Ten Years After: The World Pipe Band Championhips of 2011 – Part 3

We conclude our editor’s reports from the Worlds in 2011 with a detailed review of the Grade 1 Medley and some general thoughts on the competition…. Tunes are back. This was the first, most noticeable feature of the medley competition. For many, certainly the top two in this discipline, out were the old hand-knitted variety of ‘composition’ and in were the Hen’s March and Train Journey North and other traditional…

Ten Years After: The World Pipe Band Championship of 2011, Part 2

We take another look at the Worlds held at Glasgow Green in August 2011 with photographs and excerpts from reports from our Editor Robert Wallace. Here he concentrates on the Grade 1 March Strathspey and Reel. Gradually you came to the realisation that there was not one person present who did not believe they were listening to the 2011 World Pipe Band Champions. For Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band, from…

Review of Online Bagpipe Music Book: ‘The Fyrish Collection’ by Niall Matheson

The title of the book comes from Fyrish Hill (Cnoc Fhaoighris, in Gaelic), near Evanton in Easter Ross. On the cover is the depiction of a summit monument built in 1782 on the orders of the laird, General Sir Hector Munro of Novar, who had served in India. At the time the population was being expelled from the land in favour of sheep and human survival was a under threat….

Successful Piping and Drumming Academy Held in South West Scotland

Andy McCartney reports…….. Friday 13th may be superstitious for a lot of people, but not for the families and friends of the youngsters who attended a week-long Summer School at SRUC Barony Campus near Dumfries. The South West of Scotland Piping and Drumming Academy (SWSPDA) had just completed its 5th Annual Summer School and this was the end-of-school concert. Thirty seven young pupils attended, and this was the time for them to…

PP Ed’s Blog: Band MSRs/ Publishing Tunes/ Brass & Pipe Music/ PS Concert/ Alden Biesen

Listening to Field Marshal’s MSR from the All-Irelands last weekend, did I detect a very slight disconnect between drums and pipes in the last few parts of Pretty Marion? Wrong to make assumptions based on videos of course, all sorts of things get altered in transmission. I may be talking rubbish, but it would tie in with the ensemble judge placing them behind SLoT. Have a listen: Those who read…