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.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: Lament for the Viscount of Dundee
I’m contributing to my own Piobaireachd Wednesday this week with a tune that I’ve learned in the past few months: Lament for the Viscount of Dundee. Informally known as “The Viscount,” this is the tune that was the catalyst in the love of piobaireachd that resulting in starting this feature on my blog.
The inspiration for learning it came around quite accidentally. For a while I’ve been thinking I should learn this tune, and one morning in early May I set my iPod on shuffle as I was walking to class. A recording of The Viscount by Roddy MacLeod was the first track to come up, and I enjoyed it so much I listened to it again. My walk to the engineering library is almost exactly twice as long as the tune, and from that day I began listening to it on my walk to school and my walk home. It didn’t take long to have the tune mostly memorized, with only barely looking at the music.
This recording was made yesterday afternoon in the fellowship hall of a church near my home. I used the Audio Recorder application and built-in microphone on my MacBook Pro.
The playing is not perfect, but that’s not the point of Piobaireachd Wednesday. The tune is relatively new for me, and I’m in the process of refining it. As I listen to the recording, I realize I have a lot of refining to do.
If you’d like to submit a recording to be featured on Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: Battle of the Pass of Crieff
Our tune this week is submitted by Vince Janoski, also known as Pipe Hacker. Vince plays with Oran Mor Pipe Band from Troy, NY, and he’s chosen The Battle of the Pass of Crieff, and had this to say about his tune:
I sent along an audio file of me playing “Battle of the Pass
of Crieff” from back in December. It’s a practice recording so
soundwise, my blowing is not the greatest, but not too bad. There is also a
misstep in the A-Mach just near the end that mars what I thought was a
pretty good run through.
I tend to play the tune a bit slower and less driving than is usually
expected. I like to think of it as the rowing tune it probably originally
was, so I’ve been working on getting the momentum going. I’m looking forward
to fielding it at Altamont.
Thanks for sending this in, Vince! If you’d like to submit a recording to be featured on Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: Duntroon’s (MacDonald’s) Salute
For the last year or so I’ve been following videos from the Eagle Pipers Society. From what I understand, the Society was a fixture of the Edinburgh piping scene for many years, having grown out of informal gatherings that started in the shop of Pipe Major George Stoddart. The Society was on hiatus for about 25 years, and then reappeared on the scene in January 2010. They meet on alternate Tuesdays at in Edinburgh, and within a few days some videos and a “match report” appear on their YouTube channel and blog.
I especially enjoy what seems to be a fairly informal setting. Instead of the pressure of competition, it appears to me to be a setting where one can share tunes and be rewarded immediately with a drink. I’d love to start something like this in my area, and have been thinking about it for a while.
Anyway, the is the setting of this week’s Wednesday Piobaireachd. The player is Tracey Williams, the tune is Duntroon’s (MacDonald’s) Salute, which is a silver medal tune for 2011. This was recorded at the August 16 meeting of the Eagle Piper’s Society. Enjoy!
To submit a recording for Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me!
Wednesday Piobaireachd: Desperate Battle of the Birds
This week’s tune is one I recorded at a professional piobaireachd contest a few years ago. The player is Eric Ouellette, who plays with Oran Mor Pipe Band. He’s playing the Desperate Battle of the Birds, which is one of my favorite tunes.
If you’d like to submit a recording to be featured on Piobaireachd Wednesday, please contact me!
Thursday Piobaireachd: MacCrimmon’s Sweetheart
This week we’ll have to settle for a Thursday Piobaireachd instead of Wednesday. Sorry about that.
Again I didn’t have any tunes submitted, so I went crawling the interwebs looking for a good tune. This one came up: visual piobaireachd. Barnaby Brown is rather an expert in many aspects of piobaireachd, and in this video he performs a visual canntaireachd that was developed in the 1970s.
Canntaireachd is an oral teaching tradition that was used to teach piobaireachd before it was ever written down. Each note and embellishment have a specific sound, and by singing them one is able to convey the technical details of the tune (what would be written on the page) as well as the expression and presentation.
In this video, Barnaby Brown adds a visual aspect to the canntaireachd as he sings and signs the ground of Maol Donn, also known as MacCrimmon’s Sweetheart or The Widow’s Grief.
If you’d like to submit a recording to be featured on Piobaireachd Wednesday, please contact me!
Piobaireachd Wednesday: You’re Welcome, Ewan
I did not receive any tunes this week, so I’ve decided to post a piobaireachd that’s out there on the interwebs that I’ve enjoyed listening to. The piper is Dave Mason, who is currently of Cincinnati, OH and formerly of South Africa. He has a few piobaireachd videos on his YouTube channel, and for this week I’ve picked “You’re Welcome, Ewen (Lochiel).” It’s not a tune I was familiar with, but after listening to the video I rather like it. It’s not a long tune, but it is meaty enough to have been on the Silver Medal list.
Happy listening!
Notice that this was not recorded in a competition or performance, and that is exactly what I’m looking for in Piobaireachd Wednesday submission. If you have a tune you’d like to share, please contact me.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: MacLeod’s Controversy
Our tune this week is a special one: MacLeod’s Controversy, played by John MacLellan in 1964.
Here is John MacLellan’s bio From Andrew Lenz’s list of Who’s Who in Bagpiping:
MacLellan, John A., Capt. (1921 – 1991) Scottish. World class piper and composer. A career soldier, initially with the Seaforths and later with the Queens Own Highlanders. At 19, was the youngest PM in the British Army. First piper ever to be commissioned as an officer. Won every major title including Gold medals at Oban and Inverness and the Clasp for Piobaireachd. From 1961-1974 was the Director of Army School of Bagpipe Music. Revised the book, Logan’s Compete Tutor for the Highland Bagpipe and published many collections of bagpipe music including Bagpipe Music for Dancing andCeol Beag agus Ceol Mor. Longtime member of the Piobaireachd Society and was Honorary Secretary of their Music Committee. For a number of years was in demand as a judge at the Argyllshire Gathering and the Northern Meeting. Awarded MBE by the Queen for services to piping in the early 1960s. Ran summer schools for young pipers in North America. His son Colin was born in 1958.
The tune was sent to me by his son Colin, a distinguished piper himself, whom I met at a piping summer school a few years ago. Thanks for sending it in!
To submit a recording to be featured on Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me at jnwahlgren@gmail.com.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: Lament for Donald of Lagaan
The next installment in our Piobaireachd Wednesday series comes from Marty McKeon, of Lancaster, PA. Marty is a friend of mine, and I invited him to think about recording a tune for us. He’s playing Lament for Donald of Lagaan.
The Lament for Donald of Lagaan is my submission. My name is Marty McKeon and I am a Grade IV piper within EUSPA. Like Nate, Piobaireachd is my passion. I’ve been learning this tune for several years and it continues to keep my interest. I find my self continually learning about ways to improve this tune which is likely why I still enjoy playing it. From what I’ve been told, it is one of the greats. There is no better time than the present so I made this recording in my basement, July 7th 2011. Thank you Nate for being an advocate for all players.
My pleasure Marty; thanks for sharing a tune with us!
To submit a recording to be featured on Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me at jnwahlgren@gmail.com.
Piobaireachd Wednesday: Lament for Liam
Here’s the first reader-submitted tune for Piobaireachd Wednesday. Today’s tune comes to us from John Bottomley of Bethlehem, PA. John is a piping judge in the EUSPBA and a self-desribed piobaireachd fanatic.
His tune for us this week is from his most recent CD, Back To My Roots. The tune is Lament for Liam, and was composed by John himself. From the description on the back of his CD,
I composed this tune for a friend and former student of mine, and for her family. Their son, Liam, passed away the day before he was born; a devastating loss, but through this personal loss and in memory of Liam, special-needs young people are rewarded yearly for their educational endeavors. To learn more about the fund, log onto www.lifeisamiracle.org.
To submit a recording to be featured on Piobaireachd Wednesday, please email me at jnwahlgren@gmail.com.
Readers’ Piobaireachd Wednesday
I’ve recently been bitten by the piobaireachd bug. I’ve always enjoyed it, but I’ve learned a few new tunes that I really like, and it’s all I want to play.
I’d like to start a new feature here on the blog called Piobaireachd Wednesday, where I highlight a reader-submitted piobaireachd video or recording each Wednesday morning.
Why Wednesday? Well Wednesday is of course hump day, and I figure that listening to a piobaireachd on Wednesday morning is a good way to get to the top of that hump and begin the race to the weekend.
I am actively soliciting submissions from you, dear reader, of your recordings or videos. Please email me a link to your video or audio recording, the name of the tune, when and where the recording was made, and why you like the tune. Your recording can be new or old, amateur or professional, practice or performance, perfect or not so perfect, but please make it yours.
This is not a venue for criticism or judgment, but rather to share some tunes for other to appreciate in a low-pressure setting. Play any tune you wish, from an old favorite to a new tune you’re working on for competition to one that you’ve written. I’ll use any video you’d like to submit.
I’ll start the feature with a recording of mine; the tune is The MacFarlanes’ Gathering. The player is me, the video recorded in April 2010 in a grade 1 piobaireachd contest in Concord, NH. I first learned this tune in 2004 when I began competing regularly, and when I won my first contest it was playing this tune.
Enjoy!
