Category: Reviews

Editor’s Notebook: John Ban MacKenzie Gravestone/ Rule Change after 214BB Success/ Lochryan Pipe Band Tutor Search

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Correspondent Duncan Watson has been in touch: ‘It might be of interest to add this to the bit re John Ban. The headstone is in the burial ground at Kinnetas which is up the hill from the village of Strathpeffer. ‘I have taken one or two people to the grave for some kind of inspirational visit. I have taken photographs of the headstone and of the one next to it which…

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Story on John Ban MacKenzie the Athlete and Reaction to Calum Fraser’s Article on Piobaireachd Performance

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Reader Dugald Macleod: This is a story my father Murdoch Macleod (1893 – 1964) had which involved John Ban MacKenzie: One August afternoon in 1822, the whole district of Kilmuir, Skye, was en fête. The occasion was the final reclaiming of thousands of acres of rich agricultural land by the draining to the sea of the expansive sheet of water known as St. Columba’s Loch. Notables from far and near…

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A Classical Musician’s Take on Piobaireachd

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When asked to offer some thoughts about piobaireachd as an art form, I was delighted to oblige. This is not least because I was brought up as a flute-playing Scot in England by a piper for a father. With my career now in the performing arts as a conductor specialising in working with singers, I have regularly looked upon piobaireachd with a great deal of interest, even if my knowledge…

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Editor’s Notebook: Circle Formation/ Royal Piper/ NZ Judges/ Band Medleys/ 1st Port Poem

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Those bands getting themselves into a tizzy over the prospect of a change to the circle formation can rest easy. It ain’t ever going to happen. There has been considerable huffing and puffing since my last foray into this forbidden zone. The ‘we love the circle campaign’ is in full swing. Like us all, bands are change averse and are happy with the status quo. Why should pipers and drummers…

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Readers Respond to Article on RSPBA’s MSR Rule Change

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A mixed bag of response to yesterday’s article by Ian Forbes. (Read it here.) Before we get to them the Editor writes: ‘I was interested in the comment in the rule change which states that four part tunes should be ‘where the tune was written as a four parted tune’. ‘This is misleading. If we look through our older collections we see that many standards we accept today as four…

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