Category: Letters

Donald Morrison Archive: A Letter from Seton Gordon and Donald’s Part in ‘Whisky Galore’

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We continue our excerpts from the archive of the renowned Gold Medallist and composer……… Wednesday evening, August 30, 1972, Upper Duntuilm, Isle of Skye….Dear Donald Morrison, I have just been listening to the wireless recording of the ‘Silver Chanter’ and it has confirmed my feeling that your ‘Iain Garve’ [John Garve MacLeod of Raasay’s Lament] was the best tune of the evening. I think John MacDonald [Inverness] would have agreed…

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John MacFadyen and Fair Hill Games / Archie Kenneth Quaich Entries Open

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An Editor’s Notebook item last week featured results from around the Highland games in the US in 1968. One of the prizewinners mentioned was former professional piper and now senior adjudicator Al McMullin. He writes…. There are always interesting ‘stories’ that are not reflected in results. I offer the following about the ’17 and Under Piobaireachd’ noted in the 1968 results at Fair Hill, Maryland. The late, great, John MacFadyen…

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The Transformative Sound of the Great Highland Bagpipe

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This reader contacted us after we published the article from Scotland’s History magazine ‘The Meaning of Bagpipe Music on the Western Front During WW1‘ My name is Robyn M Pio. I am a 70-year-old American woman raised by a German great-grandmother (who was born in Bremen, 1878). I now live in Chicago, Illinois, but my first language was German. I became a Catholic Francophile whilst living in France years ago. I am…

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Editor’s Notebook: Winter School/ Angus MacKay/ Brighde at COP/ Oldest Band/ Roddy Cannon

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We are well into the 2021 Northern Winter School here on the plains of Lower Saxony and as I write the music mingles with forests and fields that have borne witness to the best and worst of human conduct. In this little corner of Lohheide over 50 piping and drumming students banish the pandemic memories, learn their rudiments and re-kindle old friendships. The format is, as ever, hard work in…

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Donald Morrison Archive: A Letter from Sheriff JP Grant, Rothiemurchus

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As a young man in his 20s Donald Morrison, South Uist and Aberdeen, was determined to make a name for himself in piping. He communicated by letter with some of the noted individuals of the day. This article is from a letter Sheriff JP Grant, Rothiemurchus, Piobaireachd Society editor and judge, wrote to Donald in 1957. Forthright and instructive, it makes compelling reading …. Dear Donald, To answer all your…

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