History of Clan MacRae Published in Book Form

Piping historian Iain Duncan has compiled a neat booklet on the history of the Clan MacRae Society Pipe Band. It is based on the series of five articles published in Piping Press and contains lots of photos and facts all readily accessible, writes the Editor. Not in the book is the photograph above. It was published in ‘Pipe Band’ magazine in the early 1980s and accompanied a letter. The writer,…

Irish Pipers and the Spanish Civil War/ Ross’s Xmas Song

Reader Alastair MacGregor on ‘Irish Pipers and the Spanish Civil War’: ‘I nearly choked on my cornflakes last week when l saw the request for information on the Irish pipers who fought for Franco’s fascists in the Spanish Civil War. ‘There can be many reasons for historical research – lets hope it’s not based on ambivalence or indifference. I’m not surprised there is difficult in tracking down relatives. I’d be…

CLASP 11th November 2023 –  ‘Live Online’ Results

The Grade 1 Overall winner of this competition receives an invitation to compete in a new CLASP online competition called ‘The World Amateur Solo Piping Champion of Champions’, 2024. This competition launched to celebrate 20 years of CLASP and aims to showcase the best 10 amateur solo pipers in the world using an online platform where audience members can attend. By Margaret Houlihan The competition will run in April 2024…

Editor’s Notebook: Peter MacFarquhar/ Joint Committee/ J MacDonald Chanter/ Solo Drumming

Reader Lawrence Macduff has forwarded this fine picture of Peter MacFarquhar, subject of our earlier story, and well known to pipers as the composer of the popular jig, Kenny Gillies of Portnalong. Lawrence writes: ‘Here’s the image of Peter and his second wife Jean, taken as I recall near Kensaleyre on July 4th, 1970, when I was visiting them at their home. ‘Peter, having retired from seafaring around 1969 (I…

South African Brothers to Publish ‘Binneas is Boreraig’ Using Conventional Stave

Piobaireachd or Ceòl Mòr, often thought of as the classical music of the Scots Highland Bagpipe, was for centuries passed from master to pupil by chanting the tunes to one another, writes Pat Terry. From about the year 1800, attempts were made to find suitable variations on conventional staff notation to record the music for posterity. One of the more highly regarded of these attempts was published in the 1960s…