Piobaireachd Wednesday: Catherine’s Lament
This is the first of the series of Piobaireachd Wednesdays resulting from my visit to Winter Storm on the weekend of January 13-14, 2012. I was able to watch the U.S. Silver Medal almost in its entirety; I heard and recorded 17 competitors. I won’t post all of the recordings here (as I mentioned before the tune selection was not widely varied), but I will post the prize list. The top five players ended up playing four different tunes, so I figured the repetition would be minimal there.
Working up the prize list, our fist tune is Catherine’s Lament. The player is Jamie Troy from Victoria, British Columbia. Jamie is also an accomplished drummer, having played snare with the Spirit of Scotland Pipe Band when they competed at the Worlds in 2008. As you can tell from this recording, he knows a few things about piobaireachd as well; this solid performance earned him fifth place. Enjoy!
If you’d like to submit a tune to be featured on Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
Winter Storm piobaireachd update
I’m writing this from the lobby of the Marriott Country Club Plaza hotel in Kansas City, site of the world-renowned Winter Storm event. Most people would never guess that the center of the piping world on a particular weekend in January is in the US midwest, but it is indeed here. Lots of big name players are here, and it’s living up to its reputation of being a stunningly good time.
If you’re a regular reader you’re aware that I kinda like piobaireachd, and I spent most of Friday morning listening to the US Silver Medal piobaireachd competition. I was able to record 17 of the 20 competitors in the event, and it was definitely worth getting out of bed for. Look for a few of those tunes to be posted on Piobaireachd Wednesday over the next few weeks; especially look for Colin Clansey’s winning performance of The Bicker, and Ben McClamrock’s second place showing of Catherine’s Lament. The prize list shaped up as follows:
- Colin Clansey, Kingston, ON, The Bicker
- Ben McClamrock, Baltimore, MD, Catherine’s Lament
- John Lee, Surrey, BC, Lament for Donald of Laggan
- Dan Lyden, Baltimore, MD, You’re Welcome Ewan
You can’t tell from looking at the prize list, but the tune selection was pretty repetitive. If I had heard one more version of Catherine’s Lament I would have had it memorized; it was played five times. There were three each of The Bicker, Lament for Donald of Laggan, and MacGregor’s Salute, and only three tunes that weren’t repeated. That’s my only issue with set tune lists: there is some repetition when you listen to a contest all the way through. That sounds like a topic for another post, and for now I have to get to the registration table where I’m volunteering my time today.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: Glengarry’s March
Our tune this week is from a “match” of the Eagle Pipers’ Society. The player is Derek Midgley, who is originally from New Jersey and has resided for some time in Glasgow. He’s distinguished himself as a solo competitor in Scotland, and I think you can see why from this video, recorded in November 2010.
If you’d like to submit a tune to be featured on Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: Sir James MacDonald of the Isles’ Lament
Piobaireachd Wednesday is back on track this week, with another tune from the most recent online competition from Jori Chisholm at bagpipelessons.com. The player is Owen Capon, playing one of my favorite tunes: Sir James MacDonald of the Isles’ Lament. This tune landed him in the prize list of the grade 2 piobaireachd competition, placing 5th out of 12 competitors.
If you’d like to submit a tune to be featured on Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
New Year’s Goals for 2012
As I’ve done for the last few years, I’m forgoing the practice of making resolutions and instead making a list of things I’d like to accomplish in the next 12 months. Some are piping-related, and some aren’t.
- Learn four new piobaireachds. Last year I set the goal of learning two new tunes, and finished with four, thanks largely to the newly-minted interest in piobaireachd that was behind the launch of Piobaireachd Wednesday in July. I can do that again.
- Be a more active solo competitor. The last two years I’ve taken it easy on the solo boards, and the few times that I did play reminded me of how much I enjoy it. This year I’d like to compete at 6 highland games, whereas last year I only made it to two. Geographical relocation will probably determine which ones they are, and time constraints will determine how well I play.
- Shift Piobaireachd Wednesday to include more recordings I’ve made myself. I’m not talking tunes that I play, but recordings that I make at events I attend. I picked up a new recording gadget this year, and I’m itching to try it out. I’ll be at Winter Storm in a few weeks, and hope to be able to record at least some of the piobaireachd competitions. Look for the tunes I collect over the next few weeks. I’ll also try to grab recordings from some of the other events I attend (see #2).
- Learn to juggle. I’ve included it on the list for the last two years, and since those came up empty I’m going to include it here again. One of these days I’ll get to it… one of these days.
- Buy a house. I’ve rented for long enough, and it’s time to contribute to the economy by being a homeowner. I hope to be gainfully employed here in a few weeks, and that will determine where I do my house-hunting.
- Survive the end of the world in December. There are some who are certain the world will end on December 21, 2012, and I’m not one of them. It’s true the Mayan calendar ends then, but I’m wondering what they knew and we don’t?
As I’ve done before, I’ll post a review of these goals next year, providing I do #6.
What about you? What’s on your to-do list for 2012?
Reflecting: What I did in my 2011
Happy New Year to my readers (all three of you), and I hope your year is off to a good start. As seems to be the trend on blogs everywhere, this time of year is good for reflecting on the past year and preparing for the one ahead. I’m no exception, so here goes.
In the beginning of 2010 and 2011 I posted a list of things I wanted to accomplish, then reflected on them about a year later. Here’s my recap of my 2011 goals:
- Learn two new piobaireachds. I actually blew this one out of the water. I somehow pulled off four tunes this year, including two in September and October. In February-March I learned Corienessen’s Salute, then Lament for the Viscount of Dundee in May, and finished with Rout of Glenfruin and Melbank’s Salute in the fall. The last two were notable because I learned them in a very short time: I had both memorized and on pipes within a few days of seeing the music for the first time.
- Get a bagpipe sound that I’m really happy with. It seems that I accomplished this one, although I can’t exactly when it happened. It seemed that suddenly I had a good sound, and it was noted by the judges in all four events I entered in the fall online piping competition. It was a Colin MacLellan reed for my Naill chanter that seems to have done the trick, and since that’s a winning combination I’m going to stick with it.
- Check off three new states on my piping quest. Unfortunately this wasn’t one that I was able to do. I only managed to add one, (Washington, DC) and it isn’t technically even a state. I had been hoping to enter competitions in Connecticut and Tennessee, as well as the USPF competition in Delaware, but calendar conflicts seemed to get in the way of all of those.
- Graduate. I did this one! I didn’t actually walk the stage (and I won’t technically have my degree until it’s officially posted to my academic records in mid-January), but I finished the remaining 21 credit hours for my master’s degree.
- Work in a career-related summer internship. Unfortunately this one didn’t work out for me either, and not for lack of trying. I applied for a good dozen or so positions all over the country, and no one seemed to like me enough to hire me. I ended up working for a professor over the summer as an unpaid research assistant, which was better than nothing, I suppose.
So overall it was a mediocre year in terms of the goals I set at the beginning. In the next day or so I’ll put up some goals for 2012, and I encourage you to do the same and share yours as well.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: Lament for MacSwan of Roaig
Our tune this week is a little gem I dug up from YouTube: Pipe Major Gordon Walker playing Lament for MacSwan of Roaig. I don’t know where or when this was recorded, but definitely worth a listen.
If you’d like to submit a tune for Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
Christmas music on bagpipes?
Pipehacker’s Morning Comix sums up my answer to this pretty neatly. Check it out.
New Bagpipe Music Podcast from Pipehacker
This week a new podcast appeared over at Pipehacker.com: The Small Tunes Podcast. For a while he’s had a feature on small tunes that he’s dug out of somewhere, and now he’s launching that feature as an audio podcast. The first episode explains his thoughts on small tunes and where the podcast is going, and it’s pretty interesting. That whet my appetite, and I’m looking forward to the next episode when he starts posting tunes.
Subscribe to it with your RSS reader or iTunes, and be ready to add some small tunes to your repertoire.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: My King Has Landed In Moidart
I must admit that I’m very disappointed in you, the readers of Piobaireachd Wednesday. For many weeks now, I’ve had to comb the internet for tunes, and that’s not the intention of this feature. If you have a tune that you’ve been working on, please consider recording it and sending it off to me. Remember, no judgement, no criticism, just music.
Anyway, our tune this week is from Jori Chisholm, a professional piper who lives in Seattle. He’s made a name for himself on the competition circuit, and was also one of the first pipers I was aware of to incorporate the internet into his teaching. This video of My King Has Landed In Moidart was recorded at Winter Storm in 2008, and this performance won him the U.S. Gold Medal that year. I think you’ll agree that it was indeed a fine tune.
This video is split into two parts, so be sure to catch the ending of the tune in the second video.
Part 2:
If you’d like to submit a tune for Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
Start your piping season with a good workshop
Even though we’re in the piping offseason now, it won’t be long before things start up again. I’d venture to say that most bands are already hitting new music pretty hard, and if you’re a solo competitor this is a good time to be thinking about learning some new music as well.
If you’re in the mid-Atlantic area (or even if you’re not), I suggest you check out the Delco Mid-Atlantic workshop, coming up on January 28 and 29. This is a regular event in the Mid-Atlantic branch of the EUSPBA, and it always promises to be a good time. The piping and drumming instructors are well-known as judges, and it’s a good way to get your fingers warmed up and learn some new music before the competition season gets started.
Also, if you’re a young piper, consider entering the Gilchrist Challenge. This piobaireachd competition requires four tunes from each player (everyone must be under 22 years of ago), and the winner receives airfare to play at the MacGregor Memorial competition, part of the Argyllshire Gathering held in August.
I’ve been to this workshop before, and I highly recommend it. It’s definitely worth considering, and I hope to see you there.
How do you spend your piping off season?
Over the past few months our competitive season came to an end in the eastern US. Everyone seems to deal with the time off a bit differently, and after you’ve been piping for a while you develop your own way of handling it.
I find the off season to be a good chance to go over the pipes and check for maintenance issues. Last weekend I rehemped all of the tuning pins, checked the hemp on the stocks, checked the bag for leaks, and that kind of thing.
I’ve also been trying to play once or twice a week to keep myself in something resembling piping shape. I didn’t do that last year, and when the band started up on pipes again it took me a good few months to get to where I had been. I’ve decided I don’t want to do that this year, so I’ve been playing to avoid that. Not seriously practicing, but playing tunes I enjoy just to keep both myself and the pipes functioning.
I’ve also been looking at new music, both for the band and myself. Band practices lately have been pretty enjoyable. We have an all-new medley for 2012, and we’re working together as a band to get harmonies and breaks arranged. It’s fun to sit around the table and throw out some ideas, then run through them to see if they work. The tunes were selected by the pipe major, but the final arrangement has been very much a joint effort.
So how do you spend your off season? What do you do to prepare for next year? Any other wisdom or tips for other pipers?
Piobaireachd Wednesday: The Glen is Mine
Last week Piobaireachd Wednesday presented the blog author’s winning piobaireachd from the BagpipeLessons.com Online Competition, and our tune this week is also from those results. Nicholas Lundberg took second place in the grade piobaireachd with The Glen is Mine, and here is his tune:
If you’d like to submit a tune to be featured on Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
Should the judge be able to end a competition?
I recently posted about breaking down during a solo competition, and this post is related to that. My advice is that no, you shouldn’t break down in a competition if you can help it. There’s always something to be gained by finishing your tune, even if it isn’t a prize.
But what about when that breakdown comes from outside the player? Earlier this week I was reading rules for the gold and silver medal piping competitions at Winter Storm, which in my mind is the premier competition in North America. Each of the rules pages has this in it:
The Judges are empowered to stop any Competitor while playing if, in their opinion, the play is such to bar him/her from any chance of winning a prize.
First, keep in mind that these competitions are limited to open or professional grade players, who will have a lot of competition experience. Judges’ comments, for them, aren’t as important as they would be to a new competitor. These folks are more focused on prizes, and going off a tune or losing a drone is likely to take one out the running entirely.
Even so, I can’t imagine any judge hopping up from behind the table and chasing a competitor off the stage. Maybe it’s just that I’d never do that if I were a judge, and I can’t picture any of the numerous judges I know doing that either.
I’ve never seen that rule listed for another piping competition at any level, but I also have to admit that I haven’t really looked. Do the Gold Medal contests in Scotland have that clause in their rules? I don’t know. If you’ve ever come across something like that, or seen it in action, please let me know.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: The Rout of Glenfruin
Our tune this week comes again from the author of this blog. For the sake of diversity I’ve tried to not include a lot of my own playing, but this week I make an exception to present my submission for Jori Chisholm’s most recent online competition. This ended up being the winning tune in grade 1 piobaireachd.
The tune is The Rout of Glenfruin, which is one of the tunes I learned this fall in the Dojo University piobaireachd class, taught by Bruce Gandy. The tune was written to commemorate the Battle of Glenfruin in 1603, which was a rather lopsided victory (hence the title).
If you’d like to submit a tune to be featured on Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
Is it ok to break down in a solo competition?
This is a question that I have been asked from time to time. If, while playing a solo competition, you make a mistake or have an instrument malfunction, is it ok to just stop playing? There are, obviously, two answers: YES and NO. I’ll explore each one.
YES. The obvious downside of breaking down is that you know for certain that you won’t place in the contest. By quitting in the middle, you earn yourself a disqualification and, in the EUSPBA at least, hand your point to those who do finish.
Then again, it is a competition, and if you make a mistake that eliminates you from the prize list, why bother continuing? Well that depends on why you compete.
NO. This is my general response when I’m asked this question, especially by pipers who are new to competition. As a new competitor, the goal should be to gain experience rather than win a prize. Fighting past rough spots and getting back on the tune is only going to help you, and it also gives you the benefit of the judge’s comments on the rest of the tune.
You can probably guess that my preferred response is NO, especially for newer competitors. There’s always something to be gained by fighting through your errors, even if it isn’t a prize.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: Black Donald’s March
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the U.S., and I present a very interesting tune for the occasion. Andrew Bova is a recent graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, where he earned a degree in Bagpipe Performance. He competes at the professional level, plays with the 78th Fraser Highlanders Pipe Band, is an excellent player, and a good friend of mine.
While he was at Carnegie Mellon, he worked with Maestro Denis Colwell to the compose a piece entitled Variations on Black Donald’s March. He sent me the recording for Piobaireachd Wednesday, along with these notes from the program.
The Variations on Black Donald’s March is an experiment in using the traditional Highland Bagpipe alongside Western classical musical instruments. Here the bagpipe is featured, in fact, as the solo instrument, its line excerpted from the ancient piobaireachd Black Donald’s March (Piobaireachd Dhomnuill Duibh).
Black Donald’s March has been linked to the first Battle of Inverlochy (1431) where the MacDonald leader was Black Donald Balloch, a kinsman of Alexander MacDonald, Third Lord of the Isles. Clan Cameron has also laid claim to the tune, as MacDhomhnuill Duibh was then the patronymic of Lochiel
Cameron Chieftains.
Since the Variations on Black Donald’s March uses excerpts from an existing set of traditional bagpipe variations as its solo line, the resulting piece is a set of variations on a set of variations.
The piece was premiered by the Carnegie Mellon Wind Ensemble on February 10th, 2011 in Carnegie Music Hall, Pittsburgh PA. The ensemble was under the direction of Maestro Denis Colwell featuring soloists Andrew Bova (bagpipes) and Adam Hill (tenor).
If you’d like to submit a tune to be featured on Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: I Got A Kiss of the King’s Hand
As it turns out there’s a lot of good piobaireachd recordings on YouTube, and while looking through some of them this week I came across this one. Recorded at a recital at North West England Piping Society in 1993. The player is Brian Donaldson, former pipe major of the Scots Guards, and his tune is I Got A Kiss of the King’s Hand.
Unfortunately the tune is in two parts, but it’s worth the slight inconvenience.
Part 1:
Part 2:
If you’d like to have a tune featured on Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: Flame of Wrath
I’ve featured this tune before on Piobaireachd Wednesday, but not like this. This video was sent to me by Shana Blake, the vocalist and bassist for the Celtic folk/fusion band Gael Warning. This was a performance from the Scotland County Highland Games in North Carolina on October 1 of this year.
You may like this, or you may not. I think it’s interesting, and it’s certainly worth a listen. As the recording suggests, they do indeed “rock the piobaireachd.”
If you’d like to submit a tune for Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
Change your mental approach with online an competition
Jori Chisholm of Seattle is running his third online piping competition of the year, and as far as I’m aware it’s the third online piping competition in history. This is a pretty neat idea, and a good use of technology that is now widely available.
As an aside, he’s extended the entry deadline so there’s still a few days left to register if you want to get in on it.
I’m registered for a few events this time around, and for the past few weeks I’ve working on material and recording my videos. As I’ve been working on that, it’s occurred to me that an online competition requires a different state of mind than the traditional in person competitions.
For the online competition, competitors enter events by submitting a video recording for each event. The contest rules state that videos must be recorded in a single take, but there is no limit to the number of recording attempts a competitor can make. This is where the online competition differs most from a traditional one, where a player has exactly one shot to get it right.
Errors made in a traditional contest, whether they are note errors or memory slips or result from instrument issues, weather, or distractions, can eliminate players from the prize list, but they are done and in the past. If that happens to me in a competition, I accept that there’s nothing I can do to change it, and I move on with my day.
With an unlimited number of attempts in the online competition though, I’d bet that most videos submitted for this contest don’t have those issues. There’s no excuse for sending in a video with wrong notes if you have another chance to fix it. Indeed, there’s no excuse for sending in a video with any performance less than one you’re satisfied is the best you can possibly play.
This has caused some frustration for me as I’ve been recording my videos, since I hate listening to myself play. I never sound as good on tape as I thought I did when actually playing, and though that feedback can be valuable it’s really hard to listen to. I’m not the only one who feels this way; even Angus MacColl has said he’s never heard a recording of himself that he’s been completely happy with.
The result of this is that I’ll be sending in videos that I’ve determined to be “good enough,” but there’s will be that nagging feeling in the back of my head that it’s not the best performance I could have recorded. This is compounded by the fact that in all likelihood the determination of “good enough” will probably be made due to time constraints.
The online competition is a neat idea, and one that I think should definitely continue. I’ll have to come to grips with my mental approach to the competition though, and as I do it more I’m sure I’ll get used to it.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: MacCrimmon’s Sweetheart
I’ve featured MacCrimmon’s Sweetheart before on Piobaireachd Wednesday, in a rather unique version. This week we’ll have a more traditional version of the whole tune on pipes. The piper is Alasdair Mackenzie, whom I know nothing about, but he has this video floating around on YouTube, recorded in the tuning rooms at the National Piping Centre in Glasgow.
The tune is one of my favorites, and appears on my ever-growing list of tunes I need to learn. The ground is very pretty and has a mournful quality to it. It is not an easy tune, but Alasdair does a great job with it. Enjoy!
If you’d like to submit a tune to be featured on Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
Pay no attention to the man behind the table
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know I spend a fair amount of time on the boards as a solo competitor. Solo competitions are something I really enjoy, and I plan to continue them for the foreseeable future.
Over the years, I’ve heard stories of things that happen to people while they’re competing. In almost all cases, they all the result of members of general public who don’t understand how piping contests work. They’re so excited to see someone playing pipes that they don’t notice the person sitting at the table writing on a clipboard. I’ve heard of people who pose with competing pipers for a photo, or try to talk to the player or the judge.
I have witnessed people walk between the piper and the judge, games staff try to move the table or canopy while the competitor is playing, and a sheep dog run through the middle of band’s competition circle. In one of my own competitions, a games volunteer drove a golf cart up and parked it at one end of my marching area, and the driver then tried to engage the judge in conversation. He looked insulted when the judge yelled at him to go away.
This weekend I came face to face with a photographer while I was competing. The tent was near the entrance to the grounds, maybe 50 feet off the path coming in from the parking lot. The guy was walking in as I started my hornpipe and jig, and I saw his face change when he realized “Hey, there’s someone playing bagpipes!” He walked over and took some photos of me while standing in various places: behind the judge, next to the judge, in front of the table, and between me and the judge. I did a nifty sidestep move to maintain eye contact with the judge.
I did make a mistake in my tune (it was the jig by that time), but it wasn’t because of the photographer. It was far more likely that because I hadn’t played that particular tune for a month. (Why would I be playing a tune in competition that I hadn’t played for a month? I said that I enjoy competing, not that I was always smart about it.)
I’ve been looking for any of the photos, but haven’t managed to find them. I don’t know what paper or organization the guy worked for, but if you happen to see a photo of a very cold-looking piper who looks like me and is wearing a raincape, please let me know.
Piping Quote of the Day
A quote (actually a paraphrase) of piping wisdom from Bruce Gandy:
When you have a movement that you are comfortable playing, turn it into an exercise. Make it uncomfortable, so you have to will your fingers to move when you want them to.
He was talking specifically about a crunluath movement, but there’s no reason it can’t apply to every movement in piping. Gaining control over every part of the movement is the key to altering the movement to fit the music of a specific tune.
There’s a reason the guy has won so many top prizes.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: Battle of Auldearn #1
Last week Jori Chisholm announced his third online piping competition, which have been very successful. The first competition was in January and February, and was expanded to include piobaireachd events for the spring competition.
Videos of the winners of each event were posted online, and our tune this week was the winner of the grade 2 piobaireachd. The piper is Stephen Ross, whom I have never met, but I’d like to some day. His tune was the Battle of Auldearn #1.
If you’d like to submit a tune for Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
