Piping Times

From our ‘Famous Pipers’ column.....
“What never failed to impress me down the years was his vast repertoire of the ‘light music’ tunes. In all the years I went to him there was only one occasion when I caught him out by playing a tune he did not know, and that was because it was one that had been composed by Harold Smith of the BB. He could at ‘the drop of a hat ‘ play all the heavy marches, strathspeys and reels. Yes, I said all. There never was one occasion when I saw him ‘stumped’ either on the practice chanter or pipe to play any tune.....”

From our ‘Opinion’ column.....
“The following seems to be generally agreed: Archibald Campbell was a toff; he was intelligent and well educated; he was not a great player, but he did study piobaireachd in depth, receiving tuition from three of the greats of piping history - Sandy Cameron, John MacDougall Gillies, John MacDonald (Inverness) - and he made extensive notes on the teaching he received.....”

From the review of the new Gaelic Tutor 1.....
“Mercy upon us! A rare book has appeared in the piping world. The green cover is familiar, but every word is written in a strange, exotic language. Last year, the College of Piping and its Principal, Robert Wallace, commissioned an Inverness couple, Finlay MacNeill and his wife Morag, to produce a Gaelic version of the best-selling College Tutor for the Highland Bagpipe: what an admirable fist they made of it!.....”

From the March Editorial.....
“Those who actually love the music will find no difficulty with it. It will be seen as pleasure not a chore. On the other hand the piper who grudgingly plays ceol mor because it is part of the discipline, something he or she must do in order to make a name for themselves, may in fact get that illusive Gold Medal. Sheer graft and a good bagpipe are often enough.....”

From our ‘Famous Pipers’ column.....
“JB was the best player for dancing he had ever encountered. Jimmie danced professionally and spoke with both knowledge and authority. Little did I realize that as I made my way to Warwick Square, Victoria, London, where JB lived in retirement from the Scots Guards, that this was the start of what was to become a monthly pilgrimage.....”

From our ‘Be a Better Piper’ column.....
“Good maintenance should be a given regardless of the standard of the piper concerned. Cork all stocks, insert a blowstick and blow up the bag. The valve should be working correctly and the bag should stay up very tight. Try to twist the stocks in the bag. They should be tied in firmly. This applies to all types of bags.....”

From our story about new funding for young students.....
"Subsidised lessons at the College mean under 18s only pay £12 per hour for a one-to-one lesson, or £10 if they are a College member. Evening class rates for youngsters are £40 for a ten week term. All College lessons are subsidised from profits from the CoP Shop and from donations. The College also teaches students of low means for free. The Robertson Trust was established by the Miss Robertson sisters in May 1961. Misses Elspeth, Agnes and Ethel donated the shares in the Group founded by their grandfather, William Robertson to the Trust for charitable purposes....."

From our 'Be a Better Composer' column.....
"Being posted to Fort George in 1949 as a National Serviceman meant that I was with Pipe-Major Donald McLeod. Later on, this fragile connection resulted with him taking an interest in my compositions. He was extremely complimentary about tunes that really should have gone into the waste paper basket, and Seumas MacNeill who took the same kindly view, followed him as helper and guide. However, every now and again one would receive a golden rule and sometimes a golden rocket....."

From Angus Nicol's concluding article on Gaelic pronunciation of tune names:
"The word dubh of course primarily means black, but it bears many other meanings which are not necessarily to be found in the dictionaries. These include dark, hidden, wicked, devilish, Satan, sad. A sgian dubh, for instance, is so called because it used to be carried....."

PT Excerpts from January 2008

From Angus Nicol’s detailed analysis of the Gaelic names of piobaireachd.....
“'Scarce of Fishing' is a curio because of the meaning of spìocaireachd (speechkerochk).
Dwelly gives the following meanings: dastardliness, pusillanimity, insignificance, meanness, niggardliness, churlishness, parsimony. Some of them could bear a significance not unrelated to scarcity, but why choose that word when there might be others more apt? There are other names for this tune.....”

From January’s Editorial.....
“Another aim of the book seems to be to give credence to the existence of an 18th century ‘school’ of style and interpretation which held to a completely different way of timing piobaireachd from what we have today. Where is the evidence for this? All the book confirms and records is a different way of writing the music.....”

From the report on the BAG.....
"We asked existing and future members for funds through extended or lifetime membership, donations and interest-free loans. Support was tremendous, so that by the end of the meeting pledges covered the complete outstanding debts of the BAG. The actual funds available on the accounts of the BAG, just from contributions in the last seven days, already cover two thirds of the requirements for meeting any debt. Thus the BAG is already saved from insolvency. Further funds are being pledged towards the BAG every day.....”

PT Excerpts from December 2007

From the report on the Glenfiddich Championship.....
“The Balvenie Medal for services to piping went to Andrew Wright, teacher par excellence and recently retired President of the Piobaireachd Society. Andrew was given a well deserved ovation as he modestly stepped forward to receive the medal. Before we head from the castle to the ceilidh one word of criticism.....”

From the Analysis column on Gaelic pronunciation.....
“We are now little short of 60 years further on in time, and the last decade or so has seen a strong recrudescence of both interest in the language and (contrary to the expressed view and hope of successive anti-Gaelic governments of either flavour) in the number of Gaelic speakers. A study of the Gaelic names of ceòl mór is not without interest, in spite of the ‘hopeless tangle’ into which piobaireachd nomenclature has fallen over the centuries.....”

From our ‘Be a Better Piper’ column.....
“A reed which does not vibrate at this early stage will be no use for solo piping unless it is pared down with sandpaper or knife. Therefore the beginner or amateur piper is advised to seek those which respond readily lest he or she spends good money on a reed which requires skills they do not have to bring it into playing condition.....”

PT Excerpts from November 2007

From our History column.....
“They enlisted in the Royal Scots in 1914, William in the 9th Battalion and Isaac in the 7th Battalion. Interestingly, they both played on the right shoulder and were pipers with ‘more than a local reputation’ according to a newspaper report at the time. My great grandmother told the story of being in her grandmother Sarah’s house when the official telegram arrived informing her of the death of both of her sons.....”

David Murray on ‘Long Reveille’.....
“The procedure for Long Reveille was laid down in ‘The Drum and Flute Duty’ published in 1816 where ‘Reveille’ is also named ‘The Mother and Three Camps’. Nobody knows precisely what it means. In ‘The Drum and Flute Duty’, Long Reveille begins in slow time with ‘The Point of War’. Then comes ‘Old Mother Reilly’, which we call ‘Granny Duncan’. We have ‘lifted’ it, note for note, from the flutes.....”

From our News column on post-Jacobite pipes.....
"The bores of the drones appears to have been well made but not polished. The style matches closely with wood working techniques used in the middle to late 18th century. The pipe weighs less than any other bagpipe I have held due to the wood used and the tone is very subdued and pleasant. It pitches some 40-50 points below a modern bagpipe using 480mhz as a modern standard....."

PT Excerpts from September 2007

From our in-depth report on the Worlds.....
“Most bands had a good sound and we can probably thank technical advances in reeds, bags, tuners etc for that. That they are failing to use this good tone to best effect by producing good MSR music on tuneful instruments should be a cause for concern and I feel I may have identified one of the causes.....”

From our report on piping posture.....
“As regards the bagpipe, make sure you are comfortable in every way. Do not play a bag that is too big. Make sure the blowstick is exactly the right length for you. Remember the head should be neither tilted forward nor back – nor to the side. Keep the chanter in front of the body and finger the pipe chanter as you would the practice chanter. There is an added strain when playing the pipes.....”

From September’s ‘Analysis’ column.....
“At the 2006 Northern Meeting I heard the tune being played, apparently modelled on RU Brown's giving of the tune. If there was a deficiency in timing it was in the notes referred to and it would have taken very little to improve the presentation. The piper got into the prize list which, of itself, was encouraging, demonstrating that benches are accepting styles which differ from the ‘book’.....”

PT Excerpts from August 2007

From this month’s Editorial.....
“You can, of course, believe most of what you read in this magazine and that is why there will always be a place for 'hard copy' publishing as we call it. Print is perennial and therefore the need to get facts right and confirm sources much more pressing. The ephemeral nature of cyberspace means flawed material can be removed in an instant. This safety net makes for lazy reporting and bad journalism. Thus pipers who resort solely to the internet for their information will never get a complete or accurate picture.....”

From our ‘Famous Pipers’ column on P/M Donald MacLeod.....
“I duly arrived and I learned that three of us would be playing in the mess:
Pipe Major MacLeod, who was perhaps the greatest piper, composer and tutor of all time, the depot piper who shall be nameless but who was somewhere approaching the opposite end of the piping spectrum from the pipe major, and myself who was somewhere in between the two of them. I met with the pipe major prior to our rehearsal and he told me the names of the tunes we would play.....”

From our latest piece on ‘Piper’s Palsy’.....
“I had several medical examinations, consultations and therapies such as chiropractic (which did me a lot of good in other domains). As there was nothing wrong at the physical level, I followed psychological treatment, shiatsu and a treatment with a magnetizer. These therapies did lot of good to me but did not succeed in healing what touched my musician's heart....."

PT Excerpts from June 2007:

From June’s Editorial:.....
“ We will stay on the subject of money. The Northern Meeting Piping Sub-Committee has seen fit to increase their competition entry fees to £40, yes that's right £40 ($80US), with a dispensation that those entering only one event will pay a mere £30. Their comment that 'it is intended that these fees will stay at the same level for a few years' is hardly consolation for pipers struggling to meet their mortgage repayments.....”

From our ‘Be a Better Piper’ column:.....
“The question now arises, which brand of reed? Carbon fibre, resin, plastic, lacquered cane the list goes on. I have only one specific recommendation: play reeds which suit your pipes. They should take very little air, strike in easily and produce a tone which is as near that of cane as is possible.....”

From this month’s ‘History’ column on the 1928 Northern Meeting:.....
“John Wilson of Edinburgh was third with a very sweet rendering of Glengarry’s March and fourth placed Pipe Major Robert Reid, 7 th HLI, played an interesting tune called The End of the Great Bridge. The bridge in question being the big bridge over the Spean which was the scene of the very first patrol fighting of the ’45. The March, Strathspey and Reel competition for the Silver Star of the Royal Scottish Pipers’ Society was won by.....”

PT Excerpts from May 2007

From our 'Traditional Teaching' article:.....
"All those who have used staff notation have used it as ‘pipers’ jargon’, and it must be seen as an attempt to record the received ways of tunes, not as an invitation to put whatever interpretation one likes on the written score. To contend otherwise seems to require one to believe that the ways of the tunes as transmitted by playing and singing, the subtleties learned by ear (many of them consistent as between one ‘school’ and another) are themselves of no greater authority than the written scores....."

From our latest instalment on 'Piper's Palsy':.....
" It may be more likely that the victim can no longer perform the specific task fluently and reliably, even though similar but non-specific transitions may be child’s play. The temptation to think of it as a phobia should probably be resisted but, whatever the exact nature of its origin, once it becomes entrenched, it becomes a phobia, magnified in the mind to a highly distressing and destructive degree....."

Robert Wallace writing about the CoP Winter School:.....
"The school drew students from England, Germany of course, Austria,Switzerland and Holland. It was sponsored by D Naill and Co who presented practice chanters to the top twenty students and a set of pipes to Daniel Fuhr, considered by the instructors as the most outstanding prospect at the school. Instructors were myself, Barry Donaldson, Joe Wilson, Robert Watt, Stuart Cassells and Dave Johnston....."

PT Excerpts from April 2007:

From April's Editorial.....
"Two years after the PT campaign to get the BBC to cover what is one of the biggest outdoor events in the Scottish calendar the changes necessary to keep the television executives happy are not being made. This situation will not go on forever....."

From the 'Piper's Palsy' article.....
"The term Piper’s Palsy, snappy though it may be, is unfortunate. Palsy means actual paralysis and, since there is no actual paralysis, the term is inaccurate. There may of course be pipers with genuine paralysis and there are many recognisable and defined musculo-skeletal conditions that affect pipers and other musicians....."

From our 'Opinion' column.....
"Some of the work of modern editors and academic writers has been critical (sometimes by implication, but – particularly in the works of Dr William Donaldson – sometimes very specifically) of the work of Archibald Campbell and of The Piobaireachd Society, as contained in The Piobaireachd Society collection and The Kilberry Book of Ceol Mor....."

PT Excerpts from March 2007:

From our 'Vistor's View' feature:.....
"A quick break for lunch and to catch up with a few more people and into the Grade 1 finals. This surely did range from the very good to the sublime... with the highlight for me being Field Marshal Montgomery's medley – it fulfilled all the criteria for a world champion performance -Difficult, Musical and Very Well Played.....

From our 'Lady Pipers' feature:.....
"An English correspondent wrote that playing the bagpipe made women look ugly and should be deprecated but most of them became tired of it on reaching maturity when it was hoped they would regain their feminine elegance. “Arms too short to go round the bag, head cocked on one side....."

From the MacArthur dynasty story:.....
"Of their relatives, Angus was in London, a potentially expensive place to go for a piping education, Donald on Skye had died in a boating accident, and his brother Alexander was probably by that time also in London and in any case judging by his own testimony in 1800, still needed ‘finishing’ by Donald MacCrimmon, so it is not unreasonable to suppose that both boys probably went to Donald MacCrimmon....."

PT Excerpts from February 2007:

From February's Editorial on the 1707 Act of Union:.....
"It seems inconceivable to us that our instrument might have suffered extinction. But it did elsewhere in Europe where economic failure, as ever, led to cultural decline, shifting population and breaks with the traditions of the past. Yes, the Act of Proscription of 1747 and the tacit understanding that to play a bagpipe could end in death, almost did for us anyway but by the time of its repeal in 1782 a new order had taken root, one that was in a position to make amends for some of the excesses of the past....."

From the report on the new John MacColl book:.....
“A few years ago on an early fall afternoon resting on a fallen tree trunk while running my dog, I got to counting how many John MacColl compositions I was aware of. While the number of tunes published in the modern collections is impressive, I had a feeling that a man of his skill had to have done more. This is when the idea started to germinate that it would be beneficial for all pipers to have every one of John MacColl’s compositions in one collection....."

From February's 'Be a Better Piper ' column:.....
"Every good instrument begins with a good bag. This must be airtight, comfortable and moisture friendly. By that I mean it must play its part in keeping the reeds dry. I am always being asked which bag should the piper play....."

PT Excerpts from January 2007

From the report on the new Lecture Hall:.....
'Principal Robert Wallace said: "At the moment I think the College of Piping must be the only educational establishment in the world which does not have a Lecture Hall and we aim to put that right this year. We appreciate the enthusiastic support and assistance that pipers have given us and we hope this will continue. The College staff, the teachers, the Museum of Piping, the Piping Times, and our dedicated volunteers are all working hard at providing the service that the College has always given to piping over 60 plus years. Free advice, subsidised lessons, free museum admission, free CoP TV and Radio on the internet, and affordable publications are all part of what we do as a registered charity and not for profit organisation.....'

From our report on reed manipulation:.....
'Reeds often arrive too hard, or harder to blow than ideal. On many occasions this is because the mouth of the reed is too big. A gentle squeeze is a good fix for this and ‘trains’ the mouth to stay the perfect size during the blowing-in process.....'

From our Lady Pipers column:.....
'‘The crux of the whole question is physique. For a woman I am exceptionally well endowed physically, but I feel it would be preposterous on my part to contend for honours with male performers. The truth of the matter is that few women are strong enough to become proficient bagpipe players, and even the strongest of us must be at a great disadvantage in a piping contest with men.....'

PT Excerpts from December 2006

Andrew Wright on the spread of the piobaireachd repertory.....
"In the Grade A and the Grade B piobaireachd events, a total of 43 competitors entered names of some 90 different tunes for the consideration of the judges. This figure is of some significance as it represents about a quarter of the available repertory. It also represents more than one third of the total number of tunes published by the Piobaireachd Society in their current series of books started in 1925 and now numbering 15. ....."

Mary Ann MacKinnon on women's dress.....
"I read the editorial of the last edition (Vol. 59, No. 1) of the Piping Times with much amusement. First of all, to quote Robert Burns, who was essentially a womaniser and probably would have been had up for all kinds of things in this day and age, was not a good start. To then follow this by saying that some of the “lassies insist on…ruining their female form...."

From our feature on 'toun' pipers.....
"The main duty of the burgh piper would seem to be to circumnavigate the town in the morning and evening to signal the start and end of the day. Mackenzie tells in his History of Scotland that the pipers, ‘evenings and mornings and other times needful march through the town to refresh the lieges....."

PT Excerpts from November 2006

From our report on the Northern Meeting....
"With the number of people in the room it soon got very warm but better that I suppose, than playing in a cold empty hall. The standard of playing in this competition ranged from poor to good but never reached any great height. It was disappointing to listen to some competitors who, by all accounts, had been playing well throughout the season but just failed to do so on the main stage. Once again tempos, lack of expression, untidy execution and drone balance were the main faults....."

From our 'world's top pipe majors' story.....
"This total includes the two World Championships held in 1947, the new SPBA one in Edinburgh, and the usual one at Cowal where the Glasgow Police successfully defended the title they had held since 1936. Despite the interruption of WW2, their 1947 win was the sixth in a row for the police and P/M John MacDonald should not be denied this achievement...."

From our sound archive feature.....
"A collection of several hundred cassette tapes which were made by Archie Kenneth is also deposited in the museum and these are in process of being indexed. Archie Kenneth was on the Music Committee of the Piobaireachd Society for about 15 years during which time he had been working with Archie Campbell of Kilberry. When Archie Campbell died Archie Kenneth took over as editor of the Society Collections. Archie was the nephew of the Society’s President John Graham Campbell of Shirvan....."

PT Excerpts from October 2006

From October's Editorial.....
'So the ladies were fully part of the piping firmament and have gone on to distinguish themselves in the major events ever since. Notwithstanding this, we prefer not to segregate pipers into male or female. You are either a piper or you are not in our view. Where we do draw the line however is in the matter of the kilt. We realise we are on dangerous ground here.....'

From the item on the new PDQB/ IoP Piobaireachd Certificate.....
'The new exam has been ratified by the Piping and Drumming Qualifications Board (PDQB), of which the Institute is a member, and now becomes part of the PDQB’s combined syllabus. The certificate is open to pipers who hold the Institute’s Level 4 certificate (soon to be PDQB Level 4). The requirements are.....'

From our report on the 2006 Argyllshire Gathering.....
'For those that have not attended Oban it is important to say that the lights system is operated both there and at Inverness whereby each player is allowed three minutes tuning time at which point an amber light is lit and a further one minute before a red light is illuminated. At this point the player is expected to begin his tune immediately or face potential disqualification. Now as the morning progressed the room where the competition was being played got warmer and warmer.....'

PT Excerpts from September 2006

From our report on the Silver Chanter.....
"After a welcome from John MacLeod of Macleod, Fear an Tighe Finlay MacRae introduced the pipers and their tunes and the judge for the evening, Hugh MacCallum, himself many times a winner of the Silver Chanter. Health and Safety regulations deemed that the audience numbers had to be cut this year but there was a packed drawing room in Dunvegan Castle to hear Iain Speirs, who won last year’s Silver Chanter, begin with that dramatic piece A Flame of Wrath. His pipe was....."

From our report on the Worlds.....
"Yet again the Association delivered a very fine spectacle, well run and administered despite the logistics of handling 236 bands and some 8,000 bands people. With the huge crowds I hope they are getting sufficient of the gate money. By my arithmetic the receipts should have been close to £300,000. With a sizeable cut of that kind of loot the RSPBA HQ in Washington Street should be getting....."

From this month's History column, Norman Matheson's memories of Angus MacPherson..... "When the first stag was shot, I was amused to see Jim rescuing the stomach from the gralloch and washing it in a lochan. He explained, 'Angus is awful fond of the pocaich a buidhe'. Thereafter he was regularly supplied with this apparent delicacy....."

PT Excerpts from August 2006

From this month's Editorial.....
"According to the website of the United States Department of Agriculture the piper’s favourite tree has many other uses. The roots can be used to treat abdominal pain, hernia, and gonorrhoea. The smoke from burning roots can be used to treat sore throats and bronchitis. Extractions from the bark can be used to clean wounds and the leaves are excellent for heart problems, dysentery and syphilis....."

From our report on the British PB Champs.....
"The bands are enjoying their music again even if their tone might not have been up to standard. And why shouldn’t they? King George V’s Army, Drunken Piper, The 79th’s, Teribus are great tunes, miles ahead in playing requirement and melodic quality than some of the rootless, gutless 4/4 ‘horn marches’ I’ve railed on about before....."

From David Murray's 'My Month' column on Archie MacNab.....
"When World War 2 broke out in September 1939 Archie volunteered for the army. He was going through basic training at Fort George when General Wimberley commanding the Highland Division inspected the squad. When Archie admitted to being a piper, the General said ‘Then come into the Camerons! We always look after our pipers!’ And so Archie was commissioned as an officer in the Cameron Highlanders....."

PT Excerpts from July 2006

From our news pages.....
" The legendary Donald Macpherson (83) will be the main attraction at the World’s Week events organised by the College of Piping. In a not to be missed historical opportunity Donald (right)will meet enthusiasts during a lunchtime talk. He’ll show off his pipes and chanter, the instruments with which he became the greatest competitive piper of the modern age and be available to sign his latest CD recordings....."

From David Murray's 'My Month' column.....
"On the authorship of the 9/8 march ‘The Battle of the Somme’ I prefer to keep an open mind. A few years after the Great War ended, the 8th Argylls published a collection of tunes composed by pipers who had served with the battalion. The collection was based mainly on tunes composed by Pipe Major John MacLellan DCM of Dunoon, and full of music they are too, although unlikely to appeal to the modern taste....."

From Tony Laverick's 'Bellows' column.....
" Cocks is categorical in saying that “The practising chanter, which is blown directly from the mouth is fingered in the same manner as the proper instrument, and it cannot be over emphasised that it is the practising chanter which makes the piper.”....."

PT Excerpts from June 2006:

David Murray on the BBC’s ‘Pipeline’ show.....
‘Now of course we’ve got a whole hour every Saturday, and indeed the whole concept of piping has changed over the last few years. But as I sit listening, I find myself thinking back to the old days when we had to remember that what the audience wanted to hear was piping, and good piping at that, well played and based on the genuine repertoire of the Highland pipe.....’

From our ‘Famous Pipers’ column.....
‘In 1908 father and son decided to emigrate to Australia where they continued their pipe making business, although not for long, as John died in 1913 and James in 1919. The family bagpipe making tradition was continued by descendants of two of James’ sisters. The eldest girl married Robert Gillanders, an employee of the Centers.....’

From our special report on pipers who died on Flanders Fields.....
‘Nevertheless many hundreds of pipers would die in the war of 1914 to 1918. At the front in Flanders alone we've discovered to this day 63 names of pipers who got mortally wounded or killed in action. These are their names.....’

PT Excerpts from May 2006:

P/M Calum MacKenzie on the Highlanders tour of duty in Iraq.....
“Although based at the former Ba’athist Shatt Al Arab Hotel, there was little luxurious about the tents that we lived in for six months. The summer was coming to an end as we arrived in October 05, but the temperature still exceeded 40C at its peak. The winter temperature dropped and brought with it rain, floods and a quagmire; few of us expected to be working in the desert dreaming of welly boots.....”

From David Murray’s latest ‘My Month’ column.....
“He considered that Archibald Campbell lacked both the practical piping ability and the depth of piping knowledge required in an effective and qualified editor. Archibald Campbell, for his part, although conceding that Somerled had won prizes at the Scottish Pipers’ Society competitions, was dismissive of his opinions.....”

From Dugald MacNeill’s ‘Analysis’ column.....
“Joseph MacDonald in his ‘Complete Theory’ described them as ‘na crahinin’ which translates as ‘the shakes’, although he says that they are ‘probably a beat not a shake, tho’ in Erse the word implies as much’. Some have reckoned them to be similar to, or a form of, a double echo beat, but the more correct description for them in our terms would be grips.....”

PT Excerpts from April 2006:

From our Editorial.....
“Dugald MacNeill took to the lectern and delivered an erudite and well researched paper on the history of the competition pipe march taking us via the quickstep and General Wade’s roads, to Angus and Hugh MacKay, the great 20th century composers such as John MacColl, Willie Lawrie, GS McLennan and Willie Fergusson.....”

From our feature on the Museum of Piping.....
“Whether studying for Institute of Piping examinations, or researching old instruments, or the history of pipe music, or famous piping families, we have the resources to provide the information either from our library and archives or from our free internet facilities. Members of the Piobaireachd Society and students on the Scottish Music and Piping degree courses at the Royal Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD), and our own HNC Stow College students, are regular visitors.....”

From our news story on the PDQB exams.....
“The fact that the five separate bodies working for piping and drumming have come together in this way is something to celebrate in itself. If we can gain recognition from the SQA then the impact of these new exams will be felt in schools and colleges and enable students to take their piping and drumming studies right up to degree level.....”

PT Excerpts from March 2006:

From this month's Editorial.....
'The solo world needs to take a lesson from the bands. The RSPBA has an adjudicator training programme after which the tyro is given trial runs, has his (or her) crit sheets assessed, and all before being allowed loose on the competition arena. The same needs to happen in solo piping.....'

From our 'Analysis' column.....
'Port Urlar in the new Book 12 (red cover) and the old 1978 book (salmon pink) are both taken from the Campbell Canntaireachd. The main changes in the new version are that the tune has been put into 3/4from 4/4 time and some additional cadence Es added on D in line 3 and 4. Despite this I think there is still room for improvement as I will contend below.....'

From our article on the half-long pipes.....
However, during the Great War there were no fewer than four battalions of the Northumberland Fusiliers that did maintain pipe bands playing the Highland bagpipe. They were the battalions of the 103rd Tyneside Scottish Brigade, which according to the recruiting poster was ‘quickly being filled with the Toughest, Hardest, and Best Tyneside Fighting Men’. The poster was headed ‘Scotland for Ever’.....'

PT Excerpts from February 2006:

From our History column:.....

'The music of James Scott Skinner, the ‘Strathspey King’, is still popular with traditional musicians and his tunes are often heard, played by fiddlers, dance bands and pipers. Some of his most popular tunes from among the 600 published.....'

From our report on the London Championship:.....

'Later as the day progressed the bar area at the Glaziers quickly filled with its annual tryst of luminaries. This social aspect of the Championship is also one of the most important. Away from the cut and thrust of competition old friends get a chance to meet and catch up.....'

From David Murray's column on Scotland's new regiment:.....

'However, at the time of writing the Pipes and Drums are to wear the uniforms of the old regiments. The pipers of both the Royal Scots and the KOSB wore the Royal Stuart tartan, so no problems there, although belt buckles and ornaments, plaid brooches and sporran cantles will have to be sorted out. A word of warning from one who has been there! This is the time when pipe band kit not wanted for the new regiment disappears without trace, to turn up later in the tourist shops along the Royal Mile.....'

PT Excerpts from January 2006

Angus J Maclellan on the Glenfiddich.....'After a short break the M.S.R. section followed and in this event there was a real mixed bag of very good playing and some not so good with little bits of untidy fingering and the odd mistake. Judges for this competition were Iain Morrison, James Banks and the writer; consequently my remarks will be limited but just for the record here are the tunes played and brief comments of each performance.....'

Robert Wallace on piping in bands.....'Time without number, especially in the lower grades, the band instrument is raucous, hard to blow and impossible to listen to in a solo context. Yet is every band piper not a soloist when he or she practices at home? Should they not make a pleasant sound when doing so?.....'

From the January Opinion column.....'However, I have read from more than one source that people who publish books of pipe music these days have difficulty making a financial go of it, and that isn't good for anyone. Either the piping world has to stop making illegal photocopies and stop downloading material from the internet, or they have to get behind a legal way to get the copies they want without purchasing the books.....'

PT Excerpts from December 2005

Robert Wallace on the GS Manuscript:.....‘Eighty-eight tunes in his own hand, very few, if any, without merit. They are written in a clear, distinctive style with dots and tails not overused. Many of the tunes, but not all, have been published in one form or another in the Gordon Highlanders Collection or in GS’s own book. Some have very revealing anecdotes attached. This is what he writes about the reel ‘Willie Murray’.....'

David Murray on the Camerons in India:.....‘The battalion had then sweltered in a tented camp, spending its back pay enjoying the fleshpots of Calcutta. After the boys had wrecked the cinema that had been showing a US film starring Errol Flynn, the All-American hero of the time, retaking Burma single-handed, it was suggested that we might have outstayed our welcome. We then found ourselves banished to a place in the middle of Hyderabad State in South India fifty miles from the nearest town. A ‘Jewel in the Crown’, it wasn’t.....’

RSPBA’s Ian Embelton on the news that the BBC is to record the World Pipe Band Championships:....."This is wonderful news for the piping and pipe band communities. Our marketing and media officials and myself had meetings with the BBC over the past year or so but the clincher came when the Piping Times launched its campaign and gathered so many names supporting the idea of televising the Worlds".....’

PT Excerpts from November 2005

From our report on the liquidation of pipemakers RG Hardie:..... 'Dozens of pipers have been left in the lurch by the crash. Typical was one man from Brechin in Angus who contacted the Piping Times office. He did not wish to be named but said he was ‘disgusted’ at the way he had been treated.....'

From our report on the Northern Meeing:.....'The main auditorium was
spacious and comfortable for the audience though some competitors found the ventilating system very disturbing when tuning the bagpipe on the stage and it has to be admitted there was certain areas where it appeared the drones were unsteady when in fact they were not.....'

From David Murray's 'My Month' column:.....'When the British captured Mandalay in Burma in April 1945 it was decided that the occasion demanded some ceremony. The instruments of the 1st Royal Scots, the 8th Gordons, and the 1st Cameron Highlanders were hastily flown up from India. When General Bill Slim raised the British flag over Mandalay Fort the massed pipes and drums of the three regiments struck up ‘Scotland the Brave’.....'

PT Excerpts from October 2005

From our report on the Argyllshire Gathering:.....'I would also ask the Music Committee of the Piobaireachd Society to set a slightly longer list of tunes to give more variety to the audience. Hearing the same tune four times on the same day is a bit much for anyone.....'

From Mr Paul McComish re the Band Room/RG Hardie:.....'Customers who placed their trust in you to provide goods and services are let down, as are suppliers, and I am so sorry for this as, many of them were my friends and colleagues in the pipe band world. No one would ever want to go through that voluntarily. It is incredibly difficult to deal with.....'

From our History column for October:.....'Colin Campbell of Carwhin died in 1772, so when his cousin the third Earl of Breadalbane died in 1782, the title moved sideways and Carwhin's eldest son John became the fourth Earl. It was therefore the fourth Earl who was to receive a petition from Colin Campbell which sheds more light on the background to the author of the canntaireachd manuscript.....'

PT Excerpts from September 2005

From the report on the BBC petition.....“Things seem to be moving the right way and any success that we have has been brought about by the encouragement and support of the readers of the Piping Times. We should keep up the pressure until we get a respectable amount of air time for piping on BBC Scotland Television.....

From the report on the World Pipe Band Championships.....“However that all changed with the medley where all Shotts’ vast experience – they celebrate their 95th Anniversary this year - came to bear. They were outstanding, with a combination of brilliance of tone, technique and ensemble innovation that held the attention throughout.....”

From September’s Editorial on proposed changes to the Piobaireachd Society’s Music Committee.....“It would seem prima facie that there is in fact a clear definition of responsibility. One man (never described as editor) prepares the book for the committee who authorise and approve its content. It is then offered to the General Committee who approve the financing of the publication. The system has worked well. As we have written many times, the books have been an overwhelming success. Probably the greatest achievement in piping in the 20th century.....”

PT Excerpts from August 2005

From our tribute to John Burgess.....“ The following day John lay beneath his Ancient Hunting Ross plaid, on which Sheila and children John and Margaret had placed his bagpipe, his MBE, and his two Gold Medals, with his Cameron cap badge, blue hackle, and regimental ring. Sheila’s father’s practice chanter, which John had preferred to use, was also placed there, with one of John’s plaid brooches, and the silver statuette of Pipe Major Ronald MacKenzie, 78th Ross-shire Buffs, which Sheila and John, at considerable personal sacrifice, had ensured remained in Ross-shire.....”

From David Murray’s ‘My Month’ column.....“It seems to me that the ‘appoggiatura’ theory, applied correctly, supports Reid’s way of playing the hiharin, and from what I recall of James Campbell’s playing, which I heard only on cassette, he too dwelt on the low ‘A’. This difference in interpretation can be dismissed as a technicality, but the fact is that where the hiharin begins a phrase or ends a line in piobaireachd, which it often does, the whole scansion of the piece can be distorted when ‘E’ and ‘A’ are given equal value.....”

PT Excerpts from July 2005

From the interview with Dr Roddy Ross.....“I remember Angus [MacPherson] used to run a ceilidh at the Northern Meetings on the first night. He was a very good chairman and he got up one night and he announced ‘we’ve got the oldest piper and the youngest piper here tonight’. The oldest was P/M Robert Meldrum who was in his early 80s and I was about 14 and I played the Glen is Mine. I can’t remember what Meldrum played but I don’t suppose there are many men alive who can say they heard him play.....”

From the report on the Junior Guineas competition in South Africa.....“This year’s competition was almost up to standard but marred by too many pipers playing tunes above their ability level. The prizewinners all did their best however with the winner particularly accomplished with Beloved Scotland. In my closing remarks to the assembled parents, tutors and competitors I addressed this issue and later suggested that a prescribed list of 20 tunes thought suitable for an under-18 piobaireachd event might be one way forward.....”

PT Excerpts from June 2005

From our story on how an important set of pipes were discovered in a
Glasgow auction house.....“ I happened to be passing the Glasgow auctioneers McTears when I noticed that it included some Scottish Militaria, sgian dubh and the like. I had a quick look round and was just about to leave when I noticed that underneath a display cabinet was set of pipes.....”

From David Murray’s story on the ‘Phantom Piper of the Corrieyairack’.....“We were about 80 strong, the column headed by our pipers, Iain MacFadyen with the 1957 Northern Meeting Gold Medal under his belt, Ian Fraser a pupil of Rothiemurchus’s from Carrbridge, nicknamed ‘Sheriff’ of course, and Jock Smart, a former boy soldier, good players all. No matter how long the march, they were always up for a blow when the boys began to feel the distance.....”

From June’s Editorial.....“If Australia seems to be struggling on the solo front the same cannot be said amongst its bands. Pipers both here and in the southern hemisphere are still awed by the performances of Nat Russell’s Victoria Police Pipe Band, World Champions in 1998. And herein may lie the problem.....”

PT Excerpts from May 2005

From our Opinion column..."Great ignorance and insensitivity abounds at all levels even with pipers. When attending a piobaireachd course at Sabhal Mor Ostaig on Skye an evening was arranged to listen to the traditional Lewis singer Christine Primrose with her interpretations of ‘Orain Mor’ piobaireachd songs. Absolutely spellbinding; and did the piobaireachd class attend? I am afraid very few!....."

From our news story on the new judges list....."Senior Judges are eligible to judge any competition.They are considered to be ‘those who have competed successfully at the highest level and can demonstrate sufficient knowledge and experience in judging....."

From this months Editorial....."The intimacy evinced by our front cover picture should preclude master judging pupil, especially when the relationship is as close as that between John Burgess and Willie Ross seems to have been. But that said, we feel that we are all being a bit too precious where other potential conflicts of interest are concerned...."

From April’s news story on the Northern Meeting.....“Aviemore is a 30 minute drive from Inverness, 45 from the airport, about two hours from Aberdeen or Edinburgh and not much more from Glasgow. Aviemore railway station provides main links to Edinburgh, Glasgow and London. “The main competition events will be held in the new 650 seat auditorium. Other events will be held in the adjoining hotel, and the junior events will be held in the adjacent Four Seasons Hotel. There is adequate car parking within the pleasant and scenic surroundings of the Centre.....”

From this month’s ‘Be A Better Piper’ column.....“Added to all of this we must recognise that marches vary one to the other. Some may have an idiosyncratic phrase or passage which requires special treatment. Seek advice from a professional piper if the piece you are working on is causing difficulty in this regard. If you are making an early foray into 2/4 march playing it would be as well to start with the simplest tune you can find, Highland Laddie would do….

From the review of the Celtic Connections concert by Fred Morrison.....“This involved the four pipers, the traditional musicians and the full orchestra playing the taorluath and crunluath doublings, although for my taste, there was a little too much going on at once here, followed by a return to the ground and a vocal keening over the deaths of the children.Later movements included some lively jigs, reels and hornpipes, celebrating the flourishing of traditional music in the present day. On the whole ‘Paracas’ was an impressive piece of music and well worthy of future performances.....

“There has been a deluge of new music publications swamping the bookshelves in the past few years. They have been encouraged by relatively cheap production costs and computer-based music writing software. Some of the tunes leave a lot to be desired but we should not discourage today’s scribes. It really is extremely difficult to come with something original when all you have to play with are nine notes, three pentatonic scales and a sprinkling of musical modes.....

Hugh MacCallum on ‘Piping Galore’.....“The late Pipe Major Robert Reid said on one occasion: ‘Don’t forget that the music of the great pipe can give us pain as well as pleasure!’ On this occasion it was more pain than pleasure. It is time to take cognisance of his words, or the standards passed on to us by our thorough and conscientious teachers will inevitably start to slide.....’

From our article on GS McLennan.....“George was a sickly child, unable to walk until the age of four and a half, but began to learn piping from his father when aged four. He had additional tuition from his maternal uncle P/M John Stewart and later had tuition from John MacDougall Gillies. By the age of nine George was winning prizes in amateur competitions and Queen Victoria on hearing of ‘this marvellous boy’ now aged ten, asked that he come to Balmoral and play for her.....”

’All Scottish regiments, as expected, will be amalgamated into one super regiment the Royal Regiment of Scotland with the existing regimental names, and traditions being retained at battalion strength. There is to be a new cap badge and all but one of the regimental tartans will go - the new regiment will wear the Black Watch, or government tartan....'

From our letters special on the controversial ‘Piping Galore’ programme..... ‘Nearer home the annual ‘Blazing in Beauly’ tuition courses for pipes, fiddle and accordion ends with a traditional concert. At the interval when I asked one of the fiddle maestros Iain MacFarlane, Glenfinnan, why nearly everything has to be played so fast he replied ‘they like it that way’. Who ‘they’ were or are was never fully established. The spot-on phrase coined by the Editor ‘kitschen piping’ should now be enshrined in the piob mhor vernacular for all time….’

From our article on ‘Scotland the Brave' ..... ‘The song version of Scotland the Brave has also captured the imagination of music lovers worldwide. This may well be the catalyst for the many requests the piper gets to play the tune. There are those who believe the song came first and pipers adapted the song for the bagpipes; until recently the writer was one of these.…’

PT Excerpts for January 2005

From January’s Editorial on the controversial ‘Piping Galore’ television programme:‘….Then we had a perfectly decent chap spouting off about the lack of rhythm in competitive piping and how piobaireachd had lost its soul when we doubt if anyone has ever heard him play a piece of ceol mor in anger or seen him
at a competition major or minor….’

From our interesting story on King Edward VIII’s bagpipe….‘ When King Edward left Buckingham Palace to marry Mrs Wallis Simpson he
left the pipes with P/M MacDonald for ‘safe keeping’. Over the many decades following P/M MacDonald at no time said that they belonged to him though he played them regularly and competed with them…’

From our report on the Glenfiddich competition:‘…The only criticisms I heard were on the time taken by some pipers in tuning. One listener remarked that despite all the modern innovations of bags, reeds and moisture control devices tuning now takes even longer than in the past. It was generally felt that 10 or 12 minutes tuning before
playing a march, strathspey and reel was excessive…’

From December’s Editorial celebrating 60 years of the College:
‘Without the College there would have been no Piping Times, the most widely read and authoritative of all the piping magazines, still the market leader and the greatest repository of piping knowledge in the history of the universe - and that’s without indulging in hyperbole………’

From David Murray’s My Month column:
‘When Johnny MacKenzie took up post as Pipe Major at Dunblane he found that the Commandant, a retired Brigadier, was in the habit of attending full band practices to put forward his own views and suggestions. The first time this happened, Johnny stopped him in his tracks. ‘Look, sir, why don’t we come to an arrangement? You look after the brigadiering and I’ll look after the pipe
majoring, and then we’ll get along fine!……..’

From this month’s ‘Be A Better Piper’ column on memory lapses:
‘The solution lies in a small manuscript book approximately 3¾” square. It has a canvas cover on which is written in fading ink the inscription ‘Pipe Music, Alex Morrison, 482 St George’s Road, Glasgow’. Who Mr Morrison was or how his small book came to be in John MacColl’s possession we know not but if anyone can enlighten us please get in touch…….’

From Hugh Cheape's report on the Donald MacDonald bagpipe: "This must now be a very rare surviving instrument by MacDonald (1767-1840) the Skye man and Edinburgh bagpipe maker, made possibly as early as 1800, and bearing the tradition from its former owners in Canada of having been played at Waterloo. An instrument, even a chanter, by this maker is now a comparatively rare ‘discovery’ and, in this case in a complete and obviously little played state, it would seem an almost unique survival..."

From our report on the Northern Mtg. Silver Medal Andrew Wright writes: "This competition was well up to the standard of similar events in recent years. Thirty- one competitors played with only one breaking down. Of the set tunes Melbank’s Salute could be considered the most technically demanding. It is of basic melody and its beauty lies in its simplicity. If well played it can be very effective...."

From our Obituary column: "Frank MacKinnon, piper, piping judge and administrator, died on July 28 th, 2004, at Mary Potter Hospice in Wellington, New Zealand. A large gathering of family and friends and the New Zealand Piping and pipe band community gathered at St John’s Presbyterian Church for the funeral service later. Piping duties were carried out by Robert Loan and the City of Wellington Pipe Band. We are grateful to Comunn na Piobaireachd NZ, for this tribute...."

From our report on the Argyllshire Gathering: "Iain [MacFadyen] also stated that from the judges and the audience point of view he felt it would be better if the list of set tunes was widened to provide more variety of listening. Four tunes from six was not enough to sustain interest over a long competition with almost thirty entrants the majority of whom selected similar pieces. Some tunes were heard six times in the day...."

From our preview of the London competition: "I [Roger Huth] started to get nervous when Donald offered me Vice Presidency of the Society. This was dangerous ground for me and smelled of responsibility. But when I started to think of the status and the strong names that had held the Society together through thick and thin in their various roles - Gordon Speirs, David Ross, Jim & Anna Caution, John Shone, JB Robertson - let alone the current Committee, I felt my hand reaching for the baton......."

From David Murray's 'My Month' column: "The current recruiting difficulties have led to a chronic shortage of men in the battalions. With the heavy commitments that now come the way of the infantry, piping has to take second place. Scottish battalions deployed abroad now have to be made up to strength with men attached from other units. Some contain whole companies of Gurkhas. Fijians are also recruited. Pipers and drummers now find themselves employed as what used to be called 'dutymen', either on guard, washing down vehicles in the vehicle park, training for the next operation, or on one of the thousand other military chores that simply swallow up men........."

Dugald MacNeill on the Silver Chanter competition/recital......
"Judging such an event with each performance of such a high standard is the rather difficult task which fell to Gavin Stoddart. It always seems a pity that we have to have a winner on such an evening, but it was ever thus in piping, and indeed the reason for the original silver chanter made available by the fairies, as legend would have it, was to allow a young MacCrimmon to be the best piper. We therefore sat with our critical antennae fully extended, listening for the slightest tiny fault....."

Robert Wallace on this year World Pipe Band Championships...
"In the end there really was no more than a cigarette paper between the top three bands Field Marshal, Shotts and Simon Fraser. But before we get to the performances, one thought occurs; isn't it time the RSPBA disallowed prizewinners from playing their winning pieces in subsequent years? Like me I am sure the crowd was sick to death of hearing Highland Wedding, Lord Alexander Kennedy, MacAllister's Dirk and other pipe band staples. A simple rule change forcing the top bands to learn new MSRs, would entertain the
crowd better and perhaps give lesser bands a chance of creating an
upset...."

Joe Wilson on JB Robertson, Banff, and GS MacLennan:......
"I would think that the tunes taught by Robertson would have been those most favoured by MacLennan whom he held in the highest regard - a genius he would say - a brilliant performer and equally brilliant composer. Robertson spoke of how he and his piping colleagues in the army would listen outside the door of the pipers' practice room as MacLennan would be playing and of the arrangement they had for the better players to note particular parts of any new tune being played but, he said, MacLennan got fly for it and when he repeated the part of the tune, or repeated the tune, he would change the melody around to frustrate their attempts at recording it on paper...."

From the report on the John MacColl archive….
David Mooney said: “When I got the phone call I agreed to go over and have a look at what my friend had found. I hadn’t very high hopes but realised immediately the importance of what he was showing me. It is frightening to think that but for his good sense it would all have ended up in the incinerator….”

The Analysis column on the appoggiatura…..
“They take the accent and part of the value of the notes they precede. Where the note is a crotchet they take half the time value, where a dotted quaver they take 2/3. So the crotchet is in practice a quaver and the dotted quaver is only a semi-quaver. The long grace notes could be written as ground notes but this is not advisable seeing they play no part in the variations…..”

Angus J MacLellan on Flora MacNeill’s death……….
“No one gave more of their time and skills to the Piping and Highland Associations in Glasgow and I trust she got much enjoyment in return for all her bard work. She made friends easily and had a wide circle of friends both at home and abroad, especially in Australia. It was never a surprise to meet some of them with Flora and learn they were staying with her during their visit to Glasgow.

PT Excerpts from July 2004:

From July's Editorial on the new 'Piping Hot' festival..........
The organisers of the Worlds, the RSPBA, could be forgiven for being just a tad miffed at the way things have unfolded. After all why is the city thronging with bandspeople during the week in question? ; because of the competition on the Saturday. Why are funders so willing to support the festival? ; because they know how much the championships are worth to the local economy (circa £1m at the last count). We hope the ‘Piping Hot’ festival can survive in the long term .......

From Norman MacLean's meeting with P/M John MacDonald.......
The great one interrupted my reverie with a snap of his big fingers. “Norman,” he intoned in beautifully modulated South Uist Gaelic, “I will teach you ceòl mòr. Allow me to guide you. You may even play my pipe at the competitions and I myself will accompany you to these competitions in order that I may set up and tune the instrument. Can’t have you displaying yourself in public with a cocuswood set of Grainger and Campbell drones.”

From David Murray's piece on the new Reid CD...
The tapes seem to have been recorded in early sixties, when the pitch of the pipe chanter was lower than what we have become accustomed to hearing. To me, it has its own charm and gives a resonance and wistfulness to the great music lacking these days. I have often wondered why Reid directed that his manuscripts and other pieces of piping memorabilia were to be destroyed. I have my own theory but it can only be conjecture. I had of course no idea that I was being trained in the Cameron style. Willie Ross was too tactful a teacher to criticise openly what Robert Reid had taught me.................

From the story on the Robert Reid archive: "The Reid family has done an immense service to piping in making his recordings available to us....The quality is such that I am sure the music is a true reflection of this marvellous piper's playing and teaching."

From the College Museum special offer: "....The limited edition posters make an ideal atmosphere builder for piping room or practice area. They are only for sale as a pair and cost £5 ($8)

From an Analysis column by Norman Matheson: "The topic of playing breabach variations was dealt in a consummate way by James Campbell in a paper given in 1986 at the Piobaireachd Society Conference. To summarise, with regard to the taorluath breabach, there was an irreconcilable conflict of authority...."

From an interview with Pricipal Robert Wallace and in answer to a question regarding differences between the College of Piping and the Piping Centre: "I think it would be more apt to direct this sort of question to the Centre rather than ourselves. Remember we have been established for 60 years....."

From the Editorial on the lack of coverage of piping by BBC Scotland television: "Thirty thousand people flock to Glasgow each August for the World Pipe Band Championships and hundreds to the main solo competitions and that interest is manifold among those who cannot attend. Television coverage of any of this: nil....."

From our latest Analysis column: "Piobaireachd is such a rich music that even when it is written to guide the 'reader' towards a semblance of the tune there are still more than enough other nuances and things to learn......"

From the Editorial: "Too many prizes are going to performances riddled with sterile perfection. The immaculate pipe, the impeccable finger, the dot-by-dot adherence to the printed score and bingo! You're in. Music is taking a back seat. Not all judges are guilty of course, but we remember many fine tunes and sets of tunes condemned because of a minor slip, a wrong note, a missed taorluath, when the expression and the fact that an attempt was made at it, went unrewarded...."

From Brett Tidswell's piece on how to beat those nerves: "Imagine the hall you are to play in, the audience, how you want to feel, what your instrument will sound like, and finally how you are going to play. This can be refined depending on what you want to achieve, for example, I would imagine playing A Flame of Wrath quite aggressively compared to MacCrimmon's Sweetheart which would be much more sedate. Similarly your frame of mind during the performance of a strathspey or reel would be quite different than when you play a slow air for example. The basics of the performance are similar, but the frame of mind you are in changes slightly, hopefully enhancing the expression and feel of the performance...."

From David Murray insight piece on piping in the Irish Regiments: "But it is impossible to generalise. I have photographs that show the warpipe being played with the Brian Boru chanter. In 1948, the three Irish regiments were formed into the North Irish Brigade. The Royal Ulster Rifles took up the warpipe and a collection of Irish music for the warpipe was formed and published regimentally. A School of Piping was established at Omagh with courses for young pipers and Pipe Majors. Considerable emphasis was laid on the importance of promoting Irish pipe music without trespassing on to Scottish territory, but it was conceded that strathspeys might have to be played in a massed band. The three regiments were later amalgamated into the Royal Irish Rangers and Standard Settings for that regiment were published in 1975. It is to the credit of the regiment that 'The Dagshai Hills' appeared under its correct name...."

From February's Editorial: ..."There is a proposal before the AGM of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association that the Grade One World Championships be held over two days, the first for a qualifying event and the second for a final. We think this should be adopted. At the moment overseas bands placed in the previous year’s Worlds’ top six go straight into the final along with home bands that have done well in the major championships prior to the Worlds. The remainder have to play in a qualifier on the morning of the final. If they make it through they are unlikely to place high up the list. There are two reasons......."

From David Murray's 'My Month' column:.... "Many of these modern day pipers are including bellows piping in their endeavours and the proliferation in the numbers and types of warm and ‘cold wind’ bagpipes now being played -and played well - is one of the wonders of the modern folk world. They turn up all over the place. No folk evening is complete without a contribution from the bellows pipes, be they Small, Border, Northumbrian, Uillean or whatever. And the mammoth pipers’ ceilidh following a long days’ listening on the bench or even in the audience can begin to pall on the most devoted lover of the great Highland bagpipe unless interspersed with a couple of good players on a bellows instrument...."

From Robert Wallace's article on Robert Hardie....."Before we leave the subject of piobaireachd I should say that although he was schooled by Reid, I never once heard Bob Hardie say that he thought the Cameron style in any way superior to that of John MacDonald. He had the Cameron style alright, the pause before the cadence Es, the short E introductions to the Bells of Perth, Cille Chriosd and others, and the passage and phrase approach to expression. But as far as he was concerned, that all sat pretty well with what the other ‘school’ was doing and this would be reinforced by the reputation he gained in later life of being one of the fairest judges on the circuit....."

From an Editorial on the loss of James Campbell:….
"…..at no time did James adopt a defence or prosecution based on emotion or some skewed idea that he must, at all cost, defend the family reputation. As you would expect from a barrister and expert in law, his was a case meticulously prepared, measured, logical and powerful in its understatement….."

From the report on the Glenfiddich Championship….
"…..The quickest tuners in the piobaireachd were Jack Lee and Alasdair Gillies with four minutes each and the longest time taken was Chris Armstrong with nine minutes closely followed by Willie McCallum with eight minutes and Gordon Walker with seven. Most of the pipers took five or six minutes…."

From the latest instalment on the psychology of competing…
"…..It is often the case at a high level, that very little separates performers. A psychological advantage can often make the difference between a mediocre effort and a top grade performance. When competing this can often be the difference between those in the prize list and those who miss out…."

John Shone on the London Championships: "Another criticism of the London team was that the Society bears the name 'The Scottish Piping Society of London' and yet southern pipers without a northern track record around the games cannot take part"

Keith Sanger on the early origins of the pipe band: "The exact origins of the pipe band comprising pipe and drum corps is still to be determined but the following entry from the Edinburgh Courant of the 3rd Nopvember 1803 provides at least one firm reference point....:

From December's Editorial: "Perhaps the Victorians had it right after all. In this harsh world as in theirs, it is necessary to indulge in some harmless sentimentality from time to time. ..."

Speaker Michael Martin at the College Official Openingand recalling his first visit to the College...."What struck me was the friendly way I was given encouragement. Whether I was a Gold Medallist or the most basic learner I fwelt I would have been treated the same way."

From November's Editorial, a tribute to the patrons of pipjng and one man in particular: "And now to cap it all he has come to the recue of the London Champinship and the Bratach Gorm, guaranteeing the future of what was a struggling event....."

From a hard hitting Editorial on the decision to set MacArthur tunes for Oban and Inverness: “Soundings taken in the Royal Hotel, Oban, and at the Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, confirm our own view that MacArthur tunes played strictly as written are murder to listen to. The audience at both venues voted with their feet. One or two tunes were as much as most could take. People simply could not stand listening to them. And no wonder…….”

Margaret Houlihan on making history at Oban, 2003:
“I was shocked when the result was announced. I knew I had played well but you never know how it is going to go. My tunes were John Roy Stewart and the Grey Bob once through. Maybe some people were surprised at a woman winning because we can sometimes be let down by our pipes. But all the women playing today have good instruments….”

Writer Lloyd McCaffrey on stabilising cane reeds:
“After using this treatment for a number of years in my sculpture, I decided to try it on cane pipe reeds. Of course, there is nothing new in this basic idea. I have heard of a number of treatments involving oiling cane before it is made into reeds, for example. But I think there may be something here that pipers can benefit from….”

PT Excerpts September 2003:

From the report on Skye: After a number of years in the doldrums the annual Skye Gathering is now fully restored to its former position as the number three open competition in the solo piping calendar.
This year's event saw a very large entry and an extremely high standard of performance. Most of the top players in the country, and quite a few notables from overseas, attended.."

From David Murray's column on WW1 piping heroes:
"The Highland bagpipe shares several characteristics with 'conventional’ instruments. It can make people laugh; or weep; or dance; or sing. But it possesses one unique characteristic, shared with no other. It can make men brave."

From our report on the Worlds: "The World Pipe Band Championship has returned to Scotland for the first time in three years. House of Edgar Shotts and Dykehead surprised the pundits by lifting the coveted trophy by two clear points at Glasgow Green last month"

From our News pages: "The Educational Institute of Scotland has conferred its highest award, an Honorary Fellowship degree, on one of the country's finest pipers and teachers Iain MacFadyen, Kyle.
The honour was presented at a special ceremony in the City Hall, Perth. It is the first time the award has gone to a piping instructor. As a professional body the EIS represents teachers throughout the country. Its Fellowship is granted under the auspices of a Royal Charter. Iain's name was put forward by fellow teachers in the Highland Council area. Iain was honoured for his success in producing outstanding pupils, his style of teaching, his dedication, and his patience...."

From David Murray's 'My Month' col.: "After the war, Rothiemurchus returned to the law and in due course became Sheriff of Inverness He also rose to command the Lovat Scouts. When Willie Ross left the Scots Guards in 1919. Rothiemurchus persuaded him to join as Pipe Major, so from being a Pipe Major in the Scots Guards Willie became a part time sergeant in the Territorial Army. Who was
doing whom the favour is an open question! ...."

From our Be A Better Piper col:..."Many players fail to perform at their peak in front of an audience due to the distractions around them or those created in their own mind. Many performances also fall down when preparation is lacking. The most confident of performers will not play at their best on a poorly maintained instrument, or when their performance is inadequately prepared and rehearsed. On the other hand a well rehearsed performance on an immaculate instrument can crumble, due to the performer being nervous or
inexperienced. Let's take a look at some of the basics of putting together a performance both physically and mentally...."

July's Editorial on the forthcoming International Pipe Band conference:"Their agenda will no doubt be concerned with unifying qualification standards for judges, playing requirements for bands and grading criteria. All very worthy stuff but an opportunity will be lost if they do not address the agenda most concerning that another important grouping within the pipe band world, the listening public.
First, it is time to end the hideous practice of performing musicians turning their backs on their audience and eye-balling each other instead of those they are meant to be entertaining.."

From a report on London's Bratach Gorm competition:.."Pipers will have to submit a CPA membership number before their entry form will be accepted. London has been under pressure since last year when the competition was criticised for lapses in organisation. The CPA decision follows the announcement last month that Glenfiddich whisky and their former chairman Sandy Grant Gordon are to be the main sponsors of what is one of our most prestigious competitions."

From David Murray's 'My Month' column:"With the maestro Robert Reid, pointing in strathspeys and reels was everything. On the strong and medium beat there was a definite and detectable pause. The corollary was that the tempo had to be strictly controlled. Each tune was approached and assessed as a separate piece of music. The Ewe wi' the Crookit Horn was subtly different from The Shepherd's Crook which in turn differed from Tullochgorum. The first beat of the
reel was held, for instance in Pretty Marion and Mrs Macpherson and the tempo gradually accele