IN THIS ISSUE
GETTING THE ACT TOGETHER
PEEBLES COLLOGUE
PASTORAL PIPES C.1780
LBPS COMPETITION
Price 2.50 From John Creager, Santa Rosa, CA, U.S.A. From Colin Ross, Monkseaton, Whitley Bay
I noticed in the Lowland and Border Pipers I notice there has been some discussion Society Newsletter that articles were wanted regarding the production of a CD of Lowland for COMMON STOCK. I m sending you the piping by the Society. Can I warn you of this local contest results, hoping that they might straight away in the light of the experience be of some interest. gained thru our own exercise in doing the same in the Northumbrian Pipers Society. We Editorial LETTERS still have over 800 left our of our 1000 Scottish Small pipe Event produced some years ago now and are still The more observant readers of COMMON From Philip Gruar, Brook Cottage, Carnforth STOCK will have spotted that although the Santa Rosa Indoor Piping and Drumming nearly 1000 out of pocket. Contest I warned the Society at the time that it December issue forecast articles on Mary Scott Re. Bill Teller s article in the December and Medieval Travel, they are not to be found Piner Elementary School, Santa Rosa, should have been done professionally so that COMMON STOCK, last year I did pipe in the California in these pages. The reason? Space. Happily the a we were not involved in production costs i.e. haggis, unkilted, playing Border pipes, at March 6, 1993. recording studio time, printing of sleeve, and papers forwarded from the 1992 Collogue in Burns supper near Kendal. Peebles have put all the available columns to pressing of disc, and also more important be- good use. So perhaps in the December issue we 1st Place - Martha Yates cause the professional company could have a Pipes H.Moore, Key of A will return to Mary Scott and Travel, in the distribution network that could get the meantime, those who, like myself, were unable Tunes: The Martha Yates Polka (by Donald production sold. In the end it was the lack of From R.W.Odlin, Sedro-Woolley, U.S.A. Shaw Ramsay), Drops of Brandy, Ash Grove to attend last year s Collogue, can savour some distribution facilities that left us with the (Martha sang along with this tune). remainder with the subsequent foss and no ofthe atmosphere and learn some of the detail "Hugh MacDiarmid." = Ahern! = Are we to from the papers which are published here. be impressed with this prosy old drone from profit on a project that in the worst sense was 2nd Place - John Allan a "vanity production" lacking any overall the Bolshie Hive? If I can find Roy Campbell s Pipes M.MacHarg Drones, H.Moore chanter, artistic direction. And Gordon Mooney writes I hope to get Alan crack I shall include it here . . . "I think be- key of A. Jones collections of bagpipes over to the U.K. If the L.B.P.S. is determined to produce a cause of Basil s presence we were able to Tunes: The Old Man on the Most, "Elie recording for sale to the public as well as to tour and also exhibit at Old Gala House attract many good American poets to give Merry Boys of Greenland, high over Bun- (Galashiels ). If anyone wants a lecture recital readings in the tower, and he was generally members please bear this in mind as it could achton. destroy the financial base of the Society which and display of all Alan s 70 odd sets of pipes, pleased to see them. But the poet whom he does not have the capital to enter into a please get in touch to book him. Time frame is enjoyed meeting most was Hugh MacDiarmid. 3rd Place - Paul McAfee project like this. September/October. On the way to the tower in a taxi, Basil told Pipes J.Anderson, Key of A. Leave it to the professionals like Hamish or MacDiarmid that he was the finest Scottish tunes: Leaving Loch Boisdale. The Merry Boys The growing interest in Cauld-wind piping is Dougie McLean who have the time and poet since Burns, and MacDiarmid, chuckling, of Greenland, Forest Lodge motivation (perhaps) to do it. The cauld wind reflected in the MEETINGS AND EVENTS agreed. Both men had known and respected here on the back page - particularly the had never met. pipes are well served by existing recordings listings each others work, but anyway. activity in North America. Some of the MacDiarmid read, amongst other things, the Advertisement circumstances that led to this growth is beautiful Island Funeral, and after the read- The pipes offered for sale are as follows: described in Hamish s (or is it Maggie s?) ing we went back to our . flat. The old men article with the suggestion that pipers from this were bubbling with the Glenfiddick Fire Water 1: The actual set of side of the Atlantic might well take advantage seminal Scott pastoral pipes played by Hamish Moore on Roslyn Castle; a track on his and the youngsters blissful on beer and Cauld Wind Pipes album, with a D chanter, which overblows to give 2 full octaves, and a regulator pies 5 drones. of a piping holiday over there. Further focus on marijuana. They have recently been refurbished and re-reeded by Chris Bailey, the maker, and there is a Idler from him the North American scene is supplied by Al confirming the provenance. Own a piece of cauld-wind piping history: the first pastorals on record (probably!). James who has sent detailed description and BB MacDiarmid, this working class lad here With650. case and bellows, vgc, Oire measurements of an ancient set of Pastoral spells xxxx (expletive deleted.Ed ) with a K, pipes which were lurking in his local museum but writes marvelous poetry.... 2: A Musette de Cour (French Small Pipes) in D;G Am by Dave Shaw, with 2 (large and small) chromatic (chanters in the same stock and shuttle drones giving 6 possible drone notes. Well maintained and recently in Canada working class... refurbished by maker, in beautifully matured honey-coloured boxwood with simple case. Fits standard NSP HMcD I hate the xxxxxxx bellows (not included) . Suitable for early music and Border repertoire: Oiroo 695. Clearly there remains a great deal to unearth eyes all night long, and discover about all breeds of cauld-wind Mischeif sparkled in their 3: A student cabrette-type set, with chanter and one tee-side tenor drone mounted parallel in the same stock, play- pipes - and no-one makes this point more and Bunting sang from his seemingly endless ing in D/G with some overblowing. Made by Soefirne in rosewood. Uses Uillean reeds, easily obtainable, vgc: forcefully than musicologist John Purser in his repertoire of bawdy songs." (From BROKEN Offers invited (Uillean type bellows can be included for 50). article GETTING THE ACT TOGETHER ... RECORD: Reminiscences by Roy Campbell). Please call George Howard on 0942 812536 after 7pm or leave message on answerphone at other times. Delivery can be arranged. Jock Agnew II Ulting Lane, Langford, Essex
2 3 TUITION IN NORTH AMERICA (see also back Cover)
This summer, Hamish Moore will be spending six weeks in the States and Canada, furnishing an ever-increasing demand for tuition on Scottish small pipes from the fast-growing band of enthusiasts scattered over the continent. He will be running his own piping schools in North Carolina, California and Vermont, as well as spending three weeks in the Gaelic College on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. But how did it all start?
Hamish began teaching in the US in 1986, when he joined the staff of the Augusta Heritage Center, West Ylrginia , an organisation promoting traditional music, dance and crafts through its programme of summer schools. In 1988 he also started teaching at the Ashokan Fiddle and Dance camp in New York State, where the Celtic Week was a fine amalgamation of Scottish, Irish and Cape Breton music and dance.
In 1990, after 3 years at both Augusta and Ashokan, Hamish branched out and set up his own piping school in Vermont, the idea being to provide a smaller venue, where an informal atmosphere would encourage folk to get the most out of their musk. In the following two years, he set up new branches, first in North Carolina and subsequently in California. These ventures succeeded with the help of three enthusiastic and hard working co-ordinators; Matt Buckley in Vermont, Jo Johnston in North Carolina and John Creager in California. (Contact addresses on back coven Ed).
The numbers on each course vary between ten and twenty, with a second tutor being brought in if there are more than ten students.
In North Carolina and California , Maggie Moore will be running dance workshops in association with the piping schools. The social and set dances of pre-twentieth century Scotland will be explored, including the oldest and only indigenous dance form; Reels. Various regional styles, especially those of the outlying islands, Orkney, Shetland and the Hebrides, will be covered as well as the most popular dances which have survived through the centuries and are still danced at ceilidhs, weddings etc.
In the past, pipers from the States and Canada have made the trip to Scotland to join the piping schools which Hamish runs in Perthshire. Perhaps this year the flow will go the other way and some British pipers may decide to mix travel with piping. The Vermont school is purposely time-tabled to fit in with the Bagpipe Convention at North Hero. only forty-five minutes away by car, which is a Mecca for hundreds of pipers of all hues.
Here is part of Steve Bliven s description of the 1991 Lowland Pipe Workshop held in Vermont.
The group came from mixed musical backgrounds. Half of the ten members fell into the beginners group (with two in the "never touched it before" category), most of the rest classifying themselves as advanced. Only half the group (including some of the Lowland pipe beginners) had experience on Highland pipes. Virtually all had some prior musical background, all on "folk" instruments, and half were repeaters at a Hamish enclave (somehad attended multiple sessions).
I quickly proved that I deserved my beginners ranking and was assigned, with four others, to Davie Taylor while the more advanced students went off with Hamish. Each of the beginners worked with a "Goose" - no need for tuning of drones - and all in lhe key of "A". This simplified the process and allowed the formation of smaller groups for practice. The advanced group used their own pipes in a common key. Later in the week the instructors switched off for a couple of sessions providing the beginners with several lessons directly from Hamish.
The day broke down into a routine of two hour sessions with the instructors in the morning and 5 afternoon working on repertoire, technique, and style; even in the beginners group there was a strong GETTING THE ACT TOGETHER emphasis on the latter. John Purser, author, musician and Broadcaster, gave a memorable Immortal Memory at t this year s LBPS Burns supper. In his writings and his broadcasts he usually leaves his Each afternoon ended with a session on the history and the legends of Scotland or piping, instrumenin audience with something to chew on, and this article is no exception. set-up and maintenance, or a critique of recordings of pipe music. Several evening were ant Burlington at sessions with local musicians over fermented beverages. Publishing a book called Scotland s Music has put me in the invidious position of being expected to know everything about the subject. This, I assume is why Jock has People came to the camp with expectations of expanded repertoire, refined technique, greater asked me to contribute to Common Stock. But the fact is that I know very little knowledge of pipe care and maintenance, and just to have fun. All indicated that their expectations about the Lowland and Border Pipes, and because it is embarrassing to have to admit it, had been met and then some. Post-camp comments tended to superlatives. And each indicated that I intend to shift the blame! they had made new friends. Some of the beginners initially found sense frustration lime, but when asked a month later after introduction of new elements and need for more practising It is not really my fault at all, you see, because as far as I can make out nobody knows the course was over, virtually all recognised that the week had exposed them to far more than they what a Lowland or Border pipe really is. Is it conical, is it cylindrical, is the chanter could handle as once - but they had material to work on for several months. (Both Davie and closed or open, is it permitted to have a key or two on the chanter, when is it a Hamish noted that this was, of necessity, a crash course; given a different situation, the lessons would Northumberland pipe, where do the Pastoral pipes fit in, or the uilleann pipes and the months.) The advanced players seemed to have no such trouble have been spread out over several stock and horn if it comes to that? If that were not enough how do we identify what soaking up the tunes and techniques. tunes were originally for what instrument - who is pinching what notes out of what finger holes, who is cross-fingered when and where; what (Common Stock Vol 7 No 2) Of the eight participants who responded to a follow-up survey, all highly recommended the week. The a beautiful setting, and friendly folk made it a has happened to the Phrygian mode which to my ear has a lurking presence in the combination of good musk, excellent instruction, hundreds of tunes usually described as "double tonic ? In the many references to highly worthwhile experience. "pipers", whether town pipers or otherwise, what instrument is referred to? Where is an honest musicologist to go to get straight answers to these questions?
Advertisement Nowhere, that s where.
For Sale: Of course I recognise that one or two publications have made a start in that direction, Scottish Smallpipes in C and Bb by H Moore. These fully mounted pipes must be the best toned pipes The set inC was previously owned and played by Hamish Moore. but we all know the subject is too big for an introductory essay. It needs a book to itself. available. So I have a proposal to make. I ve made it already as part of the Immortal Memory I gave for your last Burns Supper, and this is me making it again, forcefully. It is time Border pipes in Bb . Shaw drones with replica 19th century chanter, can be reeded to give a quiet tone somebody gave the next few years of their life to writing the history of these instru- or alma highland sound. + 20 volumes of music, Scottish, English, Irish and French. ments, and it is time the Society started raising the cash to start publishing the history May exchange for Nikon or Medium Format camera equipment. Phone 0532 539045. in full glory, with musical examples properly typeset, well illustrated - all the trimmings that this complex and fascinating subject so richly deserves. Keith Sanger and Alison Kinnaird have done it for the clarsach in their magnificent Tree Of Strings and I know of two or three people who are capable of doing the same for the cauld wind pipes. Of course it has to be a work of real scholarship as well as practical experience, but such a book would be a thing to treasure for many years, as well as setting a standard from which other generations could move on.
Of course in the performing world the emphasis tends to be on new sets of old tunes, or new tunes altogether, and the past is treated with a liveliness which insists on its still being alive and malleable. That is right and proper. But it is also right and proper that an understanding of what that past really was be established - not so as to put performers in orthodox straight jackets, but so that they are fully aware of what they are doing. One does not have to behave like one s great-grand-parents in order to benefit from a thorough knowledge of who they were and how they behaved, but it is interesting to have that knowledge and sometimes it reveals the genetic background to one s own actions. I believe the same can apply to a study of our musical past. So go to it. Finally, I have made feeble search for the two tunes that Dunbar mentions when he writes "Your commone menstralis hes no tone,/ Bot Now the day dawis and Into Joun". Any answers that fit the cauld wind pipes? There are a number of candidates for Now the day dawis, but no clear winner. As for Into Joun, I am lost.
7 for though tarnished dull is cleans easily as shown by the small-drone ferrule which was given a lick of Brasso. The metal appears to have a high tin content but is fairly ductile, the Pastoral Pipes c.1780 plug-cap seeming lathe-spun to form the sidesof the cap. The average metal thickness is Al James, from Vancouver B.C., Canada, says that although 15thou . the pipe is now returned to the museum from whence it came, any points The workmanship of the pipe is excellent and its maker was a good crafts-man. His pipe he still has access and will be pleased to check on has seen plenty of playing for the chanter holes are well worn. The chanter, incidentally, that readers may raise. And he has since come upon a now has a fine but definite crack on one side for almost the whole of its length. catalogue entry describing the pipes as "Set of Highland Small " Pipes (bag pipes) donated by Lord Seaforth to a gentleman . Photos 3 and 4 show the pipe dissembled as far as then was possible. Later the small drone and the bass-drone tuning sections were detached from the stock plug. The I was interested in Hugh Cheape s article in the Dec. 91 issue of the Journal on Sir David remaining pieces appear to be cemented in by a combination of jute thread and fish-glue, Wilkie s painting "The Bagpiper , particularly in illustration 2 which showed a late 18th and will not budge. Photo 4 shows the bottom thickness of the drones stock and the three century Pastoral or Hybrid Union bagpipe. reed holes in the disc in the bottom of the stock plug. The drawings, sheets 1 to Last month I was assisting with work in a small museum which is maintained by members 4, show the pertinent dimensions as accurately as I could make of the Regimental Association of the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, and happened upon them, using steel rule, dial-calliper and twist-drill-bit diameter gauges. The decorative the remains of an old bagpipe, stored in a carton. The bellows, the leather bag, the embellishments have been left un-dimensioned as they will now be a matter of personal chanter foot-joint, a couple of drone end bells, the metal U -tube of the bass-drone fold preference. All of the spigots for holding ferrules, for stock-fitting and for the tuning slides are parallel grooved, while the bass and mid-drone end-bell spigots are screw-thread and all of the reeds were missing. The remaining pieces were tied into a bag made of old grooved. kilt material and some of the pieces were damaged. The pipe was taken home with me for investigation and measurement, and was found to The "U" tube of sheet 2 is purely speculative and the actual height/length could be deduced from experimentation with pieces of plastic tube during the final stages of be almost exactly like the pipe of Illustration 2 and very similar to Plate X1/31 of Anthony manufacture. Baines "Bagpipe" book. Accordingly I photographed and measured the pieces, and recorded the actual Similarly, the chanter foot-joint of sheet 3 is speculative and may be improved by ex- dimensions. Dimensions of some of the missing pieces were estimated by comparison to perimentation. The mid-drone end-bell on the same drawing is shown detached and Illustra.2 and Plate XI/31 and also recorded. dimensioned so that the other drone and end-bells can be made to suitable proportion. Without a doubt, the pipe is of 1780 vintage (See also below. Ed) and though in its present Drawing sheet 4 is somewhat complicated and is an attempt to depict a very tricky piece state it cannot be reeded and played, it could be restored by a competent pipe-maker. of woodwork. The plug is of box-wood whereas the other pieces are of black-wood. It is made to very fine tolerances so that the spigot and spigot-hole diameters are very close, For anyone who would like to make a replica of this fascinating bagpipe I have dratted my and the wall thickness between the spigot-holes and the outside of the plug is very thin. In measurements and estimations except for those of the bag and bellows which can easily the thin areas there are now some longitudinal splits in the wood. be obtained elsewhere. The fitting of the drone pieces in the plug appear to have been difficult as some drone Photos 1 and 2 are same object, different perspective. Set up on a cabinet top with flanges and spigot holes have been scraped in some areas. blanket back-drop, two flood lights and the family camera, the chanter is stuffed with tissue paper to high-light the finger holes. Photo 1 shows finger holes plus black shadow, To make the cross-connection in the plug between the spigot-holes of the bass-drone photo 2 shows no black shadow and no finger holes and in both shots the two-foot rule is down-corner and the bass-drone tuning section, the bottom of the plug was recessed to a a disaster. depth of 7/32 by face-plate turning in a lathe. It was then sealed by a tightly fitted and glued, box-wood disc of depth thickness in which the three reed holes were drilled, after The Items L to R are the chanter stock which has been thrice longitudinally split apart and the 3/8" high and wide channel was cut. missing one slice of about 1/8" thick, then the chanter minus the foot-joint. Item 3 is the two-foot rule and item 4 is the drones stock with all existing pieces assembled. In the These holes were drilled to different depths, the small-drone spigot hole being drilled stock the small drone (sans end-bell) is front centre, flanked on the right by the bottom through plug and disc, so that the reed would seat in the drone and have vibration space piece of the bass drone which would hold the reed and on the left by the down-coming in the plug. The bass-drone spigot-hole was drilled into the plug to a depthof 1+1/8", then section of the bass drone, which is connected to the tuning section (behind the through plug and disc at 11/32 to form a long reed seat in the plug and the disc. The down-corner) by a horizontal channel in the stock plug. The mid-drone at right rear is mid-drone spigot-hole was drilled through the plug to the inside face of the disc at 17/64" piece m which a to form a reed-seat in the disc. Both bass and mid-drone seats appear to have been complete. The fifth item is the blow-stick stock holding the blow-stick, fro li of the mouth is broken away and missing. ghtly flared by hand. For the ferrules and stock-plug cap the metal used is something like pewter but brighter, To conclude, there are numerous ways in which the modem pipe-maker could improve on 8 . 8 9 the manufacture of a similar pipe. Still, it is interesting to speculate on how the pipe would have sounded in its prime, so using high-school physics I have attempted to estimate the fundamental frequencies of the instrument. Based on the simple equation of Frequency = Speed of sound divided by four times the drone length, and with a sound speed of 1125ft/sec., I calculated the bass-drone frequency to equal 80Hz. Assuming the chanter low A to be two octaves higher, the low A would be 320Hz. i.e. well below the modem standard of 440Hz. The spacing of the chanter holes requires a long low-hand span to cover the low A hole, which at 1/8" diameter is the smallest of the chanter holes; so that it probably was low pitched and soft-sounding too. This sparks speculation concerning the function of the small drone, the fundamental frequency of which calculates to 320Hz. at its shortest length; thereby matching the frequency of the chanter low A, which would not only provide harmony but would also augment the volume of the low A. Very interesting! Does, for instance, a small diameter A hole ease any chipping/skirling problems that may stem from a stiff-shouldered reed combined with a large diameter A hole? The middle drone doesn t back up my logic very well, for it calculates to 169Hz. at its shortest length and therefore is a little higher than the theoretical 160Hz. for a tenor drone to its bass drone s 80Hz. It is too low for a theoretical E drone of 240Hz. so probably is a 3 tenor drone. Comments from anyone interested in the fore-going will be very welcome and if someone can supply information on, and dimensions of, the reeds and missing pieces, they will be hugely smiled upon.
2
10 1
BAGPIPES OF THE BORDER fact that one type of pipe can be called by several of these names! a. Border Pipe In the simplest form the Border bagpipe consists of three drones fitted in a common stock The 1992 Collogue (n.collusion; a conversation, a confidential chat - with a loud conical-bored chanter similar to that on a Highland pipe, though quieter. Chambers Scots Dictionary) was a success - as was its predecessor in 1991. Appropriately held in the Borders (Jedburgh 1991, Peebles last year; b. Union Pipe The Union pipe is a more sophisticated bagpipe, possiblydeveloped from the Border pipe. It Galashiels 1993) it is to become an annual event. has a great deal in common with the modern Irish Uillean Pipe.
Julian Goodacre, one of the prime movers, has supplied the following in- Although we may never establish fixed categories for these pipes, we have In this Exhibition troduction which may serve to lead readers gently into the more detailed (I.e. at the Collogue.Ed) some of the surviving instruments that are the inspiration for players and makers in this current revival ...... and technical contents of the papers themselves.
The Scottish/English Border has been a centre for the playing of several types of bellows THE LOWLAND AND BORDER PIPERS SOCIETY SECOND ANNUAL COLLOGUE WAS blown bagpipes from the 17th century to modern times. These pipes differ considerably from HELD AT THE COUNTY HOTEL, PEEBLES ON AUGUST 29TH 1992. the familiar mouth blown Highland Pipes and have a quieter, sweeter tone. The day consisted of Talks of Tunes and techniques, Entertainment, discussions and displays. In Northumberland, on the English side of the Border, there is an unbroken tradition of The day ended with a concert. playing bellows-blown SmallpIpes. In Scotland, however, where they were played in many areas, especially around Aberdeen and in the Borders, these pipes fell into disuse during the Some of the papers presented at that Collogue are reproduced here. 19th century. This was mainly due to the adoption of the Highland pipes for military bands and the subsequent spread of their popularity world-wide.
A useful Scottish name for all the bellow-blown bagpipes Is CAULD WIND PIPES, so called because the air blown into them is cold as opposed to the warm air blown into a mouth-blown SINGING TO THE SMA PIPES Pipe. Davie Robertson is a familiar sight (and sound) at the TYPES OF CAULD WIND PIPES. LBPS annual competitions. This talk was illustrated by Basically there are two different categories of pipes, the main difference being in the shape of Davie playing and singing some of his repertoire. the bore down the centre of the chanter.
1. SMALLPIPES We know from written records that singing to the pipes seems to have been a fairly common practice. It is probably safe to assume that the instrument in The chanter on these pipes has a parallel bore, which results In a low quiet tone. question was the sma pipe, since it would need the lungs and vocal chords of a bull to compete with the Lowland pipes. It is also probable that these were a. Northumbrian Pipes 18th century drawing-room performances where Italian, French, or During the last two centuries these have been developed from a simple Smallpipe of the 17th polished-up versions of Scots songs might have been accompanied by pastoral century into a modern sophisticated bagpipe that is currently enjoying worldwide popularity. pipes, musette or small pipes. However I intend to concentrate on what I un- b. Scottish Smallpipes derstand to be the native tradition. The surviving museum examples of Scottish Smallpipes show us that they remained similar to the simple 17th century pipe from which developed the modern Northumbrian pipe. The last Since the Scots sma pipes seem to have been extinct by the end of last century ten years has seen a resurgence of interest in making, developing and playing these pipes and as a "living" musical instrument as opposed to a museum piece or a curiosity, it they have found a place as a bagpipe in the Scottish musical scene. The Lowland and Border is stating the obvious to say that as far as we know, no living tradition of Pipers Society (formed in 1981) has provided a focus for this revival. playing the sma pipes, far less singing to them, has survived to the present 2. LOUDER CAULD WIND PIPES day. Thus although we know through the efforts of Gordon Mooney what kind of tunes were played, we can never know with absolute certainty even about The chanter of these pipes has a conical bore which produces a higher pitched and louder such basics as fingering, far less nuances of style, use of ornamentation and so sound than the Smallpipe. on. I have a kind of gut feeling about this that makes me tend to agree with There are a variety of different pipes with a confusing number of names: Border, Lowland, Julian Goodacre that in the south of Scotland at any rate, closed fingering Union, Hybrid Union, Half-long, Irish, Uillean, Pastoral. The confusion Is increased by the 16 17 in my would be used Julian explained very lucidly at a Lowland and Border Pipers head, which I have imprinted there by a lifetime of listening to meeting last year just what the technical evidence for this is in the construc- authentic traditional singers and musicians. It must also I suppose tion of old sets of sma pipes, and if you want a resume of this I refer you to have been influenced to some extent by Highland piping, Gaelic song, him. I have a hunch that when the Northumbrian chanter was box bands, pop and country-and-western music, and by thirty years of stopped, it was not done to achieve a revolutionary new sound, but to going to folk clubs, although it s perhaps worth mentioning that much improve a sound that was there already - the "popping" staccato sound of the rumtie-tum stuff we hear in folk clubs sounds in my humble achievable with closed fingering. It should be remembered however opinion no more authentically Lowland, than Marjory that closed fingering or indeed a stopped chanter does not necessarily Kennedy-Fraser s sounds authentically Gaelic. preclude the production of a more "Scottish" elemental wail, nor the playing of grace notes nor Highland tunes. Excellent evidence of this Being musically illiterate, and never having been taught piping, I am can be heard in the playing of the late and unsurpassable Billy Pigg. trying to imitate this sound in my head, blissfully free of the shackles of accepted Highland piping technique, and the dictates of the black It is sometimes forgotten in Northumberland, I suspect, that Jimmy dots on a printed page. Unfortunately, being a fairly mediocre Allen, the famous "Northumbrian" piper at the turn of the 18th musician I continually fall short of my own ideal. I have not yet felt Century, was of Yetholm Gypsy stock, and pursued his colourful able to do much with the more rollicking rumbustious type of songs, career on both sides of the Border. This suggests to me that his style of and stick mostly to slow numbers. piping was likely to be common to both sides of the Border and that the style from which modern Northumbrian playing derives was as Sometimes it is quite effective simply to play a note for note what likely to be heard in the 18th Century Morebattle as in Morpeth, in you re singing, and if this sounds all right then there s little need to Longformacus as in Longframlington. Perhaps if Billy Pigg had ever bother with anything fancier. However, it is possible sometimes to do sung to the pipes, we would have had a pretty accurate picture of the much more than this. If you are familiar with the singing of such Border singer-piper s basic sound. authentic greats as Jeannie Robertson, Lizzie Higgins, Belle Stewart, Jimmy McBeath, and Davie Stuart, you will know that they often use I think I am right in saying that many of the Lowland pipe tunes a very free style of singing, and this free style is ideally suited to a researched by Gordon Mooney are the tunes of songs, and it is surely sma -pipe accompaniment. So please forget the horrific modern more than likely that these Scots songs heard in "folkie" circles can be kailyaird convention that all Scots songs are sung to waltz time, and played with ease on the sma pipes, and I m sure must often have been let s concentrate on "free-style". sung to sma -pipe accompaniments. What I do, singing and playing free-style, is carry the basic melody line The most famous songs of the Borders were, of course, the so-called with my voice, and play a decorated form of it on the pipes. There is "Border Ballads". I should not of course have to remind you that really nothing very clever about this. All I m doing is playing the ballads were meant to be sung, and that ballads were sung not only in melody by ear and adding a few twiddly bits now and again, in the the Borders, but throughout the length and breadth of Lowland same way as Gaelic psalm singers sing slowed-down ornamented forms Scotland. Many ballads lend themselves so readily to pipe of well-known metrical psalm tunes, or in much the same way as accompaniments, that I have no doubt whatever that they must Lizzie Higgins ornaments basic ballad tunes. frequently have been sung to the pipes. Luckily, traditional ballad singing has survived to the present day in Scotland, the late Jeannie Apparently a primitive accompaniment technique, is to begin your line Robertson being the most famous and probably the most skilled of accompaniment before you start singing, then mark time a bit on exponent. I like to think that the 18th/early 19th Century singer-piper your instrument while your voice catches up with the tune. Conversely must have sounded at best like a combination of Billy Pigg and you can delay lines or musical phrases on yourinstrument, then shove Jeannie Robertson, and at worst something like me. them in while your voice carries on with the song. Thus, as I play a verse, I might be anticipating or delaying phrases, and at the same With my singing and piping I am trying to achieve a sound that I have 18 19 time playing variations on the basic tune by chucking in three or four TUNES FROM notes where the basic melody only has one, or perhaps only playing one where the melody has two or three. Also, because of the limita- ANGUS MACKAY S MANUSCRIPTS tions of the pipe chanter, I will sometimes have to play a low note Peter Cooke, musicologist at the School of Scottish Studies, where the tune has a high note, or vice versa, or perhaps play a note Edinburgh University, has carried out considerable research into that harmonises with the missing one instead of going up or down an bagpipes and early Ceol Mor. octave. Thus although I am really just playing the tune of the song, it sometimes sounds pretty complex, and even on rare occasions like a 1. The collection and its history. Angus MacKay s collection of pipe tunes is by far the largest of a number of manuscript carefully worked out proper musical accompaniment! pipe music collections compiled during the first half of the 19th century and provides a good idea as to the range of tunes circulating around both Scotland and England at that time. For It is of course all done by ear. Any given accompaniment is probably members of our Society it has proved worth examining to see if it had anything to contribute improvised to at least a certain extent, and maybe a little different to the Lowland pipe repertory and to our knowledge of the playing style of the time. each time I play it. When I sing to the pipes, it is the song which is important, and the accompaniment is something meant merely to The manuscript now consists of four volumes bound up at a later date for the Duke of underline and enhance the message of the song. The musical Hamilton when he owned it. Brief details of its history are given in an introduction by the accompaniment therefore should never be intrusive, or distract the editor Archibald Campbell to book 10 of the Piobaireachd Society s official collection. The small music tunes are to be found in volumes three and four and also bound into volume listener from the words. If the pipes can enhance the "atmosphere" of four are some pages of a kind of diary written by Angus MacKay during the period he was the song, well and good. If not, they should simply be a pleasant noise confined in the Bethlehem asylum in London - they make very sad reading. The first entry in the background. Fortunately I have a loud voice, and a loud voice of this diary dates from 29 Nov. 1854. Bound with this also is a brief biographical note on can drown out a multitude of fumbles on the chanter. his father and his family. Those interested in MacKay s personal history will also be inter- ested to note two compositions of his that appear early on in volume three (page 4) the first entitled Triall Bhethlehem (Gaelic) and Agmen Bethlehemicum ab Ango Mac... and the As far as the singing is concerned, I was unplaced in a recent TMSA competition because the judges were looking for "expression and a second The Unjust Incarceration , a 9/8 variation of the pibroch ground of the same name. certain lightness of touch". Personally I think this is often vastly Does this suggest the manuscript was begun after he spent his time in the Bethlehem asylum - after 1854? Or had he been committed there on an earlier occasion? A couple of pages of overdone. It is my belief that a good song or ballad should be able to Quadrille tunes probably written by Joseph Lowe, a well known Scottish dancing master carry its own message without the aid of quasi operatic shrieks and follows on a page later possibly suggesting that MacKay still had palace connections while whispers from the singer. Perhaps more singers should remember that writing those two tunes. It was very much a working manuscript and despite my remarks the singer is merely a mouthpiece for something much greater than about his asylum confinement it could have been compiled over a number of years including himself. "Expression" in my humble opinion, can be as intrusive as a the time when he was still performing his piping duties for Queen Victoria. The manuscripts whizz-kid accompaniment sounding off with an eruption of musical are available for public consultation in the National Library of Scotland (mss). pyrotechnics. If anything I try to strive for what I believe to be 2. Contents. "authenticity", and I leave "expression" to the purveyors of MacKay must have begun by earmarking sections of both volumes for specific categories Kennedy-Fraserisms. of tunes. So one of the volumes of small music begins with 81 pages devoted mostly to Marches - approximately 173 in all followed by a section beginning at p.101 for only 37 To sum up then, I am trying to sound as I imagine an intelligent 18th strathspeys. The second begins with a large number of reels, spanning pages numbered Century countryman would have sounded, who was not endowed with 149-211, and then 73 jigs (pages 211-254). Mixed in amongst these categories, however, musical genius, but loved the heritage and tradition, and found it are other items, some of them not in MacKay s own hand, as well as six Waltzes some vibrant and meaningful. I suppose the ultimate aim is to sound as if Galopedes and tunes for Quadrilles. It is amongst the March section that we find a mix of the tradition had lasted into the twentieth Century and up to the 3/4, 6/8 and 2/4 tunes, many of which could well have belonged to Lowland tradition. present day, and that I was a part of it and had some small contribu- I had hoped that after a cursory glance we might have gleaned some idea of the repertory of tion of my own to add to it in carrying it on. That is my idea of dances performed in the royal homes. A number of Quadrilles and Waltzes are included but authenticity, and if I ever manage to touch on it, I will be more than many of these items are in hands other than MacKay s. Angus MacKay was obviously satisfied. 20 21 friendly with Joseph Lowe who as the best Scottish dancing master of the time had, I tunes of non-Gaelie origin, many others the converse. No doubt many tunes were well known believe, conducted dance events at Balmoral and possibly Windsor also. What appears to he in both traditions. I ve chosen a few today to illustrate some of the problems and to provide Lowe s hand can be found in both volumes. His first contribution is a set of Quadrille pieces some attractive settings for you to try out on your pipes. (in 6/8 and 2/4 time) placed early in the section containing the Marches, which seem to have inspired MacKay also to note down a set of tunes entitled Irish Quadrilles im- Maggie Lauder. The air of a well-known Lowland Scots song. MacKay possibly took this mediately afterwards. Lowe s settings are unfinished and the first tune begins outside the from some fiddle collection - otherwise he would not have written in the key signature of range and probably the key of the bagpipe. MacKay s own Quadrille selection seems to have two sharps. It is lightly graced to help preserve the flowing nature of the tune - or is this been hurriedly written out and the tunes ungraced. These tunes are a mix of well-known one he took from a possible McKerrcher collection I mentioned earlier? I have not had time to check on the existence of a fiddle book which could have been the source - note the Highland and Lowland 6/8 Jigs and 2/4 pieces. Normality returns on page 21 when MacKay KER... During the binding process the manuscript pages were trimmed down and un- returns to his careful compilation of tunes entitled Marches. In volume two Lowe pens a fortunately marginal notes on this and many other tunes were trimmed away too. page of tunes - the Prince of Wales Strathspey, Prince Albert s Reel and a Strathspey and Reel set entitled The Queen s Piper. The first two are clearly fiddle tunes and go outside the bagpipe range, his tunes to MacKay, however, do at least pay him the compliment of lying within the pipe scale and sounding very Highland even though they are not pipe settings. At the back of the second volume are two other sets of Quadrilles - the Royal Scottish and the Royal Irish - but not set for the pipes and in some unknown hand - though MacKay has added in the titles.
3. Editorial Methods, When I say these are working manuscripts I mean that MacKay was obviously compiling as many tunes as he could, noting them down to varying degrees of detail - some are fully graced, others sketchily and others not at all. The selection of tunes for the Irish Quadrilles are marked change the key so clearly MacKay was using this manuscript as a storehouse of finished and unfinished tunes.
A large proportion of the tunes are, however, neatly copied from printed collections and he usually indicates his sources and their page numbers. Many tunes are marked M G with a page reference - these are tunes to be found in that important early printed collection The Logan Water. Where is Logan Water - is it one of the Ayrshire Logans? In the Buchan dis- Piper s Assistant - edited by Angus MacKay and published by Glen for the first time in trict the tune is associated with the ballad called The Cruel Mother . Is this a tune MacKay 1843 (see Roderick Cannon s bibliographic entry No.310). This book contains tunes which arranged? It passed on down as a March in piping Books, notably later editions of the Glen publishers and compilers have drawn on many times since. But MacKay also copied tunes collections. Notice there is no real second turning but a modification of the first - a clue from the Donald MacDonald and William Gunn pipe music books and from Alexander that it is probably an old single strain ballad tune that could have belonged to either Highland or Lowland tradition. It was certainly well known in the Lowland ballad tradition as a tune for The Cruel McGlashan s Collection of Reels (a fiddle music collection that appeared in 1781). Lastly I Mother and a fine recording of the ballad sung to this tune can be heard on Alison McMorland s Belt wi (whose Companion to the Ballroom (1816) provided MacKay should also mention Wilson Colours Three TGS (played over at the Collogue -tangent records 125). At the Collogue Matt Seattle with other tunes) and O Farrell s Irish collection. At least two other pipers are cited - a commented that Logan Water can be found in one of the 18th century fiddle music collections. I have McDougall and a Duncan McKerrcher - possibly a piper who had made a manuscript since discovered a setting of it, probably made by the editor Robert McIntosh, in Charles McLean s A collection which was never published. There are many other tunes, some of them untitled, Collection of Favourite Scots Tunes (1772). See David Johnston s detailed discussion of this collection for which no source is given. in his Scottish Fiddle Music of the 18th Century, Edinburgh, 1984, p.9-13.
What is not clear to me is if the tunes labelled M G (usually followed by the appropriate page reference) were published from this manuscript (and that fact noted later) or if this is a second manuscript into which he has copied tunes from this earlier published collection. Perhaps a closer examination will answer this question.
As you would expect , MacKay being a Highlander - like his illustrious father he was a na- tive of the island of Raasay - many of the tunes are clearly of Gaelic Highland origin. But the problem of sorting out Highland from Lowland repertory is compounded by his providing each tune with both Gaelic and English titles. Some could be his own Gaelic translations for
22 The Bride Has a Bonny Thing. A well known Lowland tune - possibly an old 6/8 wedding My Wife has gone a Drinking and The Herd of the Glen seem to belong equally to March, here arranged by MacKay possibly from one of the early fiddle collections. The tune is probably both Highland and Lowland traditions. also in Gaelic tradition - notice the quite different Gaelic title The Roes of this Town .
The Minister s Mare. Another tune in The Piper s Assistant It could be Lowland or Highland. Possibly another old ceremonial March.
Paddy 0 Snap. An Irish tune, perhaps, but this 9/8 (slip Jig) metre seems to have historic associa- tions with wedding music. Many other tunes are in a more unfinished state - awaiting thought about how to grace them. In other places in the book one sometimes finds the barest notations for some tune or Sweet Molly . Is this irish, Lowland or Highland? It is given three titles. One of them a compliment other - just note heads, or note heads and tails but no beams or barring. Other 9/8 tunes in the to the Earl of Hopetoun - his Strathspey. manuscript are a nice setting of Go to Berwick Johnny and Saw ye the Carle of late as well as the well-known Woo d and Married and A .
24 25 Galloway Tom - An Irish tune - taken from O Farrell s collection. It also resembles the tune Galloway Tom in O Neill s Dance Music of Ireland but MacKay has clearly already adapted it to the there would be many exclusively lowland tunes in it. Rather I have been more interested in trying to Scottish pipes, even without grace notes. Add your own! learn more about the mind of a man who has been more important than anyone else in piping s, transition from an aural/oral tradition to a notated one. Whatever may be the answers to some of the questions . I ve raised, clearly MacKay s manuscripts show his readiness to expand the pipe repertory from many different sources both Highland and Lowland. Despite his enormous concern for recording his father s i mportant repertory of official Highland clan - his pibroch notations are his other great contribution to our knowledge of piping - he obviously had an open mind about what pipers could or should play. but then he was a working piper with illustrious patrons to satisfy and he who pays the piper...
That said, my thanks are due to our unpaid piper, Lindsay Davidson, who gave such enjoyable render- ings of some of the above tunes during the course of my talk at your Collogue.
SONATAS FOR SCOTTISH SMALL PIPES Those who attended the 1992 Lowland and Border Pipers Society competition in 1992 will have heard Lindsay playing one of his own compositions. His "First Sonata For Small Pipes" was published in COMMON STOCK December 1992. Here he describes some of the technicalities of composing such music.
To date I have composed five sonatas for the Scottish Smallpipes, which is what this article is about.
I have chosen to adopt a three movement structure (as opposed to four movements) for these sonatas, the form of each movement being as follows - sonata form, theme and variations and sonata rondo. The exception is the second sonata, which uses a binary form. Spirits of Whisky. Another of the Irish tunes though the name is also known in Shetland. Compared with normal length double Jigs many would call this tune defective with its six bar turnings, but it suggests the results of drinking ower much quite nicely! The principle elements of a composition are: a) Themes b) Tonality c) Rhythm d) Development e) Repetition f) Proportion
Constructing large form movements is about organising these elements. A quick word about each element: Near the back of his Manuscript one finds a few Waltzes jotted down and a couple of Galopedes. The Galopedes he graced fairly fully, the Waltzes very little. His Copenhagen Waltz has high B s - proof that a) Themes - these are built up from two bar phrases because any advancement must some pipers were able to this note musically? Not necessarily I think. This tune is simply a copy of an come from a tradition - which in this case requires a two bar question + a two bar instrumental setting from somewhere, key signature and all. It was probably awaiting his attention , but I hesitate to be definite about this, for when he copied material from McGlashan s fiddle music collections answer. The next step along the reform road is to develop themes so that they do he took pains to modify there and then any tunes which moved outside the pipe scale. not require to be 2 + 2, to draw possibly upon highland pipe music for a quick lesson here to mould a 3,3,2 (or similar) structure. This would provide limited I have attempted no more than an introductory examination of what is. for various reasons, one of the scope for development in the exposition (first movement). Stravinsky said strength most interesting pipe music collections made in the 19th century. I did not pick it because I thought could be gained through limitation.
26 27 b) Tonality - possibly the most important factor in smailpipe composition because it 2 The repeat is frequently ignored on other instruments (sonata form developed is the most limited factor and therefore requires most planning and thought. The from binary form A B). practical limitations of the instrument force the composer to make alterations to the 3 The second subject (second group) in the first sonatas is in the subdominant - it is traditional sonata principal - trial and error taught me that in the first sonata (see not really correct to think or talk about keys on the pipes - we should think about below for more on sonata form). Tonality governs thematic repetition, particularly modes, which is a slight contradiction because sonata form is not a modal form. In in the last movement. the later sonatas in the ionian mode (the scale starting on D on the pipes) the second subject (group) is in the mode a fourth lower which corresponds with the dominant c) Rhythm - the next step in exploration. I have written one very mediocre study key - it would be acceptable to speak of keys in such cases. concerning rhythm, the whole point of which was to explore rhythmic development 4 The second subject should be contrasted with the first subject. In the first sonata, as equal in importance to melodic development. Rhythm is very important in the second subject was in 6/8 time but that did not work well so it had to change to marking out and balancing phrases. Harmonic rhythm is also important - I have 2/4. generally chosen to keep it regular. 5 Three basic devices to develop have been used in the sonatas (number 3 ex- cepted): d) Development - the entire middle section in a sonata form movement is called the a) Arabesque - filling in with scales etc development. On the smallpipes we have a smaller harmonic (tonal) range to ex- b) Jumping in intervals e.g. thirds plore than on instruments capable of total chromaticism, therefore development has c) Using pedal notes such as low A and high A . to be by variation (the third sonata develops by fragmentation, that is by breaking up 6 From 5a - in future, I intend to exploit the natural (pentatonic) harmony of the the themes and restating the parts on different degrees of the scale). In the sonatas, instrument more. To that end I have worked out rather interesting technical studies only one general system of development has been employed in each. However, in for my own personal use. I have already applied this harmonic system to piano something of a larger scale, with more instruments, such as a concerto (I m working accompaniments to songs and in my various incomplete orchestral works. on it) the possibilities are considerably greater. Development can contain a great deal 7 Again, no transition in the recapitulation of "expressive" power. It can also be used to show off the player. 8 No coda - that would unbalance the movement. Again, something larger could take a coda. In ceol mor, development is systematic and to a certain extent almost mathematical. In smallpipe music, the technical style must be different because the balance SECOND MOVEMENT between top and bottom hands (and the overall sound) is different. Highland pipe technique, as opposed to the fingering system, is badly suited to the smallpipes Traditionally theme and variations. There is nothing very exciting about this idea therefore a different style must emerge. A mordent, run or trill may be more suitable and its links with smallpipes. I will say more in the analysis of Sonata Number 1. than a crunluath. THIRD MOVEMENT, SONATA RONDO e) Repetition - this is how a form is built up and identified. There are also points at which a repeat must take place (according to tradition). The simplified theory as used for other instruments is as follows:
f) Proportion - not something which I lose sleep about. The sonatas are all on a A (b.p.) B A X A (b.p.) B A Coda b.p. = transition small scale so it is possible to sense proportion rather than need to calculate it. In other instrumental works, not being discussed now, I do consider it more, especially in ceol mor and the new "middling type" of highland pipe music. NOTES
FIRST MOVEMENT - THE SONATA FORM PRINCIPAL 1 A is always in the tonic key (original mode) 2 C is a contrast or development 3 For smallpipes the transitions have been omitted.
To weld the two traditions together, I have made each section equal to one part (in piping terms) in the relevant modes (keys). I intend to review and redesign the form NOTES of the third movement and in future I will probably use a fourth movement.
1 Transition I found to be a bad idea (after trial and error)
28 29 ROBERT MILLAR - LOWLAND PIPER? The Manuscript
Roderick D.Cannon, who gave this talk, has done considerable research The volume is an oblong hard-back musk MS book, handsome and expensive. It has printed into bagpipe music, particularly Piobaireachd. Author of several books on staves, and each page has a printed border of coloured stripes (a sort of tartan effect! ). Inside the front is bound a folded sheet of paper making two leaves (four pages) containing lists of Bagpipes and Piobiareachd including A Bibliography of Bagpipe Music tunes, not all of which are in the manuscript(12 ). The actual index is at the back. The body of the manuscript contains two distinct collections of music, the second larger and apparently earlier than the first. The earlier one has a title page, boldly inscribed Music for the U nion This short talk is about a bagpipe music manuscript which came to light quite recently. As Bag-pipe, ., 1830 , and signed Robert Millar, Musician, Montrose, 1830. It contains 311 members of this Society will know, a magnificent set of Union Pipes was bought for the Royal tunes(13), all scored with key signatures of two sharps or one sharp, except for one which has Museums of Scotland in 1985 as a result of a subscription organised by Hugh Cheape and no sharps. The tunes with two sharps mostly go down to the note D below the treble stave, but generously supported by a number of members. The pipes, made by Robert Reid of North never any lower (with few exceptions, but in those cases alternative notes are written, an Shields, can now be seen on display in the Museum In Queen Street: and also in the Museum, octave higher). The highest note of a tune is usually G above the stave, less often A, less often part of the same purchase, is "a handwritten music book containing 381 tunes arranged for again B, and only once a high C sharp(14). (Again there are a few exceptions which go higher the pipes by Millar " (1). A microfilm of the MS is also in the National Library(2). still, but in these cases the high notes are doubled an octave below). Many of the tunes have extra sharps and flats, and in fact eight chromatic semitones are called for, so the complete When I started , very recently, to follow up this report I thought the manuscript must be the chanter scale is as follows: same as one which Is quoted by the editors of the last book in the aeries published by the PiobaIreachd Society. One of the tunes In that book(3) Is based on a setting taken from a manuscript "written around 1820 by Robert Miller [ski . . . piper to the Aberdeen Highland Society . The Editors went on to describe it as a "collection of early Ceol Beag (i.e. small tunes, not plobalreachd ] .. some of which probably derives from the repertoire of the Lowland bagpipe" and "clearly the product of a piper " . Since then I have seen a copy of the latter MS, (4) and I can now confirm that the two are not the same. The MS used by the Plobalreachd Society contains most exclusively tunes set for the Highland pipes. It has a title page dated 1820 (5) and it seems to have been compiled over a period from then to about 1840, the latest date written in the MS. (6) It is an extremely Interesting collection, and I hope to write about it in the sear future. The MS In the Royal Museum consists mainly of tunes ad for the Union The first 15 tunes in the MS are given In full score, chanter with regulators. The regulator pipe, beginning in 1830. chords used with the key signatures are:
The Author
Not much Is known about Robert Millar, and so far I haven t tracked down the dates of his birth or his death. He learned to "whistle" his first tune In 1794 (7). He notes that it was played by the 2nd Battalion of the Breadalbane Fencibles (who were stationed in Dundee in Assuming that the one instance of a three-note chord is a mistake, these can all be done on that year [8]) but whether he was himself serving in the Regiment, or was just a young boy just two regulators, as follows: watching a parade, is not clear. In 1820 he was in the "Forfar Regiment",(5) and at that time, and also In 1830 be was piper to the Aberdeen Highland Society. He married in 1822 (6). In 1830 he was living In Montrose; in 18361n Dundee. On 6th February 1833 he played for the Duke and Duchess of Gordon at Gordon Castle (9). Other dates and places noted in his MSS are Marr Lodge, September 5 1839, and Corriemulzie Cottage, September 6 1839. These were Gordon properties. There is no mention In his MSS of having played for Queen Victoria or any other Royal person. The Queen made her first visit to Scotland In 1842 and bought All of this is consistent with a Union pipe (or Irish, or uillean pipe if you prefer) - in other Balmoral, another Gordon property, in 1848. Had Millar perhaps died, or moved away from words a bagpipe with chanter In D, no foot joint, and two regulators. It seems to fit very well the district by that time? He certainly seems to have been on good terms with the local landed with Robert Millar s own bagpipe. At the time of purchase Chris Bayley examined these pipes. families. The pipes were presented to hint by one Lewis Innes, Esq. Ballogle, in 1830 (1); and He noted(1) that the chanter 1s 14 inches long and therefore in the key of D, and has eight he dedicated tunes of his own composition to Miss Catherine Farquharson of Ballogie, to a silver keys for semitones. There are indeed two regulators, a baritone with four silver keys and Mr. James Fenton, and to Lady Alicia Bisset , who also gave him another copy of a tune (10). a tenor with five. There are six drones with a changeover switch so that they can be selected to He was a pipemaker as well as a piper. in 1836 he featured in a newspaper report as having play either D or G. Invented a new kind of Highland bagpipe with an extended scale, which seems to have been very similar to the later Brien Bona bagpipe(ll). Sources
It s immediately obvious that many of the tunes are copied from other written sources. Two 30 31 sources referred to explicitly are(15) The Tyrolese Melodies and(16) The Irish Melodies . I can t identify the first of these, but the second is Thomas Moore s famous collection of Irish songs which appeared in parts over the years 1808 to 1834. There is a Waltz danced by Miss Adams in the Theatre Royal Edinburgh and a New Opera Dance . I don t suppose Millar actually went to the respective operas and memorised the tunes; I assume he is quoting both music and title from some book or published sheet music. There are dances and songs taken from contemporary operas, pantomimes, and other light musical entertainments, named in the MS as The Slave , The Secret Mine , The English Fleet , Tekeli , Blue Beard . . . ail of which I m sure could easily be identified and dated. Blue Beard is one of many operas by John Brabant (1774-1856) a well known composer of light music who in his day claimed to have published more than 2000 songs. Only one of the named operas is still famous today - Mozart s Magic Flute(17) . Of the other composers mentioned , some are famous - Haydn and Beethoven others well known in their day - Pleyel, Kelly, James Hook; others I ve not traced at all - who were Whlttaker, Miss Capon and Miss Ty--?
Millar seems to have copied his sources quite accurately. An example is the tuned Gillan na Drobhar , which he got front Simon Fraser s Airs and Melodies of the Highlands of Scotland (1816). He copies the Gaelic spelling of the title, and the English subtitle The Cow Boy . It is a typically Highland tune, basically pentatonic, but Simon Fraser set it with trills and turns, violin bowing marks, and various ornamental phrases with sharps and flats. Robert Millar transposed it down two tones to suit his chanter but otherwise he copied it faithfully. If he did this with every tune, then it could be maintained that this is not really a bagpipe collection at all. As we all know, It s one thing to find a tune which fits into the range of the chanter, but it s quite another thing to make It play convincingly as a pipe tune. On the other hand Millar in- cludes tunes composed by himself. It remains to be seen whether, and to what extent, any of the other tunes he wrote down had actually been adapted for the pipes.
Traditional or Modern?
Obviously there is a lot of very modern music in this collection. The latest date I ve been able to fix for any of the pieces (after only a quick look through some of the most obviousreference works) is for the tune Home Sweet Home . It came from an opera Clad, the Maid of Milan , This is not to say that Millar s collection lacks Scottishness. nearly half of the tunes have first performed at Covent Garden in 1823. It sits well over a drone and makes a good pipe some national or local reference, and at least a third of them can be counted as Scottish(18). tune - if we can only forget the title and sentimental words! The same might be said of a Among the dance tunes the selection of types is perhaps interesting: number of other tunes in the manuscript which were popular at the time, are well chosen for the pipe, but are so strongly associated with certain lyrics that pipers would probably reject Scottish and Irish Reels 10 them today. They include Malbrook , otherwise For he s a Jolly Good Fellow ; I have come Strathspeys 6 from a Happy Land , otherwise the Sunday-school hymn There Is a Happy Land .: , and Jigs 12 Rousseau s Dream , otherwise Watts Cradle Hymn . There are other tunes of rather similar Tunes in 9/8 time 5 character, not so well known today, which I find very playable, for example Taste Life s Glad Marches 12 Moments , From Night to Morn , and How Imperfect Is Expression . I must admit the title of the last one Is not very auspicious! Classical and modern Waltzes 20 Minuets 7 Quadrilles 4 Jig 1 Hornpipe 1 Various foreign 3 Marches 10
The Scottish and Irish elements are very drawing room in character. Song titles come from Robert Burns, Thomas Moore, Lady Nairn and other writers - there are no rude ones! - and even the traditional types of dance tune are mostly new or fairly new compositions like Lord MacDonald s Reel , or the best-known older tunes from Niel and Nathaniel Gow s collec- tions (19).
32 33 Conclusions More Music In summary, Robert Millar s manuscript is not a compendium of all that he considered most A very nice tune in the Irish category is the jig Paddy Whack . It s actually related to a lot of ancient or authentic - whatever that may mean. It is drawing room music, and none the worse other well known airs, ranging from the Victorian ballad Wilkins and his Dinah to the for that. If the bagpipes could play in battle, on the march or in a dance hall, why not also in English march Sweet Polly Oliver , and even the ultra-Highland "Song to John MacLeod of the drawing room? Given the date of the manuscript, and the great care with which the first Dunvegan"(20). Miller s version Is a jig - possibly a slow jig. Here it is, transposed up one note few pages especially have been written, I imagine that Robert Millar compiled it in order to to fit the Lowland pipes. It doesn t exceed the usual pipe compass, hut it does very definitely define a repertory for his new bagpipe, almost In the spirit of celebrating a splendid acquisi- need the sharpened seventh. In bar 4 it approaches the note E by way of high G sharp, and as tion. He must have felt that he had a new territory to explore. He tried to find as many tunes you can hear from Jock s playing It sounds good on a Lowland pipe with a treble drone in high as possible, and to stretch the resources of the new Instrument to its limit. We need not E. [Jock Agnew was asked to record several of these tunes using his Lowland Pipes • Ed!] assume that he was equally satisfied with every tune he wrote down.
I have no conclusions to offer about Robert Millar himself except what are obvious from the bits and pieces I have tried to present. I think he was a good all-round musician, with a broad outlook, willing to try experiments. I think he made a brave effort to keep up with current trends in music, and was not held back by ideological notions of what should and should not be played on the pipes. I think his manuscript is at the very least a quarry from which all kinds of exciting new bagpipe music could be extracted.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Hugh Cheape for arranging access to the MS, and those fellow members of the Bagpipe Society who, at very short notice, very kindly provided recordings of tunes and usefulpractical comments - Jock Agnew, Martin Nolan and Ronnie Watten.
Notes. 1 "The Reid Pipes" . COMMON STOCK, Vol 2, No.1 (March 86) 2 NLS Acc.8885 Catalogued as "Robert Millar s book of tunes for the Northumbrian pipes." 3 "The Duke of Atholl s March", in Prcdaierac4tg aJ ?eem4lackof20lweseditedby.. The Pint aireachd iciety j1990j Another good Irish tune Is Had I a heart for Falsehood Framed , based on the air Molly 4 The Piobaireachd Society owns only a photocopy of the 1820 MS, and the location of the original in Astore , which was also used by Thomas Moore for The Harp that once through Tara s Halls . is not known. There is also a microfilm the National Library, catalogued as papers of Archie . in the latter guise it is often sung terribly slowly, but Millar marks It Andantino, and it has Kenneth relating to piobaireachd", which includes this MS. 5 A collection ofP /arocks, Laments Salmies, Marches, Rerlr and Strathsiorys, pvincioaly mirky/ also been suggested to me that the basic rhythm is that ofa military march(21). It needs some s semitones and a pinching note at the top. It would be possible to avoid all these, but with the f o r t h e Great /14hlond6tagpipe. R.Millar, FonfarRegt. aadAverto theAbe 11 kdSiridy 1120. right chanter it sounds very well written. 6 Tune No 187 in the 1820 MS, called "Jenny Cameron s Spanm iWdkee " is stated to have been composed on Novr 4th 1840. Being the Eighteenth Anniversary of His Marriage Day, by R.M. 7 Tune No 193 in the 1820 MS (an unnamed reel) has a footnote "This was the first Tune that ever I recollect !canting to Whistle. It was played By the 2nd Battn of Breadalbane Fencibles in j??p] Castle Dundee 1794 8 See e.g. Angus MacLeod (ed) 77teSosrgsofsOrmamBmrMaeln(yr Edinburgh, 1952. 9 He played the tune "The Blue Bells of Scotland", which, as he noted had been composed in honour of the Marquis of Huntley now Duke of Gordon . 1830 MS. /01830 MS tunes 1,2,3. 11 "Highland bagpipe. Mr.Rober Millar of Montrose, the celebrated performer on the Northumbrian, Union and Great Highland bagpipe, now in Dundee, has made an improvement on our noble national instrument, the bagpipe, well worthy of public notice. He has added a horn to the lower end of the chanter, and by perforating various holes, which he works by means of keys, he has Also Included Is an excellent piece of music, which is in the form of a short suite. The Duke of added three notes to the diatonic scale - one above and two below. He has also introduced semitones, Atholl s March and Pibrach . [Limitations of space make it necessary to defer this part of which render the instrument so harmonious, it has been accompanied by a violin and violoncello Roderick Cannon s paper until the next Issue of COMMON STOCK. Ed] with excellent effect." Quoted from The /~inbargh 1s rrning Courant, Fehneary.hl MA The quota- tion was discovered by lain Maclnnes. 12 The first page is a list of tunes, but it is not an index to the MS. It is called "Memorandum of 34 35 Tunes for the Northumberland Bagpipes" and gives 40 tunes in alphabetical order. They are not all in the MS, but 13 more have been inserted into the list, and these 13 are in the MS. Then comes lists of tunes, Reels strathspeys c , Quadrilles categorised according to key, G or D; then Waltzes and Airs . 13 After this title page the pages are numbered from I to 80, and the tunes from 1 to 310 (there is no number 233, and there is also a slip inserted between two leaves, with two extra tunes, so the total is 311 tunes). 14 This is tune No 190, "O er the Muir among the Heather". Another name for it was "Aldavalloch" - not to be confused with "Roy s Wives ofAldavalloch" - and it is interesting to note a comment on an earlier attempt to extend the scale of the bagpipe chanter, by Malcolm MacGregor, pipemaker to the Highland Society of London. A committee ofthe Highland Society examined MacGregor s invention and reported that it was capable ofplaying such airs as Aldavalloch", and so far the Committee considered it an improvement. The tune was well known on the fiddle, then as now. Was it perhaps a recognised challenge to pipemakers, to find ways ofplaying it as written? We do know that the tradi- tionally minded Highland pipers ofthe day strongly objected to MacGregor s invention. At the piobaireachd competition in 1810, some of them managed to get hold of it, and "clandestinely sub- jected the instrument to their malevolence" - J.G.Dalyell, Musical Memoirs of Scotland Edinburgh 1849. It aIso may or may not be a coincidence that the Highland piper Donald MacDonald included a setting in his collection of Quicksteps etc (1828), titled explicitly The Bagpipe w ay of "O er the Muir among the Heather" : His set is within the nine-note compass, and can still be found in print today (Queen s Own Highlanders Standard Settings ofPipe Music). 15 1830 MS Tune No 95. 16 1830 MS Tunes 165,224 17 Millar lakes the air ofthe duet Bei Mannern welche Liebe fuhlen for his tune 156. " The Manly Heart (from Zauberfloete)" 18 A rough breakdown is as follows: Dance tunes Airs Songs Total Marches Sword Swatch 33 43 33 109 Dance at Dunster, Somerset, June 1933. Capt Warren Zambra playing mouth blown Half longs Irish 10 15 14 39 Northumbrian/Border 3 3 Modern popular/light classical 42 3 15 60 Hymns/Psalms 8 8 Advertisement Foreign 5 5 7 L.B.P.S. official "Geordie" stickers available - ideal for pipe boxes etc. Totals 90 66 70 226
I have left out some 80 tunes simply because I don t yet know anything about them. Probably they Full size = 4 inches diameter. would go into the modem/classical groups. 19 Another test of ethnic character or otherwise is to match up Robert Millar s collection with the Price 1.00 Incl UK P P. printed collections for Highland bagpipe which appeared just before and just after he wrote his MS. If we try to grade the pipe music books in terms of their traditional or Highland character, or as a modem piper might be tempted to say, in terms oftheir authenticity, then there is no doubt about Also which books are high and which are low on such a list. At the top are the small but very Gaelic collections ofPatrick MacDonald (1748) and Donald MacDonald (1820), and the much larger LBPS Players cassette. (a non- collection ofAngus MacKay (18434). In the middle came Donald MacDonald s larger book of1828. commercially produced collection William MacKay s collection (1841) and William Gunn s (1848) - books which I suspect show more military influence. At the bottom are, Thomas Glen s collections (1840) and the anonymous Bagpipe of tunes played by members). Preceptor (1818). Allowing for the different total numbers oftunes in these books, we find that Price 4.00 incl UK P P Robert Millar s collection overlaps most with the last two, less with the middle group, and hardly at all with the first group. 20 W.Matheson, The Blind harper, Edinburgh 1970. From The Secretary, 107 Marchmont Rd (TFL). Edinburgh EH9 1HA 21 I am grateful to Joan Rimmer for this point.
36 37 1993 COMPETITION REPORT by Jim Gilchrist CASSETTE REVIEW and small pipes, both in A, that gives a very nice sound indeed. My criticism here is in Eight entries for the Open Small Pipes class and five for the Lowland/Border Pipes class meant that the Society s annual competition in Edinburgh on Saturday April 10th, tun on for at least an hour LOWLAND AMUSEMENT the very pointed use of sliding, which loses dramatic effect a more sparing used slide after time, which meant some hasty negotiations with the janitor at St Anne s Community Centre! Jock Agnew, indefatigable LBPS activist can have: even more so in Jock s playing of Considering, however, that once we were lucky if we had any Lowland pipe entries at all, this was the and champion of the Lowland/Border pipes, kind of problem welcome. Generally high entries for most classes - and, at last, an The Banks of Lochiell, in which the ex- we might has brought out a very useful cassette, encouraging input of women players, two of whom took first prizes - and a large and patient audience aggerated sliding, including a squall from LOWLAND AMUSEMENT, showing the made this a very successful afternoon all round high A to G, mars a beautiful tune. possibilities of these pipes, which have not also seemed well pleased, fared so well to date within the cauld-wind The judges (once again assisted by audience participation in judging) The track that really hangs in my mind tuning revival as the Scottish though one later commented that, overall, could be better. small pipes. after listening to this cassette is Jock s Featuring Jock on a nicely toned Lowland won, Alistair version of The Road North ( The one comparative disappointment was in the Novice class, with only two entries. It was pipe (in A), sometimes double tracking, Anderson s tune, not Alastair Fraser s), however, by Eoin McIntyre of Inverkeithing, who also received a 50 "bursary" from the Society occasionally accompanied by another which sounds superb on the Lowland pipes, towards a piping course. musician, LOWLAND AMUSEMENT with nice vibrato and effective harmony line provides plenty of food for thought, and for There were six entries for the New Composition class, which was won by Jon Swayne of from Sam Allen s concertina. An inspired the fingers, in terms of repertoire and of Baltonsborough, Glastonbury, with aline. on hisBorder pipes. choice. technique such as "shivering the back Lill", note bending, vibrato and cross-fingering. The Duet for Small Pipes class was also low on entries, Jean Campbell and Rona MacDonald being Elsewhere there s effective "octave playing" the only pair to enter and taking the prize. Duet class for pipes and Other Instrument was better on Lowland and small pipes, with two supported with six entries, the "other instruments " as diverse as whistle, cittern , accordion and It has to be said, also, that some of the melodies - Jenny s Fain and Stumpie - clarinet. ultimately it was Manuel Trucco on small pipes and John Levine on clarinet who took first piping here wouldn t stand up to severe being set in counterpoint to each other. The prize with a lively set. critical scrutiny. The playing want light- Top of the Glints is a snappy jig written by ness of fingering at times and the reels, in The Pipe and Song class, with five entries, was won by Judy Barker of Dunfermline with a fine Jock, featuring double-tracked Lowland rendition of The Recruit d Collier. particular, lack sparkle or fluidity. pipes, while another self-penned tune, the However I suspect that Jock wouldn t make drolly titled I ve Lost my Sgian Dhu, uses any inflated claims for this tape other than Popular as ever, the Open Scottish Small Pipes attracted eight entries and was won by Stewart plenty of unorthodox fingering but is a bit Said to those of " work in progress " . Gaudin from Mauchlin, Ayrshire, with a set comprising Mary Scott, The Earl of Errol, Jocky laboured, although I liked the Breton feel to Jenny, and Wee Totum Fogg. And as the afternoon moved into extra time, the final class, the the minor-moded air that followed, Grim Lowland/Border Pipes Open, was won by Judy Rockclff of Hassle , Humberside, with fluid playing on The first .side of the cassette features tradi- , " " Douglas. Similarly, on the second .side, his a Jon Swayne set of pipes. tional Lowland tunes or new compositions "minored" version of Dancing Feet is in- in that idiom, the second more eclectic teresting - but doesnae dance! The genuine For the second year there was a prejudged cassette class for overseas entrants. There was only one material, ranging from a Breton set to of Seattle, but the committee made it clear that John didn t win the Goodacre Breton set on this side has a chirpier feel to entry, from John Dally morris tunes and even Chattanooga Choo Trophy by mere default; his was a very commendable set. it. Choo! Theopening track pretty well encapsulates the pluses and minuses of this Results: Jock Agnew is steadily exploring the Open - Lowland/Border pipes (Hamish Moore Quaich): 1. Judy Rockchff, 2. Douglas Walker, 3. Jon recording: It starts with the ancient possibilities of the Lowland pipes. in and Treladle, played slowly Swayne. Cuttymun making this cassette he is shedding some Open - Scottish Small Pipes (Colin Ross Trophy): I. Stewart Gaudin, 2. Jim Eaton, 3. John using C natural, giving it a certain useful lightalong his path for the benefit of Goodacre. : then the haunting air but losing its rants fellow-travellers. Pipe and Song (Jimmy Wilson Memorial Trophy): 1. Judy Barker, 2.Davie Robertson, 3. Judy reel Lowland Amusement itself, a nice tune Rockchff. Duet - Pipes and Other Instrument (Dunfermline Tassies ): 1. Manuel Trucco John Levine that could do with skeelier fingering: and a Available from Jock Agnew, I I Ulting pairing of Pawky Adam Glen and (clarinet), 2. Hamish Moore Fiona Moore (fiddle), 3. Stewart Gaudin Steve Wall (whistle). nice Lane. Langford, Essex CM9 6QB. Price Robin Shure in Hairst . Duet - Pipes (Mains Castle Medals): 1. Jean Campbell Rona MacDonakl. 5.50 pounds sterling including postage. New Composition (London Trophy): I. Jon Swayne, 2. Judith Rockliff ; 3 (equal), Jock Agnew Jock s plangent air Lie Peacefully There is John Goodacre. Quaich): I. Eoin McIntyre, 2. Nick Guise the J.G. April 1993. Novice (Heriot Allan the first of two tracks that feature Overseas cassette (Goodacre Trophy): 1. John Dally. strikingly . affective combination of Lowland 38 39 Meetings and Events
June 12th. DUET AFTERNOON - School of Scottish studies, Edinburgh. A chance to show what players have been putting together with pipes and/or other instruments.
BALMORAL PIPING SCHOOLS, U.S.A, Gordon Mooney teaching:- 13th - 26th funs- Center College, Danville, Kentucky 27th June - 10th July. University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA 11th - 24th July. Edinboro University, P.A.
July 2/3/4th. Galashiels. TUITION on Border and Scottish Smallpipas, Scottisdh Country Dance, Accordion, Fiddle, Ceilidh Band, Clarsach and singing. Contact Gordon Mooney 0896 822426
July 3rd. NEWCASTLETON FOLK FESTIVAL has Lowland Piping Competitions. Contact Carole Sanderson 06978 255
July 19th - 23rd. Hanish Moore PIPING SCHOOL, NORTH CAROLINA. Contact Jo Johnstone, Box 824, Rt. 8, Abingdon Va 24210. Telephone 703 628 9835
July 26th - 30th Hamish Moore PIPING SCHOOL, CALIFORNIA. Contact John Creager, 5690 Corbett Circle, Santa Rosa, CA 95403 Telephone 707 576 0511
2nd - 20th August. Hamish Moore PIPING SCHOOL, CAPE BRETON. Contact The Gaelic Collage of Celtic Arts Crafts, P.O.Box 9, Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canada, BOE IBO. Telephone 902 295 3411
August 6/7/8th. Galashiels. TUITION on Bagpipes, andFlute/whistle, Fiddle, Guitar/Mandola, Percussion, Song Traditional Dance. Contact Gordon Mooney 0896 822426
August 23rd - 27th. Hamish Moore PIPING SCHOOL, VERMONT. Contact Matt Buckley, P.O.Box 646, Main St, Richmond, VT 05477 Telephone 802 434 4603
September 3/4/5th. Galas hiels. TUITION on Bagpipes, Clarsach, Fiddle, Keyboards, Concertina. Song and Traditional Dance workshops. Contact Gordon Mooney 0896 822426
October 17th. ANNUAL COLLOGUE, Old Gala Hons., Galashiels. From 8th to 17th October; week or weekend COURSES IN BAGPIPES etc concurrent with Collogue.