A five-year long revision of the Piobaireachd Society’s collection of Books 1-16 has been completed. It took many hours of work by myself and Society Music Editor Jack Taylor but the results are very satisfying.
Many of the anomalies and errors accumulated in the 100 years since the collection was begun by Sheriff Grant of Rothiemurchus and Archibald Campbell, Kilberry. No one plays a crunluath a mach in Lament for the Children (did anyone ever?) yet there it was in Book 3. Now gone.
The popular Kilberry setting of Lord Lovat’s Lament – not in the old collection. Now inserted. Lament for Donald Duaghal MacKay – the setting everyone plays is now given pride of place.
Loads of other smaller corrections have been made and neglected settings introduced. On the technical side, fonts have been standardised, headlines matched, and layouts are much easier on the eye.
You can get all 16 books in digital download form for £100, just over £6 per book. Click here.
Ian McLellan
Thanks to everyone for their comments regarding the great Ian. I can do no more than echo the sentiments. Ian’s funeral arrangements are as follows:
Friday, 19th December, Glasgow Cathedral 1.30pm; thence to Dalnottar Crematorium, Clydebank, 3.30pm; thence to Windyhill Gold Club, Bearsden.
Breton piper Patrick Molard captured Ian’s march playing at Oban in 1971. I think there is a bit of tape acceleration here, but the class shines through in his performance of Arthur Bignold:
Thanks for forwarding Patrick.
Drum Solos
Well done to Cam Lawson for organising the professional drum solo contest in Glasgow in January, and for ensuring that the piper accompanying the winner will receive a cash prize too. The piper is so important to the competing drummer. They must work together if the stick man is to find success.
More generally the competition shows the interest there is in developing a solo circuit for the top drummers. I’m sure the RSPBA, who run the World Solo Drumming, will applaud this initiative and help wherever they can – freeing their judges to take part for example.
Kintyre Collection
Iain Duncan tells me he still has a few copies of his excellent Kintyre Collection left. The book was mentioned in his article on Campbeltown’s Ceannloch band this week. Iain says: ‘I still have six copies of the Springbank Kintyre Collection left.
‘I’ve never actually tried to sell these residual copies although Eric Stein took six after the Worlds last year and sold them at the 2024 Sun Belt Invitational.’
The book is full of great tunes. Contact Iain here.
Ben Duncan Recital
Ben is front and centre at the Gordon Highlanders Museum tonight in Aberdeen. Here’s the poster:
Correspondence
Bruce Erskine: ‘Looking forward to the 17th of January to hear those amazing sets from the ‘Live ‘n Well’ concert played by some of the world’s best pipers including my good friend Andy Wright. Andy actually played at ‘Live ‘n Well’ and played two brilliant up-beat matches. This is going to be a blast from the past; got my tickets.’
Stephen Beattie: ‘I’m seeking clarification on the wording of a piece of text in an advert in Lt. G de M H Orpen Palmer’s book ‘Irish Airs for the War Pipes’. The page in question is shown below:
‘If anyone can confirm the text in the three lines towards the foot of the page and immediately above ‘G BUTLER & SONS’ (beginning with ‘As supplied to ……’) I would be very grateful.’
Stephen can be contacted on: stephen_beattie@yahoo.co.uk
Crispin Lewis: ‘This is a long shot, but you never know! I was reading with interest the history of Paterson’s Publications on your website, written by Geoff Hore. He mentions Michael Diack’s part in the story, during the 1920s.
‘I am writing a biography of a colleague and friend of Diack’s, Herbert Murrill, and am keen to track down any correspondence which might have taken place between the two. I would be extremely grateful if you had any ideas of anyone I could talk to about this. It is just possible that the family of Diack has kept his correspondence. Very many thanks.’ Contact Crispin here.
The compilers of the past in the shape of Sheriff Grant and Archibald Campbell and indeed earlier compilers such as General Thomason and indeed the earlier ones going back to Angus MacKay and Donald MacDonald carried out huge undertakings in the publications and MS they produced. The likes of Donald MacPhee and William Ross should not be missed. That Dr Jack Taylor and Mr Robert Wallace embarked on revisiting the Piobaireachd Society Collection as described was a huge undertaking and to do it was bound to take a huge amount of study and dedication. Undoubtedly it was probably needed and will benefit the knowledge of ceol mor players and enthusiasts. This is not to demean the previous compilers, but the efforts of Messrs Taylor and Wallace are monumental in effort. It is of course 100 years since The Sheriff was the editor of the first book of the second series and it was a courageous venture and perhaps the first such book was not actually numbered as 1, maybe in fear that there might not have been demand for such further publications. Incidentally in the rear leaf of the original book there are adverts for the availability of the Donald MacPhee and William Ross Collections. There are individuals who are very critical of the efforts of the editors of the Piobaireachd Society and undoubtedly there were at times justified criticisms. However, the efforts of the Doctor and Journalist are a very important addition to what we have. I have to go and order a digital copy now. The addition of some kind of award such as the MBE etc would give a ring to the names Taylor and Wallace—King Charles might be the next stop!
With regard to the cover of the Irish pipe music book. As best as I can make out. “As supplied to the Irish Regiments, Egyptian Artillery, Armagh, Brownstown, Cork Artillery, DeLacy Family, ?Andrews, Monaghan, Holycross Pipers bands and other people too numerous to mention in England,Ireland, India, America and Australia.” Check out the Irish Pipe Band Association you may find out more info about some of these bands especially DeLacy family band which I think was in Waterford and made up of members of just one family. Back in those days the term Pipers band was widely used rather than Pipe band.
I believe it was in 1984 that Bill Livingstone won the Clasp to the Gold Medal (Canada) playing The Lament for The Children with an a-mach variation. Indeed, the only time I’ve ever heard it played.