Category: Letters

Northern Ireland News: Brian Boru Bands/ Antrim Results/ Dromara Band/ Ray’s MBE

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A new Facebook page entitled ‘Brian Boru Pipe Bands NI’ has been set up by Barbara Phillips who also runs the very popular ‘We Love Pipe Bands’ Facebook page. There are only six such bands who play this type of bagpipes in the whole world and they are all based in Northern Ireland.I In County Down are the Ballygowan, Ballymartin and Crimson Arrow bands, Cavanaleck are based just outside County…

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New Website Launches With Original ‘Ensemble Friendly’ Pipe Band Music

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Since retiring in 2021, I have been working full-time on a study, and it has evolved into something that I think the pipe band world will be very interested in. The work, titled: ‘Insights into Pipe Band Ensemble’, was written to investigate how MSR pipe-tunes of the future might be composed so that their rhythms allow for a side-drum accompaniment to integrate more closely with them. By Alan Jones In…

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Australia Adopts Set Tune Lists and Uniform Light Music Requirements for Solo Piping

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Pipe Bands Australia has announced a sweeping reform of its solo piping competitions, marking the most significant change in over two decades, writes Scott Nicholson, Piping Principal. The revised criteria, applicable across all grades from Novice to A, aims to align Australia with Scotland, New Zealand and Canada and to facilitate smoother participation for Australian pipers in prestigious international events like Oban and Inverness, while also improving the standard of…

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History: Grangemouth Boys Pipe Band and a First Picture of Muirhead & Sons

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I came across the photograph above in my great-grandfather’s collection. This is a copy I made in the days of negative film – the original is lost, writes reader Donald McLean It shows the Grangemouth Boys Pipe Band circa 1927-28. Of note for me is that seated second from left is my godfather John Ross (1909-1988). I spotted a reference to the Grangemouth Boys winning the Juvenile prize at the…

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Can Anyone Help Me Find Out More About My Father?

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Reader Alison Willasey-Wilsey has written, ‘I wonder if Piping Press readers can assist me in finding out more information about my father now deceased.  ‘He said that he joined the Aberdeen and Dundee Pipe Band of the Royal Engineers in 1937. ‘He was subsequently called up to the Royal Engineers when war broke out in 1939. I know he was in a pipe band as a young boy in Aberdeen…

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