‘It will take more than a storm to derail me’, was Duncan MacGillivray’s response to the threat of cancellation of Inverness Piping Society’s recital last Friday night, writes Les Hutt.
Duncan’s journey home was to be a serious challenge thanks to Storm Amy and the high winds and rain which blocked many roads and brought down power lines across the Highlands.
Nevertheless, an enthusiastic crowd of around 60 came to Inverness Golf Club to hear a variety of tunes and instruments played by the two early pipers from the Battlefield Band, Duncan and Dougie Pincock.
After two sets by young pupils of local tutor Steven McCabe, Dougie started his recital with a set of his own compositions, with shades of Breton and Galician themes.
Each his five sets were played on different bagpipes highlighting the width of our tradition.
Duncan followed on the pipes that once belonged to John Macdonald, Inverness. He presented sets of little heard tunes and again some of his own compositions. He closed with the piobaireachd, the King’s Taxes.
A piobaireachd extract followed in the second half when Dougie played the first and second variations of the Big Spree on his pipes in the key of A, the richness of the lower pitch complementing the beauty of these variations.
Versatility to the fore, Duncan started the second half with some marches on a much-loved whistle he’s been using since 1978. Returning to the bagpipe, he followed up with sets including tunes dedicated to a couple of his children and after some explanation, one for his ‘Car Doctor’!
With good background information on the tunes, banter with the audience, and quality instruments needing little tuning, this was a night where you could ignore the storm literally shaking the windows and learn much about the music and versatility of both pipers and their contribution to our tradition.
