We are indebted to Calum MacLean, Tobermory, Mull, for this unique, handwritten copy of the famous 2/4 march Dugald MacColl’s Farewell to France – handwritten by the composer himself, the great John MacColl. It was given to Calum’s grandfather by John MacColl and is rightly displayed with pleasure on the wall of Calum’s piping room. The tune was written to commemorate the safe delivery from WW1 of John MacColl’s son…
Firstly a message to those commercial enterprises that keep posting their goods on our Facebook page. I’m afraid you cannot get a free ride gents. Advertise with Piping Press and post all you like on our Facebook pages. Producing Piping Press costs – but is totally free to readers thanks to the generosity of our current advertisers. It is wrong that they should be expected to subsidise your enterprises too….
By Peter McCalister Patrick Molard has done a masterful job in this new CD, bringing to life well-known (and previously unpublished) tunes with the help of a small group of musicians. He rightly calls the album ‘light and shade’: there are moments of beauty and drama throughout. The first piece is an unpublished tune from the Campbell Canntaireachd (Patrick is a noted master interpreter of this manuscript) One of the…
A treat for all piobaireachd lovers today. Posted on the PP Audio archive is maestro Donald MacPherson playing that beautiful tune, Lady MacDonald’s Lament. It is Donald’s winning performance from the 1977 Clan Donald competition held aboard a ship, the SS Calypso, moored off Sleat, Isle of Skye. Donald’s superb technique, extraordinarily resonant and steady pipe and masterful phrasing are all in evidence. Lady MacDonald is a wonderful piece of…
In this concluding part of the interview given after his band, Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia, had triumphed in the 2000 World Pipe Band Championships, the popular pipe major talks us through the actual day of victory. Read the first part of this revealing and informative interview, first published in Pipe Band Magazine, here. ‘I think this year our MSR was better than when we won in 1997, and though people might think…
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