. I was fortunate and Fin (except Gordon) and each one was different in character. Hamish is enough to receive instruction from Marie Goossens, then an active supporter of the never one to shrink from a bit of self publ icity, but he really needs no other advert London branch of the Clarsach Society. My first harp was built following than for an audience to hear his pipes in full flow on such an occasion as this. published plans, and like so many amateur-built harps it started pulling itself apart Andy Hunter suspects that future generations will mention the Moore name in the even before it was up to tension. It was passed on, with the traditional metal same breath as other famous pipe makers such as MacDougall, Henderson and strengthening plates, to another member of the Society. I still have the second harp, Robertson. Time will tell. which was made to my own design. This led to several commissions for clarsachs. Then I met Ann Sessoms, who had recently moved to London to work as a sub- We understand that Mairi s song will be included on the CD to allow others to editor for a scientific publisher. We shared the same interest in early music, her appreciate this aspect of the night. instruments being clarinet and recorders. She showed an interest in the small pipes so I made my first set of pipes for her, a simple three-key three-drone set. The The last player was Angus MacKenzie, of Cape Breton and South Uist descent name Heriot and Allan came into being at this time. The intention was to build up who gave us a great foot stomping set on Border pipes to set us up for the journey the harp making into a full-time business and, as it was a joint venture, we wanted home. Among them were Donald Mor nan Ceapaich, a Fergie MacDonald tune, a name which would reflect this and maintain a distance between our private-and Skylark s Ascension and the Soup Dragon to name but a few. He was joined by business lives. Many of the top harp makers had double-barrelled names like fiddler Gabe McVarrish, but alas again the fiddle was overpowered by the pipe Munson and Harbour, and Lyon and Healey. The intention was to make mainly and could hardly be heard from the back. clarsachs and as both our inherited middle names are Scottish it seemed an ideal solution. All together this was a night which will live on in people s memories for some time - even without the CD - as a great celebration of pipes and piping. Where did your interest in piping come from?
15 R My introduction to piping came through the local Boy Scouts troop, which had R The longer D chanter (compared to the smaller E several Northumbrian half-long pipes (which are now included in the more general or F of the original smallpipes in those days) made term Border pipes). I had one of the sets in my possession until I left home in the by William Gunn of Glasgow was possibly the first early sixties. There has always been a residual interest in this form of bagpipe on one to play with Highland fingering. I don t believe both sides of the Border. My first job was in Newcastle, where I joined the the early smallpipes were played with Highland Literary and Philosophical Society and became interested in a wide range of early fingering. And I don t see why you can t have musical instruments through their collection of books on the subject. There were normalclosed fingering smallpipes alongside Highland pipes - they don t have to many different bagpipes described and illustrated in these books along with other have the same fingering. They are different instruments with probably a different woodwind instruments. It was in the mid-fifties when I first met Jack Armstrong repertoire and different type of people playing them. [1904-1977], who frequently played the Northumbrian small pipes on the local wireless; he also had a dance band and played the pipes at many functions. (I So the design was modified to suit modern requirements. How did you develop believe he also played on a film sound track.) I became interested in the small our own? pipes then and he introduced me to Bill Hedworth, who made me a nine-key set of Northumbrian small pipes. By then I had already joined the Northumbrian Pipers ?The design of the drones only involved making typical Northumbrian drones Society and met Forster Charlton. I became a committee member after a year or look typically Scottish. I designed the chanter completely from first principles, two. Forster took me under his wing and instructed me in the arts of reed making taking my initial inspiration from the long practice chanter, i.e. unequal-size tone and playing the small pipes. He also fired my interest in pipe making. holes equally spaced and the extra length at the bottom with the a tone hole either side. This gained immediate acceptance amongst Highland pipers. I gave a Do you still play any pipes yourself Robbie? I know Ann plays the Northumbrian presentation on this process at a meeting of the Society I organised at the Bagpipe smallpipes professionally. Museum in Morpeth in the early days. There is enough information in the Cocks and Bryan book on Northumbrian small pipes for anyone with a little imagination R My second job was with a company in Wallsend, which still had the remnants of o make their own Scottish small pipes. its own pipe band, I received daily instruction on the Highland pipes, and my playing of the half-long pipes improved significantly, but I was unable to stop my The shape of your drone ends seems to have remained fairly constant right arm flapping when playing the Great Pipes - much to the annoyance of my instructor. I don t play much at all, now. I ve got hand problems as well as memory ?I make two - the flared end and the bell or tulip. It depends what the customer problems - half-way through a tune I forget what I m doing! But I play enough wants.. slow airs for just tuning the Scottish chanter. What sort of pipes are these (turning the page of a book of display photographs When you tune a new chanter you start with the tonic, and then the 5th? Ind coming across a bagpipe with a single drone lying parallel to the chanter, and fitted into the same stock)? R Yes, and then tune the others into the tonic or 5th . Nowadays playing with a th drone tuned to the 4 has become very popular, so I check against that as well. R That s what I called a cabrette. It can either have a Scottish or a Northumbrian type chanter - something to learn on. Cheap and cheerful. Do you have enough movement on the tuning pin to tune down from a 5th to a 4th? And the drone is a tenor .... ? R No, I either fit a tuning bead, or use a second, longer, drone end - because moving the drone in or out affects the tone, i.e. the sound quality, noticeably. R ... Or a bass. You can have either. Just a very simple set. I made half a dozen hen the interest in them died out. You have written to Common Stock [see page 3] about the development of the Scottish smallpipes. Would you like to say a bit more about that? You don t see many keys (looking at another picture) on Scottish smallpipes.
16 17 R Two
keys are fairly common. Some that I have made have a couple of keys on the bottom for going downwards. louder and brighter than one where the sound negotiates a right-angle bend. It also distinguishes the two smallpipes a bit more. What pitch of Scottish smallpipe do you find most people prefer? I ve noticed that your blow-pipe stock has a mushroom shaped end inside the bag RA, B flat, C. AID sets. It depends where they are going. B flat in the southern , - so you have to introduce it via the drone stock aperture? part of Germany, C in the north of Germany. Very few D sets because of the smallness of the chanter (I don t like D, it s too brash). I have also made sets in E. R One of my first customers was so heavy handed he frequently pulled the blow- One group started with B flat, wanted something brighter for jigs and reels, so pipe stock out of the bag. So I made the stocks with a mushroom shaped end, and went up to B. Some people like a lower pitched set for slow airs, higher pitch for thought "Oh, this is a new idea. Nobody has done this before." Until I came to fast tunes. make Czech pipes - and they already had stocks with similar ends. I ve found quite a few things I d thought innovative, only to find someone had done it before - for Do you ever get requests for Scottish smallpipes using closed fingering? instance the way I tie in the chanter stock; I tie it in through the welt. Then I saw an 18 th century set in a museum tied in in exactly the same way! RI think I ve only made one. To me they are just Northumbrian smallpipes with an open end - the same instrument. The only difference between early Scottish and What wood do you like working with best? Northumbrian smallpipes is slight differences in style. If the chanter is tapered and the set has combing one would call it Scottish. Closed fingering is not possible on R I like working in boxwood, but blackwood is the most practical to all intents and the larger chanters. purposes: good tone, strong, attractive. Boxwood has the better tone, but it s liable to warp - it s nice to work with. I ve seen, indeed played, a set you made with drone switches. Is there much call for these? A It s a mellower tone. It doesn t have the edge of blackwood, so if you play a blackwood set with a boxwood set the latter gets a bit drowned out. R Only one or two a year. Some people have a switch on each drone, some have them just on the middle drone. Some have them to switch the whole lot off, others So the boxwood might be better for singing to - the volume wouldn t drown the to switch from one chord to another chord. It can become fairly complicated at voice? times. A Yes. You use the same principle for all the switches? Any problems getting hold of wood? R No. The swap-over switches are different to the individual ones. It is easier to do individual switches. Switches tend to muffle the sound of the drones a bit. Instead R Not blackwood. But good boxwood is extremely difficult to get. of just being an open cavity, each drone is in a separate chamber [in the common stock], blocked off from the others. You can usually switch drones on and off Is the boxwood that you do manage to get grown in the UK? while playing if the reeds are set properly. A The best comes from Turkey - or did. I don t know if you can get it now. Some And your design includes little plugs hanging off the ends of the drones as manual used to be obtained from the Spanish Pyrenees, until a German dealer came and stops. cleared out a whole hill-side, and the locals decided they weren t having that any more! R It s an old traditional way of doing it. If you have plungers like the Northumbrian system it affects the tone again. A straight through drone sounds Talking of materials, I seem to remember you once telling me, Ann, that part of the secret of good reeds is finding the best source for the cane.
18 19 A If you don t have decent cane you re not going to RI think I made a dozen or so in the early days. People wanted a nice strong lusty make a decent reed - although different people make chanter, now they want quiet chanters, and it would have been a lot of expense to reeds out of quite different types of cane. For instance make new jigs and things. It was actually Glens that initiated our change from Colin Ross must use a much softer cane than I do, harps to bagpipes. They asked me to make some Border pipes: the chanters were because he demonstrated at the meeting in Morpeth that made using Glen s mid-19 th century by one of Glen s pipe-makers. by putting guides on his gouging block he could run the gouge along and the cane A Now they are making very quiet sets. Pipe-makers make what musicians want - slip is finished, ready for shaping and assembling. I don t think the cane we ve got a nice bright sound which you can still play in a small room. can do that - it s quite hard. RI have more than enough orders for smallpipes, so it just wasn t worth it [continuing with Border pipes]. Your cane comes from Spain? France? Where did you get your Border pipe reeds? .4 France. I buy it through Howarth in London. RWhen I had the Half-longs I used to get reeds from Glens. They were cane Does it deteriorate in time during storage? Do you have to work it fairly quickly practice chanter reeds with the ends chopped off. They would probably still work after buying your supply? now if you can get cane practice chanter reeds.
A Actually I prefer to get it about six months before I m going to use it. Other You mentioned that you number your sets. How exactly? people have different experiences. I ve had cane I thought was unsatisfactory, and looked at it three months later and it was beautiful. So now I buy it ahead of my RI punch it onto the drone stock, initially on the top, flat, surface - and on the requirements. rounded part for later sets. Probably started in 1984 when I bought the punches. It s a date stamp rather than a consecutive number. I know then what year they Do you finish your reeds with a scrape or with sanding? were made, and can quickly find out who had the set.
A I finish off with a knife. With sandpaper it is more difficult to tell exactly what Finally, you were, I believe, one of the very early members of the LBPS? you are doing. Sometimes, if I want the tips [of the reed] slightly thinner, I use the sanding strip. RI attended the very early meetings of the Lowland and Border Pipers Society, held in the College of Piping in Glasgow. The first I attended was sponsored by When I attempt to make chanter reeds I have high failure rate. You, I expect, have Grainger and Campbell. a high success rate? A They had a committee, but it wasn t formalised with a constitution. Meetings moved around - Thirlstane Castle, School of Scottish Studies, College of Piping. A I m doing pretty well just now. I was having problems for a while, then I They had some very interesting afternoons, with guest speakers. realised I was starting with a slip that was too thin. RI organised one well-attended meeting at the Sallyport Towers in Newcastle in the early days, then two at the Bagpipe Museum in Morpeth with talks and Do you soak them at all? demonstrations.
A The [gouging] machine is dry, but when I m working by hand - I actually use a The Society has developed a lot since those days, I know. Well many thanks for hand gouge to thin them down to just over 0.5mm - I get them wet for that. I use a inviting me into your house and treating me to some glimpses of the past. Good bassoon reed scraper to finish off with. luck in your future endeavours.
You used to make Border pipes, Robbie?
20 Dance to your Daddy Cannon Arranged Roderick
Dance to Your Daddy is in two sections, the first a rounded sort of song time, the second in what I think of as reel time apart from having only three crotchets to the bar instead of four. In other words, play the first bar just the same as the first few notes of "Miss Girdle". I timed myself playing and worked out metronome markings, 90 minims per minute and 144 crotchets per minute, but these are just to give an idea. I ve not written any gracenotes, though in fact I always play this one on the big pipes with pretty standard, though light, gracing.
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23 Washington. With Prince Rupert inside the city defences, Colonel Feinnes called Washington s march for a truce and a parley. The Parliamentarians were running short of ammunition and the citizens of Bristol were unwilling to risk the destruction of Paul Roberts, who gave a paper at the recent Collogue (see elsewhere in this their city. Feinnes surrendered that night and marched his troops out next issue) offers some interesting comments and theories about a tune that appeared morning, leaving his ammunition, arms and sixty cannon. He was later court- in Playford s "Dancing Master . martialled for incompetence and sentenced to death, though the sentence was remitted. This tune comes from the 1657 edition of Playford s Dancing Master. I am pretty rd sure this is a Lancashire bagpipe tune, thought the evidence is entirely Washington s March. (p)1657.PLFD.164 Playford, Supplement to 3 Ed.,1657 circumstantial. It is obviously comparable to the usual "border" style of pipe variation set, but has a definite character of its own - comparing it to Dixon, Peacock etc. it looks like a fragment from a related but different local tradition. It has a very similar feel to Lancashire Bagpipes and Bagpipes from a bass viol MS of about 1625 in Manchester Library, also to tunes like Jack Warrell s Hornpipe and Mr Preston s Hornpipe in Marsden s Lancashire Hornpipes of 1705 (all reproduced in Pete Stewart s Robin with the Bagpipe). Indeed, a certain playful irregularity, including syncopation and changes in internal time signature, is starting to look like a distinctive feature of period Lancashire piping.
Given the date this is almost certainly a Civil War march, and probably named after a leading Lancashire gentleman and Royalist Officer, Colonel Washington. He was a great-uncle of the George Washington, first president of the United The piece sticks out like a sore thumb in Playford, which mostly consists of States. The Washington family were big landowners in the WartonlCarnforth area perfectly normal two-part Country Dance tunes. One wonders what use a weird th of Lancashire, and strong Royalists. At the time they were the most important and irregular tune like this could be to a 17 century dancing master! The answer branch of an old Durham family, which also included the Northampton extension probably lies in the notorious Royalist sympathies of the Playford family. Some from which George Washington sprang. writers have suggested that Playford s books and the popularity of Country Dancing among the restoration gentry have to be seen against the political The following extracts were lifted off the web after a very cursory and basic backdrop of the times, as a thumbed nose to the Puritans and as part of a search. This failed to reveal any other significant Washingtons involved in the cultivated nostalgia for the old, pre-Cromwellian England. For many of the Civil war, though I believe several members of the extended family were book s target audience this tune would have had powerful "party" associations. involved on the King s side.... The only other version of the tune I have come across is from Ireland, where a In around 1642, Stockport Bridge figured briefly in the Civil War when Charles 1 simpler and regularized setting is known as The March of the High Kings of Leix. despatched Prince Rupert with 10,000 men to raise the siege of York. The bridge Given the strong links between Ireland and Lancashire (especially Royalist and over the Mersey at Warrington was too well guarded and they tur ned east to Catholic Lancashire) during the period in question this could be seen as further Stockport. Parliamentary forces of about 3,000, under Colonels Ma waring and circumstantial support for my theory. But whatever its origins, it s a great Dukinfield, drew up their forces on the Cheadle side of the town to defend the bagpipe piece, and deserves to be more widely known. bridge. They deployed musketeers along the hedgerows, where Prince Rupert s forces had to pass in their advance. However, Royalist dragoons, under Colonel Postscript: since writing the above both Niall Anderson and Roderick Cannon Washington, drove the musketeers back into the town and mar_ dead were have pointed out a third version of this tune, the pibroch Duncan MacRae of reported, though the parish register records only one burial Kintail s Lament. The fine details of the ground are different, but its essence is undoubtedly the same. The variations, however, are very different. To my mind On the morning of 26 July 1643, Rupert launched an attack from two directions. the basic theme is an obvious and effective one on bagpipes and I wouldn t be On the southern side, the Cornish infantry were repulsed with great loss of life, surprised if it is even more widespread than this. The scarcity of written sources including the commanders of all three of their assault columns. On the northern means it is unlikely we will find an earlier version than Washington s, but side, where Rupert led the assault, the outer defences were breached by Colonel possibly other versions from other piping traditions still await discovery.
24 "Bagpipes and Border Pipers" Robert Glen, in his " Notes on the Ancient Musical Instruments of By Rev. W.A.P. Johman, M.A. (1913) Scotland, " begins it with the " Horn. " The more ready to hand, the more likely to be primitive. And so, animals horns, hollow reeds, bones and Some time ago Jim Eaton kindly sent me two separate "transactions " tusks, and spiral shells emitted their trumpet call, and, in course, their from the Ha wick Archaeological Society, which were "in a little book modulated sounds. The Buddhist priest in China, the Mexicans, the with a dull brown cover" which he found in a second-hand bookshop. Aborigines of South America, and the wizards in Africa identified the They are long documents, so even this slightly abridged extract, which is conch-shell or an equivalent, with worship and their gods; and in some taken from the Seventh Meeting, will be offered in two parts. Dated 28th cases decreed the death of any woman, who, by ill-luck, or prying October 1913, it gives an insight into the interest being shown in curiosity, should catch a glimpse of the sacred instrument. bagpipes during the early part of the 20th century. If an angel blowing a cow s horn, adorns the tombstone in Pencaitland The paper starts with a page-long dissertation on the whole philosophy Church in Haddingtonshire, and a demon plays the bagpipe in Melrose of music, a large part of which has been edited out for considerations of Abbey in the transformed guise of a pig; under that, to me, the primitive space. unity of the race is bespoken, and the old Latin saw [traditional saying] approved - "Perverted the best becomes the worst." And so generally, If our most ancient literature informs us that in the pastoral life, "Jubal "figures angelic, human, diabolic, and bestial, playing on the bagpipes, was the father or inventor of all such as handle the harp and pipe," (Gen. are to be seen sculptured on ancient churches in England as well as in iv., 25.) We are not thereby led to infer that stringed instruments in their Scotland." inception and use preceded wind instruments: for reason will assert priority of claim to the humble unaided whistle over that produced by A bagpiper is cut in marble in the Cathedral of Upsala in Sweden; while strings or other outside and adventitious aids. in a woodcut of the " Nativity, " Albrecht Durer has one of the shepherds playing on a bagpipe, and the same artist, in a grotesque cut, represents Music, more than any others of the fine arts, of which it is generally the devil performing on a bagpipe, made to represent the head of Martin regarded as the oldest, is an immediate off-spring of nature. Its Luther. The Scottish bagpipe of today, be it noted, forms an object in his instruments are very many. The Scriptures Old and New, bear frequent engraving of exactly four centuries ago. So far, Robert Glen. But not to references to them and to their varied use, from the Ram s Horns of the anticipate it may be remarked, universality or world-wide ubiquity, Siege of Jericho, to the flute-players with the dead daughter of the ruler seems to be a characteristic in the spread of pipe music, without and (Mat. 9 23), and the harpers harping with their harps of the Revelation, ultimately with the windbag. In fact the dispersion of the race, it stands and the harpers and musicians, and pipers, and trumpeters 14, 2 and 18, to reason, must have meant the carrying with them their manners and 22 of the same book. Leaving aside all other instr uments, if the ditty is customs, their profession, trades, faiths and characteristics of life. The somewhat far fetched - that the Bagpipe was a most ancient and pipe was known and practised upon in India, and Persia. Babylon and honourable instrument will not be difficult of verification - Egypt possessed it. It was familiar to the Greeks and Romans. It is a "And music first on earth was heard common place that Nero regaled his courtiers with its cadences while the In Gaelic accents deep, temples and palaces of the capital were being devoured in the flames - When Jubal in his oxter squeezed [arm pit] an impressed coin of his can be produced in evidence. We have to travel The blether o a sheep. " [bladder] far back in the centuries to get to its beginning in Germany, Italy, and the While its extinction has again and again been prophetically decreed, its other parts of Europe. The Calabrian Highlands have always rivalled discordant braying being the burden of many a sneer; still falling on the ours in its love of the pipes. In France, pipe music seems to have had a ear under the skies near and far away, its notes have often evoked many refined culture and prevalence ahead of other European countr ies. A a tender memory when piper at an early date formed an adjunct of the Court establishment. "Remembrance wakes with all her busy train Francisque Michel, to whom we are indebted for a digest of these Swells at the breast, and turns the past to pain. " particulars, suggests that the Scottish use of the instrument was an Instead of decadence development, and in place of extermination a importation from France (but another says it came through Wales to the wider extension is the record of the bagpipe today. Highlands.) He says that the earliest picture of it with which we meet, occurs in a French and Latin Psalter of the end of the twelfth century ; a 26 statement which may be true, as it is admitted that the Melrose bagpipe is of a more recent date than the foundation of that building, which was in 1136, but repeatedly thereafter destroyed. The Cathedral cupboard of pipe. " If the meaning of this is inquired into, I fancy, it will be Noyou of the 14 th century, and the illuminated M.S.S. of various found that he had, while unfitted, presumed to play "the pibroch, " countries show by their figures that the pipes were popular in the which was scrupulously limited to a few elect professionals. As its middle ages. In the Pilgrimage, of Chaucer s "Canterbury Tales," he name imports, this instrument could only be heard on the bens and makes the miller play the part of the musician. in the glens, and was too powerful in its blast unless for the open " A baggpipe wel koude he blowe and sowne (sound); air. And therwithal he broghte us out of towne. " 2. The Northumbrian bagpipe - in two forms - the one like the preceding, but smaller, and of milder tone; the other a But while a piper usually headed the pilgrim bands to the shrines of miniature of this latter, and related to it as the fife to the German saints, exception seems to have been taken occasionally, for before this flute. Probably the Lowland Scottish bagpipe is identified with the time complaints were made to the Arch-bishop in 1407 that "some other Northumbrian; but it is regarded with a measure of contempt pilgrims will have with them bagpipes. " In Shakespeare s day the because it cannot reach their criterion of perfection, viz., the "Yorkshire bagpiper " and "the drone of the Lincolnshire bagpipe" were playing of the pibroch. so familiar as to be referred to by him. 3. While these are suited for the fields, the Irish bagpipe, by being of mellower tone, and having a wider compass, resulting Probably in imitation of the Court of France, the English king and the from the prolongation of the chanter, holds a greater superiority principal nobility by the 16 th century, had added a bagpiper to their from its sweeter and more melodious strains accommodating itself establishments. It is noteworthy that when a piper is mentioned at the to indoor service. Scottish court, he turns out to be an Englishman. And repeated references are made in the "Accounts of the Lord Treasurer of Scotland," But another says that the Northumbrian pipes are almost the same as the to payments made to "Inglis pypars, " who came from time to time to Irish pipes, which are blown by bellows placed under the arm, instead of play before King James IV. blowing into them with the mouth, as is the case with the Highland bagpipes. The drones in these, being much smaller, associate themselves Judging from the carvings in Roslin Chapel (founded about 1450) [see CS with ours in the fainter melody produced by sounding them. Vol 11 No.2 -Ed] and Melrose Abbey, the first appearance of the bagpipes in Scotland dates from about the 15 th century. In 1510 Pitcairn These are the representatives of the grotesque embellishments carved on has an entry relating to the theft of a bagpipe whose supposed value was the stalls of the Chapel of King Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey, at 20 marks. Hull, at Beverley, and elsewhere.
Before the middle of the 16 th century there is evidence that it was used in About the year 1549, in the "Complaynt of Scotland, " the first musicians war. The Highlanders in preparing for action, according to Jean de specified there are distinguished by having had "ane drone bagpipe." So Beauque, " were animated by the sound of the bagpipe." In 1594 it was in the household of James IV was Nicholas Gray, and along with him are used at the battle of Belrinnes. By the time of Melrose its position in war mentioned James Widderspune " fithelar, " and another who played was quite established. But judging from an entr^ of 1630 in the "Council before the Queen of Henry VII at Richmond, all of whom partook of the of Records of Aberdeen," there, at least it was not in high estimation. royal bounty and "played upon the Drone." " The Magistrates discharge the common pyper of all going through the town, at nicht or in the morning, in time coming, with his pype, it being In 1773 Dr Johnson remarks that in Mull and Skye the bagpipe was an uncival form to be usit within sic a famous burghe, and ,,:ing often falling into oblivion, and he adds that some of the principal families like fund fault with, als weill by sundry nichtbouris of the tot.::e also by the Macleod, and Maclean of Coll, still kept a piper, whose office was strangeris. " hereditary; and beyond all time of memory a college of pipers had been kept in Skye. In 1849, Sir John G.Dalyell published "Musical Memoirs of Scotland." The briefest record of an interesting compilation must suffice. Three In " Letter from the North," 1727-1736, it is related of a piper to a kinds of bagpipe are recognised in the British Isles:- Highland Chieftain, in a morning, while the Chief was dressing, he 1. The Great Highland or warlike bagpipe. It has borne this walked backward and forward, close under the window, without doors, name for centuries. In 1623 a charge of misdemeanour was found playing on the bagpipe, with a most stately, upright, majestic stride. The against a piper in Perth owing to his having played on " the great stately step of a piper is proverbial in Scotland. 2 28 9 At the Carlisle meeting of the "Royal Archaeological Institute" in 1882, In addition to the use of the bagpipe in war, it was also devoted to Dr Bruce read a paper on the "Music of the Borders, " with illustrations enliven sports and pastimes, and whether or not employed in religious on the Northumbrian bagpipes. In reference to the vivid expression of solemnities, it was a regular concomitant at the funeral rites of the music he called on the piper to play the tune, "Take a look at distinguished persons. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Maggie s Foot." He remarked that the instrument could nearly speak the bagpipe is named as "the principal military instrument of the Scottish words. mountaineers." The same is confirmed in a dispatch in 1641, from Lord " Lothian to Lord Ancrum, who says, We are well provided of pypers: I It may be with reasonable confidence surmised that an order of public have one for every company, and I think they are as good as drummers." functionaries the calls upon whose services are so varied, as to range They were also in 1708 used aboard the British Navy, at least the from the joy of the marriage feast to the sadness of the funeral " "Edinburgh Courrant had an advertisement calling for the service of a procession, from the gathering of the clan for battle to the triumphant bagpiper. At the close of the 15th century pipers are referred to in return from victory, from the hum drum of daily and nightly burghal connection with Aberdeen, and Dumbarton; and Biggar, Wigton, calls, to the junketings and merry-makings which were the chief delights Glenluce and Dumfries soon after. Perth continued to have a town piper of their experience, typical representatives would spring up among down to 1800, and doubtless in other places they were similarly them, and that hits or characteristic strokes favourable and unfavourable continued. At weddings in both England and Scotland the piper had would fall frequently upon their order, in fact, this has enriched our always a piece of the bride s garter tied about his pipes, while a very literature, e.g., the last to be asked to a convivial party was said to get a merry wedding in 1732 took place at Preston, in Lancashire, at which piper s "biddin " or invitation. A pale, delicate "shilpit" looking person there were seven bagpipers. Mirth and immortality? were so often was said to be "piper faced": "piper" fou meant very drunk: and so we conjoined that the church authorities in Scotland interposed to prohibit find "pipin fou" - or as "fou as a piper." Stale news were "piper s " the presence of above "fifteine persons on both sydes at marriage feasts, news." Pipe skill, or skill in playing the pipes made one a "skilly body." among whom were to be "no pypers." (Perth Kirk Session Register, 1592: And to "pay the piper" meant loser to pay. Some pipers have earned a and Stirling Kirk Session, 1648.) place in history by their wit and humorous ways, and some have had their memories immortalised in poetry and song. Some have a place It is alleged that when Lord Lovat was tried and condemned for among our Hawick "characters" which cannot be ignored. participation in the Rebellion of 1745, for which he afterwards suffered capital punishment, he desired that his body might be carried to But an illustration or two invites us meanwhile to another topic. Scotland for sepulture, saying "he once made it a part of his will, that all Ludicrous representatives of the unmelodious sounds of the bagpipe the pipers between Johnnie Groat s House and Edinburgh should be have been the platitudes of others besides Cockneys. Lady Shelly in a invited to play at his funeral." It was a saying of the sceptical Earl of diary, 1819, writes probably with equal truth, "That the wife of Sir Northampton, a contemporary of Shakespeare in 1583, in a treatise Walter Scott was the greatest bore in Europe, and that Sir Walter himself against prophecy, that "oracles are most like bagpypes and showmen, spoke with a drawl so tiresome and monotonous that, like the drone of a which sound no longer than they are puffed up with winde and played bagpipe, it provoked a yawn even when one is amused by what he was upon with cunning." Thus far Sir John G.Dalyell. narrating." Hintza, a Kaffir chief, said, when he heard it, it made him cry, and always reminded him of his crying children. But more startling General Stewart, in "Sketches of the Highlanders," says:- " Playing the is a recent report of an enterprising farmer at his wit s end by the ravages bagpipes within doors is a Lowland and English custom. In the of rats in his stack yard, who bargained with a piper for half a guinea to Highlands the piper is always in the open air, and when people wish to blow a blast with his pipes among his stacks. The contract was not only dance to his music, it is on the grass if the weather permits; nothing but cheap but successful, as the whole confraternity of them died of necessity makes them attempt a pipe dance in the house. The bagpipe convulsions. Very different was the verdict of the Highlander who was was a field instrument, intended to call the clan to arms and animate asked how he felt in a room of limited dimensions, when 12 noted them in battle, and was no more intended for a house than a round of six players were rendering simultaneously a dozen different pibrochs, pounders. The festivities of the wedding day were generally prolonged replied, "I just felt as if I were in heaven." to a late hour, and, during the day, the fiddlers and pipers never ceased except at short intervals to make sweet music. The fiddlers performed in the house, the pipers in the field, so that the company alternately enjoyed the pleasure of dancing within and without the house as they felt inclined." 30 [Tune taken from. Peackock s `Jackey Layton - Ed]
Jackie Latin (from some traditional verses Ecstasy in Eighteenth Century Kildare by Sean Donnelly [see C.S. 14.2] edited and gaps filled by Donald Lindsay, Aug. 2001)
Jackie was a bonny lad, A lad wha liked the gamblin , Wager d that he d dance him hame, Bonny Jackie, Braw Jackie, Tae Morristown, frae Dublin - [traditional lines : Northumbrian] Bonny Jackie Latin, Step it, Jackie, set it Jackie - [traditional lines : Northumbrian] Step it Jackie Latin Struck up wi his fiddle, Twenty miles, in twenty styles An he danced a rincky fada Tae Morristown, frae Dublin - [rincky fada : long distance Irish dance, Bonny Jackie, Braw Jackie, --- (to start of tune again) - [traditional lines : Northumbrian] Bonny Jackie Latin, Jackie was but twenty years, - [traditional lines : Northumbrian] - [(Jack Lattin : 1711 - 1731?] Wager d that he d dance him hame, An he was fit an handsome, Tae Morristown, frae Dublin But three days after he got hame, They laid him in his coffin --- (to start of tune again) STOLEN BOOKS Jackie was a fiddler fine, Step it, Jackie, set it Jackie Matt Seattle recently sold the book publishing part of Dragonfly Music to He fairly liked the dancing, Step it Jackie Latin Dave Mallinson in order to concentrate more on playing, arranging and Twenty miles, in twenty styles A the night, at Jack MacLean s, composing. (Jack Mackleans : `The Conniving House ) Tae Morristown, frae Dublin Wi pipin Larry Grogan Unfortunately Dave lost a lot of the stock when his van was stolen. So, ii - (Laurence Grogan : 1701 - 1729) Jackie Latin, dress d in satin anyone sees a suspiciously large quantity of music or other books that - [traditional lines : Lattin Family] might have formed part of Dragonfly s stock, please contact Matt, Dave or Broke his heart of dancing Step it, Jackie, set it Jackie the police. Step it Jackie Latin - [traditional lines : Lattin Family] Twenty miles, in twenty styles Three days after he got hame, LBPShis still has some Master Pipers in stock, as does Matt, together with Tae Morristown, frae Dublin Tae Morristown, frae Dublin own CDs. For other items contact [email protected] for availability.
When singing the melody the runs of four [semi]quavers should be simplified to Seen on the net two quavers, hence the first run A-B-C-D which goes with the word Jac-kie I m trying to find a song done by Paul McCartney about 10 years or so ago. It had should simply be A-C so it fits the words. Elspeth Cowie makes this modification bagpipes in it and was called "Molligan Tyre" ????????? Not sure of the spelling. when using the tune to sing Gat Ye Me wi Naethin on the Linn Burns Series, and Any help would be greatly appreciated. Regards ... it s the proper way to treat pipe tunes when using them to sing words to as Scottish Traditional singing usually tries to avoid having too many notes-per-syllable Seeking The Galloway HARMONICPROPORTION TM Episode 2 - THE BORDER BLUES - Matt Seattle
In Episode 1 [Common Stock Vol 18 No 1] we looked at simple and compound ratios of 3:1 as a harmonic basis for pipe tunes. We need to have a grasp of harmony - chords - to make sense of the ideas presented here, so if our only musical knowledge is based on the sound of the notes of the chanter against the drones, then we will have to pay attention to the way these notes make up chords, and how these chords move in and out of concord with the drones.
We plunge right in with a well-known pipe tune, Elsie Marley. The tune is named after a famous landlady of Picktree, County Durham, and is used for the song of the same name. Still well known to Northumbrian pipers, it was widely published in Scotland and England in the 18th century. This version is based on the one in Robert Topliff s collection - there are many others, differing a little in I ve placed chord symbols with the first strain of Elsie Marley only, because the detail but agreeing in outline. Seeking The Galloway is from William Vickers rest of the tune and all of the next one share exactly the same 8-bar sequence. So manuscript of 1770, the only known source of the tune. A Galloway is a local what? If these were the only two tunes based on the sequence, no big deal, but breed of pony, now extinct, though the tune is still played and was included in there are many in the Border repertoire which are based on exactly the same one of Gordon Mooney s books. sequence or a close variant of it, which is the reason for my Border Blues subtitle. The 12-bar blues is the basis for much of blues, most early rock n roll, and some jazz, whether or not it is `blue in mood. It is a repeated sequence of Elsie Marlev chords underpinning 12 bars of music, with many recognised variants and substitutions, simple and complex, of the basic I, IV and V chords. The Elsie Marley sequence has a similar function: because it "works" - the main point - it is used over and over for pipe tunes. Let s look at it in more depth.
The 3:1 ratio is easy to see in the first four bars - 3 of A and 1 of G. It is less obvious in the 8 bars as a whole, but if we take the first chord of each 2-bar group, 3 out of the 4 are A - and one isn t. The last two bars are interesting: as a whole, they are built on the non-drone chords of D and G, but A, the drone chord, takes up half a bar, a quarter of the 2 bars, so that the 3:1 ratio is discernible at three levels. As well as the mathematical levels there are levels of meaning:
Firstly, it is a "sequence" in time - it begins and ends. Secondly, taken as a whole, it is a "pattern", a more complex version of the 3:1 ratio we looked at in the first episode - it recurs. Thirdly, it is an expression of a principle or "law", not in the sense of `this is what you must do , but `this is how it is done , or `this is a way that works - it informs.
However you view it the sequence, pattern or law can be extracted, learnt,
35 call `Elsie Marley displaced , simply because I was already familiar with Elsie absorbed, and used as a basis for variations on tunes which are built on it, or as a Marley when it revealed itself to me, not because Elsie Marley is the earlier or template for new tunes. more original structure (the evidence tends to suggest the reverse). There are many other examples , of the same tune branching off into different versions, but I first became aware of the importance of the Elsie Marley sequence when the surprising thing about this one is that there is yet another branch, called comparing Newmarket Races (or Horse And Away To Newmarket or Fenwick Watty s Away by Dixon, but Cock Up Your Beaver by Bewick, which is in D 0 Bywell) with Johnny Cock Thy Beaver, because the titles were linked in rather than A. Here is strain 1 of Dixon s version: Margaret Gilmore s commentary on Playford s Division Violin. Comparison of available versions showed that the two tunes were related, but not the same, in Wattv s Awav (extract) that they do have the same chord sequence but it begins at a different place in each (2 or 6 bars out depending on viewpoint). I ll give one strain of each to show what I mean: Johnny Cock Thy Beaver (extract)
It harmonises neatly with just two chords, clearly showing the 3:1 ratio on three levels. In strain 6 of Dixon, and all strains in Bewick, there is some fluctuation between D and B minor as the `home chord. This `fluid tonic (see Episode 1) is also a feature of some other `Elsie-structured tunes, such as Fairly Shot On Her, and is exploited to even greater effect in early versions of Tail Toddle. Newmarket Races (extract) The Elsie Marley structure is a refinement of the 3:1 ratio. It is found (including variants and displacements) in 13 of William Dixon s 40 tunes (nearly a third), as well as in many tunes in Riddell, Peacock, Bewick and elsewhere. The examples here are all jigs but it is also used to make reels, 9/8 jigs, and airs. It is not an exclusively Border phenomenon (there are Highland and Irish examples), nor even an exclusively bagpipe phenomenon, but it is crucial to understanding the structural sophistication of Border piping.
Things get complicated because as well as starting in a different place in the The small print: sequence, the melody of Newmarket starts on F# rather than E and suggests a different chord, D (placed in brackets under bar 1 only, also applies to bars 3 For consistency all jig examples are written in 6/8 and transposed to A and 5). I regard this as a decorative substitute chord rather than a structural chanter range: Elsie Marley (Topliff) orig in G; high Bs, bar 7, note 2, all chord, as most of the remaining strains do not use it, but as stated earlier, this is strains, replaced by high As here (transposed pitch) - the orig would not a totally watertight system, and this is one of the `permitted deviations . harmonise here as B minor (or G) rather than D, the proportions would not be Nevertheless, there is enough in common between the tunes - and between some affected; Johnny, Cock Thy Beaver (Playford) orig in F in 6/4; Newmarket of their variation strains not shown here - to link them, suggesting very strongly Races (Peacock) orig in G; Watty s Away (Dixon) orig in C in 6/4. that one is derived from the other. This link is also supported by tune title evidence in some sources. PS: A small prize to the first person to identify which Dixon tunes use the Elsie Marley structure (including variants and displacements). Answers to Notice that the non-drone chord is B minor here rather than G, but that the [email protected] proportions are the same as in Elsie Marley. The structure of the Beaver tune I
36 are seriously wanting. I want to try and get you looking at the Anglo-Scottish border in a different way to the prevailing norm. "Border Pipes" Perhaps the first thing to emphasise is that the border hasn t always existed. Not so some thoughts on Borders and Piping. very long ago in the grand scheme of things there were no such people as the English or the Scots. Our ancestors had other names for themselves and other Paul Roberts gave this thought provoking paper at the 2003 Collogue, in Melrose. borders in other places. Generations of schoolchildren have learnt that Hadrian s Wall was built to keep the Scots out of England, yet Hadrian s Wall actually I want to begin by describing some key aspects of the popular culture of one divides one part of England from another, and at the time it was built England and particular county within the British isles, as it was around the mid-18 th century. Scotland didn t even exist. Back then there were no people called English or Scots anywhere in Britain: they came later, first as raiders then as settlers. Those settlers In this county the common people lived mainly in single storey thatched cabins of went on to create numerous small kingdoms, which fought and absorbed the stone or mud. If they had a vegetable garden or smallholding it was called a croft. various existing polities and each other until only two large kingdoms bearing their Their staple food was oats (or meal) made into porridge or small cakes called names remained as serious players for island dominance. The final border between bannocks or bunnocks. On special occasions they might eat bag-pudding, the dish those two kingdoms was in no way inevitable, and it certainly didn t reflect pre- we now call haggis. They often used peat for fuel, which they called turf They existing cultural divisions: it was the result of centuries of military conflict clothed themselves in hodden grey and the chequered cloth we call tartan, but culminating in military-political stalemate, and there could have been many other outcomes. which they called plaid or plad, and "plaid weaver" was a common occupation. For Which is why the border has moved considerably and repeatedly over recreation they danced reels, jigs, and hornpipes tofiddles and bagpipes and drank the years. much alcohol. Illicit distillation of spirits was an important cottage industry and in some areas something like war existed between the people and the excise. They Lowland Scotland - the region south of the Forth-Clyde line - was once northern celebrated the usual European calendar customs like Mayday and New Year, which England, and before that the northern half of the English kingdom of Northumbria, they called Hogmana, but almost any occasion was excuse for riotous festivity or a though the status of its west was always highly volatile, veering between English rant. A quieter social gathering - a storytelling, a good gossip with the neighbours - hegemony and a series of independent Cymric and Norse kingdoms. The whole was crack. They didn t speak standard English - in the local dialect a phrase like area was annexed in the early Middle Ages by the kingdom of the Scots, expanding "the pretty young girl didn t know the church over the bridge" "the bonnie wee out of its Highland home. For a long time Scotland also held what is now northwest lassie didna ken the kirk o er the brig". Politically the county was a hotbed of England, Cumberland and Westmoreland, though never very firmly. For some 200 years Cumbria moved around between England, Scotland and independence, before Jacobitism, perhaps more out of regionalist contrariness than any love of absolute th monarchy, for within 50 years it had become a hotbed of democratic radicalism. finally ending up as English around the mid-12 century. Even after the border settled into roughly its current position it remained locally fluid right up to the It sounds like the world of Rabbie Burns, but as you have probably guessed, I am Union of the Crowns in 1603. During the medieval Anglo-Scottish wars whole using this collection of lowland Scots cultural cliches to try and trick you. Probably towns and counties regularly changed hands and nationality, while large areas of you think I am describing the far north of England, Northumberland or the border were classed as "debateable land" whose people belonged to neither Cumberland. Possibly a few lateral thinkers have plumped for somewhere in Ulster, kingdom. That is why Berwick, despite being the county town of a Scottish county, and I could easily have added a string of Irish cliches to the Scots ones, involving has for most of its history been either part of England or classified as neither pigs, potatoes, holy wells, wakes, Catholics fighting Calvinists and the like. In fact English nor Scots. As late as the mid-16th century Dumfries-shire had a brief the county is Lancashire, the southernmost county of northern England, though in sojourn as an English county: some contemporary observers believed most of the most respects it could be almost any English county north of the Humber, and I southwest was willing to become , English, but within a few years the Scottish king don t doubt much of this description could be extended southwards. But from this ruled both kingdoms and the issue was irrelevant. one example I think you can see that our cur rent ideas of national cultural integrity
39 38 fact, Northumbria sometimes seems like a phantom presence in medieval politics, The great border riding families, with their habit of changing national loyalties with lurking in the shadows, never quite going away. There is evidence that some of the the political tide, remain deeply symbolic of this era. Many of these families peasant rebels of 1381 planned to restore the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and 25 years extended across both sides of the border. Some had moved from one side to the later England again came close to dismemberment when the rebel lords - Mortimer, other: the most notorious of the English clans, the Grahams of the west march, Northumberland and Owen Glendower - agreed to divide it into separate northern originally came from Scotland, whilst Scotland s worst bandit family, the and southern kingdoms, and to extend Wales over much of western England. Armstrong s of Liddesdale, were settlers from England. Indeed, many of the leading Interestingly, this Northumbria followed not so much the line of the old Kingdom Scottish riding families were English in origin, but this is hardly relevant when as of the Danelaw, and included most of the north midlands, a reminder that we most of the border clans had cross-border kin and alliances. In this they were no haven t even considered the impact of the Vikings yet. Remember that for much of different to the biggest bandits of all: the English and Scottish nobility were truly the so-called Anglo-Saxon era most of England was actually ruled and heavily international in culture and kinship, and often held land, titles and office in both settled by the Vikings, and that during the short life of the unified pre-Norman kingdoms. In fact the borderers lax attitude to national identity wasn t that kingdom it had Danish as well as Anglo-Saxon kings. Given that much of coastal unusual, when other people had to make these kind of choices they could be Scotland also came under heavy Norse influence and settlement it is quite likely equally flexible. Throughout the Anglo-Scottish wars we find both the English and that but for the Norman invasion England and Scotland would have disappeared Scottish armies routinely included large numbers of the opposing nationality, within a series of Scandinavian provinces. reflecting cross-border feudal and family ties, the importance of mercenaries, and the simple lack of the hard national identities and loyalties we now take to be This kind of speculation is fun, but it does have a serious point. If the border has normal. moved considerably over the years, if whole populations have changed their national and ethnic identifications, if whole areas have belonged to neither Cross-border ethnicities were probably a factor too, for the border split self-aware kingdom, if a slight realignment of events could have made the English into cultural zones that must have retained memories of the old kingdoms of Scandinavians, most Scots into Englishmen, and Brummies into Welshmen, how Northumbria and Cumbria. In medieval Scotland Lowlanders were still usually r can we reconcile this with conventional Nationalist thought categories that would refer ed to as "the English". In the early days some of them were still occasionally give us all an "essential", eternal, unchanging Scottishness or Englishness? For called Welsh, a reminder that back then any linguistic or ethnic divide ran on an nationalists the fluid border presents real problems, and at various times in the past east-west not a north-south axis, between a relatively homogenous English east people have seriously suggested that the lowland Scots are "really" English, that between Humber and Forth, and the linguistically diverse Strathclyde/Cumbria the northern English are "really" Scots, or that the northern and southern English region with its mix of Cymric, Norse, English and Gaelic. Cross-border ethnic are "really" two nations. The truth is that nations are simply political-military loyalties may explain the behaviour of the Scots after 1066 when William the constructs and they consist of what they consist of. I know of no other definition of Conqueror laid waste England north of the Humber. According to Simeon of nationality that actually works. The citizens of Dumfries are Scots because they Durham: "those who escaped death fled to the south of Scotland, which was so live within the Scottish border and the citizens of Carlisle are English because they stocked with English, both men and maidens, that they were to be found in all the live in England: attitudes to tartan, haggis, Morris dancing and the Tebbitt cricket farms, and even the cottages". This isn t the sort of hospitality normally awarded test are simply irrelevant. refugees, but in 1066 the Lowlands had only been part of Scotland for around 50 years, and the northern English were still "kith and kin". Shifting borders and national identifications are only problems if you accept the erroneous but widespread equation between nationality and culture. Modern The Anglo-Scots border was determined by the sword not by culture, and only nationalism typically involves a highly restrictive view of society in which national slight changes in the actual course of events could have given us very different identity is presented as something homogenous, static, unique, clearly and polities and borders. If Northumbria had remained intact a unified English kingdom absolutely bounded. As nowhere has ever actually been like this, nationalists might now reach up to Edinburgh, Stirling and Glasgow. If the Kingdom of the continually find themselves trapped in an unwinnable struggle against the Scots had succeeded in its long-term aim of annexing southern Northumbria "corruption" of their culture, whose allegedly "correct" form is always located Scotland would now end around Hull and Manchester. If Northumbria had retained some time in the past, and whose present is always threatened by the young, the its independence we might now have a middle state between Forth and Humber. In 41 40 The Highlanders were "savages" like the Irish: people to be culturally remade or innovators,which the neighbours and the incomers. In reality culture is a process we live, not a fixed thing that we own, and all of us are continually involved in it driven out. Perhaps nothing speaks more eloquently of Scotland s ethnic rift than creation. National identity is simply what a given people think and do at any give James readiness to use the very worst of the border bandits as "civilizers" in moment in time, in all its variety, fluidity and unpredictability. But I don t want t Gaeldom. George IV s famous donning of Highland dress in 1822 is often seen as a talkcolour about change over time so much as change over space, and here the symbolic turning point in attitudes, but at the time one Highlander simply observed spectrumthe seems to me a good basic analogy. The spectrum of light visible to that it was "a great mistake that offended all the southron Scots" and it is worth remembering that it occurred in the middle of the Highland Clearances. Perhaps the human eye is continuous, it has no borders - these are arbitrarily imposed by beings, and different cultures have placed the breaks in different places. I think i "great hatred" tells us something about the original annexation of the Lowlands, helps to see human culture, viewed geographically, as a spectrum. Like colour i when colonization, clearances and contempt must have operated in the other also changes gradually and without sharp breaks, and the borders we impose on i direction. can also be fairly arbitrary. The Humber-Mersey Line is really a vague region of accelerated change around the old Northumbrian border. It has been of particular interest to students of dialect, The spectrum model means that wherever you draw the political boundaries the very people on the other side will always be different. It also means they will not be and they conventionally divide English (including Scots) into northern and todifferent within the immediate area of that divide. If the proverbial Martian were southern zones along it. In reality the different isoglosses or breaks which linguists visit Caithness and then Kent he could easily see the differences. But if he were to study never match the old Northumbrian border perfectly, nor do they match each visit Berwickshire and Northumberland the situation would appear less clear-cut other - the flat A follows one line, the change to the hard G another, and so on. After a while he would start noticing subtle differences, but these would not be at Moreover, it s now known that some of these isoglosses have moved considerably betweengreat as the differences between Berwickshire and Caithness or over time. Many of the most distinctive features of northern English/Scots are Northumberland and Kent. The spectrum gives us greater differences within each simply archaisms that have retreated northwards - the flat A, the rolled R, bairns nation than exists between them at the border. and the crack. The truth isn t that dialect suddenly changes the moment you cross the Humber, rather that throughout the English north midlands there is an Colour isn t a perfect analogy. For one thing the cultural spectrum is overlaid with accelerated but complex change in many aspects of vernacular speech and culture. vertical divisions along lines of class, gender and age which tend to transcend But it is a phenomenon reasonably consistent over time, and significant enough for us to treat northern England and lowland Scotland as a discernable historical entity national, regional and ethnic frontiers. And we can also detect horizontal fissures - th between language groups for example, or where cultural contact is disrupted by within the island, as a kind of quasi-ethnicity. If we look back to the 18 century, physical barriers like the sea. Even so, the breaks are rarely as dramatic, sudden, the golden age of bellows-piping, it s quite clear that in ethnic and historical thoroughgoing and clear-cut as people like to think, and they rarely match the origins, language, religion, literacy, social organization, folklore, music, political frontiers. Historically the two most important breaks in the British architecture, and almost every aspect of vernacular culture, Lowland Scots had far spectrum have not included the Anglo-Scots border: they have been Scotland s more in common with the northern English than with their Highland countrymen, Highland line and England s Humber-Mersey line, and neither has ever been a which is why one Scottish clergyman could write in the 1770s that "to pass from literal line. the borders of Scotland into Northumberland was rather like going into another parish than another kingdom" The Highland line .was really a vaguely defined zone of mixed speech and culture within a string of border counties. But it was till recently the most important ethnic Of course, the political border, manifest in things like different legal and rift in Britain - not simply because of the intensity of the culture change, but educational systems must have always had some impact on popular culture and because of its sheer longevity and the depth of the mutual antagonism involved. created some cracks in the spectrum. For example the Scots were far more law Highlanders used to describe relations with the Lowlanders as simply "the great abiding than the northern English. But the most powerful force for creating national hatred". When King James set out to centralize, unify and subdue his joint realm he differences and internal homogenisation is nationalism itself, historically a fairly used the full might of the law in the borders, but in the Highlands he simply recent phenomenon. Nationalism seeks to exaggerate national differences to more ignored the law, imposing "civilizing " colonies of lowlanders exactly as in Ulster. clearly demarcate "us" from the nearest "other". This inevitably entails emphasis
42 43 that changes overall would tend to be gradual and not sharply defined, with the on cultural forms which are thought to not exist over the border, and given the greatest contrast at the geographical extremes, and little real contrast anywhere we nature of the cultural spectrum these tend to be regional forms from districts far choose to randomly draw a border. But the areas of accelerated change we call the distant from the border. We can clearly see this in Scotland with the modem Humber and Highland lines would modify this, giving us three main macro-regions emphasis on all things Highland and Gaelic, on those things that are most (excluding Wales): southern England, the Highlands, and old Northumbria in obviously NOT English. We can see it in England too, where the banal cliches of between. We could expect noticeable differences between these regions, and a nationality tend to reflect the world of the midlands, far from both Scotland and certain homogeneity within them. The habitual movement of people within small France. It is Warwickshire thatched cottages and Shropshire half-timbered houses economic regions would inevitably create numerous micro-cultural regions within that adorn the chocolate boxes. It is a southwest midlands ceremonial dance - the all this, though undoubtedly ill defined at the edges, and would give us distinct Cotswold Morris - that has been turned into a national symbol. Nationalists local slants on more general models. The Chinese whisper of everyday human frequently complain about the spread of American music and Australian soaps, but contact linking the entire island and the continual movement of certain sections of people have always shared tunes and listened to the same stories, interpreting them the population over quite large distances, would encourage rapid and productive in a local way. It is kilts in Roxburgh and Morris dancing in Durham that are really cross-fertilization and also help create a certain overall homogeneity, especially worrying. within the English-Scots language zone - and it could also lead to a few glaring exceptions to general rules. We might also expect to find personal networks and Perhaps we need to distinguish between homogenisation and cross-fertilization. patterns of transmission following particular lines of communication, especially the People and ideas have always moved around, and against the backdrop of history main roads and coastal sea lanes. they have done so on a big scale. If they hadn t we would still be hunter-gatherers crammed into central Africa. This is perhaps the most important qualification to the When we fit together the known facts about piping in this period they fit this model spectrum model. It only takes minimal interaction between communities for an idea extremely well - much better than the crude nationalist model we all grew up with. to spread rapidly, though it helps to speak the same language. All it needs for a More than that, I believe this model can help us fill in some of the gaps in the joke to reach John O Groats from Lands End within hours is ordinary day-to-day bellows-pipe narrative. I hope to develop these ideas in a later paper, for now there contact between one local community and the next, and so on along the chain. And is no time. But as both preview and finale, let us look again at George Skene, the in the golden age of British bellows-piping whole segments of the population lived I8 th century Aberdeenshire gentleman who not only left us one of our earliest tune on the move: sailors, soldiers, peddlers, packmen, journeymen, the unemployed, manuscripts, but a diary which includes unique references to the piping culture of not least of all professional entertainers and musicians. Such groups. could travel the early 18th century. I don t want to duplicate too much of Iain s [Maclnnes] considerable distances, but most lower class people moved around regularly within talk! To that end I ll avoid a proper look at Skene s tunebook, but his diary is too small, roughly defined, economic-cultural regions, and many travelled much valuable to ignore. further afield. It is estimated that in the 17 th century 1 in 6 English males spent part of their lives in London (think about it: that s probably more than today) while the th This describes a journey he made to London in 1729. Back then the easiest way to number of Britons who moved permanently to Ireland and America in the 17 and travel between northeast Scotland and London was either by sea, or down the Great th 18 centuries ran into millions. And unlike today travel back then involved North Road, the direct route and the best road in 18 th century Britain. To first travel continual contact with new people in new regions. Travelling on foot, horse or to northwest England was a major detour and a difficult journey. Yet this is coach, passing others on the way, stopping nightly at wayside inns, the spread of precisely what he does, because he is keen to meet and play with an English piper ideas and culture was rapid and easy. Nowadays we travel insulated from each in Penrith, James Bell. Bell appears to play small-pipes, double small-pipes and other, and move so fast that I can reach Edinburgh from the south Pennines in a "big pipes", which seem to be Border pipes. Our Aberdeen visitor seems perfectly matter of hours rather than days, in terms of personal experience and human familiar with all these instruments and with closed and open playing styles, and is contact missing out the entire area in between. able to comment knowledgeably on many aspects of the Cumbrian s playing. The Cumbrian seems to have no problem playing the Aberdeen man s pipes. Skene is So - what does the model I have outlined suggest as regards bellows-piping in its taken with some of Bell s self-created decorations and buys a set of his double golden age, about, for example, changes in pipe construction, tune types, playing small-pipes. It looks a bit as if Bell may be a pipemaker as he has brought several styles, or levels of popularity, across the island? The basic spectrum idea suggests 45 44 Exploring the Skene Manuscripts different sets with him: that may be one reason why Skene has come all this way. of 1717 and 1729 Skene tells us that Bell had been crowned King of the Pipers in Newcastle after beating "the famous fellow" and in a London competition he beat "Humphrey" and Iain Maclnnes illustrated his talk with examples played on the smallpipes. a "High German", which means a Dutchman. For what it is worth, Humphrey is Obviously a written account cannot do such a presentation justice, but readers predominantly a surname of London and southeast England, so Humphrey could who have the CD-ROM that accompanies the manual "More Power to your well have been the local boy. Elbow" may hear one of the tunes played by lain - `Wat Ye what I got late Yestreen - with the music printed on page 98 of the manual In other words, a piper from northeast Scotland was sufficiently aware of piping developments elsewhere in Britain to go well out of his way to develop contacts The subject here is George Skene, who was an Aberdeenshire Laird. Born in with a piper in northwest England, whose own- experiences link to piping in 1695, he died 1756. So that s the time scale, the period. So his manuscripts, northeast England, London and Holland. Some knowledge of locally created which were written quite early in his life, take us back quite early in terms of Cumbrian pipe decorations plus a set of probably Cumbrian made pipes thus Scottish piping. George Skene was a highly respected figure in his native Aberdeenshire - the kirk town of Skene is a little village about 10 miles outside transfer to Aberdeenshire - and doubtless Bell absorbs a bit of Aberdeenshire in Aberdeen. They were extensive land owners there, and various branches of the return. There is no hint in the meeting between these men that their instruments or family were well known, particularly the historian and Gaelic scholar music are in any way alien to the other party, and Bell s competition history W.F.Skene. I wouldn t profess to be a particular expert on these manuscripts, suggests pipers in northeast and northwest England, London and even Holland but I ve worked on them and I ve looked at them in great detail. Keith Sanger, were playing music that was similar enough for judges to make meaningful for instance, has published an article in Common Stock [Vol 4 No.1 Jan 1989], comparisons. and Matt Seattle has discussed the music MS in the context of his Dixon work.
However, if you then compare Skene s tune book to material from northern Let us start with his travel log, a sort of travel diary. This survives in the England and southern Scotland we see it does have a very strong regional flavour National Library of Scotland. He titles it "An Account of a Journey to London". as regards favoured tune types, the way variations are constructed, and the relative At the time George Skene was 34. He went on to be a rector of Marshal College, so besides his land owning he had plenty of other interests. One of them was importance shown to gracing: these all show strong similarities to period Highland certainly music. With him on the road were his brother, a friend who was an piping. As predicted, such comparison suggests piping in the Scottish borders was Aberdeen Lawyer, and a servant identified in the journal as R. Walker. more like piping in northern England than it was like piping in northeast Scotland. But Skene s music, though showing strong Highland links, is overall closer to that The journal covers the 30 days of a journey from Edinburgh to London, and it is of the southrons. It is basically the same kind of music. You could use a linguistic written in a very neat, tiny hand, in a leather note-book designed to slip into a analogy: Skene, is speaking the same language as the southrons but a different great-coat pocket. It also contains financial records and little potions and dialect. The dialects are mutually intelligible, but Skene has a strong Gaelic accent. recipes; things like baking bread, cures for smallpox, cures for scurvy, making eye-drops, making plaster for broken limbs - things like that. A transcription This was a world of regional variety, but not of isolated, clearly bounded, separate was published by the Third Spalding Club [Vol II] in Aberdeen in 1940, and this cultures, and the political border seems to have been fairly irrelevant. Skene s is a very accurate transcription. Whoever did the work did it very well. The handwriting is quite hard to read. There are certainly one or two words in it I d music has a strong local flavour but its context was British, and even European. He have been unable to make out without the benefit of the 1940 publication, appears as part of an island wide piping culture and network with European links. although there are one or two small omissions in that publication. His story provides an excellent illustration of my model. But if you want further elaboration - and hopefully some possible answers to such old chestnuts as "what The travellers made their own entertainment as they took the road south through were the Lancashire and Lincolnshire bagpipes" - you will have to wait! the Borders to Carlisle, then to London by way of Penrith, Liverpool, Lancaster, Bristol, Bath and Windsor. And references are given en route to piping, music- making, meeting other musicians - and Skene has plenty to comment on. Like any travel diary of the period, he talks about the roads, about the state of the crops, the Inns they were staying in, the chamber maids in those Inns - he s not prudish in any way, just a good red-blooded young bloke on the road!
47 Pipes feature in the journal on the group s first night out from Edinburgh when Skene refers to Bell s `close hand style, which might suggest that the end of the they stopped at West Linton, in the lea of the Pentlands. chanter was sealed, or certainly that he was using a covered, if not a closed, "September 8 th 1729 We were plagued here by my Lady Murray s fingering system. He also describes four sets of small pipes, each differently Chaplain. I say `my Lady s , because my Lord is only her echo. The keyed (we re not talking here about mechanical metal keys, we re talking about parson prayed when I played on the pipe and reckoned us reprobates, pitches), of which he bought the sharpest double one. The indications are that prayed audibly two or three times by break of day and drank some three the bulk of early smallpipes seem to have been pitched roughly between E and chopins of wine." G. So they were small instruments - quite different from the modern instruments (That s three bottles). And there s a payment to the Linton piper also recorded. that we ve developed in the last 20 years. So they all had a bit of a session, and the local piper came and they paid him 3d. Skene s reference to double small pipes is, I think, a very interesting one. One or He also plays at Beild on the Tweed, the following day, in Carlisle, and then he two depictions of double-bored chanters have survived, but there appear to be no th goes on to Penrith. And it is this description of Penrith which is the significant working specimens from the 18 century The principle is that the chanter is one that came down to us. made with two bores and two reeds, with the right-hand bore incorporating just the bottom four notes of the scale. With the closed fingering system (in other So he s reached Penrith with his travelling companions. words, just a single finger off the chanter) the piper can play the melody with the "Fifth day, September ye 12 th 1729. We see on a little round hill nine left hand while producing chords or counter melody with the right. This is miles off a pillar called `The Beacon of Penrith , just above the town, clearly complicated and would appear to have been superseded in Northumbrian upon which we steered, it coming several times into view. We alighted at piping by the introduction of extended melodic range through key-work. In the the Crown in Penrith, Mr Nelson, a very good quarter, and here we got the hands of a master, though, you can imagine this could be quite a funky and famous piper James Bell, who plays exceedingly fine upon the small pipe interesting sound. And I think that s what the allusion in the bottom line is "in a close hand but plays beyond the whole world I may say on the double word he makes more out of variety in all parts with the double small one, than I small pipe, he following the small pipe manner, and not winding them thought cou d possibly have been made of any small one." even, thinking it a grace on the big one, tho he winds the small one fine, yet he has some very clever touches and graces on the big pipe, and upon I think the third point is the `big pipe which he mentions - I don t imagine it is the small one a great many beautiful ones peculiar only to himself. He the Great Highland bagpipe, the piob mor; I think it is the bellows blown brought with him besides his big one which is so flatt that it tunes to the Lowland/Border pipe, conical bored chanter and so on. These instruments could violine, two sets of double small pipes and two sett of single ones, each be of considerable girth, and Skene describes Bell s big pipe as ...so flatt that it differently key d. I bought his sharpest double one for David which has tunes to the violine... which sounds to me like a long chanter tuned to A or G. three burdens for which with a bellows pay d half a guinea. He admired That he considered this worthy of remark might imply that other pipes of similar design were of higher pitch. Surviving specimens indicate variable tuning of the the burdens of my pipe but did not fancy the chanter so much however I th observ d that he played better and sweeter on them and with greater 7 (top) note of the scale, and it seems likely that cross-fingering would have variety than on his own. In a word he makes more out, of variety in all allowed players to produce top G sharp and G natural on an A chanter. parts with the double small one, than I thought cou d possible have been made of any small one. He beat Humphry at London and a high German, A couple of other points to emerge from the text: he uses the term burdens for being sent for express on a wage of 1000Libs sterl. And beat the famous drones consistently, and I think this was in regular use. The modern French term fellow at Newcastle and was formally crowned King of the pipers there." is Boudon. There is an old bass line singing style called Folk Bourdon. And interestingly enough Duncan Fraser, the bagpipe collector, is still using the term It s a dynamic account. It has grudging (perhaps) admiration in places - interest Burdens for drones on bellows pipes iii 1907 when he published his in this other piper and interest in his instruments. And the accounts do record a reminiscences. And Skene also uses the term `winding the bag , which is quite a payment of 11 shillings and 6 pence for that set of double pipes. modern sounding term. Competitions for wagers is also a recurring theme in early piping accounts from both sides of the Border - often with strong mythical Now if I can just comment briefly on a couple of points that come out of this. and sometimes super-natural elements. Clearly all these instruments are bellows pipes. They are pipes of our tradition, of the Lowland Borders/cross Borders/NE Scotland tradition. The single pipe Of course Skene s description of the meeting with James Bell leaves a great deal would appear to be an instrument common to both sides of the Border. We can to the imagination, and poses as many questions as it answers. In particular. assume it was a cylindrically bored instrument from which the modern what does it tell us about repertoire and fingering style and embellishments? Northumbrian pipe has evolved, but without the modern keywork which is Skene is really silent on these points, other than alluding to Bell s ...very clever thought to have been introduced by John Dunn of Newcastle in about 1800. touches and graces on the big pipe... He has however left a small manuscript of
48 fiddle and pipe music which he started collecting in his native Aberdeenshire in the Anglicised version of the Gaelic word `Ceard , or Tinker, and there is every 1717, when he was aged 22, and this provides intriguing pointers. The indication that the tinker families travelling far and wide, following seasonal manuscript is referred to as "George Skene, His Book." It is in the National work, were major bearers of folk lore and tradition. And certainly Walter Scott, Library. It has 53 tunes or bits of tunes - some just 8 bars and not the complete James Hogg and others of their type supported that viewpoint. Clearly the tune tune - but of those 53 tunes, four are clearly marked for the pipe. A further six itself, Malcolm Caird, had pedigree, because George Skene had collected it a or so tunes fit the pipe scale quite comfortably. Tunes like "You are the Lass century earlier than Alexander Campbell. that has the Gear, and I m the Lad that Loves You" - which was page 1 in the book, so quite possibly a tune he has written himself. It could almost be a pipe Another point:- Alexander Campbell visited Thomas Scott at Monk Hall, near tune if you had a set of pipes that could play a top G sharp and high B - which Jedburgh. Thomas Scott, born in the 1730s, was Walter Scott s uncle, and he is quite possible of course if you had a Lowland chanter. That s a nice tune. was a well known Border piper. And Thomas Scott gave Alexander Campbell a Tune titles in these early collections, like Dixon, are earthy on the whole. In pre list of famous Border pipers - the Hasties, the Forsyths and so on. And he makes Victorian days there was no squeamishness about being earthy. this point; "Mr Thomas Scott" says Alexander Campbell "is decidedly of the opinion that the Border bellows bagpipe is of Highland or at any rate the NE Of particular interest are four tunes which he says are for the bagpipe. He s not coast origin, as all the pipers with whom he was acquainted positively declared." claiming any other tunes in the collection as pipe tunes, and he was a fiddler as He goes on to say this sounds a bit improbable, but it would suggest that even in well as a piper. He uses terms like `bagpipe setts or `bagpipe humour . "Wat Ye the Borders a distinctive NE piping accent and tradition was recognised. And what I got Late Yestreen - Bagpipe Set", "Cauld Kale in Aberdeen", "Malcolm that tradition certainly came down to us in the last century via people like Caird Come Again", and "Gird the Cogie, for the pipe Ingram s Set". Francis Markis [see CS Vol 1.1, 5.1 and 10.1], the well-know farm-labourer, athlete and musician, who was born in 1823 and died 1904. Three of the tunes are written in A, and the 4 th , "Malcolm Caird", is in G, which is the key favoured by Northumbrian pipes. Significantly all the tunes were Duncan Fraser (the well-known bagpipe music collector) from the Black Isle, written in this style of melodic ground with variations, each featuring between 8 writing in 1907, when referring to bellows pipes says `it certainly still lingers on and 10 measures. This approach to tune development will certainly have been in these islands in Northumberland and Aberdeenshire. And you might be familiar to fiddlers of the period who were busy experimenting with multi-part interested in his reasoning for the bellows pipes dying out. He says "The reason tune settings including fiddle Pibrochs of the type contained in David Young s for the decline in the bellows pipes is not far to seek. What it gains in sweetness MacFarlane manuscript of 1740. In terms of piping repertoire, the closest it loses in power, and is no longer a useful instrument. With its correct sharps comparisons were, I suppose, William Dixon s 40 tunes compiled in the and flats and its numerous keys giving the scale a greater range of notes, it lends Northumberland in the 1730s, and Robert Riddell s collection of Scotch, itself to other than pipe music, and is at once brought into competition with the Galwegian and Border Tunes in 1794. Together these might be seen as localised more precise, more powerful and more modern instruments." I should mention expressions of the Border, indeed as a broader Border pipe repertoire built on Robert Millar as well, who was a music collector from the North East. variation sets of the type that have survived in modern Northumbrian pipping which don t really exist in Highland piping, though you could argue that ceol One final point about the four tunes. Skene introduces an interesting piece of mor adopts similar principles but obviously using a different melodic canvas. terminology which I hadn t come across before - `gatherings . He uses it as a Matt [Seattle], who has edited the Dixon collection, points to comparisons with term to indicate grace notes - little clusters of grace notes. And here s one where early ground and division music composed for violin, lute and keyboard, and he does it [example in CS 4.1 p.14]. So the gr symbol crops up in the four sees the Skene manuscript possessing a significant Northern accent in the broad tunes he labels as pipe tunes. And the other symbol he uses quite a lot is the language of Borders and Lowland piping. double dash (II) which appears in fiddle collections (I think that was discussed in some detail in 1995). He also used occasional single grace notes as quavers. I want to reinforce the notion that the NE of Scotland had a distinctive piping style definitely related to the Border/Lowland tradition. And just to dip into a Conclusion - In both style of presentation and melodic line, Skene s pipe tunes couple of historical references to support that view: One is the music collection differ substantially from the familiar jigs and reels which have come down to us from collections such as Patrick Macdonald s Highland Vocal Airs, 1784. It of Alexander Campbell, who visited the Borders in October 1816 collecting t music. And one of the first people he encountered was an itinerant wool gatherer would seem the Northeast Scotland in the early 18 century was able to sustain from Banffshire, named James Copburn. "And James", he writes, "had three two piping traditions, one firmly grounded in the musical legacy of the Gael, the varieties of bellows pipes, one, an Irish pipe on which he performed but other with an eye to the south and the musical conventions of the Border pipers. indifferently. I prick d down his set of `Malcolm Caird s Come Again ." Campbell included a setting of Malcolm Caird in his song collection, with new words written by Walter Scott. The title I think is significant, because Caird is
50 marches, hornpipes, jigs and slip RODDY MACDONALD tunes, or the characters behind the REVIEWS jigs, slow airs, slow marches GOOD DRYING tunes. I knew little of the background etc. The final section has to many of Roddy s tunes, except From Other Shores settings for Scottish smallpipes The sight of a small cardboard Green Day strathspey which and Lowland pipes. package in the post is always met with celebrates the national day of Japan 100 original tunes for bagpipes The tunes were set on an anticipation, because it Apple Mac computer, and in heralds the (and in fact started out life as a reel!) Great Highland Bagpipe arrival of Greentrax Recording s latest so it was a bit disappointing that he ScottishLowland pipes, some respects the Lime Music Notation Software has let Bob CD for review. In this case it was had decided on a minimalist approach traditionalsmallpipes and other Roddy MacDonald s "Good Drying" instruments. Bob Cameron. down. For instance the melody to sleeve notes. Having spoken to Ian notes don t always sit centrally album - an unknown quantity initially Green, I decided to e-mail Roddy for on or between the stave lines, - but which has since been played and some more information - and such is that I never cease to be amazed and some of the notes get almost played and played. the wonder of modern technology that the bagpipe nine-note range can on top of one another. Despite Roddy s impeccable his reply was back in a few short generatedallow new tunes to be When it comes to tunes piping background - son of renowned hours! year after year, century after everyone has personal player, composer and judge, William Readers may be interest in the century, without repetition. Now . preferences, but it is safe to say MacDonald (Benbecula) - he is following notes from the man himself: Bob has `prick d down a there is something here for perhaps not well known on the GOOD DRYING: relates to a hundred more for us to try. every piper. When going Scottish piping scene, probably as a saying I heard as a young boy in Most of them were written through the tunes I put a mark result of having lived for many years Inverness where there would be "good for the Highland bagpipe, with against the ones I d like to come in London, and now in Japan. I have drying" days and "bad drying" days. detailed gracings included. But back to and learn. Here I mention a few amongst the often heard his tunes ascribed to other This was in the days before in the "Notes for Pipers and pipers (particularly Gordon Duncan), Laundromats and tumble driers! other Musicians" he explains the many:- the 2/4 march The key signatures used, the tuning Mooneys of Lauder (which by session players who haven t BULLET TRAIN: This is the required by the harpist, and the requires the use of high B); the bothered to check whose music they opening tune of the CD relating to the necessity to cross finger C and F strathspey Dancing At Corpach; are playing. I sincerely hope that this Shinkansen (bullet train) in Japan. the reel Ice Cubes In The CD goes a long way to changing this You can hear my son standing on the natural when playing tunes in A minor - written specially for the Coffee; hornpipe Angus situation and enhancing Roddy s platform at Osaka station asking if the Lowland/Border pipes. Cameron of Creignish (which reputation in this country. train is going to Kobe. Bob has a wide range of has both a major and minor The album is designed to appeal SMOKIN THE WASPS: My musical experience (he mentions setting); the jig Paddy s to other musicians as well as pipers home is a smoke free zone and when a playing the tuba, and studying Melodeon; slip jig Dorothy s and it offers a range of styles from famous piper was visiting me in music theory), and it shows. For Famous Hat, slow air The First "straight" Gaelic slow airs and London, he had to stand on balcony to instance the hornpipe "Captain of May; and most definitely strathspeys, to salsa and techno funk have a cigarette. Unfortunately I had Timothy Driscoll" is the first Lockerbie R membered. I can recommend this book proving Roddy to be an accomplished a wasps nest in my roof at the time! piece of pipe music I ve ever and versatile composer, and it features THE PIVOVAR EXPRESS : seen with double dotted quavers as a good source of new and th most of his best known tunes such as During a visit to the Czech Republic (8 notes) combinednd with demi- original tunes. I shall certainly semi-quavers (32 notes). continue to enjoy them. the title track, Electric Chopsticks, 11 with the Neilston Pipe Band, we were Bob has arranged the 100 Jock Agnew Paco Grande and Last Tango in invited to a brewery and the tunes (spiral bound quarto size) Harris. proprietors kindly filled our bus up into 11 major categories, each of [Obtainable from Bon Cameron One area which is increasingly with cases of the local beer (Pivovar!) which has a page of paragraphs 11 Totnes Rd, Braintree, MA attractive to listeners, particularly MEAL FUAR-MHONAIDH: telling something about each 02184-401 USA price $20 plus other pipers, is the sleeve notes which Named after the hill on Loch Ness- tune. There are 6/8 rnariches, 2/4 handling shipping] accompany such a production, often side I used to visit regularly as a marches, strathspeyes, reels, 4/4 giving background information about teenager.
52 53 book function together as an integral THE FAMOUS FOURTH: My Boys learning experience. marvellous musical instruments they making. It is good to see several top- Brigade Company in Inverness. As suggested by the sub-title can afford to buy! notch makers each providing their " All in all, this is a highly A practical guide to acquiring, The all-important learning own versions of the black art. A entertaining selection of music; "a playing, tuning, and maintaining process is thoroughly expounded as comprehensive and up to date lifetime of musical excursions" Roddy Scottish bellows blown bagpipes" are the principles of tuning-and here is resource section lists books, calls it, from the pen of a composer at every novice or learner player will do where the CD-ROM comes in. Many recordings, pipemakers, etc. There is home with a variety of styles, well to acquire this package. Of new admirers of these pipes live in even an extensive glossary and traditional and otherwise, music course we are all "learners", and far-flung corners of the earth. They alphabetic index. Nothing has been enhanced by sympathetic pipers of any level will find that it find themselves trying to learn in forgotten. accompaniments, serves as a superb one-stop reference isolation and often suffer endless One cautionary note: having recorded in frustration because explanations Australia by Murray Blair - and I am source, a veritable compendium of been advised in "Acquiring a set of accumulated wisdom. The 50 plus written on the page are no substitute pipes" on the various pitches. etc., the sure it will be a huge hit. for seeing and hearing how something Furthermore it is another addition to tunes alone, make this a worthwhile pipes used by Iain Madness turn out investment. These include pieces from is actually done. Even the simple to be an A set of smallpipes. No the Greentrax stable of thoroughbreds business of strapping on the bellows surprises here, as these reportedly - as if they needed to work at oft-referenced but little accessed sources such as Robert Millar s can seem a strange and awkward have become the most popular choice enhancing their reputation for behaviour at first, especially if you ve among new recruits to bellows piping, producing quality recordings, and manuscript and Riddells Collection of Scotch Galwegian and Border Tunes never seen it demonstrated. Enter Iain (regrettably to my mind, the D seeking out something a little bit out Maclnnes to demonstrate in a series of smallpipes being my favourite and of the ordinary. Full marks to Ian together with some modem compositions in the Border tradition clips every step from strapping on the more in line with original 18 century Green and his team again. bellows, through drone tuning, smallpipes in pitch and character). Available from Greentrax by contemporary players. All are helpfully categorised as either Easy, performing a series of exercises, and This means that if you had acquired a Recordings and all the usual outlets. on to demonstrating a selection of D or a C set, you can t really play Rona Macdonald. Medium or Hard. A preface by Gordon Mooney tunes from the book. The film clips along with Iain or learn the exercises includes a reminiscence of the are clearly cross-referenced with on- in unison with him. Also it is a pity excitement of the early uncertain days screen and on-book contents pages, that no demonstration of More Power To Your Elbow of the bellows pipe revival at the and the user can repeat, replay, or re- Border/Lowland pipes is included. A practical guide to acquiring, beginning of the 80s and reflects on visit earlier sections with the greatest However this is hair-splitting and the playing, tuning and maintaining how far we have since come. A of ease. The CD is not an audio CD to cost constraints of adding a parallel Scottish bellows blown bagpipes. be played on your CD player. Rather CD in D and another one featuring History of the Pipes by Julian the participant in this multi-media Border pipes would be somewhat over With over 50 tunes Goodacre all add to the quality of the Plus a tutorial CD-ROM feast should sit, (ideally with pipes the top. Also those wanting to hear D . production. The differences between and bellows at the ready) in front of smallpipes or Border pipes played can the computer with book on a stand refer to the commercial recordings When our dynamic editor asked me to Border/Lowland . Pipes and smallpipes review this "manual", I expected to beside him/her, pop the disc into the listed in the Resources section. is well explained as are the relative CD-ROM drive, and off we go. Bill Telfer find yet another `tutor for the pipes. merits and applications for pipes of How wrong I was. Jock has compiled There are sections headed different pitch. This section might Playing a tune for the first time; and edited something very much more even be of assistance to sufferers from Obtainable from Jock Agnew ( 25, or than this. The beautifully produced Deficiency Playing style; Getting the most out of 20 LBPS members) plus postage and Acquired Bagpipe your practice time; Playing in front of packing. Also from various retail 106-page A4 book could certainly Syndrome - those who, having stand on its own as the best of its others. These tips and reminders can outlets and pipe-makers world-wide. already acquired one or more sets of be as valuable to an old hand as to the kind, but it is further enhanced with pipes have become hopeless addicts the additional CD-ROM. The disc and beginner. wondering which next of these The extensive appendix deals with gracing, notation, reeds and reed-
54 Meetings and Events Bums Supper. 24th January. Deacon Brodie s Tavern, Royal Mile, Edinburgh. Contact Jim Gilchrist
Florida Smallpipe School for 2004. Feb. 23-to 27th . Tutor Fin Moore. To learn more, please e-mail [email protected]
Melrose Teaching weekend. Dates to be confirmed. Tutors Hamish Moore, John Saunders and AN Other. Contact Rona Macdonald 0141 946 8624
Annual LBPS competition, St Anne s Hall Edinburgh. Easter Saturday. Contact Rona Macdonald 0141 946 8624
Summer School. 2 nd to 6th August 2004, in conjunction with `Common Ground, Scotland at the Scottish Agricultural College, Auchincruide, near Ayr. Tutors lain Maclnnes and Jock Agnew - smallpipes and Border pipes, with pipe maintenance and reed making. Contact David Hannay 01 557 840 229
EDINBURGH - the ALP (adult learning project) at Boroughmuir High School, Bruntsfield on Thursday nights. Smallpipe tutor Ewan Boyd. Visit the ALP website www.alpscotsmusic.org or phone 0131 337 5442
NORTHEAST ENGLAND. 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month at the Swan pub, Greenside. Contact Steve Barwick 0191 286 3545.
NORTHWEST ENGLAND. Last Friday in the month at Armathwaite School, 1900 - 2130. Contact Richard Evans 016974 73799 3rd LONDON. Thursday of every month, except July 8th August. 95 Horseferry Rd. Contact Jock Agnew 01621 855447
LBPS Publications for sale More Power to your Elbow. Manual/tutor with CD-ROM. 25 ( 20 mbrs) Suggested Session Tunes 8 ( 6 members) A Collection of Pipe Tunes (Peacock etc) 7 ( 5 members) 50 Lowland and Border Tunes 4.50 From Niall Anderson or Jock Agnew. Trade prices available on request.
LBPS WEB SITE www.lbps.net