SCHOOLS PIPING PROJECT

Transcription

1 IN THIS ISSUE Schools Piping Project 3: North Hero 6: Collogue 20019: Some Highland Bagpipe Makers who make bellows Pipes 10 : In conversation with Nigel Richard 19 : Dalkeith's Town Anthem? 29 Drone Reeds and the Plateau of Stability 33 : The Bagpiper's Rough Guide to Consumer Law 37 : Music 4l : Reviews 44

2 Societies such as the LBPS can only develop and thrive by encouraging new members - and new players. New players of the Lowland (used in the generic sense) pipes have to be taught or at the very least given guidance. This year has been marked by more arrangements than ever to offer tuition and disseminate information and to a much wider mix of would-be and experienced pipers. Of course the well- Teemed and now established piping "schools" have continued their good work - the LBPS Melrose weekend in the spring, the Galloway summer school, the North American annual tuition run by Hamish Moore in Vermont (one week ahead of the North Hero meeting), the Adult Learning Project in Edinburgh (for learners and improvers). Now there is an annual event in Vancouver. In Glasgow free tuition is offered on a weekly basis, while the London group is trying a by-monthly approach to the same idea. Ian Clabburn in Northamptonshire tells us (opposite) of the schools project he has set up - something to for those in Scotland consider? And on the back page there is notice of a Border piping weekend in April also run by Ian. Those with an observant eye will have noticed that in the June issue of Common Stock there was an article by Jack Camplin, and in this issue another by Jack Campin. I have to report they are one and the same, and I apologise to Jack for spelling his name incorrectly in the June issue. Jock Agnew jockagnew@aol.com 11 Ulting Lane. Langford Maldon, Essex England CM9 6QB Tel +44 (0) SCHOOLS PIPING PROJECT Ian Clabburn is a full time teacher (not music) and has been playing the hammer dulcimer in a ceilidh band for the past 25 sears and piping for the last 10. With the smallpipes he teaches a range of simple techniques and ornamentations and thereafter encourages the student to explore the instrument's capabilities for themselves Late in 1999 I set in motion a project which I had been thinking about for several years. I was talking to the director of the Local Education Authority funded music school in Daventry and the subject of folk instruments came up. I mentioned my ideas about commissioning a number of sets of simple pipes for use with children and within days we were putting together a lottery fund bid. The Bagpipe Society offered the sum of 3000 towards the project and we made a bid for an equal amount. On the strength of encouraging noises from the grant committee, I set about drawing up a specification and talking to a number of makers. The choice of a design was not easy and every piper I spoke to had a different but equally valid opinion, but a few basics were quickly established: the pipes should be bellows blown for hygiene reasons, they should be smallpipes pitched in D to allow for small fingers and that there should be at least one drone. To allow for future upgrading, I specified a drone stock capable of holding up to three drones, but with two of the holes plugged. My next problem concerned the scale and for no reason other than personal opinion based on the tunes I like to play, I settled on the standard " flattened 7th scale". After a lot of discussion an initial order for 8 sets of single drone "Scottish" smallpipes in D was placed with Richard and Anita Evans, who came up with an - excellent robust design at a very good price and, what was the real clincher, they could deliver all the sets within 12 months! 3

3 Time passed. Requests for clarification came from the lottery. We were optimistic. More clarification was sought. We were getting confident. We were then turned down because we had not "met the criteria" en(unspecified). I suspect that if we had be able to push the fiction of piping as a traditional activity in Northamptonshire, may have had more success. Fortunately, the Bagpipe Society ' s money covered the cost of the 8 sets of pipes, which were delivered at the Bagpipe Society ' s Blowout in June We were all highly impressed with the pipes which have a strong, sweet tone and are amazingly forgiving in the hands of beginners, being relatively pressure insensitive and very economical in the amount of air needed. I took the sets in to the music school the following Saturday and in the course the morning, they must have been used by 20 or more students ranging from 7 up to 16 year olds, with varying degrees of success, which were not always age related. The key factor seems to be arm length! Interest continued to grow. One highly talented 14 year old was playing all manner of pieces within hours of first meeting summer bagpipes and he put on a creditable performance at the school's concert a mere three weeks later. I have been running weekly classes, two every Saturday morning, for a year now and after an initial rapid turnover of students, we have now settled down to regular even group of enthusiasts, several of whom take the pipes home. Some practice! One boy takes the pipes home, having received written con t from h parents, quiet! but every time he gets them out, so he says, he is told to be Ian further describes some of the organisation and admin. which may be useful to others trying to set up a similar project. The pipes remain the property of the Bagpipe Society and are under my "custody" for as long as they are being used locally. In the event of the project finishing for any reason, the pipes become available for use by anyone else who wishes to set up something similar elsewhere. The music school pays for my tuition at local peripatetic music teacher rates and I am on the county payrole as such It also pays the insurance premium (amazingly comprehensive cover for approx 10 per instrument), book resources and undertakes to pay for any repair arising from damage by students, which is highly unlikely given the nature and ethos of the music school. I do not let the pipes go home with the children unless I am completely satisfied that they will be treated carefully and I have received a letter from the parents guaranteeing full responsibility for their safe keeping. The pipes are available for use by other members of the Society, with or without me in attendance, providing the dates they are required do not conflict with term dates. There is no expectation that the money used to set up the project will be recouped in any way in the future other than by selling the pipes in the unlikely event of their becoming redundant. My knowledge of Lottery applications is zero. The music school's application was dealt with by their treasurer. l just provided information about the pipes and what I intended to do with them. You will have to look elsewhere for this expertise - try to find someone who was successful! Children are already signing up for next term. As far as repertoire is concerned, I started off with the intention of using traditional pipe tunes, but I soon found that you can cover a lot of technique with "Twinkle Twinkle", "Row Row Row your Boat " and other such timeless hits. Beginner recorder books are a good source of simple tunes and many be played as rounds which has been great fun. My star pupil, Melody, started a year ago at the tender age of 7 and despite being short of arm, she persevered and devised her own way of holding the bag. We are currently enjoying working through Julian Goodacre ' s tune books. To my mind the most gratifying outcome of the first year is how positively' the bagpipes are received by children and adults alike. 1 have not heard a single " pipist" joke and scarcely a reference to Scotsmen in kilts since I started. I have however had requests from the children to be taught Scotland the Brave...

4 NORTH HERO Readers will be acquainted with the previous articles Craig Hohm has provided on playing Irish ornamentation on the Scottish smallpipes. Here he describes the annual weekend in North hero which several pipe-makers from the UK attend each year Above are - Jon Swayne, Hamish Moore, Alan Jones (Pic Craig Hohm) The town of North Hero hosted the event, held in the row of community buildings lining the water's edge. Daily instruction was offered in Scottish smallpipes, uilleann, Northumbrian, English, and for the first time this year, Border bagpipes. Walking the 100 yard strip of highway 2 that comprises the town centre, one could hear the strains of all these various pipes, and catch glimpses of the camp followers: the hurdy-gurdies, the bodhrans, fiddles, whistles, etc occupying odd corners of the surrounding landscape. The town hall at the centre of things was taken over by vendors during the day; there were a large selection of ready made pipes this year in addition to recorded music, manuscripts, and books. At night the stalls folded up and the hall transformed into an auditorium for the main concerts. Out on the front porch throughout the weekend was a perpetual Irish session, while the odd Franco-phile leapt about to binou and bombarde on the front lawn. Group lessons in beginner and advanced grades on the various pipes took place in the mornings of each day, and in the afternoon, workshops and mini-concerts by the instructors filled out the schedule. Some of the topics included: the uilleann pipe tradition of the Rowsome family, bagpipes of central France and Brittany, Scottish smallpipe reed making, hurdy gurdy, and the following two workshops are discussed in more detail. Barry Shears of Halifax presented his research on the regional styles of the rural Highland pipers of Nova Scotia. Populated by the descendants of families who left Scotland in the "cultural evisceration" of the clearances, these people brought their old piping traditions with them and preserved them with remarkable fidelity into present times. Each region of Nova Scotia preserved its own techniques and settings, and idiosyncratic and individualistic fingerings and ornamentations predominated in the days before the military standardised the playing of the GHB. Barry illustrated his talk with tapes of the old players and demonstrated tunes on 6 his Scottish smallpipes. I was particularly intrigued by his setting of The Smith" in which his source played the high G with a different fingering, producing a "quarter tone" dissonance sure to rile up dancers. Barry finished his talk with a dandy set of tunes, accompanied by his daughters step dancing, another tradition preserved from the old days, and illustrating the natural coupling of pipes and dancing. Next year let's get them off the carpet and onto a hard floor. On Sunday the Border pipe forum was well attended. Three makers from three different backgrounds presented their interpretation of this instrument. Some of the attendees worried aloud about the lack of standardisation in the historical records of this instrument, and to some degree this continues today with the variations in tone, fingering, etc. but to my mind this represents a completely healthy diversity (much like the resurgence of real beer manufactured by the burgeoning micro brewery industry in the States). The "tradition" represented is the tradition of experimentation. Ray Sloan began his search for the "lowland" sound by examining pipes in museum collections. He was able to match his chosen taper with a reed that gave the sound he was looking for, along with cross fingered accidentals and a pinched high b. Ray completed his talk with a demonstration of what we may name the "Northumbrian great pipes", coupling his lowland drones with a muscular Northumbrian chanter in D. Jon Swayne began his search for a Border pipe design with the intent of playing English dance music, and so from the beginning aimed for an extended range chanter. Some of his sets use three octaves of the tonic as drones. His tonality is to me reminiscent of the pastoral/ uilleann sound. Hamish Moore also based his Border pipes on an historical set, and over the years has made modifications to create a chanter that responds to the fingering of Highland pipers. His sound has a definite GHB flavour, with a strong bottom hand. His son, Fin, topped off the talk with a wonderful set of dance tunes. All three makers played their pipes during the presentation and, at the end, one of the attendees fired up her Nigel Richard set for additional comparison. Sunday evening was the grand concert in the main hall. what follows are some impressionistic observations of my personal favourites: The hall darkened and a musical procession began, each pipe represented by two or more players marching down the central aisle to the main stage... Andy May stood blinking into the floodlights playing, in his interpretation of Tom Clough, "an inordinate number of gratuitous grace notes",including a memorable version of the fiddle tune "Big John MacNeil" (the first part of which appeared to be played exclusively with the left fifth finger and the right thumb)... Fin Moore roared through dance sets on the border pipes accompanied by bonnie Jean MacDonald step dancing from Cape Breton, and then sprung a surprise duet on smallpipes with his dad. Moebius drifted in their "aural jacuzzi", the Moebius strip a perfect metaphor for their peculiar magic, a dronal continuum : hypnotic, cyclic, interwoven. So Monday found me back on the ferry crossing to the mountains of New York, musing about the past week-end. where else can you get such a concentrated dose of alternative pipes? Whether it's for instruction, or for the concert performances, or for the sharing of ideas across the bagpipe traditions, there's no festival to compare, at least in this hemisphere. Interested parties may look for more information at

5 COLLOGUE 2001 Jock Agnew Available from Gary at 36 East Trinity Road Edinburgh EH5 3DJ Scotland Cheques made to Gary West (including post & packing) or buy online at new release by Gary West `a delight from start to finish. A strong contender for piping CD of the year' (The Living Tradition) `deliciously diverse' (Radio National Australia) `everything on this CD is pure and clean - and burnin g hot' (Hallandsposten, Sweden) `His depth of technique and breadth of experience make for an authoritative debut' (Sunday Herald) see Gary's website at As we have all come to expect and accept, the annual Collogue was another success. Also in line with expectation was the hard work the LBPS committee and others put into organising and arranging this year's event. Jeannie Campbell was the first of the speakers, and part of her paper on "Some Highland Bagpipe Makers who made Bellows Pipes" follows on the next page. Dougie Pincock, Director of the National Centre of Excellence in traditional music at Plockton High School, and one time member of the Battlefield Band, discussed the influence of Folk groups on the popularity of bagpipes. With a number of examples from old and recent CDs, he explored three themes: - How the General Public with, perhaps, little knowledge at first, was becoming aware of pipes as they are played in folk groups. The popularity with youngsters, some of whom would subsequently approach the world of piping in other ways than through the traditionally established route i.e. via pipe bands and competitions. Other Musicians, who learned how to play with pipes and discover their limitations and tuning requirements - and when smallpipes came on the scene found that they didn't invariably have to tune to Bb, and could access more easily the enormous bagpipe repertoire. Ian Green, founder of the Greentrax label, described how his enthusiasm for Scottish music and love of the pipes had encouraged him to build up a business specialising in this type of music - again with plenty of examples from some of the recordings. After lunch (and the AGM, the minutes of which will reach members in due course), Cathie Peattie MSP talked about "The Scottish Parliament and Tradtional Arts", and pleaded for support in her continuing fight to obtain recognition and finance for promoting traditional and National music. Hamish Moore's talk on "Cane for Reed Making", will be described and discussed in the next Common Stock. Finally Duncan McGillivray wound up the formal part of the day with an illustrated talk on "Piping in Folk Groups and a few tunes". In fact the few tunes came later when, in the impressively high-ceilinged hall, he was joined by Iain Hardy and Freeland Barbourr to play for the evening's boisterous Ceilidh. 8

6 Some Highland Bagpipe Makers who made Bellows Pipes Jeannie Campbell, a founder member of the LBPS, is also a member of the Pibroch Society, and president of the Scottish Pipers ' Association. Jeannie has just published a new book "Highland Bagpipe Makers" which is the latest of a distinguished series of treatises and articles, mostly in the Piping Times. This article gives the bulk of her talk at the recent Collogue, and the [square brackets] provide editorial adjustments from spoken to written word. I've been researching Highland bagpipe makers for some time and have been surprised to find that many Highland pipe makers in the 19th Century also made bellows blown pipes of various types, Highland, Lowland, Irish or Union. I'm using the names Irish and Union in this talk because that seems to be what they were called at the time. Price lists from the second half of the 19th Century show that makers usually made three or four sizes of Highland pipes, the full size Great Highland or military bagpipe, the half size or reel pipe, a second size reel pipe sometimes called a Lovat reel pipe, and a miniature bagpipe. The reel pipes of both sizes were offered with the choice of mouth blown or bellows blown. The full size and the miniature were mouth blown only. The miniature pipes had a cylindrical bore chanter like a practice chanter and the other sizes had a conical bore chanter. The reel pipe was just a smaller version of the Great Highland bagpipe and, as the name suggests, it was used when played for dancing. As so many makers offered bellows blown reel pipes we can assume that there was a demand for them and pipers bought and played them. We do have some evidence of this, for example it is said that when Calum Piobaire Macpherson played at a dance he would open the proceedings with a tune on the Great Highland bagpipe then sit down with the bellows pipe and play for the dancing for the rest of the night. There are obvious advantages to this as we know. If you played the Highland pipe all evening you had to stand up, you had to blow, the reeds got wet and you had to keep re-tuning and so on. If you played the bellows pipe you could sit down, the reeds stayed dry and stayed in tune longer, you could smoke a pipe at the same time and if you played top hand tunes you could probably manage to take a drink at the same time as well. One of the oldest books on piping is `A Compleat Theory of the Scots Highland Bagpipe' which was written in 1760 by Joseph Macdonald, and published some years later by his brother Patrick, who made some additions and alterations to it. This book describes the Highland bagpipe then goes on to tell us that the Highlanders also have a smaller bagpipe identical except in size but used only for dancing music. The book goes on to say that This lowland bagpipe is described at great length as "..insipid and having no music of its own although it is tolerably well calculated for violin reels and some pipe jigs." This is, of course, written by a Highland piper, and as we know there are still some Highland pipers who don't like bellows pipes. Now to some of the makers. It could be that many other Highland makers also made bellows pipes, but I'm only going to talk about the ones where I have either a price list including bellows pipes or know of an example of their work. First is Hugh Robertson. He was married in Edinburgh in 1754 when his occupation was given as `turner'. He was listed in the Edinburgh directory from 1775 to 1788 as `Turner and Pipemaker', Castlehill. In the Clan Donald papers there's an account from him for supplying a Highland bagpipe mounted with ivory at the price of 3 and he made the Prize Pipes for the Falkirk and Edinburgh competitions from 1781 to He also made bellows pipes and there are a couple of examples of his work in the National Museum's collection, both sets have bass, tenor and baritone drones and regulators and one has silver mounts with a hallmark of Next is Donald Macdonald. I'm not going to say much about him as we had a talk on him a couple of years ago. Before becoming a pipe maker in Edinburgh he was what you might call a typical Highland piper of the time - he came from Skye, he had been in the army and he played in piping competitions. He advertised in 1817 that he carried out the business of pipe making in all its branches and gave lessons on the Highland and Union pipes. The Ross Collection in the National Museum has examples of various chanters made by him. [The College of Piping Museum has an instrument made by Donald Macdonald about 1816]. We have another interesting instrument in the museum. It ' s from Canada and is a Highland bagpipe except that it's got bellows. Next the MacDougalls. The MacDougall family were pipers to the MacDougall chiefs in Argyll before moving to Perthshire in the service of the Campbells of Breadalbane at Taymouth Castle. Allan MacDougall was a piper at Taymouth Castle in 1781 and later started a pipe making business in Perth. His son John took over the 10

7 business in about 1834 and was followed by his son Duncan who was born in Duncan was a top prize winning piper from the age of 17. He took over the pipe making business in Perth in about 1857 but decided to move to Edinburgh a few years later. [The Museum has] a lowland bellows pipe which is stamped `MacDougall Perth' so must date from before In Edinburgh he became Pipe Major of the Edinburgh Volunteers and instructor to the Back Watch Volunteers. He then went for a season as Piper to Queen Victoria at Osborne House but refused a permanent position with the Queen. He returned to Edinburgh where he continued to make bagpipes. In 1873 Duncan went back to Taymouth Castle as piper to the Marquis of Breadalbane and continued with his pipe making business in Aberfeldy. [The College Museum has] a copy of Duncan MacDougall's price list from this time which offers Great Highland or Military bagpipes in 12 different mountings from 8 to 50, half size or reel pipes in three styles, full mounted in ivory at 5 and half mounted at 4 or bellows blown at 5.IOs, and miniature or chamber pipes in three different mountings from 2,10 to Duncan was able to play bellows pipes and we have an eye witness account from a lady reporter who visited his workshop in After describing the making of the Highland pipe Duncan showed her a set of beautiful old English bagpipes, very slender and pretty, a chamber instrument with thin but pleasing tone. He played a piobaireachd on this bagpipe, explaining as he did so the character of the music and the development of the air. Next he produced a dainty little set of Irish pipes which were blown by means of a pair of bellows which he strapped to his right arm. She says She then writes that "..the Irish and English pipes are elegant little instruments, but mere toys beside the great Highland bagpipe." There are a couple of questions which come to mind here. First, what exactly was this English bagpipe which he used to demonstrate the piobaireachd and if it was mouth blown how did he explain the tune while he played it? And second, what kind of Irish bagpipe was this and if his playing wasn't graceful was it because he wasn't very good at playing with bellows? The MacGregors were another Perthshire piping family. John MacGregor was piper to Prince Charles in and afterwards piper to Campbell of Glenlyon. He had four sons and eight grandsons who dominated the early piping competitions. One son John and his son, another John, were pipers to Lord Breadalbane at Taymouth Castle. Another grandson, also named John MacGregor, went to London in about 1806 and was employed as piper, pipemaker and flutemaker to the Highland Society of London. On a visit home to Perthshire in 1821 he gave a concert in Perth at which he played the Highland pipe and the Union pipe. Probably these were instruments he 12 had made himself. He died in London on January 1st He was playing a professional engagement at a party and fell down the stairs. Another MacGregor, Malcolm, was in London at the same time. He was in partnership with Charles Wigley and they made bagpipes and flutes from 1810 to 1825, at first from premises in the Strand and then in Regent Street. They had taken out various patents on flutes and had made flutes with adjustable tuning slides. In 1812 Malcolm MacGregor was awarded a premium by the Highland Society of London for essential improvements made by him on the Great Highland Bagpipe, the Union Bagpipe and the Northumberland Bagpipe. Two years earlier, in 1810, he had been awarded five guineas and a medal for making an improved chanter with keys. The Highland Society thought this was a great thing but other pipers didn't think so. Sir John Dalyell wrote, "MacGregor prepared to give a public demonstration of the quality of his invention but some of the Highlanders who had also to prove their skill in competition, viewing it only as a flagrant and needless innovation, clandestinely sacrificed the instrument to their malevolence. Nevertheless MacGregor, undismayed by the disappointment, substituted a performance on the Irish bagpipe." There are a couple of examples of Irish pipes made by Malcolm MacGregor in the National museum. Almost a century later we have history repeating itself when another flutemaker in London became a pipemaker and re-invented a chanter with keys which was played in a bagpipe with bass A, tenor A and baritone E drones. He was Henry Starck and he called his patent bagpipe the Brian Boru. In 1910 he brought out a booklet describing all the advantages of the Brian Boru bagpipe over other bagpipes including what he called the Scotch bagpipe. He expected Scotch pipers would want to play the new bagpipe so had designed a Brian Boru chanter with the fingering the same as the Scotch chanter and offered the drones in the Scotch style of separate stocks although he recommended placing the drones in a common stock as it gave a much fuller and more perfect tone. [The pictures of the Brian Boru bagpipe show them to be] all mouth blown and he doesn't seem to have tried putting bellows on them. George Walker was born in Leith in His father, John Walker, was listed in the Edinburgh directory as a `Turner' at 340 Lawnmarket from 1823 to 1832 then George appeared at the same address from 1832 to 1843 as a `Military bagpipe maker'. I don't know if George was a piper or not. His name doesn't appear in records of piping competitions which are the main source of information we have for pipers at that time. Perhaps he just progressed from being a wood turner to being a pipe maker. He described himself as a `military bagpipe maker', but the only example we have of his work is a lowland bagpipe. 13

8 William Gunn we know was a piper and a Highlander. He was born in Kildonan, Sutherland in 1789 but due to the clearances he moved south and by 1809 he was living in Glasgow and working as a weaver. He played at the Edinburgh competitions during the 1820s and 30s and won various prizes. In 1834 he appeared in the Glasgow directory as a 'bagpipe maker ' and the entries continued until his death in In 1848 he published a book, `The Caledonian Repository', which is a collection of 210 tunes w ith a tutor. We have no surviving evidence that he made bellows pipes but w e have an interesting example of his work [in] the College museum. The chanter has been made with an extra note at the top operated by a key which is unfortunately broken. The Glens were another family of bagpipe makers and various members of the family were in business in Edinburgh for more than a century. The family were originally farmers, first in the Linlithgow area and then in Fife from They all had large families and several of them moved into Edinburgh where they were involved in a great variety of different trades. George Glen born 1790 and his brothers Alexander Glen, born 1801, and Thomas Glen, born 1804, all went to Edinburgh and were involved in various occupations such as cabinet maker, auctioneer, haberdasher, broker or furniture dealer, before becoming musical instrument makers and bagpipe makers. None of the Glens were known to be great pipers although some of them were said to be able to play the pipes or the fiddle. George was a musical instrument maker and cabinet maker from 1846 until his death in The Ross collection in the National museum includes examples of Union pipes and chanters made by George. Alexander Glen was a pipe maker from 1835 and was followed by his son David, and grandsons Alexander, John and David. Thomas was pipe maker from 1833 and he was followed by his sons John and Robert and grandson Thomas. We have several price lists from the various Glen businesses. The earliest I have is from Alexander Glen in This offers pipes in four sizes, the Great Highland or Military bagpipe at 8 to 30, half size or reel pipe blown with the mouth or bellows at 5 to 12, the Lovat reel pipe blown with the mouth or bellows 3.10 to 8, and the Highland miniature pipe from 2.2s. The next price list is again Alexander Glen in 1860 and again he offers four sizes, with the difference that the Lovat reel pipe is now called the second size reel pipe. The half size and second size are available mouth blown or bellows blown. At the bottom of the price list there's a line which says ' Union or Lowcountry pipes of all descriptions made to order.' He has `Lowcountry' as one word. This is the only time I've come across Lowcountry pipes on a maker's price list. [Below is] a photograph of a bagpipe made by Alexander Glen, the owner calls it a half-long and it has been renovated. Alexander died in 1873 and his son David continued the business. His price list in the 1870s still has the four sizes of pipes, but now only the second size reel pipe is offered with bellows. In 1849 and 1860 the price was the same for mouth blown or bellows blown, but now the mouth blown pipe is 5 and the bellows blown is 5.10s. By 1905 he had discontinued the second size reel pipe but still made the half size or reel pipe, mouth blown, in six different mountings and a bellows bagpipe full ivory mounted at 6. Thomas Glen retired in 1867 and died in His sons traded as J & R Glen and in the I870s they too were making three sizes of pipes. They gave the measurements of the chanters at this time. The large chanter was fourteen and a half inches long and the size of the bore at the wide end was seven eighths of an inch. The full size chanter was thirteen and three quarter inches long and the size of the bore at the wide end was three quarters of an inch. The miniature and practice chanters had straight

9 bores. Customers were told that when ordering reeds it was "..essentially necessary to specify for what size of bagpipe they were required, either full size, half size or reel pipe, chamber or miniature pipe or practice chanter. In ordering either chanter or drone reeds this information should never be omitted." They went on to say that "..many merely ask for a chanter reed without stating for what size of instrument it is wanted, so that if the proper article is supplied it is only by chance. " Also in Edinburgh about 1890 to 1900, the firm of Ernest Kohler and Son were making bagpipes. Ernest Kohler was born in Germany in 1796 but was living in Edinburgh by From the 1820s onwards he was in business as a violin string maker. A price list from about 1900 was a full range of bagpipes on one side, including a bellows bagpipe and on the other side violins and various other musical instruments and some unusual accessories, `nigger wigs', which would not be politically correct today. I don't know for certain why the Kohlers became bagpipe makers but there is a possible connection between the Kohlers and the MacLennan piping family. In 1888 Marie Kohler married the piper and dancer William MacLennan, who was a nephew of John MacLennan and a first cousin of G.S. and D.R. MacLennan. William had formed a concert company which included the violinist Scott Skinner and they were on tour together in Canada in 1892 when William got meningitis and died. Peter Henderson was one of the best known of the Glasgow bagpipe makers. He was born in 1851 at Inverkeithing in Fife, although his father was from Caithness. In 1880 Peter took over the premises of the pipe maker Donald MacPhee at 17 Royal Arcade, Glasgow. Peter was Pipe Major of the Glasgow Volunteers and a prize winning solo competitor. His price list in 1888 has the usual four sizes of bagpipe, full size, half size or reel pipe, second size reel pipe which is available either mouth blown at 4.10s and 5.10s or bellows blown at 6.10s and the miniature pipe. The same four sizes of pipes are available in 1900 at the same prices. Peter died in 1902 aged 51. His brother Donald kept the business going and in 1905 appointed John MacDougall Gillies as the manager. A price list from 1905 still has the four sizes of pipes but no longer including the option of bellows. Gillies died in 1925 and Archie McPhedran became the manager. A catalogue from 1930 offers full size Highland pies in 13 different mountings from 7 to 50, half and reel size in nine different mountings from 5.10s to 35, miniature pipes in three different mountings from 5 to 7, and Irish pipes in four different mountings from 5.10s to 12.10s. The catalogue has pictures of the Highland pipes but no pictures of the Irish pipes so we don't know if they were bellows blown. They may have been the two drone mouth ' blown pipes which were played in some of the Irish regiments at that time. So, we know that until about 1900 several Highland makers were supplying bellows blown pipes. Around this time there was a change which coincides with the advent of the pipe band. Half size pipes continued to be made but their use had changed. They were no longer used as an instrument for dance music and they were no longer available with bellows. Since the first civilian bands were formed in the 1880s the number of pipe bands had been increasing rapidly and pipe band competitions were becoming popular. Consequently there was an increased demand for the full size Highland bagpipe. Juvenile bands were being formed too, and a juvenile championship was started at Cowal in 1907, the year after the first World Championship Contest. Soon there were large numbers of Boys Brigade, Cadet and Scout bands. They all bought half size pipes because they were cheaper than full size and the chanters were smaller, with smaller holes and were easier to play with small fingers. Several makers advertised that they specialised in supplying Boys Brigade and Scout bands. Old men today who remember competing with juvenile bands in the 1920s say that all the juvenile bands at that time were playing half size pipes. There are still a lot of these pipes lying about but hardly anybody plays them now. Pipe chanters have become smaller or kids have got bigger so the half size pipes are not needed. The next maker I want to mention is James Robertson of Edinburgh. He was the son of Pipe Major James Robertson of the Seaforth Highlanders and Royal Scots and was himself a Pipe Major of the Royal Scots. The Robertsons, father and son took over the pipe making business of John Center and Son when the Centers went to Australia in Round about 1920 a revival of Northumbrian piping was started by G.V.B. Charlton, who was mainly interested in half long pipes, W.A. Cocks who was a collector and maker of smallpipes and another enthusiast Edward Merrick. They revived some of the piping competitions and eventually with others formed the Northumbrian Pipers' Society. James Robertson was asked to make the half long pipes and became a technical adviser to the Society [see Common Stock No 10.2 `Half-long - develop or die' by Denis Dunn - Ed]. He seems to have been interested in Northumbrian piping and attended gatherings, and [the College] has a letter from him to Mr. Cocks. After this there was a long gap until about 1980 when our [LBPS] revival started. Graingers started making Lowland pipes in the early `80s and Northumbrian pipe makers started making Scottish smallpipes. Before long lots of Highland pipe makers were thinking "we can do that," so they started producing smallpipes. I'm not going to say anything about present day makers. I could quote from James Robertson who when asked about reedmakers said "..the less said on that subject the better one's chances of living to a good old age". So I'll stop here! 16

10 IN CONVERSATION WITH - NIGEL RICHARD / was playing your Border pipes just now and found them very sweet and easy to sound - in fact you had to tell me to use less on pressure. What is your philosophy this subject ofpressure? The question of pressure is a good one. Over the years there has been a change. My Border pipes originally used to play at a fairly high pressure, but that's going back ten years. Now they are at a moderate pressure. It's not simply that the lower the pressure the better. There comes a point at which, if you make the pressure really low, you find that very slight adjustments in pressure affect the pitch. On the other hand if the pressure is too high, it becomes too much work. You may actually have more steadiness of pitch at a higher pressure, and I have was had one or two professional players ask for it. And it because they were getting up on stage and starting playing and stopping playing and starting playing and stopping playing and they wanted to be either definitely on probably or definitely off. They didn't want to have to nurse the thing. I think that there is a broad feeling in the market now as to what a sensible pressure is. Some makers of pipes are lower than others, but the people who had high pressure a long ti me ago (like myself) have come down, and maybe some of the ones that were very low pressure have realised it is necessary to come up a bit in order to give that bit more definition. In my opinion, if you drop the pressure too much you begin to lose the clarity of some of the grace notes. What about matching the chanter pressure to the drone reeds or visa versa? Well when you are looking at drone reeds, you've got three considerations. Putting tpitch aside - you ' ve got the tone, you've got the pressure, and you've got the amoun of air they take. Now you might imagine that pressure and the volume of air is actually going to be totally interdependent. But in fact you can have drone reeds that operate at high pressure but don't let a lot of air through. And conversely you can have the opposite. Ideally you want drone reeds that don't use too much air, it just makes too much work. So you want to let a modest amount of air through and they need to produce the right volume and the pressure has to match the pressure of the

11 a baritone E chanter reed. The drones start that little bit before the chanter, so it is just natural to set the drones up to match the chanter - you should never do it the other way round. Of course another thing that pressure relates to is volume. And some smallpipe makers have the lips of the reed well open, so you get a louder sound. It's not an absolute correlation because you can get low pressure smallpipes that sound quite loud, and you can get high pressure smallpipes that don't sound as loud as you might expect them to. The middle way seems best - you want smallpipes that play at moderate pressure and produce a good volume. Certainly `A' sets of smallpipes now are much louder than they used to be. Which is necessary because they are basically a fairly quiet animal. Particularly in a carpeted room, they are very difficult to hear sometimes. Yes. It's a pitch problem, because our perception of pitch is not linear. We hear stuff basically in the treble clef, which is where we talk and sing, more acutely than we hear stuff in the bass clef. The `A' smallpipes sound even more quiet to our ears than they in fact are, and so there has been a challenge for the makers of smallpipes to bring the volume of the lower smallpipes up. Of course the high smallpipes are quite chirpy - sometimes too chirpy, and you're kind of trying to tame that chirpiness. Border pipes seem to have a natural volume that belongs to the chanter and the reed. But you can make the reed too soft- what you want is a reed that is giving you a reasonable volume at a moderate pressure. The thing with Border pipes has always been to bring the volume down, but there is no point in my mind to bringing the volume down to a point where it no longer works properly as an instrument. This is the challenge to the maker - Border pipes that are not too loud and smallpipes that are loud enough, and have both of them playing at a moderate pressure that is not too physically demanding or need coaxing because it is too weak. I notice you use a closed 'C ' on you Border chanter. Is this because you are copying the Highland style? Or are there other reasons? Basically I like to have a chanter which has exactly the same fingering as Highland pipes because quite simply that was how I learned to play. I learned from a Highland piper. And since the majority of players are people who learned that way, then I think it is better to have that fingering - also the little finger on the chanter at the bottom is acting as a pivot point. There are many movements that only work properly if you've got it there. Open fingering has quite a lot going for it in terms of fluency in certain sort of passages, but it's not as appropriate for the Highland pipe style of playing, so I will always stick with standard Highland fingering myself. On your Border pipes you've got bass and two tenor drones. Do you ever put in a baritone? 20 I'm not in principle against the idea of using or an alto E with Border pipes. Jon Swayne mentioned a number of years ago at one of our talks, that one of the harmonics on the baritone drone clashes with one of the upper notes of the pipe scale. This isn ' t really noticeable on small pipes because relatively speaking the baritone drone is an octave higher against the chanter so that the clash isn't really audible. If you use an alto drone on Border pipes it isn't so audible as well, because then you've got the same relationship in terms of pitch. However, unless the alto drone is very quiet it can become a rather insistent sound and of course the moment you go into the key of `D' you don't want your `E' drone sounding. And the other factor is that the bass drone, if it's reasonably well made, is going to produce the third harmonic - the `E' - that is the same as the alto drone, and so you are to an extent doubling up what is already there. However I think if it is quiet you are just reinforcing that harmonic and it does give an extra richness particularly when you are playing a `C' - you're getting this one-three-five chord reinforced. It's one of these things where there are pluses and minuses. As far as the baritone goes another use is tuning it to the fourth ('D'). Now if you tune it to `D' and turn the bass drone off, you've then actually got your tonic pivot point - a `D' - and it makes tunes in `D' sound quite rich. So it's a sort of special effects thing. If you make the `A' tenor drone tenon long enough to allow you to tune up to `B', and bring the baritone up to `E', then you've got a pivotal fifth, and it can sound very attractive with tunes in `E' minor, but there aren't very many of those. If, say, you have your lowest drone tunes to `D', then you can play on a Border pipe chanter tunes in `D' major and `B' minor. There are a lot of tunes for example in `B' minor played on the Highland pipes against an `A' drone, and they sound perfectly all right. But if you actually can tune all you're `A' drones up to `B' and you play them against `B' minor tunes, you get a very rich sound in certain parts of the scale. But unfortunately, if you've made your chanter properly, you've made your F# flat of equal temperament ', so that it's properly in the harmonic series, and is in tune with your `A' drones. So that if you then tune your drones up to `B` and start playing a `B' minor tune, the fifth - the F# - begins to leap out at you in a very angry sort of manner - horribly flat as a fifth, though as a sixth it's perfectly pitched for playing against `A'. Yes there are a lot of problems. For the smallpipes do you have the same very precise requirement for the tuning of that F#? Tuning of a scale in which every semitone within an octave is exactly equal 21

12 I do as well in the smallpipes. Essentially what I tune to is a `just intonation' 2 scale which is based on frequency ratios. I think that most pipe makers go for these slightly flat F#s and C#s. You're talking about 14, 15, 16 cents - that sort of amount. You're maybe not hearing it in itself, the change in pitch, but when you're mixing it with other notes - when you are listening to the drones - you can hear when it's just spot on (apparently the human ear stops distinguishing things below about 3 cents). Of course this creates potential problems with other instruments. My experience in pub sessions is that fiddlers have a tendency to flatten their 3rds and 6ths, and they've a tendency to verge towards `just intonation' in their playing. Is that because they are hearing the pipes, or is it because......if you're playing music that modulates all over the place like jazz then you tend to go towards equal temperament. But if you're playing traditional tunes being fixed in one key, they may be in `A' or `D', then the fiddle players tend, quite unconsciously, to respond to the pipe pitch of the 3 rd and 6 'h. It's not a problem - it's a problem the moment you start mixing with things like accordions and guitars and fixed pitch instruments. Essentially in looking at a lot of simple traditional jigs and reels and melodies that don't modulate, you're looking at drone music. You hear fiddlers playing tunes where they keep on putting in a bottom note and using it as a drone,. And with a lot of fiddle styles, you almost sense that the fiddler wants to hear a drone. But when you bring in an equal temperament ' instrument, little red flags begin to wave - certainly for me. In sessions, I become aware that things are not quite as comfortable as they might be. At Collogue 2000 you took us through some fascinating examples ofchanters being played in different modes and keys. But my problem, and I suspect the problem of a lot of other people, was that you didn't spend long enough on each one for us to absorb the sounds we were hearing and the explanations you were giving. I know you had a fixed time and a certain amount of material to get through. But I wondered if you could take time now to give a few explanations. The essence of the thing is having chanters where people don't have to change the fingering, so that they can play exactly the same fingering and a different scale comes out. 3 rd The four different scales that I illustrated were Aeolian, so you've got a minor and a minor 6 th ; the harmonic minor scale (which again has got a minor third but has a sharpened 7 'h ); then the Lydian mode where you've got a sharpened 4 th and sharpened 7 th - of course being pipers we talk about sharpened 7 th s, but nobody else does - they all talk about a flattened 7 th. The Lydian's an absolutely fascinating mode. Balax who played at our concert a couple of years ago played a few tunes in that mode, and he said it was quite a common traditional mode for Croatia and that area. And the last scale was one with a minor 2 " and major 3 rd, so again you've got this tone-and-a-half gap at the bottom of the scale, which in a way is a mirror image 2 Pure natural scale, not that artificially fixed by equal temperament 22 of the harmonic minor. And this particular scale had minor second, major third minor 6 th and minor 7 th. It's a scale you wouldn't find outside the Arabic world or Indian music - I mean not a scale in use certainly in Northern Europe. You'd find it in the south of Spain, because it was brought over by the Moors from North Africa. Would I be right in saying that on the standard smallpipe 'A ' chanter, if one played a tune in G, using all the notes including `C#' you'd be playing in Lydian? Yes. Absolutely. Again you're temperament problem would come in there and your `C#', instead of being the 3 rd note of the scale, now becomes the 4 th note in the scale, and if you tuned it flat of equal temperament you now have a flat augmented 4 th, and these are not very comfortable. The Indians use two different augmented fourths, but they're both fairly close to the equal temperament ' one. I prefer the one that is just slightly sharp of equal temperament. Coming to the top of the scale the relationship between the `F#' and the `G' is again one where the `F#' becomes a slightly flat major 7 th. It all becomes rather technical. Another subject is the tuning of the `flattened' 7th in the standard scale ('G'). I wouldn't say it was a can of worms, but people have an awful lot of different opinions. `G' is actually in tune - or the flattened 7 'h of the scale - is in tune in terms of the harmonic series if it's slightly flat of equal temperament, or slightly sharp. And interestingly this coincides with how Highland pipers tune their 7 'h of the scale. The ordinary fingering is giving you a `G' that is slightly sharp which is what many tend to use for marches and jigs and reels, and the Piobaireachd fingering is flattening that `G' down. I've noticed with the Piobaireachd `G' that it is gloriously harmonically in tune. However I think that most pipe-makers go for more or less equal temperament. If I were to choose a tuning for `G' that was the most harmonically rewarding, I would choose the `G' that was actually flat - in other words the equivalent of the Piobreachd `G'. Do you still make keyed chanters. Yes. Not as much as I used to, but I made one just a few months ago that was absolutely covered with keys. I had a special request for a high `A#, and there seemed to be hardly any room left on the chanter to put it there, but we did manage and it worked very well. It's certainly a minority desire to play a minor 2nd at the top of the scale - as we mentioned previously it's the sort of thing you 'would only find in Arabic music. And was this an Arab? No, he was a German! I still find I often get asked for high `B' keys. It is well and away the most popular first addition. Over the last 20 years, and even more so the last ten years, the Border chanter has developed to the point where I was getting all the accidentals nicely in 23

13 tune by cross-fingering within the scale. So the real purpose for having key-work now, as far as the Border pipes are concerned, is really to extend the range at each end of the scale rather than put keys for accidentals in the middle. After high `B' the low 'F#' and `E' are the next most popular keys. The low `F#' and `E' have got a very rich tone against the drones. If you look at the harmonic spectrum of notes in a conical bore chanter, the notes become richer the father down the chanter you go, because they are being supported by a longer column of air. Well that's the way I see it. And if you look - there's been a lot of work done on Highland pipes on this thing - if you look at the harmonic spectrum of a high `A' or `Bb' on Highland pipes - you're getting the first two harmonics and very little else, which is why the note sounds thin. When you go down to the low `A' - or low `G' - you are getting 6, 7, 8 harmonics, all definitely there. And when you go down to the low E on these Border pipe chanters you're getting a good range of harmonics on the 5 th against an A drone, and this can give a very rich sound. Is there any cross-fingering possible on your smallpipes? No - I'd be incredibly surprised to hear, certainly on cane reeded small pipes, that there was any significant cross-fingering on any smallpipes. You're never going to flatten a note by a semi-tone by closing up holes one down on the smallpipes. It's just part of the fundamental acoustic laws of that sort of chamber. In order to produce that effect you'd probably have to make the holes incredibly small and restrict the sound. You have your own design of Border pipe reeds. Are they the same for your keyed chanters as for your un-keyed? Yes. Well, they are aren't exactly the same, it's just that if you are wanting a reed that is going to produce the goods from low `E' to high `B' - or in the case of some of my keyed chanters, to high `C#', you're looking for a reed that has got that little bit extra. So you have to go through a larger number of reeds to find one that is satisfactory for the extra burden. The drone reeds, you were telling me earlier, are composite reeds with cane tongue and brass bodies, but you're also using pure cane for some of the tenor drones? I've used all cane drone reeds from time to time over the years although I have mainly use brass bodied ones with cane tongues. The sound of all cane drone reeds as used in Scotland by Hamish and Ian can be excellent and difficult to match with other materials, but I've heard some very good ones which are all plastic as made by Julian and John. However the most important tool in the bagpipe makers workshop is an open mind, and I'm happy to admit that I've changed mine recently and gone over to the fibre body carbon fibre tongue style that has become so popular with Highland pipers. Apparently a high proportion of the top competition winners are using them.they have been scientifically designed to have the same sound as cane but I've found them more stable, and if anything they have a slightly rounder tone that 24 particularly suits Border pipes, although its early days I think the sound is at least as good as anything I've heard. You never know some new discovery may be made in a few years time and we'll have to be ready to change again if it really is better. To me one of the fundamentals of being able to make reasonable bagpipes - and I don't want to be discouraging to those wanting to take it up - is to be able to do your woodwork and the actual physical making of the pipes in a reasonably short amount of time. You've got to produce good craftsmanship but leave yourself time for tuning and setting up which is absolutely critical. And I feel that there are still a number of sets around that have been made by people whose turning is perfectly reasonable, but have not given the care and attention to the setting up that ought to be done. At the instrument repair College we were taught that setting up was just as important as making the fiddle in the first place. It might a Stradivarius, but if the sound post is in the wrong place then it's a crap sounding Stradivarius. And so setting up is very important. So materials - you've mentioned different things - what woods do you favour at the moment for making smallpipes and Border pipes.? Well I use three woods. blackwood, mainly; mopane which I've been using for many years, which I think is an excellent tone wood and takes a beautiful finish and is almost as dense as blackwood. I also have some rosewood a glorious dark red rosewood from SE Asia, but unfortunately have only got a very limited supply of that now. So it's mainly blackwood and mopane. And the mounts? I use either artificial ivory or boxwood. Does your boxwood tend to darken up a bit? I've been using boxwood off and on for many years, but almost entirely for mounts rather than chanters for which I prefer a denser wood. But I've been using it more often recently because it goes very well - the colour of it goes very well - with mopane. And I seal the boxwood - after I've turned it I polish it and seal it, because boxwood is quite hygroscope; it has a tendency to take on water and then dull down, so this protects it from happening. Although I'm looking at the moment to one or two alternatives to boxwood which are a similar colour, I haven't yet determined their physical characteristics as to whether they'll be more resistant. Different makers who use boxwood treat it in a number of different ways according to their personal beliefs as to what's effective. But everybody who uses it is going to have to do something with it because it needs a bit of protecting.

14 And the ferrules? Well I basically use brass ferrules which I nickel plate as standard, but I also use silver plating and gold plating. Nobody has yet asked me for platinum plating, but you know, if the price is right as they say.. And occasionally I have used solid silver. If the customer requests that they can have it, but it makes the thing more expensive. Why do you call yourself Garvie bagpipes? It is a family name - my Grandmother's name. The family were originally MacLeans who left Coll after the 1745 rebellion and settled in Perthshire. And then like many many Scots emigrated to Poland and were there for a few generations. In the normal course of events when she married my Grandfather she became Mrs MacLeod, so the Garvie name was lost. I just felt it was something I wanted to keep going. And these premises you've got now, how long have you been here? I've been here for 3 years, and I'm very happy with them You certainly seem to have plenty ofspace Yes, it's good to have a separate room for the dirty work and clean work - a separate room that's full of blackwood dust, where the lathes are and a room where you can do work on reeds and paper work and things like this without getting everything dirty. Having worked from home for a number of years I have to say it is great on a Friday evening at half past five to put the padlock on the door and say that's it for the weekend and you're not taking your work home with you. And you've been instrument making of various sorts for quite some time now? Yes. In fact I made my first musical instrument which is a bit of a disaster when I was a teenager, but I made my first serious instrument before going to the musical instrument repair course, in the early 80s. That was a string instrument. I started making bagpipe chanters I suppose around 1986, so I've been doing this now for quite a long time - in fact I've forgotten how to do anything else, so it is just as well if I manage to stay in business. Are you on your own, or do you have assistance? I've got an assistant who will shortly be full time He's very good at what he does. It's going to be a great help to me because I'll be able to concentrate on finishing instruments and not do so much of the starting work. It's only when you are teaching someone else what to do that you realise what an incredible amount of time it takes to learn to make decent sets of bellows blown pipes. It may have taken a couple of years 26 to learn how to do something properly, but you can teach it - hopefully - in a much shorter period of time. There are a number of aspects of pipe-making such as the finishing where it just takes an amount of time to develop the physical skill to do the craft work side of things, the actual finishing. I'm playing in a group called A Bag o' Cats and we're getting a modest amount of work at the moment. So it's important for me to have support in the workshop so that if I get more bookings I won't be in a position of letting down customers because I'm not getting through the work. Or letting down the group because you cannot leave the workshop! Exactly. I enjoy making bagpipes. It's a fulfilling occupation. But when you've made your one thousandth drone piece it's no more exciting than the previous one. I got involved in instrument making because I wanted to be able to create physically an instrument that would produce a particular sound that I could then play. Unfortunately my piping, I feel, is not quite as good as my pipe making, since I tend to concentrate on playing stringed instruments. But I feel all the same that whatever I do I wouldn't want to stop instrument making. Playing music and making instruments is a great balance. The life of a full time musician can be very frenetic, and I think that there are moments of calm in the workshops when you're just standing at the lathe getting covered in dust which are very valuable - it gives you a balance. So I like to keep the two things going side by side. Some years ago when I started getting involved with bellows pipes - and I'm going back to the early eighties I suppose, there seemed to be a free and easy exchange of information between pipe makers - on measurements, methods techniques and so forth. I get the impression this has now rather changed. Are pipe-makers keeping their hard-won information more under wraps these days? Well I got quite a bit of help when I first started pipe making, like information about gun drills and things from Julian Goodacre, and people like that. Because I don't really have to ask other pipe makers for information about how to do things nowadays, I'm not aware of being in a situation of people refusing to give me information. I do still exchange little bits of information with my fellow pipe makers - where to get certain materials, things like that, and maybe some little aspects of information about technique. So if it is becoming a sort of more closed thing I'm probably not aware of it. If I was going to start pipe making next week, and go into competition with you, could I ring you up and get measurements of bores and finger hole spacing and so forth? I think that most pipe makers including myself, would answer that by saying they'd be prepared to give a modest amount of help to anybody. If you're a good engineer, you should be able to copy anything, but if you are going to end up with a set of pipes 27

15 that sound really good you will discover that there is one hell of a lot of other things you are going to have to learn. - about the setting up and the reeding and everything. You've designed your own Border chanter reeds which you have made up for you. Now if I was to have a set ofyour Border pipes, for instance, and I was to break the chanter reed, I would then have to come to you to get another reed - because it is a unique reed, it 's not one I could cut down from, say, a Highland reed? Exactly So do you get over that by giving people who buy your pipes information on how to make a new chanter reed? Or the dimensions or anything of that sort? No. Would you? Probably not. There is a reason for this - it's not that I'm trying to be secretive about it. If somebody buys a set of Border pipes from me and they want another reed, I prefer to have the chanter back in the workshop so I can match the reed to the chanter. This isn't always possible. However identical you may imagine you've made a chanter - and I'm sure Highland pipers know this - there are tiny differences, which can mean that one reed works in one chanter and doesn't work in another. So that I prefer to match one to the other - and actually have the chanter back. The internal dimensions of a chanter will change over time, wont they? That's right. We're dealing with natural materials. And it can be the same with reeds. You can very occasionally have a reed which sounds brilliant in a set of pipes, and sounds brilliant for a couple of months, and suddenly it just sounds rubbish and nobody knows quite why. And other reeds which don't sound so good so you put them aside and then you try them a month later and they sound brilliant. Most reeds will last and last. I've had the same reed in my Border pipes for a long ti me. But I had one disaster a number of years ago, when I had a reed that was an absolute favourite and I took it out and it fell on the floor, and the dog got hold of it and ran away and chewed it. I was wondering at that point which part of the dog's anatomy I'd use for making bagpipes! Dalkeith's Town Anthem? Jack Campin One of the most familiar musical sounds in the streets of old Dalkeith was the pipes, heard at 5am to wake people up, 8pm to mark the end of the working day, and at many ceremonial occasions. Usually the job of town piper passed from father to son. Town and other pipers had an uneasy relationship with the Kirk in the decades after the Reformation; the Kirk made no attempt to suppress secular music, but pipers all over lowland Scotland went out of their way to stir up trouble by acts of civil disobedience like playing their pipes in the churchyard on the Sabbath during services. One Dalkeith piper took this too far: Andrew McCulloch and his wife Marion Anderson were charged with witchcraft on 26 May And another was involved in a bizarre Jacobite demonstration in the aftermath of the Revolution of 1688: on Sunday 14th October, 1688, the piper accompanied the Rev. Thomas Heriot, who danced around a bonfire on the High Street of Dalkeith. Heriot's excuse at his subsequent ecclesiastical trial was that he was doing it in order to purge and purify his congregation as ordained in the scriptures ("I will make my ministers a flame of fire ", Hebrews 1:7). In fact his dance was the culmination of a series of public statements on behalf of James VII that were so tactless he was lucky not to be executed for them, let alone sacked. The last few pipers of Dalkeith are well-documented in their persons, if not in their repertoire. They combined the job of town piper with that of piper to the Scott of Buccleuch family. Geordie Sime ( ) was described by several visitors to the town, and is pictured in Kay's Portraits. According to Alexander Campbell in his "Notes of My Third Journey to the Border", Sime could get an extra note above the nine notes common to other unkeyed bagpipes; until the mid- 19th century this was sometimes done by Highland pipers too, though always in dance music, not in the classical piobaireachd. His successor until 1810 was Jamie Reid, who is said to have welcomed the Duchess of Buccleuch on her return to Dalkeith House by standing on a high point about a mile out of town and playing "Dalkeith has got a rare thing", a tune which has not survived under that name, though Hugh Cheape believes it to be the same as the Border tune 'Dunse dings a'. However, I think a variant of that tune is more likely to be the old Dalkeith town anthem: it is called "the Baggpipe Tune" in a manuscript of around 1675 from the Dalhousie Castle collection, now in the National Library of Scotland as MS Other tunes in it relate specifically to the Scotts of Buccleuch, the lairds of Dalkeith, and there are no references to other Scottish noble families or locations, so it seems most likely that it was compiled by someone connected with the Scott family. At that point the heads of the family were Anne, Duchess in her own 29

16 right. and her consort James, Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch. They were more often in London then, and there would have been little call for family ceremonial music at Dalkeith; so the MS may have been written in England and taken to Dalkeith Palace later in Anne's life after her husband ' s execution. The title suggests there w as something unique about this tune within their milieu; since the transcriber must have known other bagpipe tunes, I'm guessing it was *their* bagpipe tune, the family and town rallying call, paralleling the familiar anthems of the other towns of the Lothians and Borders..At first sight the tune looks insane: I. the Bagpipe tune (scordatura, G string tuned to A) Reading it that way, it becomes a fairly normal-sounding 3/2 hornpipe. My guess about its special status in Dalkeith is supported by what Kay says was played when the Duchess left: "Go to Berwick Johnnie", another 3/2 hornpipe. The third section seems to be a fiddle-specific variation added later. Here are the first two parts, transposed up an octave and without the doublings, to make it back into a pipe tune: 3. the Bagpipe tune (reconstructed nine version) The manuscript is for the fiddle, and this notation is a fiddler's trick: it implicitly assumes that the lowest string of the fiddle is to be re-tuned from G to A ("scordatura") - the fiddler plays the notes of the score as if using a standardly tuned fiddle and the correct pitches magically emerge. Scordatura notation became common in Scotland in the 18th century. This is by far the earliest Scottish example of it, just as this may be the earliest surviving Scottish manuscript to contain traditional music specifically for the fiddle. In later times it was usual to notate the tuning at the start. The retuning here is by far the commonest, still used extensively in Shetland and Cape Breton music. The point of it in this piece is mainly to reinforce the low D's by playing them on two strings in unison. 2. the Bagpipe tune (at sounding pitch) Wecan be fairly certain that the family anthem of the Scotts of Buccleuch, whatever it might have been, was *not* one of the tunes the Rev. Heriot danced to in From his trial report: Seven or Eight Witnesses agree in this, that from the Pulpit in the year Eighty three Mr Alexander Heriot Railed against Monmouth, Argyle, and Melvil, calling one of them a Bloody Absalon, another Hereditary Traitor, another Rebel and Disturbers of our Israel and other stuff to this purpose. And James, Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch (satirized by Dryden as "Absalom" also) had died a martyr to the Protestant cause in 1685, along with Argyll. If the Bloody Absalon's grave had been in Dalkeith, Heriot would have been dancing on it. Border pipes, bouzouki and flute after the Burns Supper 31

17 Drone reeds and the Plateau of Stability John Liestman is a "serious amateur" pipe-maker based in Houston, who has won an award with his work at the annual NPS competitions in Morpeth. He is fascinated with the art of making pipes work well in the myriad of North American environments. He has published a smallpipe tutor with an emphasis on maintenance and learning without a live teacher One of the most common "repairs" that I do is to fix people's unstable drone reeds. Often the reed itself is fine and simply needs a gentle tweak. Too many drone reeds out there are stuck in such horrible places as the Slopes Of Nasty or the dreaded Land of the Shut. These reeds must be saved by moving them onto the ultimate Plateau of Stability, where all happy drone reeds live. In this article, all secrets will be revealed. Take any drone reed and play it alone (in it's drone) at a steadily increasing pressure, from hardly squeezing to really bearing down on the bag. Here is a graph of the pressure experiment we are about to do. Well, it is if you have a good drone reed. Imagine that the ideal pressure that you play your pipes at is right in the middle of this chart. properly softer tone than before (called "double toning" by some). This pressure zone where the reed behaves fairly well is known as the Plateau of Stability. As the pressure increases further and further, our unwary drone reed traveler finally reaches the upper pressure limit of the Plateau and plunges into the Land of the Shut. Here the reed again behaves wildly (either getting quieter or louder and of unstable pitch) or perhaps claps shut, not to sound again until all pressure is released and the reed magically reappears on the Slopes of Nasty. Pretty much all reeds will go through the same 3 stages. On some, these three stages may be all bunched up at the low end of the pressure scale, on others they may be all bunched up at the high end, but all three stages will exist. Here are two graphs of our increasing pressure experiment showing bunching of the behavior pattern either at the low or high end. Remember, the ideal pressure for your pipes is in the middle, so clearly neither of these shows a reed that is on the Plateau at your ideal pressure: Most or all drone reeds will start on the Slopes of Nasty - they will sound at some low pressure but that sound will be variable in pitch and probably nasty in tone quality. As the pressure continues to increase, the pitch will become more certain, will probably smoothly increase in pitch, and the tone quality will improve to a point where it "sounds like a drone reed should". This general area of pressure will often be accompanied by a state where the reed instantly jumps from a harsher tone and variable pitch to a totally different pitch with a 32 Fixing the Reed - Part 1 - Moving the Plateau If our reed is working more like these two graphs than the first one, we must first fix the reed so that it takes up residence on the Plateau of Stability. To do that, determine where the Plateau is in relation to your normal playing pressure by playing the reed with increasing pressure as we discussed in the second paragraph of this article and comparing your results to these three graphs. 33

18 Weakening the reed, by closing it or thinning the tongue will slide the whole graph toward lower pressure, making the Bunched Up at the High End reed behave more like it should. Strengthening the reed, by opening it or by thickening the tongue will slide the whole graph toward higher pressure, making the Bunched Up at the Low End reed behave better. (To thicken the tongue, you need to replace it if it is a "built" reed or, if it is a natural cane reed you will need to get another one.) other words, in that pressure range where the reed behaves well enough, does it maintain constant pitch while the pressure increases (which is good) or does it increase or decrease in pitch while the pressure increases? I like to assume that whoever made the reed knew what they were doing, so the thickness is probably fine. Therefore, I focus on opening or closing the reed. To open a reed, gently grab the free end with a finger nail. Rest your thumb on top of the tongue near the bridle. Then in one graceful, stroking, caressing motion, lift the tongue slightly while running your thumb down toward your fingernail at the free end of the reed. You are trying to both bend the tongue up so that the reed is more open AND impart a curve to the tongue so that this bend occurs along the whole length of the tongue and not just down at the bridle. Whenever you open a reed, the tongue will usually go back most of the way to where it was before. In other words, the effect will be very temporary but there will be some residual change, so. you may need to open the reed several times to get to the point you want over several minutes / hours / days. To close the reed, if it is a "built" or "composite" reed, you can simply unbind the tongue and turn it over or replace it. For any kind of reed, you can gently heat the tongue while holding it closed. Passing the tongue above a candle a few times is a safe way. Running it through a flame is less safe. You can also hold the reed with food tongs (holding the tongue closed) and aim a hair blow dryer at it. Whatever the method, once cooled, the tongue will be (much) more closed and you will probably need to begin to open it again. Each time you open or close the reed, redo the experiment we did at the first of this article and figure out if what you are doing is moving the graph toward having the Plateau of Stability in the vicinity of your playing pressure and continue to make adjustments accordingly. Fixing the Reed - Part 2 - Flattening the Plateau Now that we have the Plateau where we want it, is it The Perfect Flat Plateau suitable for croquet and summer dances or is it simply a Sloping Plateau? In If the reed is increasing in pitch with pressure, thin the end of the tongue (maybe the last 10% of the length, at the free end). Use some sandpaper to do this and be careful not to sand through the cane or plastic. As you thin, you should see that the reed increases less and less with increasing pressure, to the point where it does not increase at all. What you are doing is removing mass from the end. If it is a built reed, there may also be some extra material where the end of the tongue overlaps the reed body too much. You can carefully cut this away and this will help by also reducing mass at the end. If you over-thin, it will get to where it the pitch decreases with increasing pressure, so you want to stop where the Plateau is level, where the reed stays at the same pitch with increasing pressure. Mind you, while you are sanding the end of the tongue, the work will probably close the reed a bit, so you may have to reopen it after thinning. If the reed decreases in pitch with increasing pressure, there are two courses of action. First, make sure that the reed is not just slipping off into the Land of the Shut. Open the reed some more. More often than not, this will solve the problem. Only on rare occasions do you have to go to the other course of action, which is to add weight to the free end of the tongue OR thin the tongue down by the bridle. Either of these is simply an attempt to rebalance the mass along the tongue. Adding weight to the free end will also significantly drop the pitch of the reed. So there you have a brief discussion of the Plateau of Stability. (Thanks to Northumbrian Smallpipes Association of North America for reprint permission) 35

19 The Bagpiper's Rough Guide to Consumer Law [In deciding to publish Jim Fraser ' s outline of consumer law (as it affects us here in the UK), I had in mind that not only pipers, but many amateur pipe makers who have the urge to turn professional, might find some of the following helpful Over the years I have bought bagpipes and accessories from a variety of sources and pipe-makers. Mostly I have been satisfied with the quality of the goods I have received, the price (well... almost!) and the level of service and/or repair. Sure, there have been problems along the way e.g. makers have failed to deliver on time, and I am well used to makers arguing that all the difficulties I have been experiencing with my pipes are down to the inherent nature of the beast/instrument or to my lack of skill, and not related in any way to deficits on their part. Equally, I have no shortage of stories and legends on the extra miles many a pipemaker has gone to satisfy my piping needs and the needs of others. In many instances I have felt a bond between the pipe-maker and myself. A bond that comes from a common love and shared interest in bagpipes. It is a bond that has sometimes acted to disguise the fact that our relationship is essentially a business one. Now it is great to have a good and personal relationship/goodwill with a pipemaker but I feel I constantly have to remind myself that I am a paying customer in these relationships and that I should have the same expectations and rights that I have when I order non-bagpipe goods.. Recently, an order I received did not meet my required basic specifications and I was made to feel awkward just because I was asserting my right to complain and return the pipes. In order to empower myself as a customer I contacted my local Trading Standards Officer and the advice he gave me quickly helped to resolve my problem. Forewarned is forearmed and I would like to share some of the following information that enabled me to assert my rights as a consumer. The following information is from the Sale and Supply of Goods Act 1944 and the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations. My contact in my local Trading Standards office informed me that there are certain basic legal rights consumers have when buying bagpipes. These rights apply to pipes bought or hired from a shop/workshop/trader/seller/agent, street market, mail/written order, catalogue, on the internet/ , by phone/fax or even 36 someone selling them on your doorstep. and when you also pay for a service done on your pipes e.g. a repair. The law in the UK says that goods such as bagpipes must be:- Of satisfactory quality - they must meet the standard that a reasonable person would regard as acceptable bearing in mind the way they were described, what they cost and any other relevant circumstances. This covers, for instance, the appearance and finish of the pipes. The pipes must be free from defects, even minor ones, except when they have been brought to your attention by the seller. The pipes must be fit for their purpose, including any particular purpose mentioned by you to the seller - for example if you are buying a set and you explain that you want one played in a particular type of key, the seller must not give you pipes that do not play in the key you requested. The Pipes must be as described. If you are told that the pipes are made of African blackwood, then they should not turn out to have been made of another wood or material. These are your statutory rights. When you decide to complain, bear in mind how the pipes were described. New Pipes must look new and unspoiled as well as work properly, but if the pipes are second hand then you cannot expect perfect quality. When you reject faulty pipes you may be offered a replacement, free repair or credit note. You do not have to agree to any such offer. You can insist on having your money back in full. If there is something wrong with the pipes that you buy, tell whoever you bought them from as soon as possible. If you are unable to return to their shop or workplace within a few days of making the purchase, it is a good idea to telephone to let him/her know about your complaint. Make a note of the time, date and content/outcome of the conversation and to whom you spoke. If you tell the seller promptly that the pipes are faulty and you do not want them, you should be able to get your money back. As long as you have not legally accepted the pipes you can still reject them - that is, refuse to accept them. One of the ways you accept pipes is by keeping them, without complaint, after you have had a reasonable time to examine them. What is [a] reasonable [time] is not fixed; it depends on all the circumstances. But normally you can at least take your pipes home and try them out Once you have, in the legal sense, accepted the pipes, you lose the right to full refund. You can only claim compensation, and you have to keep your claim to a reasonable minimum. Normally you have to accept an offer to put the pipes right, 37

20 or the cost of a repair. But if the pipes are beyond economical repair you are entitled to a replacement, or the cash value of a replacement if none is offered. The law says it is up to the seller to deal with complaints about defective goods or pipes or other failures to comply with your statutory rights. But you may have additional rights against the manufacturer/pipe-maker under a guarantee. You have the same rights even if you lose your receipt. A receipt, however, is useful evidence of where and when you bought the goods. You may be able to claim compensation if you suffer loss because of faulty goods. For example, if faulty pipes means you have to cancel a concert. You have no real grounds for complaint if you: Were told about the fault; Examined the pipes when you bought them and should have seen the fault; Did the damage yourself; Made a mistake when purchasing the pipes; Simply changed your mind about the pipes. Under these circumstances you are not entitled to anything, but many shops [for instance] will help out of goodwill. It is always worth asking. When you pay for a service - for example you engage a pipe-maker to repair, restore, refurbish, enhance or alter a set of pipes you are entitled to certain standards. A service should be carried out:- with reasonable care and skill - a job should be done to a proper standard of workmanship: within a reasonable time - even if you have not actually agreed a definite completion time with the supplier of the service: at a reasonable charge, if no price has been fixed in advance - if the price was fixed at the outset or some other way of working out the charge was agreed, you cannot complain later that it is unreasonable. Always ask a pipemaker/trader how much a particular job will cost. Where materials (such as brass, silver, gold etc) are used in the provision of a service, or the service involves fitting goods (such as extra keys or drones), the materials and goods are covered by the same statutory rights as when you buy them directly. The law also protects you from unfair clauses that a pipe-maker/seller may include in their contract with you. You are not bound by a standard term in a contract with a trader if it unfairly weights the contract against you. This applies particularly to exclusion clauses. But a new law means that, in contracts concluded since I s' July 1995, other kinds of unfair small print are also covered. Examples include:- Penalty clauses and (except in special circumstances) terms which give the trader the right to vary the terms of the contract (for instance by increasing the price) without you having the right to withdraw. Terms which try to stop you holding back any part of the price of goods or services if they turn out to be defective, or prevent you from withdrawing from the contract while allowing the trader to do so. Terms which allow the trader to dishonour promises, for instance ones made by salesmen or agents. Or - Terms which try to stop you being able to go to court over a dispute. The new law applies to standard terms - those you have not negotiated yourself- in contracts for goods/pipes and services you buy as a consumer. So the law cannot be used to argue that a contract does not represent fair value for money. Please remember that the information on these pages can only produce a rough guide and should not be read as a substitute for the law. If you bought your pipes and services outside the UK then you have to pursue any claim against a pipe-maker/trader in that country using their indigenous consumer laws. If you are not happy with the pipes or the services requested and a call to the pipemaker/trader etc is not met with the appropriate response then you can contact your local Trading Standards Council and they will send you out sample letters that cover and condense everything detailed above, and you merely have to substitute the appropriate name and details where indicated and sign and send out to the maker/trader. I would also advise that pipes should always be bought on a credit card as this gives you extra protection (I refer you to the Consumer Credit Act 1974 for further details). Also, if you are in dispute with a pipe-maker/seller it is worth mentioning that you can engage the services of an independent maker for his/her views on the quality of the work. This can then be charged to the pipe-maker and enforced if validated via the courts. Bear in mind that pipe-makers are a scarce resource and may not yet (and for all the good reasons) be knowledgeable about consumer law, and how it relates to bagpipes. If you bought directly from them I advise you to be respectful, calm and fair in your negotiations but to demonstrate firmness and determination as well. Finally, acting on some of the information presented here will not transform you into a to-be-avoided-at-all-costs-bolshie-bagpipe-buying litigant. Indeed, the opposite is the case. Higher standards and levels of services will be talked about and shared within the piping community and beyond, and can only result in an increase in sales for the pipe-makers/sellers. 38

21 41 Pipe on the Hob Traditional, Arr. Donald Lindsay Arranged for Fiddle (or similar instrument) with smallpipes in 'D' and 'A'

22 The Laird's Good Brother The first two strains from 21 Scots Tunes arranged by David Johnson, and published by Forsyth Brothers Ltd, 126 Deansgate, Manchester M3 2GR, used by permission of the publishers.. The remaining 7 strains are 2000 Dick Hensold. As Dick Hensold pointed out, although it was published in 1702 as a recorder piece, it has all the flavour of a Border tune, and a pipe tune at that. Bonny Lad (variations by Brian Rumble at the Galloway Summer School)

23 REVIEWS The t Islay Ball", Gary Wes Greentrax, CDTRAX 221 As album Gary's solo debut, this provides a showcase for his strong driving piping style up Naturally the pipes are right in the the front of the mix for nine of total two twelve tracks, solo for (highland pipes) and backed by deep flowing of colourful arrangements cello, concertina, bouzouki, harp, fiddle, guitar, piano and more for the rest. The solo 2/4 Marches & title track 'The Islay Ball' leave us in no doubt as to Gary's prowess on the pipes. Plenty of swing and bounce comes through on the marches, and while the slow air 'Saligo Bay', one of Gary's own, is not his strongest tune the 'Islay Ball' set as a whole is a lovely piece of playing. His pipes are sounding great with just that touch of gritty crunch on the top 'A'. Equally well represented on the album are the smallpipes, which slice their way through a wide selection of music from the opening reels to the flamenco-style breakdown finale of the only song 'A Camilo Jorge', an enchanting original number in Spanish sung by Carlos Arredondo. The presentation of two pieces from the William Dixon manuscript is certainly the most sensitive rendition of these tunes I've ever heard. The usually stark delineation between simple and chaotically complex strains is dissolved as Gary makes sense of even the most obscure variations. The whole is given a stately, processional feel underlined first by the concertina, which is joined in the second piece 'Ranger's Frolic' by an ensemble of bouzouki & cello. Kilworth Hills is presented on the 'D' smallpipes in a spacious arrangement with cello. It's a lovely 44 tune of course, and the decision to present the first part solo on the pipes is judicious. The cello brings in some sweeping harmonies for a part before taking on the melody very beautifully itself. Smallpipes make their final fiery appearance on track 8. Scarce o Tattles rips along at a cracking pace, hotly pursued by an adaptation of 'The Gold Ring', a classic Uilleann Piping jig. The closing two tracks are the most redolent of an island ceilidh dance of any on the CD. 'Loosen the Ties' follows right on the heels of the relatively conservative title track, and you can just picture Gary loosening his. tie before diving into this exuberant set. He's joined by his ceilidh band 'Hugh MacDiarmid's Haircut' who do the ceilidh thing in great style with the Muckle Pipes sitting centre stage and blasting their way through some of the most rhythm-driven jigs in the book, joined by a side drum which comes in second time through the set to drive the dance on powerfully. Then after that it's time for 'The Last Waltz at the Islay Ball', and I'm knackered! You can almost smell the fags, booze and sweat, see the couples swaying under the lights to this original composition which has all the feel of the very best of ceilidh waltz tunes.. As a whole, 'The Islay Ball' is well balanced, energetically presented and well aware of its roots. The choice of a straight piping set as the title track is no mistake, Gary's playing is firmly rooted in the tradition and whilst any one of the other tracks may have made for a flashier showpiece the statement can be understood. Overall a great CD and highly recommended for lovers of good piping & good music. Donald Lindsay Slainte Mhath Greentrax Recordings. AN exhilarating blast from the Gaelic diaspora, the predominant sound of this eponymous compilation album by Slainte Mhath is that of Bruce MacPhee's Highland, reel and small pipes, sounding with manic dexterity over Ryan MacNeil's Cape Breton piano-boogie accompaniment and a.purposeful wallop of assorted drums band percussion from Brian Talbot. Throw in additional drive from from mandolin, fiddle and the odd burst of step dancing, and you have Slainte Mhath, if you can catch them. MacPhee is a powerfuly accomplished young player - enough.to make an old man's finger's. corruscate in despair just listening to him. Although, it has to be noted (and I noted it, too, at their roof-lifting concer at Sabhal Mor Ostaig in Skye this summer) that those idiosyncratic things we call drones seem to have largely gone out the window. Very convenient, I know, when it comes to tuning; perhaps arguably superfluous, considering the kind of deil-tak-the hindmaist accompanists you have here, but, hey, isn't there a certain fundamental bagpipe dynamic getting lost? Also, a leavening of subtlety might be welcome by way of the odd air. The only concession, on this album, at least, is a version of the old Irish *Si Bheag, Si Mhor*, rendered on rather heavy-handed piano and. couched in a somewhat clipped "string" accompaniment reminiscent..of a King Crimson mellotron, *circa* but, there; I'm showing my :age again. Carping apart, be warned: these people take no prisoners. A rerr terr, as they say in the west, with punch and panache a-plenty. Jim Gilchrist. Border Seasons (DFM CD0101). Matt Seattle with Mr Mcfall's String Quartet. Matt Seattle, well known for his interesting piping style, original compositions and his re-discovery of Dixon tunes, has brought out his latest offering in Border Seasons (DFM CD0101). It is an innovative recording in collaboration with Mr. McFall's String Quartet, which is part of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and also of Mr. McFall's Chamber, which Matt describes as ".. a gloriously eclectic ensemble.. ". The result is a recording which brings a Baroque flavour to Border pipe tunes. There are obvious problems with such a union of course - the pipes have no dynamics and therefore can sometimes seem a little overpowering for the subtler accompaniment - but on the whole it is a glorious combination and richly justifies the experiment. There are twelve tracks on the CD, 9 written by Matt himself, of which 4 make up the `Border Seasons' suite with which the CD ends and, to quote its composer "..uses the musical equivalent of a limited palette, each tune painting a season with a different selection from the nine-note pipe scale" (shades of `The Master Piper' here with its `Nine notes that shook the world'!). The chanter produces some good crossed fingered notes in this suite with exquisite syncopation in the arrangements and fine, even variations. I was a little irritated to hear `Lindisfarne' making yet another 45

24 appearance I know Matt regards it as his "greatest hit (so far) " but do we have to hear it on every recording he makes, lovely tune though it is? I was far more impressed with the section entitled 'A little Water Music' which comprised they tunes 'Cuddyside,' 'Leithen Water.. and ' Tyne Anew,' each lovely, haunting tunes in themselves as with excellent arrangements - I could almost hear the water by flowing. But perhaps favourite is the wonderful traditional tune ' as of I Livingstone ' from Richard Reavely's Northumbrian pipe manuscript, which Mau arranges in a li vely. bouncy syncopated way. I felt that in certain tracks the pipes were slightly flat, and this may be due to suspect tuning on the top hand. Also in places the top notes were is strident and hard on the ear (mainly in the slower tracks) and seemed to go off key when sustained for any length of ti me which might be due to an unstable reed or variable temperature in the recording studio?. But these were only small irritations in what is an excellent and innovative piece of work and a welcome I addition to my collection. note that Scottish Borders Council Arts Service and the National Lottery provided financial support for the production of the CD and it is gratifying to see that at last pipe music beingtaken seriously. Border Seasons is available from Dragonfly Music. PO Box 1377?. Peebles, Scotland, EH45 85 Y F priced 12. Sam Allen A note on the pre-human evolution of the bellows pipe David Brewster's "Lectures on Natural Magic " Edinburgh Journal of Science, no xvii, p158: (1834) quotes Dr Hildreth in the With the view of studying the class of sounds inaudible to certain ears, we would recommend it to the young naturalist to examine the sounds emitted by the insect tribe, both in relation to their effect upon the human ear, and to the mechanism by which they are produced. The Cicadae or locusts in North America appear, from the observations of Dr Hildreth, to be furnished with a bagpipe on which they play a variety of notes. " When any one passes, " says he, "they make a great noise and screaming with their air-bladder or bagpipes. These bags are placed under, or rather behind, the wings in the axilla, something in the manner of using the bagpipes with the bags under the arms - I could compare them to nothing else; and, indeed, I suspect the first inventor of the instrument borrowed his ideas from some insect of this kind. They play a variety of notes and sounds, one of which nearly imitates the scream of the tree toad." Since tree toads would have regarded these little invertebrate pipets as food, the instrument must have evolved as a defence mechanism. "The Scream of the Tree Toad" is a great tune title just waiting to be used! Jack Campin, Newtongrange 46