Piping Press

‘A MacCrimmon Collection of Traditional and Contemporary Bagpipe Music’ A new collection of bagpipe music compiled by Iain and Calum MacCrimmon, the acclaimed father and son pipers, composers and, as I understand, hereditary pipers to Clan MacLeod, has been issued. There are 59 compositions on offer covering the complete spectrum of bagpipe music.  Normally when asked to review a new publication of pipe music, my approach is to sing through…

The following is from an issue of the Oban Times newspaper from January 1969. The article is self explanatory but we wonder if there is anyone out there who competed under John MacFadyen’s system? If so please get in touch. Our editor remembers this being discussed on the BBC’s piping programme ‘on the wireless’ but has no further information. A system of judging new to piping will be tried out…

The Piobaireachd Society website is carrying the following notice: The twenty-eighth annual amateur piobaireachd competition for the Archie Kenneth Quaich will take place on Saturday, 29th February 2020, in the rooms of The Royal Scottish Pipers’ Society, 127 Rose Street Lane South, Edinburgh, starting at 09.30 a.m.  The competition is promoted by the Piobaireachd Society. Entries and enquiries to: peter.mccalister@doctors.org.uk   Competitors should submit two tunes with their entries, one…

Thanks to Yahya Hussein in New York for this unique picture of a piper from WW2. Yahya: ‘Here’s a photo of the intrepid Pipe Major Rob Roy of Tobruk who survived the war and whom Jimmy McIntosh told me was a very good piper. His daughter wrote a book on him.’ The blurb: ‘This book is about Pipe Major Robert Roy MBE DCM of the Black Watch who became known…

Piper, teacher and adjudicator Duncan Watson follows up on the Editor’s earlier article on the subject of tuning preludes It seems that tuning preludes were of greater importance in piping in the past as examples appear in several publications. Mostly they comprise of fragments of variations from ceol mor. Probably the earliest reference we have is from Joseph MacDonald’s ‘Compleat Theory of the Scots Highland Bagpipe’ (c.1760) where it is…