Tag: Robert Wallace

New Drumming Principal at Pipe Bands Australia 

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Following the resignation of Greg Bassani, PBA has appointed Dean Hall Principal Drumming of Pipe Bands Australia’s Australian Pipe Band College by national management committee on the recommendation of branch vice-principals. The PBA website reports: ‘Dean is currently vice-principal in New South Wales but did not participate in the recommendation and selection process. He was one of several applicants for the position reviewed by the other vice-principals who expressed pleasure…

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BC Pipers Tune and Memories of Captain John MacLellan MBE

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Rob MacNeill, President of the British Columbia Pipers’ Association, has sent this: ‘April 20, 2017 marks the 30th Anniversary of the tune for the British Columbia Pipers’ Association. ‘In the lead up to the 1987 Annual Gathering, Captain John MacLellan [pictured top], who was adjudicating that year’s Annual Gathering with Robert Wallace, recommended that a tune composition competition be held for a tune to be named for the British Columbia…

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What Ensemble Adjudicators Should Assess at Competitions

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The following article by Alistair Aitken OBE was  first published in the April 2003 edition of Pipe Band Magazine, an edition now out of print. It throws some light on the still mysterious (to some) business of Ensemble adjudication. Given the rapid approach of the 2017 pipe band season we thought it would be helpful to bands currently polishing up their competition MSRs and Medleys. In the last edition of the…

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Bagpipemakers: An Interview with MacDougall of Aberfeldy

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The following is taken from the People’s Journal newspaper of November 4, 1893. It is by their ‘Lady Correspondent’ and is headlined ‘An Interview with the Queen’s Bagpipe-Maker’. The subject of the article is Duncan Macdougall, Aberfeldy, renowned pipe maker. The article will be of interest to all those who study or collect or indeed manufacture pipes. It is written in the flowery style of the late Victorian times but that…

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History: St Fillans Games and Grumbling Pipers From 1821

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Nothing Seems to Have Changed by Piping Historian, Keith Sanger The following extract is from a long letter reporting on the St Fillans Highland Games of 1821 which I came across last week and am still transcribing. The part quoted concerns the piping competition and needs little comment other than that nearly 200 years later, little seems to have changed regarding dissatisfaction with competition results. The letter comes from the…

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