Category: Reviews

Review: Recording the Folklore and Pipe Music of Nova Scotia

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Twenty five years ago Professor Dan MacInnes gave the annual John MacFadyen Memorial Lecture. His subject was piping in Nova Scotia and the wider Canadian Maritimes. The winters were so severe for the first settlers, said the professor, that hardly a bagpipe survived. They literally cracked up – no doubt along with some of the early adventurers. By Robert Wallace They had never experience the biting bitterness of the ‘big…

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Editor’s Notebook: Hogmanay/ Stuart Liddell/ Queen’s Comment/ Grading/ Royal Bagpipe

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I hope everyone had a good New Year. The Hogmanay celebrations augured well for piping. Television channels BBC Alba and BBC2 had the pipes welcoming in the midnight bells (the latter featuring the Scots Guards P&D) and Buckingham Palace even put out a video showing Paul Burns, Sovereign’s Piper, piping down the steps at Buckingham Palace playing Auld Lang Syne (best to finish on high A with that setting Paul!)…

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2022 – A Year of Rebirth for Piping and Pipe Bands

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It was the year when we finally shook off the fear and loathing of the pandemic and the brutal authoritarianism of lockdown, now thoroughly discredited. Piping came back with a bang – but only just in time. We lost many potentially good young players, and bands and societies have all suffered a fall off in interest (and on the writing front the ever-popular MacStig is no more). By the Editor…

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Rare Light Music Recording of P/M Iain Morrison at the Argyllshire Gathering

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Following last week’s features on Iain Morrison, we are very grateful to Patrick Molard in Brittany for forwarding this recording from the 1971 Argyllshire Gathering, writes the Editor. It is of Iain Murdo playing in the Former Winners’ March Strathspey and Reel. Whilst it is not Iain at his best (he seems nervous and there a few slips) it is indicative of his style of playing and the brilliance with…

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Readers Respond to Competition 2/4 March Report: Judges Don’t Select New Music

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A selection of the responses to yesterday’s article by Dale Brown on the paucity of modern 2/4 march compositions on the competition boards…. Vincent Janowski: There might be a touch of light coming into your cave, but, again, your post and this list of great tunes ignores the obvious: at one point, most of these tunes were considered ‘modern’. Without today’s easy access to printed books and scores, it must…

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