Category: Piobaireachd

PP Ed’s Blog: Band Circles/ Cancale/ Northern Meeting, Lochaber, Aboyne

Posted on      by      1 Comment

Difficulties over ‘concert’ formation positioning mentioned in Alistair Aitken’s piece yesterday should be easily overcome after a little trial and error. Bass sections are different in the circle set up so there is nothing new there. Going by the photographs I thought the formations at the Ross Bandstand pretty good and must have been much more comfortable for the judges than what they are used. No walking about, balancing of…

More PP Ed’s Blog: Band Circles/ Cancale/ Northern Meeting, Lochaber, Aboyne

Donald MacPherson’s Bagpipe: Sad News from Down Under

Posted on      by      8 Comments

Disturbing information has reached me from Australia via a well known piper and acquaintance of mine, writes the Editor. It concerns the late Donald MacPherson’s bagpipe, that glorious instrument which in Donald’s hands made him the most successful competing piper of all time. It was a pipe I had the good fortune to hear many times. We have several fine instruments on the boards today but none that quite captures…

More Donald MacPherson’s Bagpipe: Sad News from Down Under

Ceres Games Results (updated)

Posted on      by      Leave a comment

Beautiful day in Fife and a successful one for the Army’s Ben Duncan (pictured above). Eight pipers competed. The games also saw a visit from television chef Gordon Ramsay and other tv personalities who were filming. Piob 1 Ben Duncan, Lament for MacSwan of Roaig 2 Darach Urquhart, Glengarry’s March 3 Eireann-Ianetta MacKay, Lament for the Viscount of Dundee 4 Craig Martin, Lament for Donald of Laggan March 1 Ben…

More Ceres Games Results (updated)

PP Ed’s Blog: Donald MacDonald/ Calum Piobair/ Lochaber Gathering/ James MacColl

Posted on      by      2 Comments

Duncan Watson’s comments on the Donald MacDonald Cuach a couple of days ago were pertinent. Why is it that those who play in this contest stick slavishly to the scores as produced by the pioneer of stave writing? The results are incompatible with traditional teaching, teaching stretching back, at the very least, to the time of Calum ‘Piobair’ Macpherson (1883 -1898), pictured above. We know this from the School of…

More PP Ed’s Blog: Donald MacDonald/ Calum Piobair/ Lochaber Gathering/ James MacColl

Pipes & Drums Feature at Dollar Bicentenary/ Thoughts on Donald MacDonald Cuach

Posted on      by      2 Comments

Our Dollar Academy correspondent has sent this….A remarkable 243 pipers and drummers gathered at Dollar Academy, Clackmannanshire, over the weekend to kick off the start of the school’s bicentenary year. With a parachute team arriving with the special bicentenary flag, which will fly over the Old Playfair Building this year, current band members and scores of former pupils (many in mature age ranges) got together to parade on the lawns…

More Pipes & Drums Feature at Dollar Bicentenary/ Thoughts on Donald MacDonald Cuach