The pipe band scene in Northern Ireland is making strides to get going again with bands resuming practices and plans being put in place by the RSPBA NI Branch for the season ahead. The RSPBA NI Branch Meeting took place on Saturday 29th January 2022 via Zoom and a draft contest programme was tabled. At the time only the Mid Ulster (Cookstown) and the Ulster (Ballymena) competitions were confirmed however…
On being asked to review this recent publication I realised that I have stated many times in recent years that I am a supporter of modern piobaireachd composition. With further reflection the realisation dawned that many of the tunes in my repertoire I considered modern were approaching fifty years of age. I was facing an opportunity to take a look at much more recent compositions. The book reproduces the scores…
Former RSPBA Adjudicator Alistair Aitken OBE continues with his detailed look at the judging of pipe bands and how it can be improved. Read his first instalment here. What are the common barriers to effective pipe band adjudication? Firstly, there is no doubt that the location and layout of a pipe band competition can be factors. Contests can of course be held indoors or outdoors. Indoor competitions can be easier…
A good entry for the Scots Guards Junior competition held at the Army School of Piping at Inchdrewer House, Edinburgh, today. Organiser P/M Jimmy Banks MBE thanked everyone for their attendance, the Army School for the premises and stewarding and also the sponsors, the Scots Guards Association, Pipe Dreams and Grants of Dalvey. Judges were: J Banks, B Donaldson, R MacCrindle, P MacGregor, R Wallace. The picture above shows P/M…
What a year it has been for Argyll piping: Inveraray winning the Worlds, Alasdair Henderson taking the Northern Meeting Gold Medal – and now a superb collection of bagpipe music courtesy the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. The book represents a 200 year long musical journey of one of the iconic Scottish regiments, perhaps no longer with the identity of yesteryear but with a corpus of pipe music which will ensure…
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