The Wandering Piper c. 1840

Transcription

1 The Wandering Piper c IN THIS ISSUE; Piping Competition; Piping Concert; Border Bagpipe music; A Maker's Story; Battle of Aughrim; Piping & Singing; Dance Collecting; Music; Reviews Price 2.75

2 2 Editorial The cover picture this time was kindly supplied - twice - by Alan Moreley. The second occasion was in response to a plea in these columns - his first offering having been mislaid in the Editor ' s foolproof filing system Now a second plea; if anyone has any information or "cross-bearing" on the identity of this Wandering Piper then we would be pleased to hear about it. The SUPPLEMENT (number Four) to this issue tries to list Pipe makers who are actively producing Scottish Smallpipes and Border Pipes for sale to the public. It is not intended - as is said in the preamble - to be a "recommended" list; but to be as comprehensive as possible. So if any names need adding, please send details. Pipers the world over are for ever trying out new tunes, new techniques, and experimenting with modifications to make the sound created by their pipes even more acceptable to the ear. It occurred to me that we each could benefit from the experience of others, so if you have tried something novel - perhaps playing with the chanter dunked in a pint pot, or the bag stuffed full of plastic foam - let us know. Even if it hasn't worked - in fact especially if it hasn't worked - it might save others some time and effort. It would be good to concentrate the first wave of such information in the December issue of COMMON STOCK So that there need be no misunderstanding (see Robbie Greensitt's letter) the information, no matter how small will be worked into a more comprehensive article - and identities withheld if so wished. Jock Agnew. 11 lilting Lane, Langford, Essex CM9 6QB LETTERS From Colin Ross, Monkseaton The last COMMON STOCK was interesting reading with that comprehensive article by Jonathan Swayne. I didn't understand the maths part of it but took on board the bit about the extension of the chanter beyond the cross holes. He had mentioned that before at the opening of the "91 Collection" at the Bagpipe Museum and I had found that the length was critical in determining the tuning and stability of the chanter. However as I have a number of experimental chanters lying on the shelf of indeterminate pitch and tuning I couldn't do much about lengthening them so I tried another method of affecting the vibration in the tapered column of air in the bore. I had found rushes in all three of the Pastoral pipe chanters in the Bagpipe Museum collection, which I had found to alter the tone and volume sameof the instrument so I tried the technique with the Lowland chanter I had made. Instead of using a split rush I used a pipe cleaner and got the same effect as using the extended cone of paper inserted into the bottom of the chanter to extend it as per Jonathan's recommendation. What is happening is that the cotton on the pipe cleaner is absorbing the spurious vibrations in the bore or attenuating the higher harmonics which may be causing problems with the tuning. Anyway it works and I offer it as a possible solution to curing rogue chanters. It is similar to the rushes in the Irish pipe regulators which are used to adjust the pitch and tuning of them against the chanter, and also like the small plug of cotton wool in the bottom end of the Northumbrian small pipe bore to absorb unwanted frequencies in the parallel bore of that instrument. I must say I never found any rushes in the bores of the Lowland pipes in the Cocks Collection at the Bagpipe Museum but I don't see why this form of adjustment should not be applied to these and other bellows blown pipes....i am convinced that the playing of the Lowland pipes will only advance once we can get the makers to agree on the lower pressure. The chanter will also overblow almost a half octave which brings it in line with the Continental taper bore chanters. I remember Hubert Boone saying to me that they don't need a pinky hole at the bottom of the chanter as they use the 3-finger scale as the standard octave which of course gives the extra three notes at the bottom without having to go as far as Nigel Richard with his complicated keying system. From Robbie Greensitt Whitley Bay I am a little unhappy about the way you asked for comments on Border pipes for the article in the last Common Stock. You implied you were doing a general article similar to ones published in the past, not quoting verbatim. I would have written a clearer, well-structured article, not just general ideas... There was an error in what I sent. The fifth sentence should have read, "Depending on the reed, they played a flat seventh with both normal and alternate fingering, or a sharp seventh with normal and a flat seventh with alternate fingering". [Yes; perhaps I wasn't too clear in my own mind, and by the time all the comments had been received it was too late to structure the thing differently. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Ed.] From Nigel Richard Edinburgh I appreciated Colin Ross's article on Border pipes but was puzzled by his reference to "keyed shawms". The shawm has never seen the inside of a bag, and the Brian Boru chanter which is also mentioned has a different scale to the Scottish pipes. Henry Stark who invented this chanter also had patents out on his designs of keyed versions of the Highland chanter which he described as such. I understand that the original Northumbrian pipes had no keys but now have up to seventeen. I imagine Colin's reference to keyed shawms was somewhat tongue in cheek, so in the same spirit may I suggest that the keyed Northumbrian pipes be known as the "lesser spotted keyed Northumbrian Crumhorn"l 3

3 4 MEMORIES OF COLLECTING TRADITIONAL SCOTTISH AND BORDER DANCES From a talk given at the Galashiels Collogue by Joan Flett regrettably losing much of its colour as a printed extract rather than being enjoyed in its entirety at the event itself We'd read about the Gaelic dance, the Hebridean dance, so we set off to find out something about them, and in Easter 1955 we went to the Hebrides. Much work had been done on songs, but no-one had traced any dances at all. We went to Barra where we were directed to the local character Neil MacNeil - 90% of the men on Barra are MacNeil and 75% appeared to be Neil MacNeil at that time - and he directed us to another Neil MacNeil on the other side of the island. We called round (we did all this on bike or we walked) and we found a marvellous old man, 6ft, tough, red hair, blue eyes, Viking sort of type. We started talking about dancing and he said "It's my father you want, not me; it's my father". His father was 89 and equally impressive. After various attempts in Gaelic we discovered an enormous amount of material. I should explain about the Gaelic. Neil MacNeil was of a generation who spoke Gaelic at home, but he couldn't actually write Gaelic - and he had no English at all. The next generation daughter-in-law helped us a lot; she had been to school and learned English but spoke Gaelic at home. So she could read and write English but couldn't write Gaelic! But her children did both English and Gaelic, so the daughter-in-law translated his Gaelic and the children wrote it down. The wonderful thing about Neil MacNeil was that not only could he remember the dances but having been a piper he remembered the phrasing of these dances. It was 60 years since he'd seen them, but I think in a simpler age peoples' memories were probably much better. And he was absolutely precise about the phrasing of those dances. They still dance at the cross-roads on Barra. The Stealing Reel is still danced. Compton MacKenzie describes it in Whisky Galore - the last dance at a wedding where the bride is stolen away to defeat the fairies. After they'd been dancing the reel for a while a couple of girls will come in and take away the Bride, another girl will take her place. That's to cheat the fairies in case they take it into their heads to steal away the Bride themselves. Then the Groom looks round and secs his Bride has gone, whereupon two men take him away to where she is and another takes his place - also to cheat the fairies! And that was still done on most of the Islands - Barra, Eigg and S Uist. There were places on the road that were stamped down and these were places where on a fine night when the weather was good they would still dance on the roads. Then we went to South Uist and Benbecula where we collected more forgotten dances with Gaelic names. We also collected the famous Hebridean Solo Dances. We found a fascinating dance, wheredance/game ritual of the type you get much more in England - with the Morris someone is killed and then revived usually with a doctor. We found it all over the place. It first occurred in the Perthshire Highlands in 1804 but they still know it on most of the places we went to. The dust from the mills in the islands was actually black, so it would black your face or hands. Which may tie up with some of the English dances where you black up. A nice version Father Alan MacDonald had written up. He said it is a Punch and Judy dance and has a special pipe tune. Two take part; an old man and an old trembling shivering hag. They fight with the sticks, dancing all the time. Finally the old man thrusts his stick into her body and she falls down dead. The old man heats his hands and he howls most atrociously as it occurs to him that he has murdered the old woman. The sudden change from anger and animosity into broken-heartedness at the loss of his partner's life is ridiculous. He bends over her only to find out more sure that she is dead. The lamentation is heart-rending. Again and again he bends over her and again his sorrow is only intensified. He bends down and touches her hoot and the foot rises a little and quivers most singularly. The old man regains a little confidence. He bends down again and touches the other foot, and it too begins to shake incessantly. At these signs of returning life he bursts into hysterical laughter. He touches the hands one by one and they too begin to quiver. The old earl is stretched out on the floor with her two feet and two hands quivering. It looks ridiculous to a degree and the spectators nearly drown the piping with their uproar. The old man then bends down and touches her hair and up she springs with renewed life and they both rush into each other's arms most gleefully. The interesting thing was that on Benbecula they were rather down market - the old hag was drunk, or supposed to he! and the old man comes in to find her not doing the housework - otherwise exactly the same. We found a wonderful couple, Angus John MacLellan on Benbecula. He was one of the old storytellers - telling those long sagas and telling them word for word every time they were recorded. In Angus John's home we experienced our first real Ceilidh. We sat around a peat fire with Angus and his wife. People began to come in and they just sat down and nobody took any notice of them, and nobody took any notice of us and nobody introduced us. We really felt quite self-conscious and said to each other afterwards we thought Angus John was sending up smoke signals saying come and see these odd people. But we learned, of course, that this was how people lived. You had one house in the neighbourhood which was the Ceilidh house where they either piped or they played the fiddle, or they sang or they told a story, and the neighbours simply used to do this. They would just wander round and sit down and when they could join in the conversation they joined in when it was suitable to join in. Some people would play cards. Some of the younger people would dance, and one old lady told us about Ceilidhs like this and she said sadly "Now neighbours seldom call, and if they do they rap on the door." You've got to realise there were no village halls in these places - in fact on the mainland very few village halls earlier on. And what you danced would he completely simple because there'd only he room on the floor for four people, perhaps six, sometimes eight but unlikely to be more than that at the very outside. So you might only dance 3 or 4 times in the evening. So it didn't matter what steps you had, the joy of the dance came from the atmosphere, from the whisky going down, the piper or the fiddler sitting up on the table stuck in the corner out of the way - this sort of thing. It was the atmosphere that made the evening's dance. And another thing we found in Eigg and in the Borders - everywhere we went - we found the Kissing Reel. This is absolutely ubiquitous. Sometimes just known as the Kissing Reel, sometimes Bab at the Bowster, sometimes Bob at the Bowster, sometimes the White Cockade, sometimes the Bonny Lad. And this originates with the old medieval cushion dance, where somebody took a cushion and put it very formally in front of their partner and invited them to dance. Then it got presumably to be a bolster, and then maybe a pillow case, then it finally came down to a hanky. The fiddler or piper would play a little phrase on the pipes saying Kiss Her if it was a piper, if not the fiddle would squeal above the bridge and make a grinding sort of noise insisting that everyone kissed. Various versions of this; sometimes it was called the sword dance which was most confusing. But in fact sometimes it did start with a young man showing off a bit - he would put two handkerchiefs on the floor in a cross and do a few steps of the sword dance. So you find this both in a kissing dance and a sword dance so you have to sort the business out. This description came from Angus MacLellan on Benbecula:-'This was usually the last dance 5

4 6 of the evening and was always danced to the pipes. A young man, usually the MC takes his handkerchief in his hand and walks clockwise around the room to the tune of the White Cockade. He throws the handkerchief to the girl he selects who joins him on the floor. As she does so the piper breaks off the tune and plays the phrase meaning "kiss first" several times. At this he puts his arms round her and kisses her, The piper then resumes the White Cockade. The couple will then link arms and walk on round the room. The girl then throws the handkerchief to another man who falls in behind the couple and all three walk on round the floor. The second man throws the handkerchief to another girl who joins him and is kissed to the appropriate accompaniment, and the new couple fall in behind the first. And this is repeated until all the supply of men and girls runs out. Then the piper changes to a reel when they split up and make 4's and dance the Four-some reel. Often a girl was shy, and when the handkerchief was thrown she'd quickly pass it on to her neighbour. And in some places one of the young men would bar the door so that the girls couldn't run out!. And very often this was danced as the last dance of the evening and they'd sec who was going out with whom." Then in September we came here, to the Borders, and of course by this time we were beginning to build up a jigsaw. In the Hebrides we were collecting dances that were long forgotten; but here we were finding dances that were danced up to the 1920s and 1930s. We found a lovely thing - one of my most vivid memories - we found a Broom Dance at Lanton near Jedburgh. Absolutely incredible. We didn't find it anywhere else, though of course you do get Broom Dances in England. We found a very very poor family; a Granny, a daughter and some children... an incredible house. A table in the middle of the room, a couple of chairs round it and a milk bottle on the table. There was a cot in the corner with some children. Broken floor-hoards everywhere in the room. A potty somewhere or other for the kids; this sort of thing. Granny and I sat at the table and she grabbed my arm and talked to me. And it was totally incomprehensible to me, and I just hoped I was looking intelligent, while Tom was taking it all in. When she got to the Broom Dance the daughter, in order to demonstrate the dance, put on a pair of her father's trousers (1 don't know where father was; we never discovered father) but she put these things on and she tied them round her waist, her shirt sticking out through the front - and I'm keeping a straight face! And she took the broom and of course it's one of those things where you swap the broom from hand to hand and you cock your leg over as you move your hand from side to side. It was absolutely incredible because she was a huge ungainly lady, and this image of her with her shirt sticking out of the front of her father's trousers - I've never forgotten that. On this trip we also found clog dancing at Dalbeatie. And this was the only time in all those years we were refused information. There was this marvellous little man who had this huge amount of material. He was a wonderful dancer, in his 40s; 45; something like that. His wife wouldn't let him talk to us, being quite convinced we were going to go away and write a hook using his material and make a lot of money - and wouldn't it have been nice if we could have done! That was the only time we were refused. Everyone else was so delighted; and you got that lovely joy of dancing. Tom found clog dancing later on in Lanark. The men used to tie bells to the laces of their clogs. They used also to hollow out the heels of the clogs and put chucky staves in to make them rattle as they danced. Joan Flett finished with a few stories concerning the early days of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society; and mentioned Jameson, an early collector of dances from the Borders who was concerned with the tempo of the music then being used. For in living memory the tempo of, for instance. Strathspeys had been slowed down by the Scottish Country Dance Society from bars/minute to 26 bars/minute. Adve rtisement OLD THE HIGHLAND BAGPIPE This instrument is a reconstruction from museum specimens about 250 years old using authentic materials as much as possible in an attempt to recreate the old sound of the Great Highland Bagpipe. With its distinctive Chalice-style drone ends, it is a striking solo instrument with rich tonal quality. This particular bagpipe is lower in pitch than that of today (in A, 440 Hz), making it ideally suited for the accompaniment of other instruments such as guitar and keyboards which is not easily achieved using modern pipes. Available in two/three drone combinations of tenor/bass and a variety of woods such as yew, cherry and laburnum. Brass, silver or natural horn decoration is available. Combing of drones and stocks as on the original specimens can also be supplied. DOUGIE MACFARLANE 41 Morison Gardens South Queensferry West Lothian Scotland EH30 9RJ (0131)

5 PIPING CONCERT IN EDINBURGH Rona MacDonald, with her wide experience of both the Highland and Lowland piping scene, gives a vivid account of this historic occasion that brought both disciplines of piping together under one acoustic roof. What is already being hailed as an "epoch-making" concert of piping was held in Edinburgh on Friday November 10th 1995, hosted by the Society and made possible by generous sponsorship from Strathmore Mineral Waters and Greentrax Recordings. The venue was the debating chamber of The Old Royal High School buildings which drew excited comment from members of the audience, most of whom had never been in it before. The acoustic properties of the circular chamber were ideal for piping with the upper balcony seating which gained the fullest benefit of the rich drone sounds. Seven of Scotland's best pipers had been chosen to play, each representing a different strand of the tradition, bringing together in a unique way the Highland and Lowland communities in a joint venture. The whole concept of the concert was down to Hamish Moore, our chairman, and his introduction to the evening made it clear that entertainment was the main criterion, in a deliberate move away from the competitive scene with the expectations and restraints this places upon players and audience alike. There was no judge on this night. It was fitting that the first performer should be Gordon Mooney, one of the original members of the L.B.P.S and a prime mover in the resurgence of interest in Scottish bellows pipes, playing his Border Pipes. He demonstrated the quite distinct repertoire of tunes available to these pipes, including his own "Over the Border" suite which is intended to conjure up the images of the cross border reiving activity of four hundred hears ago. "O'er the Border" is recorded on Gordon's cassette of the same name and the tunes along with many other songs and tunes are to be found in his printed collections of music which are the product of tong research and collecting activity. He was accompanied by his wife and other musicians on bassoon, cithern and oboe, an unusual combination which was very effective and made for a splendid start to the evening. was enthusiastically received as he caught the real swing of both the 6/8s and 2/4s. After selections of strathspeys and reels Angus rounded his set off with a display of flashing finger work on the hornpipe The Mason's Apron, with several extra variations. Angus is enjoying great success at present, having won (amongst other things) the overall prize at the Glenfiddich Championship just two weeks before the concert. Marten Bennet is well-known to the Society members and although some of the more conservative Highland pipers may have wondered what to make of his dreadlocks, there was absolutely no doubt as to the calibre of his musicianship. His Smallpipes in green Lignum Vitae with beautiful gold mounts had the audience spell-bound as he played sets of traditional tunes interspersed with his own compositions including a beautiful, haunting slow air, previously untitled. He also demonstrated a tune from Patrick MacDonald's 18th century collection of Vocal Airs - being the composer's idea of what a Lowland dance would sound like. Martyn is a master of many instruments from violin, viola and piano to flute, being a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, but it is hard to imagine that he plays any of these better than the pipes. There is little that can be said of Fred Morrison which has not already been said before. Known as Roi de la Cornemuse (King of Pipers) in Brittany, he has a huge international reputation which currently sees him playing and touring with Capercaillie. From the Western Isles, Fred has little concept of restricting his playing to an allotted time, and the music poured forth from his big pipe, tune on tune. He took the unexpected opportunity of playing the piobaireachd Lament for Captain MacDougall in the middle of his set, which he couldn't resist rounding off with a flourish of reels, to the amusement of all. An important feature of the evening was the drawing together of the Highland and Lowland piping traditions; an attempt to emphasise the links rather than the divisions between the two communities, and this was symbolised by Fred's return after the interval. This time he was under strict instructions to limit himself to a short set, to the disappointment of many, as he gave us another great demonstration of a beautifully toned set of Border pipes which provided an excellent contrast to this concert of so many styles and surprises. Gordon Duncan also has a huge following and was obviously very popular with the audience. He is a master technician and demonstrated a huge control over his instrument, playing some of his tunes at a speed which defies the imagination, while yet managing to keep expression in the playing. He combined a mix of classics and new tunes from composers like Roddy MacDonald, and those of his own making such as The Fourth Floor with which he finished his set. Gordon has packed a tremendous range of experience into his piping career, and has made umpteen Angus MacColl was the first of the Highland pipers and he delighted the audience recordings as a solo artist or with other musicians. with a well balanced selection of tunes of all sorts. In particular his march playing 8 9

6 10 The atmosphere was very relaxed throughout and it made an important contribution to the audience's enjoyment that the pipers took time to introduce their tunes with a bit of background on their composition, or the concept being expressed through the music. lain Maclnnes pointed out how changing styles have led to a blurring of the divisions between modern hornpipes and reels and proceeded to play a few such tunes, along with some of G S MacLennan's tunes which he had arranged to display the strengths of his Smallpipes in the key of D. Those coming to cauld wind pipes from the Highland tradition are often slow to appreciate the intrinsic difference in the two instruments, perhaps because of the identical fingering system, which has led to a lot of narrow minded rubbish being written in other piping publications regarding the detrimental influence of bellows pipe(r)s on the so-called real tradition. It was immediately evident that lain had given much time and careful thought to the presentation and arrangement of his tunes which were a musical delight. The final player of the evening was Allan MacDonald of Glenuig. That Allan is one of the foremost composers and musicians of the present day was amply evidenced by the number of pipers who chose to include his compositions and arrangements in their sets. Several times different pipers referred to the 'timeless" quality of his music which springs from the very heart of Gaelic tradition. Allan also chose to play a piobaireachd, the little known Sutherland's ' Gathering, in the style which he has developed through his researches at the School of Scottish Studies into the relationship between piobaireachd and Gaelic song. This concert was the most ambitious event the Society has ever attempted to run and we owe Hamish a great deal for all his hard work in the months preceding and for holding it all together on the night. It was, I think, with immense relief that we watched the people flooding through the doors and realised that it was all going to work out. Since then it has become clear from the comments arising from all sections of the piping community that an important message about the variety and richness of Scottish culture was transmitted to the audience through the fusion of setting, players and sheer musical vibrancy, the like of which is not seen or heard often enough. For those folk unlucky enough not to attend the concert, highlights are being issued on a new CD/cassette from Greentrax records who captured the even for posterity. SINGING AND PIPING TECHNIQUES Some of Da vie Robertson's views and philosophy on singing to the Smallpipes have appeared in a previous edition - COMMON STOCK Vol 8 No.1, June He is also a well-kent face and voice at the LBPS annual piping competition. Here is a precis of the talk and demonstration given by him in Edinburgh at the 1995 Collogue. (Extracts from other presentations will appear in the December Issue of COMMON STOCK ). Most Scots don't realise what a musical treasure house Scotland is as far as traditional music goes. A lady in Uist is quoted as saying "If all the world ' s music were lost there would be enough music in Uist to replenish the world ' s stock ". My tradition is the Lowland tradition, which is every bit as rich. It's a long, long time since the Scottish singing tradition was purely oral. There has been a remarkable cross-fertilisation between literary compositions and folk compositions. We must remember that in the Lowlands Scotland was at least partially literate even 'way back 300 years ago. 150 years ago the country areas of Lowland Scotland were probably literate to a degree unrivalled in Europe. There was a legion of scribblers, local poets, local songsters and so on. And this meant a situation where a man in the fields could sing a song written by some land-owning lady of leisure. And here in Edinburgh they would lionise horny handed peasant poets. There was this cross-fertilisation. Now this at once has been an advantage and the downfall of the Scottish tradition. Because when the tastes of Laird and lawyer and layabout are much the same, then OK; but where there is a divergence between the tastes of the professionals and the lower orders the tradition begins to he in trouble. You see the common bond of literacy meant that the upper echelons regarded the tradition as theirs as much as anybody else's. Fine; but when they begin to improve and " gentrify ", the tradition is in double trouble. What ' s happened in Scotland of course, is that for the past 300 years they ' ve had a concentration of Anglification where Scots songs have been taken and they ' ve been "polished" up to suit the tastes of the drawing room. This has been the trend in Scotland for a long long time and it worries me, which is why I make such a point of singing these songs as I believe they were meant to be sung, without any of this expression and modulation and so on. I believe the song should be left to speak for itself. And for the last 3 or 4 decades there has been a crash course in Americanisation on top of all this Anglicisation and we ' re now in a position where working class children in Scots-speaking towns and villages will quite happily sing Old Lang Syne. And they will also, would be believe, try and sing Scots songs in an American accent, because to them the American accent is part and parcel of their singing. And so the Scottish musical tradition is under a wee bit of pressure. 11

7 organ - was a kind of nodding acquaintance with the recorder (luring my early days at Secondary School. As a boy you used to get, on the radio, barn dances from Northumberland and Ceilidhs from Northern Ireland. My mother sang in the house - and I was very much aware of Scottish singing, and the older tradition of Scottish singing. And you used to hear in these programmes people playing smallpipes - Northumbrian pipes - and people playing Irish pipes. I was aware there was a tradition other than the pipe band stuff. So even as a boy - I can ' t think why - I thought " some day I ' ll sing to the pipes ". And it was just about the time the smallpipe revival got off the ground I decided to get myself a set. So I went to Northumberland and got a primitive set of Northumbrian pipes but with a straight through chanter - not stopped. And I tried out the recorder fingering and adapted it a wee hit and ended up with a sort of semi-closed fingering. It seemed to work alright for me. And it is eminently adaptable to the sort of songs that I sing. It's a sort of, I suppose, quasi-northumbrian style, and f sometimes wonder (being arrogant again!) if I haven't hit on the old Border style of piping. You see at one time the Scottish smallpipes and Northumbrian pipes were a pretty similar sort of instrument; in fact probably the same instrument, before the Northumbrian chanter was stopped. There are a lot of tunes common to the Scottish musical repertoire and the Northumbrian pipes. You only need to listen to a Northumbrian piper like the late Billy Pigg to realise how quite " Scottish " Northumbrian piping can sometimes sound. I think it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that we have here a tradition common to both sides of the border. Now I'm going to make an outrageous suggestion. It's well known that there was a tradition of step-dancing in Scotland. Now this has since seemed to have died out. Then it was discovered that the old tradition of step dancing was alive and kicking in Cape Breton where it had been taken by waves of Gaelic emigrants. So now the Scottish dancers have had to go to Cape Breton to learn how, to do their own dance. Similarly I have often wondered if the tradition of Scottish piping died out on the Scottish side, but was kept going on the Northumbrian side - heavily disguised by things like stopped chanters and keys and obsessions with hornpipes and endless variations. So let me just float the suggestion that perhaps the Northumbrians are the true guardians of Southern Scottish piping and not the Highland pipers at all! Anway. what does this style of mine sound like when we marry the singing to the pipes? When I ' m working out an accompaniment what I ' m basically doing is playing a tune. But like Gaelic psalm singers will elaborate and decorate a tune, that ' s what I ' m doing. Here ' s " Whustlin ' winds " with a wee bit o ' decoration on it to show what I ' m talking about. There was apparently the technique in the middle ages to anticipate the main notes of the song. I do that as well. Before singing a line you can just sort of twiddle through the main notes of it. Alternatively you can delay the notes until after you ' ve sung the line and then slip then) in. So what with decorating the tune and delaying notes or anticipating notes and sometimes playing a note that harmonises with what ' s being sung because maybe I cannot get the real note on the chanter! With all this, if I ' m on form doing all that it will actually sound like a properly worked out accompaniment, which it isn ' t - it ' s usually kind of spontaneous and made up as I go along. All this is much easier to show you than to tell about, so I think I'll shut up and just sing another couple of tunes and let you hear the result... THE D RONE ZONE BORDER BAGPIPE MUSIC - THE BASICS 1: STRUCTURE Matt Seattle explores further aspects of Bottler pipe music. Although I was asked to write a bit more about harmonics for pipes for this issue, and although there is plenty to say on the subject, I thought it would be more useful at the present juncture to explore some of the essentials of Border pipe music, a subject surprisingly conspicuous by its absence in our beloved Journal. There is a strong case for saying that traditional Border pipe music by its very nature does not require additional harmonies: harmony is already there, implicit in the melody and its relationship with the drones. Traditional Border pipe music is a complete music on one instrument: the tunes are constructed in such a way that even without any accompaniment it is impossible to separate the elements of melody, rhythm and harmony. One can look at them separately in a given piece, but one finds that both the harmony and the melody have rhythm, and the melody in turn gives rise to rhythm and harmony, while the rhythm provides the framework within which melody and harmony can operate. In its forms Border pipe music shares much with the other pipe musics of these islands, but in the light of the William Dixon manuscript it is now possible to say that, in its heyday, Border piping was the most sophisticated of any of the bagpipe traditions, and in its use of harmonic extensions it probably remains so to this day. The thing about bagpipes is that they are essentially easy: to make them worth bothering with you have to make them difficult, and the different traditions do this in different ways. Very approximately, and with much simplification, these ways include extending the melodic range by overblowing (Uilleann pipes) or keywork (Northumbrian smallpipes), and increasing rhythmic definition with prescribed cuttings or grace notes (Highland pipes). Border pipers took a different route, and made their music more difficult by creating variations within the structural confines of the particular tune, in some ease stretching those confines in unorthodox but consistent ways. Whether variations were ever actually improvised or always composed in advance we do not know, but there are some parallels with jazz: the melody, rhythm and harmony are defined for any given piece, but the 'original' melody is abandoned after the first time through (typically two repeated strains in Border pipe music), with the 'new' melody (the variations) staying in the same rhythm and following the same harmonic progression (chord sequence). As in jazz, certain chord substitutions may also be introduced, but we'll leave those for a future episode. For now I just want to look at one simple tune, but to make things difficult I want to look at three different versions of it

8 16 - Lassie Gae Milk On My Cow Hill - Robert Riddell's collection If You Will Not Rock It, Let It Lie And Blare - Reavely manuscript - All The Night I Lay With Jockey - Peacock's collection It is possible, if you are so inclined, to read the titles of all three versions as having to do with aspects of ' the ranty-tanty 0 ' : the invitation, the act and the consequences. Rather than looking at the differences between versions let us concentrate on what they have in common, their rhythm and harmonic sequence. The 3/2 hornpipe rhythm is a characteristic Border bagpipe form, now usually known as a ' double hornpipe ', but more usually called a ' single hornpipe ' in the 18th century. The harmonic sequence is straightforward, 3 bars of A major and one bar of B minor. Although the B minor chord ends each strain we feel the tune to be in A major, so we call that the ' home ' or tonic chord. It is also the chord consonant with the drones, but in some tunes the drone chord is the ' away ' chord. B minor is the ' away ' chord here, and although it is the supertonic it functions as the dominant, therefore I call it the functional dominant. Using X and Y symbols (see The Master Piper), the harmonic rhythm or structure of the tune (all versions) is XXXY. This overrides other considerations such as the exact contour of the melody and the number and sequence of strains, which may vary from version to version of a tune, though with this tune all three versions have six strains. We can describe this tune as an 'underground' hit. Although two of the versions were published around the end of the 18th century the different titles and melodic details show that it was a tune which spread more by contagion than by publication, and the surviving versions probably give no more than a hint of its real life. All three open with the same two st r ains in the same order but with differing details (see below concerning Reavely ' s strain 2); they also have three other strains in common which differ in sequence as well as in detail. This is not a very unusual state of affairs when comparing versions of tunes. It is pretty pointless to ask which is the ' right ' version, but you might try to find which one you like the best, or to combine elements from them into \our 17

9 own version, or to add strains of your own. If we want Border piping to become a living tradition once more we have to make these kinds of choices, and it is good for the tradition if we do not all make the same choices. The notion of ' standard settings ' imposed by some ' authority ' is death to creativity, and although we are fortunate that our forbears wrote down a lot of great music for us, we are even more fortunate that they hardly ever agree with each other on details. The rhythm, melodic core and harmonic structure all combine to form the essence of the tune under consideration here. 'Lads of Alnwick ' has exactly the same rhythm and structure but a different melodic core, so one would not confuse the two tunes. It is in the area of variations that some tunes start to overlap, and strain 5 of Dixon's 'Apprentice Lads of Alnwick' is pretty close to strain 6 of Peacock ' s ' All the Night I Lay With Jockey '. This kind of thing can give variations a bad name: tunes are both less appealing and harder to learn if they are too similar to each other. There is a practical solution to this problem, which I hope to talk about in the next exciting episode. Notes on the tune/s: Only Riddell is originally scored in 3/2; the others are in 3/4 with half the note values given here. All are originally scored a tone lower in G major rather than A major. The G# in the key signature here is 'ideal'. If your pipe won't produce it, or will produce it only with difficulty, you can play G natural as all the Gs are passing notes and not structurally important - G or G# is absent from both the chords which underpin the tune. This feature is characteristic of many tunes shared by the (keyless) Northumbrian smallpipes and the Border pipes. The tune opens with a strong F#, which is not in the chord of A major, and bar 2 of two versions also features F# prominently. This is a kind of ' suspension ' (A6) where the 6th temporarily replaces the 5th of the chord : in all cases E follows in the same bar, and the basic underlying progression is unaffected. It is a particularly bold step to open the tune with this note, and it gives the opening a soaring, uplifting effect. Table of strains Riddell Lassie gae milk on ray Cow hill Peacock All the night Reavely If you will not rock it, I Lay with Jocky let it lye and Blare (B) ) The table uses Riddell's sequence of strains as its starting point, but could have used any version. Note that Peacock has the same strains as Riddell but in a different order, though essentially only one strain (Riddell's No.5) is 'out of sequence' in Peacock. Reavely has strains 1-5 in the same order as Riddell, but he has a completely different strain ( ' 7 ' ) at the finish. Reavely ' s strain 2 opens with the same notes as the other two versions but it is fairly different from them. It is arguably a different strain, hence it is labelled 2(B). It is an interesting question whether there is anything about the music which means that one of these sequences is any better than the others, and why, or whether yet another sequence would be preferable. I do not have more than tentative answers myself at the moment, so I would be very happy to hear from anyone else who cares about such matters, either privately or through COMMON STOCK. AS OTHERS SEE US... published by THE PIPING TIMES - no doubt with tongue firmly in cheek - this is reproduced here with that Journal's blessing... THESE WICKED PIPERS The following of course refers to Lowland Pipers. One wonders what goes on at meetings of the Lowland and Border Pipers' Society. Central Regional Archive Dept: CH2/1121/1: Gargunnock Kirk Session Minutes 1778 transcript of lost 1704 transcript of lost originals: Upon the 7th June 1646 years. The which day because of the great abuse at penny bridals by the multitudes of people conveened thereto, for restraining whereof there is an act of the general assembly 1645 recommending the same to all presbyteries and Kirk Sessions within the Kingdom as also because of the lascivious carriage of men and women by promiscuous dancing and playing of pipers, therefore it is ordained that every Bridegroom or Bride shall only have in all time coming every one of them three or four Mess(sic) at the most and that they have no pipers nor dancing and whatsoever fails therein they shall forfeit everyone a dollar for pious uses of penalty. Upon the 16th Jan, 1648 years The which day because of the great abuse at bridals ofpromiscuse dancing of men and women whereupon there cloth arise pleas and tumults and many contumacious words and oaths oftentimes to the dishonour of and offence of good christians all which wickedness flows chiefly by the multitude of people called to these bridals and the presence of Pipers; Therefore for removing hereof it is appointed that hereafter the persons married shall every one of them at the most four or five mess under the pain of five punds and there shall no piper be suffered to play under pain of losing their pann (i.e. the pledge deposited before marriage), which they shall lay down when they shall give up their names, and every parochiner that shall be found dancing shall pay for the first fault six shillings and eight pence for the second thirteen shillings and four pence and make their publick repentance

10 THE BATTLE OF AUGHRIM A DIFFERENT KIND OF VARIATION SET by Paul Roberts The fascinating piece of music reproduced here comes from Geoghegan's Complete Tutor for the Pastoral or New Bagpipe under the title A Bagpipe Concerto call'd the Battle of Aghrem, or the Football March (I). Most readers will need to transpose it from D to A of course, but having done so I'm sure they'll be as surprised as I was by the reliance on 'pedal' effects instead of long trilling runs and by the strong similarity to Highland Piobaireachd. So what is it? Most of the tunes in Geoghegans's book are English country dances but this is clearly something quite different. It is almost certainly a rare example of a 'lost' genre, the 'Irish Pibroch', and probably the very piece referred to here by Brendan Breathnach - "pipers played some long descriptive pieces, the most well known being Mairseal Alasdruim which commemorated the battle fought at Cnoc na ndos in 1647, and the Battle of Aughrim, commemorating the defeat of the Jacobite forces in In these pieces the assembly of the troops and the march into battle, the noise and frenzy of the fight, and the cries of the women lamenting over the slain were imitated. In another of these pieces, Fiach an Mhada Rua or The Fox Chase, the sounds of the hounds, horns and horses are imitated." Sounds familiar? Here again is that famous quote from Leyden on the lost 'Border Pibroch'- "the borders, particularly the middle and west marches, possessed a peculiar style of music, well adapted to the bagpipe, the wild and ferocious expression of which corresponded to the fierce energetic character of the border clans... I can only recollect The Hunting of the Fox, which from its uncommon expression and the irregularity of its modulation seemed to have a strong resemblance to a Highland Pibroch. " As for 'Highland Pibroch' here is the French traveller St Frond on the form as he found it in "the tune (pirbraut) was a kind of sonata, divided into three parts... having listened to eight pipers in succession very attentively, I at last discovered that the first part of the air was a battle march; the second a sanguinary action descriptive music to imitate the clash of arms and the cries of the wounded. With a sudden transition the piper entered the third movement, a sad, slow melody, representing the laments for the slain..." These three descriptions are so similar they could almost be writing about the same musical form. In fact we probably have two separate forms here - Irish/Highland Piobaireachd and an English/lowland Scots equivalent. Given they had the same aim and 'iced similar instrument and given the kind of musical cross-fertilization we know 20 21

11 existed, they probably were very similar. The important point is that there clearly existed, in several different areas of the British Isles, essentially descriptive forms of variation set akin to Piobaireachd. This music was quite distinct from the familiar melodic variation set widespread in English and Scots fiddle and pipe collections, and it would seem it was rarely written down. In fact the Fox Chase has survived in tradition. Not in Britain or Ireland (though revivalist versions can be heard in Ireland) but amongst the descendants of English and lowland Scots settlers in the United States. Numerous recordings exist, typically on fiddle or harmonica. These are literally imitative performances in which the player tries to reproduce the sounds of the hunt, and are highly improvised though usually drawing on stock themes and effects. Perhaps the 'lost pibroch' of the Borders was something like this. There was probably a melodic theme traditional to each title and a conventional structure (e.g. march, battle, lament) but the heart of each performance may have been a series of aural tricks and imitative effects on which each piper drew as the muse took him. The element of improvisation and the difficulty of notating purely descriptive sounds would explain why we don't find the genre in the old pipe MSS and printed collections. As for Highland Piobaireachd, it was certainly a much looser affair before the 19th century tried to fix it in print, there is some evidence it included improvisation, and I've always felt the taorluath and crunluath to be trick effects aimed at mimicking the sounds of battle rather than simple exercises in dexterity. So perhaps we should approach Geoghegan's setting of Aughrim as the bare bones of a type of performance which couldn't be adequately transcribed. Despite the instructions 'D.C.' it certainly strikes me as incomplete. It seems to stop in mid battle and there's no lament, a feature specifically mentioned by both Breathnach and St.Frond. We're not entering the Gold Medal at Oban so feel free to finish the battle and mourn the dead! As for ornamentation, Geoghegan's book is a tutor and it does contain some general guidelines. These seem to me so important - given the scarcity of information on 18th century pipe gracings and the close relationship between Pastoral/Union and Border pipes - that I hope to reproduce and analyze the relevant sections in a future issue. For the moment please note that the figure so central to this setting seems to be nothing less than that slick movement of the pinkie Highland pipers call the 'A Birl'. Geoghegan also makes some pertinent comments on tempo, and it seems the stroke through the 'C' implies this piece should be taken neither fast nor slow but at a steady march speed. This is a fine piece of music and a joy to play. I particularly like the battle-drum effect in the Ground and the frenzy of the finale. It is not our lost Border Pibroch' but it is a rare example of an equally forgotten and related form from a neighbouring tradition and for that reason alone is of great interest. It occurs in an English context and is set for an instrument that was widely played in northern England and lowland Scotland, often by the same people who played Border or Small pipes. I'm sure some of them must have seen Geoghegan's book and tried out this piece. If so they would surely have realised that with its martial flavour and nine note range it is far better suited to the Border Pipes than to their Pastoral cousin. (1) This book was first published in London around have the 1775 edition. If the tune's subtitle seems a little banal, remember that 18th century village football often involved a pitched battle between whole communities! Something of this survives in the annual 'Haxey Hood' game in Lincolnshire.

12 24 BORDER PIPES - A MAKER'S STORY Nigel Richard provides further food for thought on the conical bore pipe. Unfortunately I missed the deadline for the last Common Stock issue [a common complaint. Ed!] devoted to Border pipes, but consequently have had the pleasure of reading the interesting articles by others on the subject. Because, as far as I know, I am the only other U.K. based pipe maker apart from John Swayne mainly making Border pipes I will take this opportunity to write at some length on the subject. Firstly I will describe how I got involved in pipe making, and how my work developed, then give my views on the particular nature of Border pipes. INTO THE ABYSS! I made my first musical instrument at the age of sixteen in a tractor shed near my home at Strathpeffer. This effort was not crowned with success; my attempted Mandolin/Sitar was constructed from a fish box and a length of bamboo, and when I tightened the strings, the neck bent like a bow. Ah well it was the sixties, and an age of boundless optimism! Having started playing folk blues style guitar I became interested in Traditional music when I moved to Argyll in the mid seventies: A few years later I moved to Edinburgh and was enchanted by the sound of the pipes. As there was no medical remedy for this particular affliction, I took up chanter lessons. I knew I had no wish to march around in regalia playing the piob mhor, but thought the pipes could sound great with other instruments if the volume, tone, and tuning were right. Joining the LBPS confirmed my view, and when I heard the Border pipes I knew they were THE pipes for me despite the fact that the quality of Border pipes available at the time was pretty variable. Meanwhile I had started a course in musical instrument repair at Stevenson college in Edinburgh. From then on the subjects that progressively obsessed me were what made a good Border chanter, and how could you get beyond the restriction of the nine note scale. Oddly enough some thirty years from the start of this saga one of my recent instruments has been a Mandolin/Sitar, this one works very well indeed, patience is rewarded! FROM THERE TO HERE Being puzzled as to which aspects of a Border chanter were critical in giving a good tone, I started by making a number of reamers (not work for the light hearted) with varying angles, but within the range of 1.5 to 3 degrees, i.e. all narrower than the primary bore of the standard Highland pipe chanter (see Technical Note). I made a number of chanters and tried out a vast number of different reeds in them including cut down Highland reeds, and some made by established bellows blown pipe makers. None of these proved entirely satisfactory in my particular chanters, but I was progressively building up a clear picture of the characteristics I required from the reed, a strong unwavering tone giving crisp grace notes, with clear but not dominant harmonics. These are the same things many look for in a Highland pipe reed, but this reed needed to work at a lower pressure and play at a lower pitch (A not Bb).At the same time I was developing a keywork system to extend the range of the chanter and give the accidentals within this range. The first system mixed some original mechanisms with ideas borrowed from the oboe and clarinet and it had ring keys around some of the finger holes. It was of the rod and pillar construction style which was - to me - clearly more versatile than the block mounted style. The breakthrough came when a slightly unusual Highland pipe reed made by the French reedmakers Glotin produced (with some adjustments) a really promising sound. I now had a fully chromatic keyed chanter working with a sound cane reed, that has only been refined a little since for the design of the reeds that I make for my Border chanters today. It gradually came to me that a chanter covered with keys, particularly ring keys, was not what the traditional bagpipe player was looking for. I began to rationalise the design to make the chanter playable in the standard manner with the keywork all offset to the side so it did not interfere with the normal fingering. I then turned my attention to making an ordinary nine note chanter in A with the drones to match in style tone and volume. As Julian Goodacre pointed out to me, this was a somewhat roundabout route to the standard bellows pipes! Nowadays I sell more standard Border pipes than anything else, and in fact the standard chanters give most of the "extra" notes within the range by cross fingering anyway. However a number of adventurous souls take one or more additional keys which they say serve them well, and give extra scope for their musical imagination, so the original development work has proved worthwhile in the end. Technical Note The angle of the Irish pipe chanter is around 1.3 degrees (1 in 44), and the Highland pipe chanter varies from around 3 deg to 4 deg. In my experience sound Border chanters can be made with a bore from around 1.5 deg (softer sound) to around 2.5 deg (more of a Highland pipe sound - not surprisingly) but you have to find the reed to match the cone. Cut down Highland pipe reeds stand a much better chance of working with the wider bore chanters. BORDER PIPES The last thing the Society needs is any sort of argument between Border pipers and players of Scottish Small Pipes as to which one is better. They both have different qualities which suit different circumstances and different tastes. In fact many situations suit either and quite a number of members play and enjoy both. A cone is a cone and a cylinder is a cylinder, and this single factor gives rise to most of the acoustic differences which characterise the sound of the different pipes. VOLUME There are many fine sets of Small Pipes around nowadays, and some are relatively 25

13 speaking quite loud. However there must have come that moment for many players of Small Pipes in sessions, when another fiddler strikes up, or maybe a guitar or accordion joins in, when the player wishes his instrument had a bit more volume and more "edge" to the tone; this is when the louder volume and brighter tone of the Border pipes is a benefit. With quieter instruments or small groups of instruments played quietly, the Small Pipes can be the better choice. Amplification of course changes the whole picture. TONE In my opinion one strength of the Border pipes is that grace notes are heard more clearly, and have more impact on the overall sound. FUTURE The society is fortunate in having both those who look to the past and those who look to the future as members. Researchers into the physical and musical history of the instruments have done us proud. However bagpipes themselves are musical instruments not antiques, and it is the makers' job to continue to develop and improve them if possible. Likewise with the music - the Tradition is rich but the horizons must be broad, the more pipers having a spirit of musical adventure the better. Although I expect the number of Border pipers to increase only slowly, the potential for then is very considerable. In my opinion Border pipes are the ideal pipes for folk groups, and very satisfying solo instruments, but also great for mixing with woodwinds, brass, strings, percussion, you name it! VERSATILITY The ability to cross finger accidentals on the Border pipes gives the player greater freedom of expression. 26 OVERBLOWING I agree with Gordon Mooney here, the pitch of the half holed high B is unreliable (with my reeds anyway) and a keyed high B gives a good note, whilst allowing the reed to remain strong on the other notes. Lower pitch pipes (G, F, etc) overblow more effectively. MATERIALS Hardwood is hard! I don't find a significant tone difference between Blackwood, Boxwood, Rosewood, or Lignum Vitae. "Soft" open grain rosewoods like Indian Rosewood, make good guitar fretboards but poor chanters in my experience. PRESSURE AND PLAYING It is a common mistake to imagine that pipes that are "easy to play" and pipes that play at a low pressure, are necessarily the same thing. A reed may be playing at a low pressure but be warbling around like crazy and be hard to control. You are aiming to have a reed/set of pipes that have good tone and stability, and are comfortable to play. To an extent you get out what you put in. A bit of extra pressure, with a slightly firmer reed can give a rich vibrant tone with strong harmonics without undue effort, however there is no right and wrong here, some makers and players prefer a softer reed and a softer sound. Overall I don't think the Border pipes are significantly harder to play than Small Pipes (neither are easy!) but they do take a bit more getting to know initially. MAKING The conical bore chanter takes longer to make than the parallel bore chanter but is not too difficult once you have the right tools and a bit of practice. The larger wood sizes and the longer time taken on reeding up would suggest you could expect Border pipes to be say 20% to 30% more expensive (not taking account of any other considerations of quality). LOWLAND AND BORDER PIPERS' COMPETITION '96 David Taylor, who teaches both Highland pipes and Scottish smallpipes. gives an appraisal of the atmosphere and standards of the 1996 L.B.P.S. Competition. After a recent overdose of Highland piping competitions, the day was a pleasant surprise. After a gap of a few years, I had forgotten how relaxed and enjoyable the LBPS competition is. If it is possible to have a 'non-competitive competition' then this is it! The day seemed to flow along in an amicable and rather casual mood. Rather than slagging off rivals, the players enjoyed listening to each other, appreciating the different tunes, and seeing how friends had improved since last year. The audience vote is an excellent way of helping relax the atmosphere and involving everybody in the competition, as well as helping to ensure a fair result. (Interestingly the judges agreeing on 15 out of the 21 prize winners.) Long may it continue like this! One thing I noticed in particular was how much standards have improved from the early years. There were some really sweet and well-tuned instruments, an interesting variety of tunes old and new, much better use of harmony in small-pipe duets, more emphasis on rhythm rather than speed. It was also noticeable how the instruments themselves have improved both aesthetically and tonally over the years. The variety of pipes, woods, mounts each with their individual tones and voices is a testimony to the outstanding craftsmanship of many of the pipe-makers. However, there are still aspects which the less experienced players could work on before next year. Tone suffered in too many cases from poor bellows technique and - a rather neglected aspect - lack of control of the bag with the left ann. Some nice performances were spoilt by a failure to tune the drones, throwing the harmonics of the chanter off, 27

14 while in some cases, musicality was still affected by racing tunes and even a failure t( understand the basic rhythm. More emphasis on learning by ear might prove beneficial When imaginative pipes are used with other instruments there is still scope for more arrangements. Results Intermediate: 1. Peter McAllister, 2 Trevor James, 3 John Long. It was disappointing that there were not entrants in the Novice section - is there a nee( to attract new players? However, in the Intermediate section, Peter McAllister emerge( as clear winner with a beautifully rounded performance including a lovely version o Sleepy Maggie on a well-tuned instrument. There that were some good entries in the New Compositions though there was no doubt Rory Campbell's Austrian-style jig stole the show. Small-pipes are at their best when playing along with other instruments, so it was disappointing to find only three entrants in this class. At the same time it was good to se( some younger competitors here and the competition was won by Fiona and Finn Moor( with a lovely swinging set of reels though it has to be said that the fiddle was rather overpowered by the heavy clogging. New Composition: 1. Rory Campbell, 2= Jon Swayne & John Saunders Pipe & Song: 1. Davie Robertson, 2. Judy Barker, 3. David Stevenson. Duet for Pipes: 1. Glyn Morris & Joe Bingham. 2. Rona MacDonald, 3. Pete Stewart & John Goodacre Duet for Pipes and Other Instrument: 1. Fin and Fiona Moore, 2. Glyn Morris & Joe Bingham, 3. Mike & Judy Barker Open Lowland Pipe: 1. John Saunders, 2. Donald Anderson, 3. Jim Eaton. Small-pipe and song was another good competition won by Davie Robertson with a powerful rendering of 'Lang a Growin', though with the pipes playing the melody they were at times a bit lost against the voice. Pipe harmonies (as demonstrated by Judy Barker) would have added to the richness of Davie's voice. In the small-pipe duet section it was good to see everyone trying to use harmonies, though it has to be pointed out that this only works if the chanters are in tune! There were some good tunes here with a particularly interesting use of harmony by John Goodacre and Pete Stewart. The section was won by Glyn Morris and Joe Bingham with a heavy set of tunes using a lot of harmony, though somewhat marred by the pipes going out of tune in the 'Clumsy Lover'. The Border-pipe is a much more difficult instrument to control than the small-pipe as it ruthlessly exposes any deficiencies in bellows technique, being prone to chokes, squeals and wavering pitch. While the best balanced pipe was Dougie Walker's with a strong drone and sweet chanter, John Saunders emerged as winner with a set of Irish and Asturian tunes making highly effective use of flattened notes. WEDNESDAY EXPRESS Jon Swayne 3/4/96 The Open Small-pipes was the strongest competition with twelve players taking part. There were some excellent tunes played in this competition, though the undisputed winner was Rory Campbell with the outstanding performance of the day - crisp fingering, beautiful pipes and terrific rhythm on his Strathspeys and Reels. Second place (equal) in the L.B.P.S 1996 competition - New Compositions. Finally, I think the highest audience marks of the day would go to the ladies who produced all the wonderful baking and food - but please put your prices up next year out of consideration to the waist lines! Good food, good crack, good piping - roll on next year... 29

15 Ae Bow an' Twa Bellows Reel BJMR 1996 To Linda and George; thanks for all the happy evenings of music-makin g. May there be many more. CHARLIE SYMMIE'S WELCOME ABOARD IAIN A. MACLEOD Drum Major Brian J. M. Rumble, Blairgowrie, Rattray and District Pipe Band (incorporating the echo of a Bosu ' s call piping the side) 30 31

16 32 REVIEWS THE MASTER PIPER or NINE NOTES THAT SHOOK THE WORLD - a Border Bagpipe Repertoire prick'd down by William Dixon, AD1733. Edited by Matt Seattle. 100 pages - softback A4. Following upon his excellent "Border Bagpipe Book" (see COMMON STOCK Vol 9 No.1 June 1994), Matt Seattle has produced yet another thorough and fascinating contribution to the understanding and appreciation of bagpiping and in particular to the traditions of the Anglo Scottish Border. Having got wind, in 1995, of the existence of an old book of bagpipe music, he tracked it down to the A.K.Bell Library in Perth. At first thought to be a smallpipe manuscript it turns out to be the oldest surviving example of Border Bagpipe music for a nine note, open-ended chanter. Indeed this is one of the oldest records of bagpipe music in the British Isles. Originally written on a 4-line stave the book is an absolute gem, written between the years 1733 and 1738 by William Dixon of Fenwick near Morpeth. It could be argued that this makes it a Northumbrian pipe collection, but it's not that simple, as Matt sets out in his detailed and meticulously researched notes. Matt has translated the manuscript into modern notation and presented it in a most attractive package. The cover shows a "God like" piper presiding over his adulating proteges; inside we find 15 pages of introductory discussion and illumination on the background to the source of the contents. There are 40 musical pieces all with their original variations, and there is a 14 page appendix with detailed information on the music and an erudite discussion on the structures of Border Bagpipe music. The Master's hand is on this work in many ways not least the hair-raising story of the book's miraculous survival from incineration. The thin and tenuous thread that is a musical tradition was stretched to the limit. There are many surprises in this hook, not least how advanced the music is. It is technically and artistically challenging and has the stamp of virtuoso performance music. Many of the pieces have come down to us from other sources but we sense how near we are to the pure source in Dixon's collection, and how original and complete the music is. For example Torrington Lads" had been mentioned as a "test piece" for pipers in the 18th Century Borders but only a corrupted version had come down to us. In Dixon's collection we find a wonderful complete 9 note virtuoso piece of music which we can believe was used as a test - of memory, dexterity and musicability. For this alone the collection is worth its weight in gold, but there is much more. Time spent getting to know this music reveals more and more, but first cast off all preconceptions. This is "Drone Music" par excellence, and exemplifies a fully developed Border piping culture at the beginning of the 18th Century, a culture which was already more than 300 years old at that time. This was when bagpiping was in its heyday, pipers had status, and believe it or not could actually earn a living playing. Competition for the good job of Town Piper or Wait would have been fierce thus pushing the performance standards. Master pipers get your chanters into the book I recommend it unreservedly. NB There is a tune in Dixon's collection called 'Golden Locks' which struck a cosmic chord echoing the recent discovery of a planet orbiting a distant star which has been nick-named "Goldilocks " because "It is just right" for life support - Life, Bagpipes and the Universe indeed - The Master's hand works in mysterious ways!! Gordon Mooney. Lowland Souch - Davie Robertson (with Andy Hunter, Davie Lockhart and Mike Ward) Scotsoun SSC 118. Available from Scotsoun, 13 Ashton Road, Glasgow G12 8SP This cassette, inspired we are told in the notes, by the recent revival of the Scottish cauldwind or bellows pipes would be a welcome addition to any collection. Davie Robertson has a rich deep, aimost funereal voice which matches his haunting arrangements of traditional songs; it is also powerful enough to balance nicely against the chanter and drones of the smallpipes. There is rather a preponderance of.sombre songs in the collection, including some written by Davie himself which he sings unaccompanied. But not all is gloomy - his contemporary songs "The Write Off' and "The Secret Sin" display his tongue-in-cheek humour and brighten up the vocals. The track "Aye Late and Early" is most enjoyable and I found myself humming it long after the tape was over. I'm afraid the slow pace of some of the songs made them seem rather laboured and the tendency of the voice to follow a second or two after the pipes became slightly irritating after a while, but then laments were never supposed to he bright things. In any case free expression is appropriate for such songs so just put that down to personal preference. The instrumental tracks add a pleasant variety and a lightness in contrast to the laments and demonstrate the versatility of Andy Hunter, Davie Lockhart and Mike Ward and I found the inclusion of the harmonium a pleasant change from the normal piano or.synthesizer accompaniment. The sweetness of the pipes also contrast with Davie's sonorous voice and the new compositions by Andy Hunter and Mike Ward are well worth learning. I for one will be trying them out on the concertina. I'm rather sorry that the "The Rowan Tree" was included as the flattened seventh on the smallpipes always sounds wrong to me, but that is perhaps because I'm predominantly a.singer of the song and certainly not a piper - again, that is a personal preference. On the whole a most satisfactory recording, with some fine tracks, although perhaps to be kept for more contemplative moments. THE NINETIES COLLECTION. NEW SCOTTISH TUNES IN TRADITIONAL STYLE. EDITED BY IAN HARDIE. Published by Canongate Books in association with the Traditional Music and Song Association of Scotland A tradition is only a tradition when it is evolving: the Nineties Collection bears testimony to the fact that in Scotland the musical tradition of composition is doing just that. Starting life as a competition proposed by Jim Sutherland and organised by the TMSA, the final collection convincingly demonstrates that there are plenty of composers around who are able and willing to come and put their stone on the cairn. Time alone will decide how many of these stones will still be there in generations to come, but the initial signs are good - there is certainly quality here in abundance. Just what constitutes a 'traditional style' is rather a complex question of course, and I suspect the judges of the initial competition would have debated long and hard over the importance of scotch snap, octave leaps, pentatonic modes and any other barometer of 'the Scottish tradition : But when it comes down to it, a good tune is a good tune and thankfully there are enough of these lurking between these covers to keep most of us going until the next decennial collection (such a collection every decade from now on would be a most welcome initiative). The full spectrums of traditional Scottish music is represented here: the 'straight down the middle' and the slightly 'off the wall' sit happily side by side the way they always have done and 33

17 the way I for one sincerely hope they always they have made this transition from page to will. With over 200 tunes to choose from it fingers can they be considered as having been seems almost futile to single any out for special accepted The real importance of a collection attention, but certainly the work of Freeland such as this is that it makes this transition so Barbour, Gordon Duncan, Allan MacDonald, much easier. In all, this is an extremely im- Roderick MacDonald and Wendy Stewart, portant and useful collection which is well among others, has already proved its worth in worth the investment. that these tunes have already begun to be sub- Gary West. jected to the shaping process on stages and in [A selection of these are on CDTRAX 5004 session pubs all over the country. Only when released by GREENTRAX RECORDINGS] Heather's Jig RJAston