It is with sadness that it was learned that Ian Fraser, affectionately known as ‘The Sheriff’, passed away in a care home in Grantown-on-Spey, Moray. Ian had celebrated his 90th birthday in December 2019. For many years he had a small agricultural holding at West Forigen, near Carrbridge, Inverness-shire. His parents had been there before he took over its running. His piping teachers were among the best: Pipe Major William Ross…
Piper, teacher and adjudicator Duncan Watson follows up on the Editor’s earlier article on the subject of tuning preludes It seems that tuning preludes were of greater importance in piping in the past as examples appear in several publications. Mostly they comprise of fragments of variations from ceol mor. Probably the earliest reference we have is from Joseph MacDonald’s ‘Compleat Theory of the Scots Highland Bagpipe’ (c.1760) where it is…
By Duncan Watson Early in September 2019 saw the Braemar Gathering taking place. The piobaireachd competition has long attracted notable pipers to the event and history tells us that the likes of John MacDougall Gillies attended in 1875 and was the winner of the competition. I don’t know what tune he played. Not taking anything away from the man or his performance, but going by the historic records, only three…
By Duncan Watson With 60 to 70 pipers qualified to enter Silver Medal competitions and only 30 or less to be accepted, it follows that around 40 will be denied the opportunity of playing, assuming they all wish to take part. Has this log jam been a failure of the previously applied grading criteria? Are there really that many pipers of suitable standard to enter SM competitions? The recent announcement…
The audience at the Inverness Silver Medal 2018, although small, was bigger than in recent years – perhaps because the set tunes for this competition were thought more interesting than those set for the Gold Medal, both competitions running simultaneously. The room at Eden Court Theatre was a bit small but the acoustics were good. MacCrimmon’s Sweetheart Four played this tune. It has been a very popular piece and…
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