Piobaireachd Wednesday: My Dearest On Earth Give Me Your Kiss
This is the final tune from the Gold Medal competition at Winter Storm 2012, and it was the tune that won the contest. Alex Gandy is the player, and he’s a pretty well-known player in the North American piping scene. He is the son of Bruce Gandy, an excellent piper himself, and Alex has established himself as a top-flight soloist. He’s also recently taken over as the pipe major of the 78th Highlanders Halifax Citadel Pipe Band, making him one of the youngest ever to hold that position in a grade 1 band.
His winning tune was My Dearest On Earth Give Me Your Kiss, which is presented without further comment.
If you’d like to submit a tune to be featured on Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: Lament for Captain Donald MacKenzie
Continuing our trek through the prize list from the Gold Medal at Winter Storm 2012, our tune this week comes from Jori Chisholm. Jori has made quite a name for himself as a player, both as a soloist and with the world champion Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, and also as a piping teacher. He’s the piper behind BagpipeLessons.com, and I believe I am correct in saying that he was the first piper to offer lessons over the internet. In 2011 he launched a series of online piping competitions that attracted entries from pipers and judges all over the world; he has also announced another one for spring 2012.
His second place tune at Winter Storm was Lament for Captain Donald MacKenzie, which was the same tune you heard in the last installment by Alastair Lee. That’s one of the drawbacks of having limited choices of tunes, but it’s a good chance to compare how it’s played.
If you’d like to submit a tune to be featured on Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: Lament for Captain Donald MacKenzie
If you haven’t had your fill of Winter Storm piobaireachd, you’re in luck. After working through the Silver Medal prize list, I’m please to offer you the top three finishers in the Gold Medal. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to see all of the performances, but a friend of mine was able to record them and has shared the recordings with me to use for Piobaireachd Wednesday.
Be prepared for a good sit, because the Gold Medal tunes are pretty substantial this year.
We start today with the third place tune, Lament for Captain Donald MacKenzie, played by Alastair Lee. Alastair is, I believe, the son of Terry Lee, pipe major of the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band. Alastair plays with that band, and has distinguished himself as a solo competitor as well.
If you’d like to submit a tune to be featured on Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: The Bicker
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.
Our tune this week is the tune that won the Silver Medal: The Bicker. The player is Colin Clansey, who is from Kingston, Ontario. Colin has been a consistent prizewinner in the Ontario piping scene for at least several years, and according to what I was able to turn up with a few minutes on the internet is that he is the pipe major of the grade 2 Glengarry Pipe Band. This was really a great tune, and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing it person. I hope you enjoy it as well.
If you’d like to submit a tune to be featured on Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
Piobaireachd Wednesday Bonus: Catherine’s Lament
This is the next 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.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: Lament for Donald of Laggan
This is the next 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.
Piobaireachd Wednesday Bonus: You’re Welcome, Ewan Lochiel
This is the next 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: Lament for Mary MacLeod
Welcome to another edition of Piobaireachd Wednesday. Our tune this week is Lament for Mary MacLeod, submitted by John Bottomley of Bethlehem, PA. John is a judge in the EUSPBA, and he sends in one of the prettiest and most musical tunes out there. This recording is from his CD Bagpipe Classics New and Old, which he tells me will soon be available in an online music store.
If you’d like to submit a tune for Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: The End of the Great Bridge
Our tune this week was submitted by Andrew Donlon, a friend of mine who studies piping at the College of Wooster in Wooster, OH. He sends The End of the Great Bridge, which he played in the second round of the Gilchrist Challenge at the Mid-Atlantic Branch’s Delco Workshop in February. He tied for third in the contest, thanks partly to his performance of this tune.
If you’d like to submit a tune to be featured on Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: I Am Proud To Play A Pipe
Our weekly piobaireachd comes from Dave Mason, who was kind enough to let me use one of his recordings in a previous installment. Here is a recording of I Am Proud To Play A Pipe from January 2007.
If you would like to submit a recording for Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: The King’s Taxes
Our tune this week was submitted by Andrew Douglas, the pipe major of the Oran Mor Pipe Band from Albany, NY. He chose to send a recording of The King’s Taxes, which was made during his professional piobaireachd competition at the New Hampshire Highland Games on September 17.
He tells me that he didn’t place in the top six in the contest, which is an indication of how tough the competition was. Thanks for sending your tune, Andrew!
If you’d like to submit a tune for Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: Flame of Wrath
Our tune this week was kindly submitted by Patrick McLaurin of Lubbock, TX. When I asked him if he’d be interested in submitting a tune, he told me that he doesn’t really play piobaireachd. A few days later he sent me A Flame of Wrath For Squinting Patrick, which he had recorded during a practice session. After hearing this I find it hard to believe that Patrick doesn’t play piobaireachd.
This tune is one of my favorites, and it was after hearing it played by the 78th Fraser Highlanders Pipe Band on their “Flame of Wrath“ album that I decided maybe piobaireachd wasn’t so bad after all.
