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THE JOURNAL OF THE LOWLAND AND BORDER PIPERS’ SOCIETY

Jock Agnew and Martin Lowe launch ‘The Wind in the Bellows’

June 2010 VOLUME 27 NO 1

ISSN 1352-3848

IN THIS ISSUE From the Archive(4): New Tune Book(5): Music Resources(6): John Armstrong’s

Sword(7): Tutor Launch(9): Melrose(11): LBPS Annual Competition(13): StockImagery(18): Piper Gould(24): Revival or Survival?(26): Event Reports(35): Nate Banton

Interview(41): Coming Events(48): Reviews(51): Back Lill(55)

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THE JOURNAL OF THE LOWLAND AND BORDER PIPERS’ SOCIETY

The views expressed in Common Stock are those of the contributors and not necessarily those either of the Editor or of theLowland & Border Pipers� Society. The contents of Common Stock are protected by copyright.  None of them may be repro-duced without the written consent of the copyright owner.  The copyright in the individual contributions belongs to theirauthors and the copyright in each edition of the magazine as a whole belongs to the Society.

V ol 25 no 1 is the 47th issue ofCommon Stock [issues wererather erratic in the early years],

but it is the first I have supervised aseditor. It is extraordinary to find that Iam only the third person to hold thisprivileged position. It is indeed a privi-lege to take over a publication which hasrecorded the trajectory of bellows pipingfrom the days nearly thirty years agowhen various enthusiasts around theworld began to discover that they werenot alone in their interest and that therewas demand for an organization whichwould represent it. Since then the face ofScottish music has been changed, andthose early pioneers can be said to have,if not originated then certainly focused,that process.Looking back through the archive, I

have been surprised to find thatamongst the early letters that respondedto the article Mike Rowan published inthe ‘International Piper’ magazine were

some from far-flung parts of the world;there were lowland pipers in America, inAustralia, in Germany and the Nether-lands, in India and in Oman, it seemed,and they were all keen to become part ofthis new organization and share theirenthusiasm.And because they did, I am now given

the honour of editing the journal theyfirst produced in Dec 1983.This revisiting of the early days has

been largely the result of the work thathas been done recently on preparing theSociety’s records for deposit in the Na-tional Library of Scotland. I have intro-duced a new section of the Journalwhich I hope will revisit some of themomentous occasions recorded in thisarchive.One outcome of this archive-gazing

has been the emergence of a new per-spective on the revival; indeed, one be-gins to wonder whether survival might

President Julian GoodacreChairman: Jim BuchananTreasurer Iain WellsSecretary Judy Barker

Minute Sec. Jeannie CampbellNewsletter Helen RossMembership Pete StewartEditor CS Pete Stewart

EDITORIAL

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be a more appropriated term. In addi-tion to all those pipers across the worldwho responded to Mike Rowan’s 1981proposal, it is now becoming clear thatthere were not only players but alsomakers of Lowland pipes between theperiod of the Half-long revival in the1920’s and the ‘new revival’ in the19080’s. Paul Roberts has made a majorcontribution to the unearthing (if that isthe right term) of this information andsome of his research is included in thisissue.While this is a good time to look back

at our history, it is also a good time tolook forward, to consider what a visionof the Society’s future might reveal. Onedevelopment that is imminent seems tobe the re-launch of the North AmericanLowland Pipers’ Association, underwhatever new title it chooses. Accord-ing to reports on the Bob Dunsire Bag-pipe Forum, plans are well underway toestablish a web presence. The LBPSlooks forward to working closely withthis group. It is my intention that Com-mon Stock should also spread its netacross the world; this issue containsreports from several international eventsand an extended interview with USpipemaker Nate Benton. I hope this willbe the first of an ongoing series that willlook at bellows-piping activities andpractitioners internationally, and wel-come contributions and suggestions forfuture articles and interviews.Some rather dispiriting news came

from Morpeth earlier this spring, wherethe Border pipe competition at the Mor-

peth Gathering received no entries.There are a number of similar competi-tions at festivals around the border re-gion and most of them are poorlysupported by pipers, whether SocietyMembers or not. Such competitions area valuable channel for presenting thepipes and their music to the generalpublic who may be unaware of theirexistence, and the Society encouragesyou to support them if you can. Thenext such event is at Newcastleton FolkFestival 2-4 July (see back cover).Whilst attending the concert in celebra-

tion of Colin Ross in Newcastle I wasprompted to wonder why so manywomen play Northumbrian smallpipes,while so few play Scottish smallpipes;this issue contains comments from two,and we know of a few others, includingsome professional players, but my im-pression in Newcastle was that womenthere outnumbered men. Lowland pip-ing offers an escape from the intenseworld of highland piping, surely it offersan alternative to the locker-room too?This issue turned out to be another

bumper one, and there’s already a stackof fascinating material lined up for thenext issue. (including an article on themuch rumoured ‘Border Pibroch’) butthat doesn’t mean I dont’ want to hearfrom you. All contributions are alwayswelcome. I’ve greatly enjoyed puttingthis one together, particularly establish-ing some links across the world; I hopeyou find something to enjoy here too.

Pete Stewart editor@lbps.net

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Lowland Pipes on the streets of Edinburgh for thefirst time in 200 years

Society President Julian Goodacre has been preparing the Society’s archivesfor eventual deposit at the National Library of Scotland. This is a surprisinglycomplete record of the history of some very significant changes in the

Scottish music scene and it is planned to include a series of extracts in subsequentissues. Here, Dr David Hannay, destined to become Society treasurer in thefollowing year, describes the opening event of the 1982 Edinburgh Folk Festival.

The Edinburgh Folk Festival this yearhad a contribution from the LowlandPipers’ Society, with two of their mem-bers, Ian MacDonald and Dr DavidHannay – playing at the “Proclamationof the Folk Festival” at the MercatCross on March 27th. The opening cere-mony included a pipe band and groupsof dancers who paraded along the HighStreet and across George IV Bridgewith the two Lowland pipers playing inthe procession. This may have been thefirst time that Lowland pipes have beenheard in the streets of Edinburgh forabout 200 years.Later that day Ian MacDonald gave a

talk at the School of Scottish Studies on“The Lowland Pipes in relation to theEuropean Tradition”... As well as theLowland pipes, he gave a demonstrationon the Uilleann and Breton pipes,amongst others. Great interest wasshown by an enthusiastic audiencewhich included Francis Collinson, Wil-liam Sinclair and Jimmy Wilson. MrSinclair had made Lowland Pipes withRobertson’s of Edinburgh in the 1920’sand for many years Jimmy Wilson wasprobably the only person still playingthem in Scotland…

At the end of the meeting the chairmanof the Lowland pipers’ Society, MikeRowan, … said that the Society nowhad sufficient members to be put on amore formal basis and this would bedone at the next meeting of the societyon June 6th”When asked for his memories of this

event, David said:“I do not have a copy of what I wrote

at the time [Ed.- fortunately the archivedoes], nor can I remember what I played,but I do remember the event. Myselfand another lowland piper, were due toplay at the Mercat Cross by St GilesCathedral, for the opening of the Edin-burgh folk festival. I was playing a set ofhalf long pipes I had recently acquiredfrom Colin Ross. We started playingoutside St Giles with various groups ofdancers milling around, causing suffi-cient obstruction for us to be eventuallymoved on by the police. We then allmarched, or rather ambled, up the HighStreet and up George IVth Bridge be-fore stopping at the Bedlam Theatre. Ihad never really marched with the bel-lows pipes before, nor have I done sosince.”

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Jock Agnew and Jim Richmond’soriginal edition was produced in

1993, when little other appropriatemusic was readily available for the Bor-der pipe, and finally went out of printabout a year ago. In the last 17 years, thebellows pipe revival of the ScottishLowlands and Borders has blossomed:but despite the plethora of suitable mu-sic now available, the two Societies feelthat this tune book, which illustratessome of their shared repertoire, shouldbe kept available to players.The book is a joint effort between the

LBS and the Northumbrian Pipers’ So-ciety and the spirit of the revision hasbeen described (by Matt Seattle) as “thepresentation of tunes from Peacock’sTunes (first published 1800) and the

Northumbrian Minstrelsy (first pub-lished 1882) in good versions suitablefor Border pipes and Scottish small-pipes.” Some versions have beensourced from other Northumbrian andBorder publications or MSS.A few tunes in the original edition have

been omitted completely as they wereadaptations of originals often extendingwell beyond the nine-note pipe range. Afew tunes have “grown” for this edition:truncated versions having been replacedwith appropriate material from localsources. There are also several addition-al tunes not in the original edition.Containing 74 tunes, the book will be

available to members of both societies atthe special bargain price of £4.

“A Collection of Pipe Tunes”A revised and enlarged edition of an old favourite,this collection of classic border tunes will be availableagain from mid-June

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A Collection of Scotch, Galwegian andBorder TunesRobert Riddell of Glenriddell, 1794

This extremely valuable collection of mostly border music is now availa-ble on line courtesy of Ross Anderson and Anita Evans.

How she will never be guided

[http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/musicfiles/manuscripts/riddell/]

There are some fine fiddle settings of some familiar tunes here; most, however,are in fiddle keys; the above is one of a handful that are accessible to pipers whoread only pipe notation.Ross Anderson’s site is a treasure trove of 18th & 19th century music sources as

well as early piping recordings; it should be on every piper’s bookmark list.http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/music/index.html.

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In February this year the ScottishGoldsmith Kenneth Erik Moffatt,made a Historic Pilgrimage from

Scotland to London to claim his right, asa Freeman of the City of London, tocarry a drawn sword through the City.This unique sword has a hilt hammered

and chased in yellow gold and silver, andits pictorial narrative illustrates the hero-ic 16th century ballad of Johnnie Arm-strong. Although the hilt is modern, theblade is an original from the 16th centu-ry, and the work of the celebratedswordsmith Andrea Ferara.Johnnie Armstrong and his men, the

notorious heroes of the Anglo-ScottishBorderlands, were treacherously hangedwithout trial from the trees at Caerlenrigin 1530 by order of the young ScottishKing James V, who was pressured by hisuncle, King Henry VIII.Starting from Gilnockie tower, the erst-

while home of the Armstrongs, in theScottish Borders, and accompanied byhis father Brian, Kenneth was piped offto the tune of Johnnie Armstrong,played by Border pipers Matt Seattleand Bill Telfer.The sword was on its way to be deliv-

ered as an entry to the 2010 Gold-smith's competition at the Goldsmith'sHall. During the journey Ken and thesword received blessings at St Giles, and

St Pauls Cathedral, and were also wel-comed and escorted from the Tower ofLondon, following their arrival in Lon-don and start of the Historic walk to theGoldsmiths Hall through the City.This was the first time in over 400 years

that a sword has been ceremonially car-ried from Edinburgh to London, the lasttime being in 1603 when James 6th ofScotland, 1st of England, made the samejourney to claim the throne of a UnitedKingdom.The Sword was given the 'Gold' award

at the Goldsmiths Hall in March makingit Britain's top piece of chasing and re-poussé work for 2010.

Border pipers Matt Seattle and Bill Telfer send off aprize-winning sword from the grounds of GelnockieTower on its way to London to the strains of thetune of Johnnie Armstrong

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Speaking of his intentions when making thesword-hilt Ken said:“The aims and ambitions of the piece are, for

the first time, to meld the indigenous Folk Artand spirituality of the North, with the skills andexpression of the virtuoso goldsmith, in thehope of producing an icon that reflects thecharacter and spirit of a unique regional identi-ty, and of a people, and to offer a glimpse intoa remarkable period of history.

The Ballad of Johnie Armstrang

Sum speiks of lords, sum speiks of lairds,And siclyke men of hie degrie;Of a gentleman I sing a sang,Sumtyme calld Laird of Giluockie.

Matt Seattle supplied this version of thetune, as approximating what they playedto pipe off the sword; he describes it as“adapted from the tune learned by

Stenhouse from Robert Hastie, Jed-burgh town piper. Hastie's tune is only afragment of the much more elaboratesong version (see Oswald’s CaledonianPocket Companion, or The Scottish MusicalMuseum).”

Hastie, Stenhouse said, “was a famousreciter of the old Border Ballads ... Thenotes as he chanted them in my infancy(for he really was not what in moderntimes is termed a singer) still vibrate inmy ear”The verse of the ballad given here

comes from Allan Ramsay's The EverGreen, 'copied from a gentleman's mouthof the name of Armstrang, who is 6thgeneration from this John'.A different version appears on a Broad-

side held at the National Library in Ed-inburgh; said to date from 1701, it hasthe title “John Armstongs Last FarewelDeclaring how he and his Eight-scoremen fought a bloody Battell at Edin-burgh. To the Tune of, fare thou wellbonny Gilt knock Hall”.

Detail of the prize-winningsword hilt

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The Wind in the Bellows

The event was held at the Edinburgh prem-ises of The Royal Scottish Pipers Society inRose Street, Edinburgh on February 3rd.

Around 20 people attended and heard Jock Agnew(left, cover image) give a description of how theidea had grown from an original seminar at thesame venue in May 2006, when an editorial groupof Jock Agnew, Martin Lowe and Dougie Pincockwas established to oversee the production of thisteaching handbook, which is the first of its kind tocome from highland and bellows piping traditions.It was written by Jock Agnew, with assistancefrom Martin Lowe (right, cover image), LBPSChairman and from numerous others.Jock also wrote the previous LBPS publication

“More Power to your Elbow”, the practical guideto playing bellows-blown pipes now well-knownby bellows-pipers around the world. “The Wind inthe Bellows” follows on from this, by providing ahandbook for teachers and students of Borderpipes and Scottish smallpipes.The book has a forward by the principals of both

The College of Piping and The National PipingCenter, and is a mine of information about allaspects of teaching and playing the bellows-blownpipes of Scotland. In particular, it is the first timea teaching sequence has been put together. Thesetwo innovative books by Jock Agnew- a player,teacher and former editor of Common Stock, area considerable achievement and a tribute to theboth the author and the LBPS.The event was rounded off by a last-minute visit

from the Italian duo Piero Ricci and Maurizio

Model of Geordie Sime, madeby Iain Wells and presented to

Jock Agnew at the launch.

David Hannay reports on the launch of the Society’smanual for teachers and students of bellows piping.

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Alan McDonald playing at the TurkishKebab House, Rose Street Lane South,

Edinburgh.

Marino, who had earlier that eveninggiven a recital at the School of Celticand Scottish Studies; they gave a briefperformance on zampogna and cira-mella, the Italian bagpipe and oboecombination, and the company even-tually transferred to the local TurkishKebab house for an informal bellows-piping session, to the delight of theproprietors; possibly yet another cul-tural first and one which may well berepeated.

M ay Day this year was theoccasion of a celebration ofthe work of pipemaker and

player extraordinaire Colin Ross. Colinhas been a vital figure on the Nor-thumberland music scene for fiftyyears and has played a leading role inpromoting the music of both Nor-thumberland and Scottish smallpipes.The LBPS was invited to provideScottish smallpipe and bellows pipemusic as part of the evenings’s enter-tainment in the magnificent King’sHall in Newcastle University andChairman Martin Lowe, Secretary Judy

Barker and Pete Stewart travelledsouth to play. The audience of around150 people were suitably impressed byJudy’s performance of Sally Gardens,accompanying herself on smallpipes,and Martin accompanied her on TheBanks of Sicily, playing a set of small-pipes made by Colin. Pete Stewart thenplayed a two tunes he had learnt viaColin some forty years earlier, on a setof Lowland pipes made by Colin in1981 and kindly loaned for the occa-sion by David Stevenson. The threerounded off their set with a trio playingthe Melrose hit tune, Paulo’s Waltz.

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A New Way to MelroseThe Society’s annual teaching weekend at Melrose this yearfeatured ‘tunes from around the world’. Here the event’sorganizer, George Greig, describes the event and introducesanother forthcoming LBPS publication

In the last weekend of February, the Society held its Teaching Weekend in theGeorge and Abbotsford Hotel in Melrose. We were fortunate to have threeexcellent tutors, Annie Grace, Gary West and Iain MacInnes and the week-

end was every bit as good as was to be expected with this fantastic line-up.The theme for the weekend was ‘Tunes from Around the World’ and we weretreated to a range of great new tunes with an emphasis on those from Galicia andfrom Brittany. Among the tunes which Gary taught were the ones which are to beheard on the web-site while Annie introduced three An Dro which she had learnedwhile touring in Brittany. Iain managed to include some variety with tunes fromolder manuscripts including Angus MacKay and Eliza Ross – presumably she of‘Eliza Ross’s Reel’.

Common Stock invited two particular piperswho attended to comment on their weekend.Bjorn was visiting from Denmark, and Shon-agh was probably the first school student totake part in the Melrose event.“Thanks for a great weekend at Melrose, I'm

happy that I went to this teaching weekend forsome new inspiration and to meet other pipers.The surroundings for the event were nice withthe old hotel with lots of atmosphere. “ (BjornW-Wissing)“This was my first experience of attending a

weekend session with the Society, and it defi-nitely will not be the last! I had a phenomenaltime, learning new tunes and playing alongwith some incredible musicians.I have been a Highland Piper for five and a

half years now. I became interested in BorderPipes through Duns Pipe Band, as I attend the

Annie Graceplaying at the closing session

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Merse Pipers meetings that Duns PipeBand holds. Jim Eaten played his BorderPipes about 3 years ago at one of themany meetings, and I loved the folkysound of them. So I nagged my parentsweek after week until they got me a setmade by Nigel Richards. From the day Igot them, I have loved them every sec-ond!The Lowland and Border Pipers’ Soci-

ety weekend session was a great experi-ence as it increased my confidence inplaying and helped me enjoy tunes thatI hadn’t heard before.” ( Shonagh Graham)

New Tune BookBy common consent, the tune of the

weekend was ‘Paulo’s Waltz’ which An-nie taught. This lovely tune was writtenin memory of someone who slept roughon the streets of Antwerp. The weekendfinished up with a concert in which thetutors and the pupils each did their‘party pieces’ and concluded by every-one playing ‘Paulo’s Waltz’.The theme of ‘Tunes from Around the

World’ is being carried over to a newbook which it is hoped will be publishedby the time this issue of Common Stockis published. The Society has been hold-ing teaching weekends at Melrose forsome fifteen years and some of the tunestaught there form the basis for thisbook, hence its title ‘A New Way toMelrose’. Since the Highland and theBorder repertoires are well representedin current publications, they are exclud-ed from the scope of this book. What

the book does is present tunes fromScandinavia and Shetland, from Quebecand Galicia, from Brittany and a wholelot more. And, yes, it does include‘Paulo’s Waltz’.In all, the book contains 142 tunes

arranged for Scottish Smallpipes andBorder pipes. Some of the tunes came‘as is’, some required only a change ofkey, while some others called for a bitmore arrangement to get them to fit therestricted scale. In the latter case, thereis no suggestion that they should beplayed along side the traditional versions(it will only end in tears). They are whatis best thought as ‘performing versions’which it is hoped remain faithful to thetraditional material.The fact that exciting bands such as the

Chieftains, Daimh and Lunasa are play-ing Breton and Galician tunes and Milla-doiro and Luar Na Lubre are playingtunes from these shores shows thatmany of these tunes do travel, in bothdirections, and can survive the changesmade along the way. It is a large collec-tion, approximately 60 pages of A4, andI am sure that ‘cauld wind’ pipers willfind much to enjoy. It is available fromthe lbps website. I fully expect that somefolk will say ‘why did you not include……?’ If that is the case, I would askthat people send me the ‘missing’ tunesand if there is sufficient response wemight have the basis for a further book.My thanks are due particularly to all the

tutors who provided the inspiration forthis book and made the teaching week-ends such fun.

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The Society’s 26th Annual com-petition was held in Edinburghagain this year, after two years in

Glasgow. One result was that the eventwasonce more able to take advantage ofthe publicity and organization of the‘Ceilidh Culture’ festival during which itoccurred. Perhaps because of this, theday was well-attended by pipers andnon-pipers alike. It was once again im-perceptibly organised by the Society’sindefatigable Secretary, Judy Barker. Theefficiency with which she achieves thistask means that her efforts can go al-most unnoticed.Full results are given below, but a num-

ber of issues have arisen, particularlygenerated by comments made by thoseattending for the first time, at least twoof whom had traveled across the worldto take part.Perhaps the most obvious issue is that

of the ‘Novice’ and ‘Intermediate’ class-es, the latter of which had only one entrythis year, and the former had only oneentry last year. Standards have risenconsiderably over the last few years andas John McKay points out in his com-ments, the open classes are of such astandard as to discourage some fromtaking part. One suggestion has beenmade to create a ‘Gold Medal’ class with

a prestigious prize and to rename theIntermediate Class. The Committee isconsidering this and other ways in whichthese classes can be re-organized andwould be pleased to hear your thoughts.Some comments by competitors:“I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The light

hearted atmosphere was a breath offresh air when compared to the seriousnature of some Highland piping compe-titions. It was my first time attending thecompetition but felt right at home aftera warm welcome and introduction fromSecretary Judy Barker, committee mem-bers and members of the audience. Allin all, a fantastic day!” [Clare Miller -Bagpipe Tutor]“First let me say I very much enjoyed

the day. It was busy, so that, thought Ienjoyed meeting again old friends, therewas very little time to do more thanexchange greetings. I was sorry I didn'tmeet the one or two pipers from Britta-ny.I'm mentioning this, because the daywas full & pleasant as I'd expected, butif people are to come from any distancethat requires spending at least a night intown, there should be more: a placewhere we can meet & got to know someothers, & where we can show off orexchange tunes.

A Breath of Fresh AirThe Society’s annual competition this year returnedto Edinburgh.

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Some of the prize-winners at this year’s competition: (left to right) Linda and Law-rence Thomson; Finn Moore, Judy Barker, Martin Lowe, Hamish Moore (behind)

Martine Robertson, John Mackay.

“If LBPS wants to encourage pipersnew to the bellows pipes, I suggest theyconsider another solo class above theintermediate in which John MacKayplayed (in which you can enter onceonly), but below the open classes. Itshould have the limitation that a personcould win it. say, twice only.I thoroughly enjoyed my time,” [Pat Taylor]

“The only real criticism of the weekendis that there was not a ceilidh or realsocial get together on the Friday night. Iknow most of you could drive homeafter the competition on Saturday but it

would have been very nice to have hada good session; perhaps a dinner andthen piping well into the night - just toget a little personal. Should I expectpeople to spend a night in Edinburghonce a year for the sake of the LBPS andthe competition? Why not?”

[John MacKay, "Proud Winner of the 2010Julian Goodacre Trophy"]

[Both John and Pat Taylor had traveled fromLondon, Ontario to attend the competition.Their suggestions about an additional socialsession attached to the competition will becertainly be considered by the committee - Ed.]

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COMPETITION 2010 RESULTSNovice - Heriot & Allan QuaichNo entriesIntermediate - Julian Goodacre Trophy1. John MacKay - All the night I lay with Jackey in my arms / The Heather BreezeSeasoned Pipers - Nigel Richards Trophy1. Jim Buchanan - The Soft Lowland Tongue o’ the border (Trad. Arr K Den /

James Urquhart), Liddesdale (6/8 March - W.P.Bell)/ The Voice of the borders (Phil Cun-ningham 2002)2. (joint second) David Hannay - A Carol, A Hymn: Henry Aitchison -

Tommy Tully’s Air / The Argylls Crossing the River Po (3/4 March)New Composition - London Trophy1.(joint first) Tiber Falzett - Cormac Cannon’s Reel : Bill Telfer - Border Ballad3. Claire Millar - Dave and Ange’s WeddingOpen Solo for Scottish Smallpipes - Colin Ross Trophy1. Hamish Moore - MacGregor’s Search / St Joseph’s2. Fin Moore - Braes of Tully Met / Wedding Reel / Dancing Feet3. Euan Whitmore - Ass in Graveyard / Jigs 1 & 2 / HornpipeDuet for Pipes - Mains Castle Medal1. Fin Moore & Lawrence Thomson - Ann Blyth’s Waltz / Jean Mchlin / Scobie and

the wasp2. Matt Seattle and Bill Telfer - Wild Hills o’ Wannies / Holy Halfpenny3. Euan Whitmore & Jean Luc Lefaucheur - An Eala Bhan / Steam Train to Mal-

laigPipe and Song - Jimmy Wilson Memorial Cup1. Judy Barker - The Invalid Regiment2. Martin Lowe - The Gallowa’ Hills3. Pete Stewart - Baron o’ BrackleyPipe and Song Duet1. Judy Barker & Martin Lowe - The Banks of Sicily2. Linda Thomson & Lawrence Thomson - Queen Mary’s3. Martine Robertson & Hamish Moore - Puin Bracken

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Duet for Pies and Other Instrument - Dunfermline Tassie1. Fin Moore & Hamish Moore (Pipes & Fiddle) - Farewell to the Tay / Rocking Stone

/ Boys of Ballymont2. Jean Luc Lefaucheur & Tristan Le Govic (Pipes and Clarsach) - Braes of Lochiel

/ Gavotte Fisel3. John MacKay & Neil MacKay (Pipes and Guitar) Sea of Love / St Joseph’sOpen Solo for Lowland/Border Pipes - Hamish Moore Cup1. Fin Moore Atom of Delight / Hey Jonny / Paddy Corina’s / White Houses of Sheil-

diag2. Euan Whitmore - Por La Libertas / Seonaidh’s Tune/ Atholl Highlanders /

Murray’s Fancy3. Jean Luc Lefaucheur - Slow Air / Aires Pontevedia

Two of the prize-winning new compositions are printed here; unfortunately, TiberFalzett ’s tune was not available at time of going to press.

The piper piped till’s wyme griped and a’ the rout began to revel.Now play us a hornpipe Jocky can say, then todle lowlle the pyper did playe

The pyper played with his fynggars and thommes;‘Play thick and short, mynstrell, my mother commis’

(extracts from ‘Our Jocky Shall Have Our Jenny Hope I’, mid 16th century Scots and English)

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Border Ballad by Bill Telfer ( New Composition Joint First Prize)

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Dave and Ange’s Wedding Jig by Claire Miller (New Composition Third Prize)

“The piper said I now beginTo tyre for playing to;

But yit I have gotten nothingFor all my piping to you

Thre happens for one half ane dayAnd that will not undo

And gif ye will gif me richt nochtThe meikle devil gang wi you”

(from ‘Peebles to the Play’, early 16th century Scots)

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Title Page of Joseph Mitchell’s‘Highland Fair’, London, 1731

In an article published in the December 1994 issueof Common Stock, Hugh Cheape described how‘stock’ imagery was used in the 18th century todepict Highland Pipes. Here, Pete Stewart de-

In his original article Hugh Cheape described how‘stock’ imagery of Highland Pipes, rather thandepicting the actual instrument, could be seen to

derive ultimately from the well-known painting of ‘TheBagpiper’ by the Dutch artist Abraham Bloemaert. Atypical example is the Highland Piper by FrancisGrosse, published in 1796 [right].These images are typified by the strange

‘tenor’ drone, which in the original paint-ing gives the initila impression of missingits upper half. The first time this imageappears in Highland form is in 1743, de-picting a piper associated with the BlackWatch mutiny, and it re-appeared on occa-sions when a highland piper was requiredin publications aimed at a market whichcould be trusted to know no better, untilwell into the 19th century.It has recently become apparent that this

image was exclusively linked to Highlandpipers, seen in London perhaps as some-thing wild and exotic. For the ’common’bagpipe a different stock image was em-ployed, suggesting the existence in thepublic, or at least in the ‘artistic’ conscious-ness, of a different kind of bagpipe, andthat this second kind of bagpipe was takento be the Scottish bagpipe.

Stock imagery & the common bagpipe

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I propose to refer to this bagpipe as the‘Hogarth’ pipe, since it is in the work of thatartist that the image appears first and mostfrequently. However, before discussing thisimage it is worth noting that the earliestdepiction of a ‘populist’ nature of a highlandpiper appears in the frontispiece to JosephMitchell’s ‘Highland Fair’, published in Lon-don in 1731. It depicts a pipe quite differentto the Bloemart one. This instrument is asingle-drone version of the one Hogarthshowed two years later in his ‘SouthwarkFair’.Hogarth, however, had already made two

representations of bagpipers; they appear inthe engravings for the ‘skimmington’ [roughmusic] episode in Samuel Butler’s Civil Warsatire ‘Hudibras’. Hogarth produced twosets of illustrations for this work; the onedepicted is from the ‘small’ set of sevendone in 1726.

Detail from Hogarth’s ‘SouthwarkFair’, 1733

Detail from one of Hogarth’sillustrations to ‘Hudibras’, 1726

Detail from Hogarth’s‘Marriage a la Mode’, 1745

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Subscription ticket for ‘The March to Finchley’, Hogarth, 1750

It is not until the middle of the centurythat Hogarth linked this bagpipe toScotland. The first appearance I amaware of is in a subscription ticket to aPrize Draw he organized for his paintingof ‘The March to Finchley’, a fictionalgathering of English soldiers in Totten-ham Court Road preparing to march toFinchley Common (the site, incidentally,the Black Watch Mutiny) where they

were to defend the City against the Jaco-bites in 1746; Hogarth’s engraving isdated 1750. It shows the regalia of thedefeated rebels. Here it can clearly beseen that the bagpipe has no blow-pipe;what is more, there may be a set ofbellows below it, though there is noobvious way of inflating the bag. It isclear that this is no accurate depiction ofa known bagpipe.

What intrigued me about this image isthat the pipes do not appear to have ablow-pipe, which the Southwark Fairones clearly do, and as the pipes depict-ed by Hogarth in his ‘Marriage a laMode’ painting do.

However, there is nothing in these pic-tures to suggest that Hogarth is depict-ing a Scottish bagpipe; these picturesmight be regarded as evidence for theexistence (if not for the organology ) ofa bagpipe in England at the time.

21

�

Hogarth give us another image of it,this time with a little more detail, in his1756 painting of the ‘Election Celebra-tion’. Again, there seems to be a implicitsuggestion that this is a Scottish bagpipe,this time suggested by the red hair and

bonnet of the piper, and again, thereseems to be no sign of a blow-pipe.Two more London-produced images

of Scottish pipers seem to have drawnon this ‘stock’ imagery. The first wasincluded in a Broadside ballad entitled‘The Political Bagpiper’, dated 1762. Thesong, to be sung to the tune ‘The Flow-ers of Edinburgh’ is a satire on the sup-posed intimate relationship betweenThe Earl of Bute and the mother ofGeorge III.The image shows ‘John o’ Boot as a

Scots piper and the ‘Dame of Renown’as playing the German Flute; ‘Who thede’el with a Scotsman shell e’er dispute?But his Bagpipe alone has too much ofa Drone, And of Need must be joinedwith my German Flute’.Detail from ‘The Election Celebration’

Hogarth, 1756

‘The Political Bagpiper’, a broadside ballad from the Bodleian collection,published in London, 1762

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Again there is no sign of a blow-pipe; thisis not the case in the second image fromthis period, during which the influence ofthe Scots on Parliament was deeply resent-ed amongst many sectors of the Londonpopulation. This image (right) is part of aprint depicting the extraordinary eventsthat occurred in 1767 in Warwick Lane inthe City of London, when a party of phy-sicians, (including among them theQueen’s physician, a Scotsman), embit-tered by their barring from the exclusivelyOxbridge Royal Society of Physicians,marched on the Warwick Lane premisesof that Society and trashed them, assistedby a blacksmith employed for the purposeof breaking down the gates. Here the pipesare clearly shown to be mouth-blown, andthe instrument seems to be a strange hy-brid of the Hogarth and Bloemart images.If the Highland images can be traced

back to a late-16th century Dutch painter,is it possible to say where Hogarth drewhis image from, since it is evident that hewas not copying an instrument he wasclosely-acquainted with?The answer is fairly simply found; the

German painter Hans Sebald Beham(1500-1550) is probably the most prolificpainter of this instrument, though Hoga-rth may have been better acquainted withthe engravings of Durer or his imitators.Beham drew these pipes many times; Ihave included two of his images; one ofthen is one of the few paintings of theperiod to show clearly a common stockfor the drones, though all his pipes aremouth-blown.

We are left wondering therefore, wasHogarth depicting a bellows-blownpipe? Was this the only aspect of thedetail of his pipes that he drew authen-tically? That his pictures are clearlydifferent in source to those of High-landers of the same period is evident;there is therefore reason to presumethat a different kind of bagpipe wasrecognised in London, one with Scot-tish connotations but not Highland.My suggestion is that this was the‘common’ bagpipe, familiar to artistsin London and to Lowlanders in Scot-land. This bagpipe was bellows-blown;that it was the ‘common’ bagpipe, thatis the bagpipe most people would rec-ognize, is suggested by a comment

Engraving of ‘The Siege of War-wick Lane’, 1767

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Details of bagpipers painted by Hans Sebald Beham (1500-1559)

made in a essay on Rosslyn Chapel pub-lished in Edinburgh by James Tytler in1774, in which the bagpipes carved thereare particularly described, as if this wereunfamiliar to his readers, as beingmouth-blown, ‘in the Highland manner’.The ‘common’ bagpipe, it is suggestedwas equally as familiar in London as itwas in Edinburgh.

Notes:I am indebted to Julian Goodacre for the War-

wick Lane image, to Andy Hornby for drawingmy attention to the Political bagpiper, and to theLBPS archive for preserving the edition of ‘DerDudlpfeifer’ (10, jhrg, No 65, 1990) in which Idiscovered the Hogarth Hudibras images, the

Highland Fair image and the Finchley Marchticket.The Warwick Lane episode is documented inThe Journal of Medical History for June 1956For the Finchley Road episode and painting seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_March_of_the_Guards_to_FinchleyThe Hudibras engravings are athttp://www.artoftheprint.com/artistpages/hogarth_william_hudibras1_frontis_explanation.htmThe Political Bagpiper is athttp://bodley24.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/acwwweng/ballads/A selection of Beham’s bagpipers is athttp://www.prydein.com/pipes/beham/index.html

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The End of a LineJohn Kay’s engraving of Geordie Sime has been the Society’s lo-go since the beginning. Here Keith Sanger explores the pipingfamily of another of Kay’s characters

John Kay is probably best known topipers for his portrait of the piper

Geordy Sime, thought to have beenone of his earliest sketches and certainlya figure that the young artist, also aresident of Dalkeith, would have knownwell. However, tucked away in the col-lection of Kay's work made by HughPaton and published in 1877 under thetitle of ' A Series of original portraits andcaricature etchings by the late John Kay,with biographical sketches and illustra-tive anecdotes', and attached to the pic-ture of 'Sergeant Major Patrick Gould’,is a reference to another family of piperswho came from Alva inClackmannanshire.[1] According tothese notes Patrick Gould had enlistedin the Foot Guards and then in 1793 wasappointed Drill Sergeant to the Ar-gyleshire Fencibles before later transfer-ring to a similar position with theEdinburgh Volunteers.[2] It is the DrillSergeant’s family back ground that is ofprimary interest where it states that'both his grandfather and father appearto have successively held the situation ofvillage piper'.According to this account his father

was a John Guild, who was twice mar-ried, and Patrick, who was the youngestof thirteen children, was born on the31st January 1749. Upon the sudden

death of his father, his widowed mothermoved to Glasgow where the youngPatrick was raised as one of the foursurviving children. Now Alva is not alarge place even now, although not thatfar from Stirling which we know seemedto have some regard for its Burgh Pip-ers, so the reference to two generationsof pipers raised my interest in seeinghow far this account could be substanti-ated from surviving records.The variation of the spelling of his

name as Guild/Gould is par for thecourse at that time: the real problemwith local Parish records is the idiosyn-cratic way in which they were kept rang-ing from just bare names and dates toincluding occupations and actual placeof abode, all assuming that they made itinto the records in the first place. In thiscase there was little difficulty in locatingthe baptism record for Patrick on the5th February 1749, which confirmedthat he had been born on the 31 Januaryand his parents were John Guild, Piperin Struidhead and a MargaretCrawford.[3] It was also possible to con-firm from the burial records that a JohnGuild Piper in Struidhead died of a feveron the 10th February 1750 and wasburied the following day.[4]The next stage was to try and push

further back and again it was possible to

25

tie the evidence together. Guild/Gouldwas not a very common name in Alva sothe marriage of a John Guild to JanetBurn in 1712 looked promising,[5] espe-cially as they had recorded the baptismsof six children between 1713 and1725.[6] In several of the entries thefather John Guild also has the descrip-tion of 'Pyper' added thereby confirm-ing the identity as well as the generalaccuracy of the biographical sketchesand that this would have been the firstmarriage. It also seems reasonable toaccept the claim that this piper was thesecond generation of pipers there and sothat leaves two final questions. Firstly,where was 'Struidhead' and second, howdid a small place like Alva support twogenerations of pipers?The first is easily answered as the

'Struid' part of the name is clearly themodern 'Strude' which can be found inthe name of Strude Mill and also severalof the nearby streets on the north side ofAlva, more or less in the mouth of theAlva or as it is sometimes called StrudeGlen. The question of how a piper madeany sort of living in a fairly small placelike Alva does present more of a prob-lem, but one for which an answer can besuggested. Over the first half of the 18thCentury the hills immediately above Al-va were the source of some of the purestsilver ore around at that period and thelocal landowner had sunk a number ofworking mineshafts. The place wouldhave had aspects of any mining boomtown and the piper may have been thethen musical equivalent of the later

American mining town's honky tonkpiano in the Silver Dollar Saloon. Theundesirability of living so close to themines may also have been the reasonwhy the piper's widow and survivingchildren moved away soon after hisdeath, at that time Glasgow probablyreally was ' miles better'.

Notes

1. The work can be found online atwww.edinburghbookshelf.org.uk , where Ser-geant Major Patrick Gould is number CLXXXV.page 43.2. The National Archives at Kew, London,

appear to show two records for his military ca-reer, WO 121/144/54, where he is described asPatrick Gould alias Patrick Child born (NotKnown), served in 3rd Foot Guards; ArgylshireFencibles; Edinburgh Volunteers, Dischargedaged (Not Known) - and at WO 121/9/206,Patrick Gould, Born Aloa, Stirlingshire, Served in3rd Foot Guards. Discharged aged 40 after 22years of service, 1790. Unfortunately the actualrecords are currently unavailable while they arebeing digitised for future online access but ‘Child’is probably a misreading by one of the Kewcataloguers of the alternative Scots spelling ofPatrick’s name, ‘Guild’ though it may imply thathe enlisted as a drummer boy.3. General Registers of Scotland, Old Parish

Records, (OPR), Births, 470/00100241 Alva4. OPR Deaths, 470/000177 Alva.5. OPR Marriages 470/00200027 Alva.6. Anne born July 1713, OPR 470/00100105

and OPR 470/00100170; Jannet born Nov 1715,OPR 470/00100108; Margaret born April 1717,OPR 470/00100110; John born May 1719, OPR470/00100183; James born May 1721, OPR470/00100189 and Thomas born April 1725,OPR 470/00100194.

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AN IRISH MAKER OF “SCOTCH LOWLANDPIPES” Michael Keenan, c.1895-1978.Tantalising evidence is emerging that suggests thatLowland Scots pipe-making did not disappear afterthe flurry of interest in Northumberland in the1930’s. Here Paul Roberts reports on his investigationinto the operations of an Irish pipe maker in the 1960’s

A s a teenage schoolboy in 1965 Iwas suddenly gripped by anoverwhelming desire to play the

Highland Bagpipes. Somehow a friendand I scraped the money together to buya cheap and nasty Pakistani set betweenus. Thus began my spasmodic pipingcareer.Unable to afford a decent set, I com-

pensated by accumulating free cata-logues, over which I would droolwistfully for hours on end. Some of

these I still have, including two 5 ¼” x10 ½” sheets from an Irish maker, Mi-chael Keenan of Glasleac, Co. Cavan.One sheet gives details of his “Irish or

Highland War Pipe”, which ranged from30 Guineas for a basic set to 100 Guin-eas for ivory and silver mounted. Theother sheet details his “Irish or Uillean[sic] Bagpipe”, which ranged from £85to £105 - the latter silver mounted witha detachable bass regulator.

Bill-head for Michael Keenan’s ‘Irish or Highland Warpipe’

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I suspect I only enquired about thesetwo instruments - either way, he didn’tsend sheets detailing the other bagpipeshe made, all carefully listed at the top ofeach page. The heading - which is rub-ber stamped on an otherwise profes-sionally printed sheet - reads:

MICEAL O CIANAIN(Michael Keenan)

Expert in All Types of BagpipesIrish War Pipes - Highland BagpipesThe Original Brian Boru Chromatic

BagpipesScotch Lowland Pipes ** English

Northumbrian PipesArmy Contractor, Kilts & Costumes

All RequisitesOUR MOTTO:

QUALITY & COURTESYGLASLEAC (SHERCOCK,

CO. CAVANDUNDALK, EIRE

Clearly it is of great interest that anypipe-maker was still offering SCOTCHLOWLAND PIPES as late as the 1960s,but that one in Ireland was doing so isperhaps even more surprising. Indeed,as far as I know, the only other personto make the instrument between thedisappearance of the “Reel Pipe” fromScottish makers lists about 1900 and theintroduction of John Addison’s “Half-Longs” around 1975, was Pipe-MajorJames Robertson, for the short-livedNorthumbrian Half-Long revivalc.1926-39. And Keenan may well havebeen the only maker to have offered the

instrument under the name of “LowlandPipe” between the mid-19th century andthe late 1970s. [1]Fortunately, thanks to the wonders of

the internet, I have been able to accumu-late a certain amount of informationabout Keenan. Though now largely for-gotten, in his day he was a well knownfigure in Irish music, and those few whoremember him do so with affection.He was born around 1894-96 and died

in 1978 aged 82 or 84, so in 1965 he wasalready about 70.He came from Glasleac, a small village

in the civil parish of Shercock in south-east Cavan, on the County Monaghanborder. It is part of the ecclesiasticalparish of Killan, which includes Bailie-borough to the south. Although Cavanand Monaghan are in the Irish Republic,both belong to the historic nine countiesof Ulster.Like the rest of Ulster, Cavan and Mon-

aghan had been subject to major settle-ment by British Protestants during the17th century, and as a result a deeplypoliticized sectarian conflict was endem-ic here. Keenan was born into a worldwhere to be Catholic was to be a Nation-alist, and he was of the generation thattransferred its loyalty from the moderatefederalism of the Irish Nationalist Partyto the hard Republicanism of Sinn Fein.It is not surprising, then, to find thatKeenan was a committed Republicanwho preferred to use the Irish form ofhis name, whose proudest memory waspiping ahead of Arthur Griffith’s elec-tion parade in 1918, and whose work-

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shop was decorated with IRA and SinnFein posters even when in his 80s. [2]Given this background it’s not clear

how far his involvement in Irish musicand piping reflected his own local cul-ture or was simply the product of theGaelic revivalism which enthused Na-tionalist Ireland in his youth. In a deeplypoliticized area like south Ulster it wouldbe hard to keep the two apart. But therewas certainly a Union/Uilleann pipe tra-dition in south Ulster reaching back intothe 19th century, and a Highland pipescene which, though its great floweringwas in the early 20th century among therival nationalisms of Protestant andCatholic, probably had older roots.

What is clear is that traditional musicdominated Michael Keenan’s life, andthat he was that strange creature wellknown to readers of this journal - thebagpipe obsessive!He was a leading member of important

revivalist organizations like Na PiobairiUilleann and Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eire-ann, and was a well known figure in Irishmusic circles both nationally and locally,playing War Pipes, Uilleann pipes andmandolin at dances, concerts, publicmeetings, parades, and on the radio andTV. He played in several countries in-cluding the USA, and sold his pipes asfar afield as Australia and Hong Kong.He taught the local pipe band in the

Photo supplied by Joe Ward, who added that ‘Michael Keenan, band leader playedfor our parents wedding, 1925’; further research online revealed that “The O’Rahilly Warpipers Killann Band was founded in 1917 and dedicated to the O’Rahilly. The uniform comprised saffron kilt, green tunic and green sash.”(http://www.irishidentity.com/extras/wayoflife/stories/warpipers.ht)The pipes themselves appear to be the two-drone ‘warpipes’.

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1910’s and 20’s, ran a successful localCeili band in the 1930’s, taught or ad-vised several young pipe-makers in the1970’s, and taught many younger pipersthroughout his life. It seems he also hadantiquarian interests (for example, do-nating some of his own bronze age findsto museums) and was an inveterate col-lector of “interesting things” (his prizepossession was an original Edison pho-nograph and 450 cylinders, all in perfectworking order!)He found time for all this by avoiding

the two major distractions that haveshriveled many a promising musical ca-reer: he never married (though apparent-ly something of a ladies man in hisyouth) and he never drank (he was alifelong member of Fr. Cullen’s PioneerTotal Abstinence Association).He probably began his piping career on

the newly revived Irish War Pipes whenstill a boy. He participated in a Fèis in1907 when he was only about 12 yearsold, and was already a “renowned” WarPiper when he started teaching a localPipe band in 1917 (with whom he seemsto have played till the band closed downin the late 1940s). He seems to havelearnt the Uilleann pipes later, makinghis first set in the 1920s because hecouldn’t afford to buy one. His Uilleannplaying style was apparently affected byhis War Pipe background, one piperrecalling his decorations as “warpipey”.However, the fact he made Highland,

Lowland and Northumbrian pipes aswell as the full range of Irish pipes(including the revolutionary new bag-

pipe of his youth, the chromatic BrianBoru pipes) suggests his bagpipe enthu-siasm went well beyond the confines ofIrish music.But where did he get the idea of making

“Scotch Lowland Pipes”? In his timeneither the instrument nor the namefigured much in the piping world’s con-sciousness, unlike the other pipes heoffered.The instrument was once played over a

wide area of the British Isles, but by themid-19th century it was little more thana minor adjunct to the expanding cultureof Highland piping. By 1900 it was virtu-ally dead outside a few pockets like ruralAberdeenshire, and remained so untilthe 1980’s revival, apart from the brief“Northumbrian Half-Long” revival. Infact, apart from P/M Robertson, whosupplied the Northumbrian movement,I know of no-one else who offered theinstrument between 1900 and 1975. [3]We cannot say for sure where Keenan

first encountered the instrument, but hewould certainly have been aware of theHalf-Long revival because of his friend-ship with fellow piper William Clarke ofBallybay, Co. Monaghan. Ballybay is on-ly about ten miles from Shercock andKeenan is described as a “frequent”visitor to Clarke - and Clarke was aregular visitor to the Bellingham show inNorthumberland and a friend of bothAnthony Charlton and P/M Robertson,the team behind the Half-Long revival.The three of them featured on the fa-mous “Pipes of Three Nations” record,Clarke paying the Uilleann Pipes, Rob-

30

ertson the Highland Pipes and Charltonthe Northumbrian Small Pipes. [4]According to his friend George McCul-

lagh of Derryvalley, Clarke picked up aset of Half-Longs around 1926 andplayed them till his death in 1934, teach-ing McCullagh to play as well (see ap-pendix). So Keenan could well have gothis inspiration from Clarke. It is stillrather striking, however, that he calledthem “Scotch Lowland Pipes” insteadof “Half-Longs”, the term used by theNorthumbrians and hence by Clarkeand McCullagh.Over the years and in different areas

this instrument has had a variety ofnames. The term “Lowland Pipes”seems to have been created by scholarsin the late 18th century - its first appear-ance is probably in Tytler’s “Bagpipe”article for Encyclopaedia Britannica in1777-8. The name was popular for sev-eral decades, but seems to have disap-peared from general use around the1840’s as the lowland pipe tradition wasabsorbed into a pan-Scottish GHBbased piping culture - thus there is noreference to the instrument in Britannicafrom 1842. In fact pipe-makers contin-ued to make the instrument up to about1900 but they no longer called themLowland Pipes, they marketed them asbellows-blown “Reel Pipes” - the"Lowland" title must have ceased tohave real meaning in a Scotland whereall now claimed the right to the GHB asa national symbol, and Highland piperslike Malcolm Macpherson now playedthe lowland instrument for dancing.

The reassertion of the term “LowlandPipe” seems to have arisen in the early20th century out of a growing interest inthe history of bagpipes and their music -with antiquarians, folklorists, and musichistorians like Manson, Flood, Charlton,Askew, and Cocks. But they were essen-tially talking about historic instruments.The name in common usage since the1840s/50s seems to have been “Reelpipes”, while the 1920’s Northumbrianrevival used the local term “Half-Longs”.Perhaps as a literate revivalist operating

within a culture of bagpipe enthusiasts,Keenan knew the “Scotch LowlandPipes” and the “Northumbrian Half-Longs” were essentially the same instru-ment. This fact wasn’t necessarily asobvious back then as it is now, but hecould have got this knowledge fromClarke with his Northumbrian contacts- NPS scholars like Charlton and Askewwere in the forefront of researching theinstrument in the 1920’s and 30’s. Hav-ing made the link, perhaps he preferredto market them as “Scotch LowlandPipes” - in a mental world where everyculture province was supposed to have adistinct bagpipe proper unto itself, may-be he felt this filled a void betweenHighland and Northumbrian Pipes. Pos-sibly his Nationalist spirit revolted atcalling them English, though he had noqualms about advertising the small pipesas “English Northumbrian Pipes”. Per-haps he preferred to make them withbass and two tenors rather than bass,tenor, and alto/baritone, and was fol-lowing the ideas of Charlton and Askew

31

who tended to make a dubious distinc-tion between Half-Longs and LowlandPipes on the basis of the drone arrange-ment.Most intriguing of all is the possibility

that he had an Irish market - that therelingered a tradition of playing this instru-ment in early 20th century Ireland, onethat used the older Scottish name. Themost likely group to harbour such atradition would be the Ulster Scots. It’sa tantalizing thought for which I canoffer no evidence, and it wouldn’t beeasy to research. Ulster Protestant musicand folk culture has never had the kudosof Irish music and culture: it has beengenerally ignored by the Irish and Britishfolk revivals, and much of its music andlore has simply gone unrecorded. But ifwe view the Ulster Scots as a fringeScottish community one might well ex-pect them to be a bit behind the timesand to host some antique cultural traits.There was certainly a Union Pipe tradi-tion in the Ulster Protestant communitywell into the 20th century, long after itsapparent disappearance in Scotland. [5]What is clear is that at some stage in his

long career Keenan felt there was somesort of market for this instrument, or hewouldn’t have advertised it. Whichleaves us with a whole series of unan-swered questions. How many sets didhe actually make? Who exactly was buy-ing them - and playing them? And areany of his Lowland Pipes still in exis-tence? [6]Nowadays he is a little remembered

figure. The only memories I could find

beyond the sparse offerings on internetforums - mostly in response to my ownqueries - are purely local. The latestsighting is his inclusion in a 2009 talk toa local history group on “Local Charac-ters” of Bailieborough. But in his life-

ti

me he had a much higher profile andstatus than simply “local character”, as isclear from this obituary:“Michael 0 Cianain of Glassleck, Sher-

cock Co. Cavan, who has died, aged 84,was one of the oldest and best-knownmakers of Uilleann and other Irish bag-pipes in the country. He was also awell-known bagpipe player and he ex-ported his pipes to Australia, the UnitedStates and Britain. He also taught enthu-siasts from Germany, France, Britain, aswell as Ireland how to play the Uilleannpipes and he gave his last demonstrationof pipe playing at Cavan Trades Fair atChristmas. A leading member ofComhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann, he playedon RTE television and radio on numer-ous occasions. “

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But alas, no information on his “ScotchLowland Pipes”, here or in the recollec-tions of the few pipers and pipe-makerswho still remember him.

APPENDIX: WilliamClarke’s Half-LongsWhilst I don’t doubt that Clarke owned

a set of Half-Longs, I have some doubtsas to whether this was the instrument hetaught George McCullagh.The information about Clarke’s Half-

Longs comes from extracts of an inter-view with McCullagh played during anRTE radio programme featuring RabWallace and his Lowland pipes, but me-diated through articles in CommonStock and Musical Traditions. Possibly afull transcript of the interview wouldhelp clarify matters, but as it stands theavailable material suggests McCullaghwas confusing the Half-Longs with theNorthumbrian Small Pipes, whichClarke also played, made, and repaired.“the instrument concerned was de-

scribed as sounding rather like a practicechanter….‘it was nice for thehouse……nice little drones on themtoo, tenor bass and alto’.” (my italics)This doesn’t sound like Half-Longs,

certainly not a Robertson set which werenotoriously loud and had a baritonedrone. Possibly Clarke had one ofRobertson’s prototypes, which had adifferent chanter and may have beenquieter, possibly McCullagh was con-fused about the difference between altoand baritone drones, possibly the pipeswere a quieter antique set, possibly the

practice chanter comparison was not tobe taken too literally. But if we do takethis description literally it sounds muchmore like simple/early style Small Pipesthan Half-Longs. The only reason forthinking these were Half-Longs is thatMcCullagh calls them that.The Common Stock article states that

McCullagh inherited Clarke’s Half-Longs and was still playing them at thetime of the interview, but the MusicalTraditions article only states he learnt toplay them in Clarke’s house, makes nomention of current ownership, and im-plies McCullagh only “remembered”them, while all the quotes fromMcCullagh’s testimony talk about theinstrument in the past tense. So he wasprobably talking about something fromlong ago.Harry Bradshaw in the MT article

writes:“George McCullagh also remembered

an unusual set of pipes which Willie had,the half-longs or Lowland pipes. Thisunusual instrument was a hybrid, a crossbetween the Uilleann Pipes and Bag-pipes using a conventional bagpipe set,but having an elbow bellows rather thanblowing them from the mouth. Thisinstrument was the subject of a revivalin Scotland at the turn of the 20th Cen-tury but sets are very rare in Ireland.George learned to play the instrument inWillie's house; ‘they were nice for ahouse, not as wicked a sound as thebagpipes’. ” (MT)This is clearly describing Half-Longs,

and he even uses the alternative

33

“Lowland Pipe” name. But this waswritten after the Rab Wallace pro-gramme by its producer - doubtless hegot the “Lowland” name and probablyhis idea of what the instrument was likefrom Wallace. There is no indicationanywhere that anyone had actually seenthe instrument, and it is specifically stat-ed in the Common Stock article thatthere was no recording of either Clarkeor McCullagh playing it.One thing we can be sure of: William

Clarke will have known Half-Longsfrom Small Pipes. He was an intelligententhusiast who visited the BellinghamShow yearly, who played and made theNorthumbrian Small Pipes himself, aswell as the Highland, Irish War, andUilleann pipes, and who knew leadingSmall Pipers like Billy Pigg, Archie Daggand John Armstrong of Carrick, as wellas the leading Half-Long experts of thetime. I don’t doubt that if Clarke had aset of pipes he called Half-Longs, thenthat is exactly what they were, and thefact McCullagh used the name at allclearly suggests Clarke did own a set.Indeed, it’s doubtful if an eclectic bag-pipe enthusiast and maker like Clarkecould have resisted acquiring a set - thefact he is said to have got them in 1926,the year Robertson first introduced his,suggests early Robertsons. But while itseems highly probable that Clarkeowned some Half-Longs, whether thiswas the instrument remembered by Mc-Cullagh remains open to question.

Notes[1] There is some uncertainty about

who was first to start making the instru-ment again in the current revival, but itwas probably Addison in about 1975,followed by Chris Bayley and maybeColin Ross 1977/8. All these makersoffered them as “Northumbrian Half-Longs”. Grainger & Campbell may havebeen the first to offer them as “LowlandPipes”, in March 1982. During this ges-tation period a few individuals - notablyRab Wallace and Jimmy Anderson - alsomade their own sets, and some amateurmakers like Brian Gumm in Northum-berland appear to have made a few setsfor others.The inter-war Half-Long revival awaits

a proper study. Robertson made his firstsets in 1926, and from the trajectory ofthe movement as outlined in the NPSHistory and elsewhere I doubt if hemade many, if any, after the mid-1930’s.[2] One piper recalls that in the early

1970s when a member of Na PiobairiUilleann proposed a resolution againstinternment in Northern Ireland, andchairman Breandan Breathnach refusedto allow it on the grounds it had no placein a musical organization, Keenanwalked out of the meeting and had noth-ing to do with the NPU thereafter.[3] Note the qualification “virtually”.

The instrument probably never com-pletely disappeared. Throughout theVictorian era it was used by some High-land Pipers as a secondary instrument,and there seem to have been scattered

34

individuals playing throughout the 20th

century, especially in north-east Scot-land. And whilst the inter-war Nor-thumbrian revival petered out it didleave behind a few players who were stillactive when the current revival began.[4] See Common Stock Aug 86/Nov 87

re the “Pipers of Three Nations” discand for a photo of Clarke, Robertsonand Charlton at Bellingham. I have acopy of the 78 and can confirm that noone plays the Half-Longs on it, contraryto the statements in Common Stock anddespite persistent optimistic rumours tothe contrary![5] Though not, apparently, from

Northern England. Remnants of aUnion Pipe tradition have been detectedin east Lancashire in the early 20th centu-ry, and in North Yorkshire as late as the1930s, though both sightings need prop-erly following up.[6] Regarding the quality of his instru-

ments I find mixed messages. One pipercomments: “I only ever saw one set ofhis [uilleann] pipes. I don't know howthey sounded, but I thought them ex-traordinarily ill-finished”. Pat Sky re-calls: “There was a fellow in RhodeIsland who had a set of his pipes. Theywere rather large and clunky based onthe Taylor style.” And one piper whoworked as Keenan’s apprentice in 1976writes “ His pipes were quite Taylor-ishand the regulators were a bit bulky, be-ing square and not turned except for theends but the chanters were quite slimwith dimples over the finger holes mak-

ing then extremely comfortable to play.”All of which might imply that one man’s“ill-finished” was simply another man’sdistinctive style. Certainly we have toconsider that Keenan appears to havebeen a professional maker and player -at least there is no indication in any ofthe sources that he had any other career- and the reference to him being anArmy contractor suggests at least rea-sonable competence, while one obituarydescribes him as a “meticulous crafts-man” who took a year over each set ofUilleann pipes.

SourcesTreoir, Marta/Aibreain (March/April) 1969; Iml. 10,1978, Uimhir 2 & 3 (Vol 10, Nos. 2 & 3)Anglo Celt, 12th January, 1946; 4th March, 2009Bailieborough News, 25th March 2009Common Stock, Vol. 3 No. 1 (Aug 1986) & No. 2 (Nov1987); Vol. 16 No. 2 (Dec 2001)http://comhaltasarchive.ie/system/documents/CPP/TRE-1969-7/TRE-1969-7.original.pdfhttp://comhaltasarchive.ie/system/documents/CPP/TRE-1978-2/TRE-1978-2.original.pdfhttp://comhaltasarchive.ie/system/documents/CPP/TRE-1978-3/TRE-1978-3.original.pdfhttp://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/w_clarke.htmhttp://forums.chiffandfipple.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=75621http://www.irishidentity.com/extras/wayoflife/stories/warpipers.htmhttp://www.bailieborough.com/news/details.php?news_id=210http://www.cavancommunity.ie/dbcws/publish/general/documents/d510255031009.pdfhttp://www.ireland-information.com/jan10.htmhttps://listserv.heanet.ie/cgi-bin/wa?A2=irtrad-l;VMN1EA;200203271436410000http://www.eirgridnortheastprojects.com/media/14.2%20Topographic%20Files.pdfhttp://www.northumbrianpipers.org.uk/history.htmlhttp://forums.bobdunsire.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130419

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F èis Rois Inbhich (The Adult Fèis)is an annual 3-day festival offer-ing tuition in traditional music,

song, dance, Gaelic language and culturein the beautiful setting of Ullapool. Theevent has a long history – this year wasthe 20th Adult Fèis weekend and 2011will see the 25th anniversary of Fèis Rois.Classes take place all day on the Satur-day, Sunday and Monday of the firstweekend of May and are led by an ever-expanding team of well-known tradi-tional musicians. Many classes aregrouped into ability levels, with optionsranging from complete beginner to ad-vanced, and participants take two differ-ent classes over the weekend – one eachmorning and one each afternoon.This year was only my second visit to

the Fèis, and having attended non-pip-ing classes last year, I decided to join thesmallpipes class run each afternoon byMike Katz of the Battlefield Band. Theclass consisted of three students(including myself), all of whom wereupper intermediate-level players orabove (the advertised standard for theclass). Although not perhaps an idealclass size for the Fèis from an economicperspective, this was a great advantage

to the three of us – providing an excel-lent teaching ratio.After hearing us play, Mike decided to

concentrate on teaching a number ofnew tunes and to concentrate on musi-cality and style, rather than issues oftechnique. He taught entirely by ear, andat a fast pace – this demanded a lot ofconcentration, but started to feel mucheasier by the second day’s teaching.Luckily, we all just about managed tokeep up with him… He is a hugelyenthusiastic tutor, with a vast repertoireand great energy, and this pulled all of usup to his level (if only for a short while)– no mean feat.The tunes were a mix of modern com-

positions, such as Allan Macdonald’sSeudan A’Chuain (Jewels of the Ocean),and older tunes that might be familiarfrom recordings of players such as FredMorrison, Finlay Macdonald, RoryCampbell and others, such as the 9/8’sWould the Minister Not Dance (also tobe found in the LBPS tutor, of course!)and The Grinder (Amadan GòrachSaighdear). To stretch us even further,Mike also taught the traditional reel Ochis Duine Truagh Mi (in AllanMacdonald’s book) in both G and A, to

Smallpipes at Fèis Rois Inbhich1-3 May 2010Niall Anderson reports on the smallpipe class at this year’s Fèisin Ullapool

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illustrate the range of musical optionswithin even the limited range of the pipechanter, and looked at adapting twocommonly played non-pipe tunes (PutMe in the Big Chest and Out on theOcean) to the pipe scale, with the inten-tion of developing versions that couldbe played alongside instruments playingthe full melody (although admittedly thesecond tune required transposition awayfrom it’s most common key…)The Fèis weekend also includes a num-

ber of organised and led sessions atbeginner, intermediate and advancedlevel on the Saturday evening. I wasfortunate to have been allocated to oneled by Mike Katz and others, so thisensured that a large number of pipetunes featured during the evening. Infuture years, I would probably swap tothe session being led by the piping tutor,to try to repeat the experience. On theSunday night, there is a concert featuringcollaborations between groups of thetutors from the weekend. The standard

of playing, singing and arranging is in-credibly high, particularly in view of thefact that rehearsal time is usually limitedto a lunchtime or two, or in some casesduring the interval of the Tutors’ con-cert itself!I would thoroughly encourage every-

one to consider a trip to Ullapool nextyear – it is a truly immersive experience,and I found Mike’s teaching to be enjoy-able and inspiring. Tutors tend to varyfrom year to year (smallpipes have beentaught by Rory Campbell and AllanMacdonald in the preceding two years,for example), but the Fèis team alwaysseem to manage to pull in some of thebest players from the traditional musicscene across a large number of instru-ments. Don’t just think of this as a pip-ing workshop – it’s a broader musicalexperience that will give you ideas andinspiration for the year ahead. I hope toshare a few tunes with LBPS membersat the 21st Fèis Rois Inbhich next year.See www.feisrois.org further details.

I started learning the pipes at 10 athome in Fort William, with Pipe MajorEvan McRae, in the days when girlswere just beginning to break into themans world of piping, and I played ob-sessively until I left home at around 18.Then I stopped because it was difficultto keep it up when I was living in Lon-don. I only took my GHB’s out of thebox again four years ago (I’m now 50)

and started attempting to play again.Feis Rois was the incentive and my firsttime there was in the big pipes class withIain MacDonald as tutor. That inspiredme to keep trying, though my fingers arenot what they were or could have been,but with practice I am improving. Mybig issue is lack of a contemporary rep-ertoire, and the having the confidence toplay in front of people, which I have lost.

Christine Grace also took part in the Fèis event. Here she describesher experiences moving from Highland pipes to smallpipes

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I got myself a set of Nigel Richard’ssmallpipes about 3 years ago and I tookthem to my second Feis Rois when I hadAllan MacDonald as a tutor. He was alsobrilliant and I learned such a lot fromhim. Rory Campbell taught me last year,also a skilled tutor, and this year wasMike. Katz.

Having come from a very traditionalpiping background involving competi-tion and having my fingers smacked if Iplayed the wrong notes at chanter prac-tice, and also with the big gap in playing,I felt I was a generation behind. I’vefound that the music has moved on somuch since those days both in musicali-ty, and with so many wonderful newtunes. I learned to play from writtennotes, and in competition style whereevery note and movement was essential,but I wanted to get away from that and

to be more musical even if that meantbeing less technical in my playing.That’s what was so great about Mike’s

class this year. He, like the other tutorsI’ve had at the Feis, taught by ear, whichfor me is a really difficult process butone which I really want to get to gripswith. He taught us tunes which werefairly simple in structure, and taughtthem in a simple way, but crucially forme, didn’t teach us the embellishmentsand ornamentation, so it’s up to me howI play the tune. I’ve found this liberating!It’s just what I need because it allows meto express myself in the music in the wayI’m comfortable with, and it’s almostlike being given permission to break outof the traditional straightjacket. Thismight sound terribly obvious to thosewho’ve grown up playing like this, but Ididn’t, so for me it’s freedom.Mike also showed us how to adapt

tunes which aren’t suited to the pipechanter, and also to play the same tunein different keys…for example, trans-posing a tune in A down to G. That’snot something I had ever thought of, yetit’s so simple (for some tunes anyway).At the end Mike gave us the dots, but

without the ornamentation so the pro-cess of self discovery for me goes on.I’ve also found that although I had diffi-culty in remembering the tunes at thetime, now I have the notes and record-ings I took as memory joggers, they’remiraculously in my head. I loved theclass. I’m looking forward to next yearalready!

Christine Grace playing in the small-pipe class at the Fèis

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The 9th South West Coast PiperDrummer Workshops weekendwas held from 7 – 9 May 2010.

The event, which is organised by theWarrnambool & District Pipes &Drums Inc., opened on Friday eveningwith a recital at the Warrnambool RSL(Returned and Services League of Aus-tralia) featuring some of the local, na-tional and international piping anddrumming tutors. On Saturday, work-shops were conducted for the Highlandpipes, Scottish smallpipes and pipe banddrumming. Whilst the piping workshopshave usually been for the Great High-land Bagpipe, Scottish smallpipe work-shops have also been offered in the lastcouple of years. This year the smallpipeworkshop was conducted by GeoffJones. The handful of keen players at-tending this workshop enjoyed workingon a range of tunes, from basic to moreadvanced, harmonies (using the sameand different pitched pipes – A & D),different playing styles, and adaptingtunes for playing on the smallpipe, suchand Highland (pipe band) tunes andgeneral session (mainly Irish folk) tunes.

In the evening we returned to the RSLfor tea, where we were treated to ablackboard concert of performancesfrom various groups and individuals. Aperformance by a few of the smallpipeplayers, demonstrating the versatilityand lovely harmonies of the instrument,was particularly well received.Sunday morning began with more

workshops - 'electives' this time. Theregular ‘playing pipes with other instru-ments’ workshop was well attended.About a dozen (Highland) pipers inter-ested in ‘other’ pipes had a go playingScottish & Northumbrian smallpipes,shuttle pipes and border pipes. Theworkshop concluded with the groupplaying a few common tunes on thevarious pipes accompanied by piano,guitar and tin whistles. The weekendfinished with a BBQ lunch, giving ofawards and much socialising.Details of next year’s event will be

posted on the WADPADI website(www.wadpadi.org.au) and informationabout other smallpipe workshops andevents in the region are on my website(www.geoffjones.info).

Bellows pipe classes now appear at traditional music festivalsaround the world. Here piping teacher and maker Geoff Jonesdescribes one in the Australia autumn, and piper Ben Millerreports from one on the same weekend in springtime Maine,USA.

Smallpipe Workshopsin Warrnambool, Southwest Victoria

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Maine Pipes and Fiddle Weekend, MayBen Miller reports

A fter the long drive north fromNew York to Maine, I arrivedin the small, but beautiful city

of Ellsworth. In town for the springedition of the biannual Maine Pipesand Fiddle Weekend, I drove on for afew more miles. My accommodationswere graciously provided for me byone of the weekend’s main organizersat his home just outside of town. Thatevening, I was introduced to theworkshop’s two perennial instructors,Ward MacDonald and Ellen MacPhee.Both hailing from Prince Edward Is-land, Canada; Ward teaches fiddle andEllen teaches Scottish Smallpipes.Keeping in the tradition of their com-

mon musical background of Scottishstep dancing, both teachers focus onthe importance of music as it relates todancing. Ellen and Ward both agreethat a strong sense of the beat is key.They both put heavy emphasis on eventhe way players tap their foot, so theywill better feel the true rhythm of thetunes. I found this especially fascinat-ing. Even as I relearned a jig in oneafternoon class, I saw it in a new lightas Ellen showed me how to emphasizethe beat in a new way with my foottapping. Other aspects of instructionincluded a strong focus on learning byear and proper posture, as Ellen is alsoa chiropractor. No more bellows-relat-ed back pain!

The nights I spent in Maine werefilled with great music as students andinstructors gathered at the housewhere I was staying for some tunesand a few drinks. Fiddlers and pipersjoined together accompanied by piano,guitar, and even a harmonium to gothrough the tunes we had learned andmany others. The whole weekend wasfilled with a fantastic sense of commu-nity and welcoming. Although it wasmy first time at one of these Maineworkshops, I felt like I had been therefrom the first one, four years ago. I willmost definitely be in Ellsworth forsome more tunes and great fun inOctober for the fall edition. I hope tosee you there.

Tim Cummings brings it to the table

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Common Ground SummerSchool , which will again bebased at West Park. This is an

excellent, modern campus which pro-vides single, on suite accommodation.(Unfortunately there are no lifts, so ifyou are infirm please request a groundfloor room ). The complex has bars,lounges and meeting rooms. As in pastyears the program is wide ranging andvery social, with piping during the morn-ing, and the option of trying other in-struments or music styles in theafternoon. The evenings provide a vari-ety of concerts followed by sessions tosuit differing abilities and styles. Thecosts are: Tuition £135 (inclusive of allconcerts etc ), Full Board £225.According to the web site “Our Tutor

team for 2010 is still to be confirmed butis likely to include many of the followingtutors: Pete Clark (fiddle), Neil Paterson

(pipes, whistle), Merry Graham,(Dialogue), Laura & Peter Beaven(Traditional crafts including weavingand felting), Pete Shepheard (song),Bobby Robb (Song), Dr Klaus Bertsch(Wine appreciation), Sara Melville(fiddle) Colin McNab (harmonica), KirtiMandir (sculpture), Tom McConville(Alexander Technique / fiddle), HeatherHeywood (Gospel Choir), Graeme Gass(Gospel/Blues Band, Piano, Guitar,Ukulele), Nic Spencer (fiddle, ceilidhdance), Nigel Gatherer (mandolin), PeteHeywood (concert photography), JohnSheldon (bluegrass banjo), Alan Mairs(Bluegrass fiddle & mandolin)”"For my own part, I have been to many

Summer Schools and Festivals but have nevercome away so fulfilled and uplifted by thetotality of the experience quite like this oneachieved. Tired? Yes! Exhilarated? Without adoubt!"

Common Ground Summer SchoolWest Park Centre, Dundee, 1st-6th August, 2010

Piping Live! August 10

During the week of events leading up to the World’s Pipe Band Champion-ships in Glasgow, the LBPS will be running a bellows pipe programme atthe Festival Club in the National Piping Centre, Glasgow, from 10.00 pm

till late on Tuesday 10 August. Performers are currently being booked and furtherdetails will be given on the website, www.lbps.net. It is also intended to hold abellows workshop at lunchtime that day, hopefully at the College of Piping, fromwhich confirmation is awaited.The week’s events feature too many people to list here; visit www.pipinglive.co.uk

_______________________________________________________________________CS

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The first half of my piping historyis a pretty common story forbellows pipers here in the States.

I started on the Highland Pipes, with aband. I played with the band for anumber of years, but I eventually tiredof it. I liked my band mates, but Iwanted my musical life to be less formal,less militaristic. The phenomenon inIrish music known as a session, drew meto the uilleann pipes.I immediately enjoyed the freedom of

Irish music. In Irish music workshops Iwas encouraged to play the music my

own way, and not to play a tune thesame way twice. Ironically though, Ididn’t enjoy the Irish session as much as Ithought I would. But Irish music wasdefinitely a step forward in my musicallife and it lead to pipemaking..There’s something about the compli-

cated and mechanical nature of uilleannpipes that makes people want to becomepipemakers. It brings out the mad scien-tists in us. I started my pipemakingcareer by casting drones, chanters, andstocks out of polyester and epoxy resins.

In one of an occasional series, Common Stock interviews Nate Banton, one ofAmerica’s leading bellows-pipe makers, and discovers a menu ofbagpipe materials and a little-known piping tradition

The ‘interview’ was conducted in cyberspace over the last month or so. I began byasking Nate to tell me a little about his piping history:

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I had a lot of luck with it, and like anygood junkie, I wanted more.I met Seth Gallagher at the Pipers

Gathering when it was still on NorthHero Island, Vermont. The previouswinter I had sent out 40 letters to pipe-makers of every sort around the world,including Seth, asking for placement asan apprentice. Three people answeredthe letters. One said “no”, one said,“sorry, I just hired one”, and Seth said“maybe”. Seth and I talked about thejob possibility at North Hero and heagreed to have me come down to NewYork to talk about it further. I wentdown and he told me that if I agreed tostay on for three years, he’d hire me. Iagreed.When I moved to New York from

Maine for my apprenticeship, I mostlygave up playing Scottish Style pipes. Iimmersed myself in the uilleann pipingworld almost exclusively for 5 or 6 years.And it was my plan to start my ownuilleann pipe making business.When I finished my apprenticeship and

left New York, I moved back home toMaine to take a position as a Stonema-son with a piping friend of mine. Ifigured I could work stone by day anddo pipe making R&D by night. When Igot to Maine my friend, who had beenattending the Gaelic College in CapeBreton, Nova Scotia for years, con-vinced me to borrow a set of smallpipesand go with him to the college for oneweek in June. And that’s where mypiping path took a sharp left turn.

There I met Ellen MacPhee, a smallpip-er from Prince Edward Island. She hadgrown up attending the Gaelic Collegeherself. Her smallpipes teacher at theGaelic College had been Hamish Moore.I spent a dizzying week having my

mind rearranged for me in Cape Breton.Days were spent in Ellen’s class learningamazing Scottish and Cape Bretontunes, and at night we went to the tradi-tional dances of Cape Breton Island intheir tiny local dance halls. It was aprofound week for me.When I returned to the States, Irish

music no longer had any draw for me.Irish music and I have since reconciledour difference somewhat, it’s a wonder-ful tradition, but at the time it was like Iwas born again, and Irish music was theerror of my former ways. I didn’t takemy uilleann pipes out of their case formore than a year, and still don’t playthem. There’s just something about thedrive of Cape Breton music that keepsme going back for more.I immediately switched the focus of my

pipe making plans from uilleann pipes toScottish smallpipes. It took time tolearn the differences, especially with thereeds, but here I am now, a maker ofScottish Smallpipes and Border Pipes.[Ed.] How did your designs originate?A co-worker of mine during my ap-

prenticeship, Mike MacNintch, had alarge collection of measurements of var-ious pipes. The first set of smallpipes Iever made was a copy of his trusty MikeMacHarg D smallpipes. I’ve since made

43

many changes, and come across othermeasurements, and my smallpipes arenothing like that first set. But you startsomewhere, and then continually change

things until you’ve end up with the de-sign that your ears want to hear.For reeds, I must confess that I have

tried my best to imitate the reeds ofHamish and Fin Moore. I’ve failedsomewhat at that task, as our reeds arecertainly not the same. But I think theattempt itself to copy their reeds got meto where I am now, which is very happywith my reed design.Also, I’d like to say that one of my

biggest breakthroughs with my small-pipe reeds was when I switched to usingsoft California cane, also known as Cali-fornia Goldm which I get from JosephSampson in California. It’s fantasticcane, and I highly recommend it.

[Ed.] How has location affected your designsand processes? do your pipes differ significantlyfrom Scottish made ones?Honestly, I’m not sure. I only know

how I was taught to make pipes, andthat my teacher was taught how to makewind instruments by a German immi-grant, Mr Von Heune of the Von HeuneEarly Music Workshop. There’s about amillion ways to do anything within pipe-making, but in the end we’re all dealingwith the same main problems: How tomake long holes in wood, and how tomake chanter reeds.I don’t think my pipes differ from Scot-

tish-made pipes any more than the Scot-tish-made pipes differ from each other.Except maybe that I make my dronesplay more extra notes.[Ed. ] Do you recommend any maintenance

practices specific to the US?Though I’ve heard this is starting to

change, I think makers in Scotland stilltend to recommend that customersdon’t touch their reeds at all. Fluctua-tions in humidity are much smallerthere, so generally, less futzing is neces-sary. They recommend waiting a bit andhoping that things will return to normal,which they often do.I too recommend the wait and see ap-

proach first. But in the US, with thewinters that many of us go through, orthe large swings in humidity that someareas of the US experience, I think mycustomers need to know how to adjusttheir reeds.

Border pipes in osage

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From the very beginning I’ve fittedsynthetic drone reeds as standard withmy pipes. I agree that cane drone reedssound better, but reeds that work, andare steady sound better than reeds thatdon’t work or aren’t steady, no matterthe tone. I make cane drone reeds forthose customers who feel they can putin the time and effort to maintain them,but cane reeds in northern US wintersare a nightmare to keep going. Plus, Ithink my synthetic drone reeds are quitegood. All the recordings on my soundpage are with synthetic drone reeds.(www.elbowmusic.com/sounds.html)[Ed. ] On your web site you talk about

playing the smallpipe chanter with borderdrones; tell me something about that;It’s becoming a little bit of a fad over

here. The first person, other than my-self, I saw doing this was Dan Houghtonfrom the band Cantrip, who’s currentlyliving in Vermont. Dan plays a Mooreborder pipe set and plugs a smallpipechanter in with it. It sounds great. Thebalance of drones versus chanter is notideal for everyday playing, but havingthat big booming bass with the small-pipe chanter can be a lot of fun.I have at least four customers that play

smallpipe chanters with their borderdrones. One of my smallpipe custom-ers, after hearing about the possibility,ordered a set of border pipe drones witha fourth drone to play with his smallpipechanters, and put his smallpipe dronesaway in a box. It’s something for truedrone addicts.

[Ed. ] Your website has some interestingdescriptions of woods; some of them seem pecu-liar to the US; is that correct?Yeah, I’m a bit odd that way I suppose.

It’d be easier on me if I just stuck to twoor three wood options, but it’s fun touse all these different woods. They allwork well, so why not? For example,I’m constantly surprised by the greattone that fruitwoods produce, for bothBorder pipes and smallpipes.I’m particularly proud of the American

woods, osage and mesquite. They arereally great woods, both of which havesome pretty special properties. Osagehas the highest resistance to rot of anywood, and produces the most BTUs ofany wood when burned. And mesquiteis the only wood that shrinks and ex-pands equally longitudinally and latitudi-nally. All other woods will develop anoval shaped bore over time due to un-equal wood shrinkage, but mesquite’sunique property prevents this.[Ed. ] I have been enjoying the wonderful

combinations of wood and mount materials yourweb iste gallyer describes; ia list reads rather likean up-market menu:”Blue Mahoe and WaterBuffalo horn - Plum and Water Buffalo -BoisDe Rose and Raphia Tae Nut” - I also noticedyour particular interest in fruit woods.One of the biggest, and happiest, sur-

prises I’ve had since working full time asa pipe maker, is how warm and rich thesound of a fruitwood set of smallpipesis. I knew fruitwoods would work forborder pipes, and they have not let medown. But the very warm, but stillbright tones of the Plum and Pear small-

45

pipes I’ve made are marvellously eye-opening. All my pear and plum woodshave previously come from Europe..Now I’m excited to have found a smallsupplier of domestic fruitwoods in theUS I’ve ordered some plum to test, andalso some apricot, which I know is tradi-tionally used for the Armenian Duduk,so it certainly has a history of being usedfor woodwind production. If this sourceis suitable, I plan to make a set of borderpipes from it for my own use..[Ed. ] It will certainly look good on the menu.

Your website has describes a good selection ofdrone- tunings; most of the tunes are recorded byTim Cummings; tell me a bit about your

relationship with him;his name is not widelyknown in Scotland. (hiswebsite was a treat) haveyou worked together onyour pipe designs?I met Tim at the

Vermont Bellow-spipe school. He isan absolutely amaz-

ing piper and musician and has a veryunique sense of humour. We have a lotof common interests beyond piping likeAmerican Old-time music. We haven’tdirectly worked on internal pipe designstogether, but I make small changes tomy designs based on customer feedbackall the time, and I talk to Tim prettyoften about pipes, so in that respect he’scertainly had an impact. He did haveone contribution to the external designof my pipes. Upon his request, his setof pipes has antler ferrules, instead of

my normal stainless steel, and I’ve sincehad several people order the same de-sign.Tim is a very creative piper, and a very

knowledgeable musician. So when hegot his set of pipes from me, he reallyran with the drone tuning possibilities.I had just recently made the tenor droneon the A/D smallpipe sets able to alsoplay a G because my friend Ward Mac-Donald, who has written some prettywell known fiddle tunes, wrote a greattune in G for smallpipes, called the Bal-lerina Tune [which you can hear Tim playingon Nate’s web site] Add that to the alto andbaritone drones’ abilities to each playboth E and D, and you have a lot oftunings to play with. Plus Tim managesto sneak in other notes by switchingdrone tops around.[Ed. ] What about the issues of chanter tuning

when the drones are re-tuned?droneWhen it comes to playing tunes in keys

like Bminor on the smallpipes, withdrones retuned to B, or my current fa-vorite thing to do, in Eminor on the Dchanter with drones tuned to E, I defi-nitely find some of the intervals off. Butyou know, most of the time it's a smalldifference and a little bag manipulation(probably unconscious) goes a long way.As for the intervals when playing a

Bminor tune with the standard Adrones, for me it's more a feeling ofconfusion about some of the intervals,than actual out of tune-ness. I think myear is hearing two different things at thesame time. It's hearing the meld of Adrones with a just A tuned chanter (a

I've found thatmy thoughts onchanter tuning,for smallpipes,have changedslightly now thatI do more "funky"drone tunings

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lovely thing), but my ear is also hearingthat the intervals for the particular key(or mode) are not right. It's a strangesensation.I've found that my thoughts on chanter

tuning, for smallpipes, have changedslightly now that I do more "funky"drone tunings. I find it very fun to do allthese different drone tunings, and I seehow the Northumbrian pipes becamethe way they are now. I can't begin toimagine how in the world a Northum-brian pipe maker goes about tuning hischanters. I mostly stick to the standardScottish pipes just scale, but they arealways playing in all those different keyswith all those different drone tunings. Ithink I'd lose sleep over it. Right nowI'm sticking to good old reliable justintonation for tuning my chanters. Ofcourse, I do it by ear, so whether it isexactly the strict, by the numbers justintonation, I'm not sure, but it's close towhat highland pipers would consider"in-tune." I do find myself consideringchanging the tuning on some notes tomake playing with "non-standard"drone tunings easier, but so far I'veresisted. Most of my customers are high-land pipers, and want the chanter tunedin that fashion, and that's what my ear istrained for anyway. Having the chanterring out with the standard drone tuningis first and foremost. Plus, it's fairly easyto use the bag arm to push the chanterinto whatever tuning you need (withinreason).

[Ed. ] Bellows pipes seem to have releasedpiping into lots of new musical areas, some quitesurprising. I notice Tim for instance playingold-time with a banjo player. Is this affectingpipe design? Have you had any particularcustomer requests?I have noticed more and more talk

about using smallpipes and border pipesfor other musical genres, which I thinkis fantastic, but so far it's affected mydesign very little. I have had requests toleave some notes (like the G on A chant-ers) a bit sharper, to be not so "out oftune" with other instruments (they cantape it down to play in bagpipe tuning),but that's about the only thing.[Ed. ]I notice you offer a particular drone-stop

deviceI developed the "stop-tops", as I'm

calling them, early on. I wanted some-

A/D smallpipes in plum and horn

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thing that didn't involve plugs (easy tolose), but didn't look like the Northum-brian-style stop pins (not sure whatthey're called). So I made a system thatconnected a stopping plunger to the topdecorative mount. The mount itselfslides, and when the mount is slid"down" the plunder inside stops thedrone, but when it's slid up, it reveals theside bored hole, and the plunger movesaway from the bore and lets the droneplay. There's a set screw that keeps thedrone top from sliding too far up. It'scomplicated to make, involving setscrews, o-rings, delrin plungers, thread-ing and tapping, but the end result is avery low maintenance (a little vaselineonce or twice a year) and an almostinvisible drone stopper mechanism. Thestop-top sets look almost identical to theregular sets (just a small set screw givesaway the secret inside).[Ed. ] One last thing; I gather you’ve been on

an exciting trip recently, to play Celtic music inCuba, a country not known widely for its piping.Yeah, 60 percent of the people of Cuba

are descended from immigrants fromSpain. Many of those immigrants werefrom the two Celtic Spanish lands, Gali-cia and Asturia. And thirty percent ofthe Cuban people are descended fromEuropeans, many of those Irish. Likethose from Africa, these roots too haveinfluenced the music of Cuba.Havana has two Bagpipe bands and a

vibrant Celtic music scene centeredaround the university in Havana. InApril, they ran the first CeltFest Cuba. I

was incredibly lucky to be hosted by theCanadian-Cuban Celtic Society to godown to participate. One of their mainobjectives is to help Havana establishtheir own Celtic festival, CeltFest Cuba,which will be loosely based around CapeBreton's Celtic Colours Festival, a huge-ly successful international festival nes-tled in the tiny communities of CapeBreton Island.There's both Galician and Asturian

piping in Cuba. From what I under-stand, after talking at length with Ale-jandro Gispert, who was the pupil of the"Last Piper of Havana" Eduardo Loren-zo (luckily, a historical misnomer at thispoint), there are still Cuban's who speakGalician in Havana, so the Galician Cul-ture, especially after this recent musicalrevival, is still strong in Cuba.As for Asturian, I believe it's a broken

tradition in Havana, at this point. How-ever, I believe that there is still one ortwo sets of Asturian pipes being playedby a number of pipers in Pinar Del Rio,a rural area outside of Havana, which Ithink may be an unbroken tradition ofpiping. But either way, the Asturianband in Havana is large and soundedgreat, almost all young folk.Cuban piping is not entirely unknown

in Scotland; Fin Moore was one of thepeople who helped finance the equip-ment to video the festival, so thanks tohim and to all who helped.And thanks to you , Nate, for answering my

questions. You can see the extensive range ofNate’s pipes at www.elbowmusic.com

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This year’s Annual Collogue and AGM will be held at the School of ScottishStudies in Edinburgh on Saturday, Nov. 6th.

Ross Anderson will be giving a presentation on the pastoral pipes. Other presentationswill include one by Iain McInness on bellows pipe broadcasting, with some early clipsfrom the BBC archive, and a brief introduction to the Society archive, in his inimitablefashion, by retiring president, Julian Goodacre. This is the Society’s major social eventof the year and an opportunity to meet other pipers in the delightful environment ofEdinburgh’s George Square. There will be playing sessions (including a slow one forthe less confident) in the afternoon and an informal session in the evening, lead by IainMcInnes.Watch the web-site for further details and booking; www.lbps.net

The first PEI Fiddle Camp is takingplace on the beautiful south shoreof Prince Edward Island at the new-

ly-renovated Camp Abegweit.Despite it's name, I suspect this event willbecome one of the top places to studyScottish Bellows-piping, not only in NorthAmerica, but in the world. It's biggeststrength is that it is not just a place forpiping, but for many traditional instru-ments, and pipers will get a chance toimmerse themselves in the wider world ofmaking Scottish influenced music.Classes will include beginners and ad-vanced smallpipes and border pipes(‘Tunes from the Borders region will beexplored for those interested in a little side

jaunt from the more typical Scottish reper-toire.’)Tutors Tim Cummings and Dr. EllenMacPhee will offer pipers an opportunityto learn tunes and technique, jam withother musicians, and incorporate the spiritof dance in their playing. Ear training, foottapping, and getting to know your guitarplayer are all essential pieces of the puzzle.There will also be a Pipes MaintenanceClass by pipemaker Nate Banton who willdiscuss and demonstrate the ins and outs ofmaintaining a set of bellows blown pipes -hemping, oiling, reed adjustment (chanterand drone), bag and bellows care, andmore.See www.peifiddlecamp.com for details.

Prince Edward Island Fiddle CampJune 20-26 2010

2010 LBPS Collogue

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A wealth of information about the event, photos from previous years, andall the back issues of the informative and entertaining Programme Book-lets, as well as registration details, are available on the event website

http://pipersgathering.org/This year’s tutors include Dan Houghton & EJ Jones on Border Pipes, Jon

Swayne on English Pipes, Ian Lawther & Anthony Robb on Northumbriansmallpipes and Jim McGillivray, Dan Houghton & EJ Jones on Scottish smallpipes.

Pipers’ Gathering, VermontAug 13-16 2010“North America’s most comprehensive bagpipe event”

ARDROSSAN HIGHLAND GAMES smallpipe competitionIn what is probably a first, the games will be running a Small Pipes (Bellows only)

competition this year on Sunday 13th June. One solo event and one group event.Their web site www.ardrossanhighlandgames.org.uk has the rules and an entryform. We hope to have a report on this ground-breaking event in the next issue.

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Grand Concert of Bellows PipingLennoxlove House, Haddington, 2nd June, 2010

On June 2nd the Society hosts a concert of bellows piping in the EastLothian town of Haddington (a place renowned for its Lowland piping)in the magnificent Great Hall of Lennoxlove House (home of the Dukes

of Hamilton). As I write this the event lies in the future; as you read it it will havehappened.The concert is part of the Haddington Festival. It will display the four main

bellows pipes of the UK and Ireland. The performers will include Andy May(Northumbrian smallpipes), Gary West (Scottish smallpipes), Fin Moore(Border/reel pipes) with Sarah Hoy (fiddle), Jarlath Henderson (Uillean pipes) andJudy Barker (Song/Scottish smallpipes).

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I t’s gone,” sighed the Rat, sinking back in his seat again. “So beautiful andstrange and new! Since it was to end so soon, I almost wish I had never heardit. For it has roused longing in me that is pain, and nothing seems worth while

but just to hear that sound once more and go on listening to it for ever.”’Kenneth Grahame’s description above might describe the constant desire of

pipers to better their skills, improve the sound of their instrument and to playmusic together. We are all pursuing THAT sound, THAT musical experience, butit always seems to be just around the bend.Thankfully, the Lowland and Border Pipers’ Society once again lends us a hand

with their new publication, THE WIND IN THE BELLOWS. This book is theproduct of a group effort headed up by Jock Agnew, Martin Lowe, Simon McKer-rell, and Dougie Pincock. Guided by the lights of a large constellation of pipingstars they created a book full of more information about bellows piping thanseveral Highland piping tutors put together. There is no other book about pipingin any tradition with so much well organised, balanced and thoughtful materialabout pipe music, history, technique, reference material and how-to advice.Within the first six pages, I think, we are told at least three times that this book is

best used in conjunction with the first volume, MORE POWER TO YOURELBOW. Yes, it cannot be emphasized enough: get the first book too if you donot already have it. Then we get right into descriptions of the three different typesof pipes played in Scotland, bellows and mouth blown. On page one we encounterthe first of many excellent tables that reveal and unravel at a glance wads ofinformation with ease and economy.Among the abundance of topics covered in the book you will find excellent

sections explaining pitch compatibility of different kinds of pipes in different keys,composing, harmony and how to use it, standard and unusual drone tunings,singing with the pipes, how to run a piping school, a teaching syllabus called“Progressive Schedules,” biographies, an index of tune sources, and even explana-tions of such scientific arcanery as the Bernoulli Effect.“ ‘It’s like music—far away music,’ said the Mole, nodding drowsily.“ ‘So I was thinking,” murmured the Rat, dreamful and languid. ‘Dance music—

the lilting sort that runs on without a stop—but with words in it, too—it passesinto words and out of them again—I catch them at intervals—then it is dancemusic once more, and then nothing but the reeds’ soft thin whispering.’”

The Wind in the BellowsJohn Dally reviews the recent Society publication from the vantage point ofWashington State, USA.

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BluePaul Martin

One often unacknowledgedconsequence of the techno-logical developments that

have made recording and CD produc-tion so readily available is that controlover not just content but presentation isnow in the hands of the recording artist.As a result a CD today can be more akinto a personal meeting with a performerthan a recording of their repertoire andability. In short a CD these days can bea much more human object.This recording by Durham-based piper

Paul Martin is a fine example. It isnamed after his horse (whose portraitappears on the cover of the insert) andincludes a windswept moor of a tune,written by Paul, called ‘Nine Miles toBailey’, ‘which commemorates the feel-ing of after riding through the BorderCounty and sleeping rough for threenights reaching what was thought to beour destination (beer and food) and dis-covering there was another nine miles togo’. I take it that the ‘our’ in questioncomprised Paul and Blue. We also get tomeet Paul’s young son Loughlin, whogets a tune to accompany his bathtime; Iparticularly enjoyed this 11/8 tune,played by Paul on Low Whistle and itsounds like one-year-old Loughlin didtoo.Blue also has his own tune, ‘Blue’s

Buck’, a syncopated kind of mazurkawhich Paul says he named ‘after being

on the receiving end of Blue’s spring-time acrobatics’. Altogether, six of thetwentynine tunes on this CD were writ-ten by Paul; seventeen others are tradi-tional bagpipe music, mostly from theborder country, including ‘Cut and DryDolly’ (Dixon’s version, accompaniedby accordion, a sound reminiscent of theDevonshire-based pipe-accordion duoDave Faulkner and Steve Turner,though here perhaps a little heavy on theaccordion drone), ‘Derwentwater’sFarewll’ (on an F set of NorthumbrianSmallpipes with a fine fiddle accompa-nying them), ‘A Mile to Ride’, ‘Go toBerwick Johnny’ and ‘The Peacock Fol-lowed the Hen’ among others; one trackis Julian Goodacre's ‘Whitwell Waltz’,one is by fiddler Nikki and the otherfour are Polish or Hungarian tunes. Soalthough this is a recording of ‘border’and small pipes, it is an inclusive collec-tion.

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Paul has come through the Highlandpipe band journey (since age 12) to dis-cover bellows pipes more recently andhis playing shows the disciplined embel-lishment you might expect, sparselyused and to great effect, though in oneor two places it’s a little hurried for myear. His playing is most to my likingwhen he's accompanied by drum andtambourine as he is particularly in the‘non-border’ tunes including two fromPoland, one a majestic 14th century pro-cessional hymn, the other written byPaul in Poland (a highlight of the CD forme, this last tune). It would have beeninteresting to hear how the orthodox‘border’ repertoire would have soundedif given a similar treatment; only on onebrief tune (Neil Gow’s Wife’) does thishappen; I would have enjoyed a lot moreof this. That said, his playing of ’HolyHalfpenny’, the Northumbrian master-piece (‘just like shelling peas'), on Scot-tish smallpipes in D, and of ‘More forBeauty than Gear’ from Joseph Barns’Cumbrian manuscript, is exemplary.Closer inspection of the sleeve notes

reveals that it is Paul multi-tracked play-ing percussion, trump and whistles onthese multi-instrumental tracks (“I playand enjoy many styles of music … Ican't resist picking up various instru-ments and trying to play them” he sayson his my-space page). He is joined,

however, in various combinations, byCas Martin on melodeon, Nikki Wil-liamson on fiddle (her tune, ‘The Nu-troast’, is another of my highlights),Simon Keegan-Phips on accordion andDave Wisdom on Bouzouki, as well asLoughlin Martin on vocals.It would have been good to have had a

little more about the pipes; the notes saythat Ian Corrigan at Deerness Pipesmade them, and a process of testinghelped me identify the keys, but it tookan enquiry to Paul to learn that theScottish Smallpipe chanter is keyed (csharp, e, and f sharp), “but what you'rehearing is probably the extra thumb holeround back of the chanter to give an fnatural”.There is a lot of great music here and

the CD is well worth a good listen, notleast for those exploring ways of usingornamentation in the border repertoire;though the playing is accomplished, it’sall done with a lightness of touch; I leftthe CD playing in the drive while Ibegan to think about this review, andwas delighted to find that, long after hisbedtime, Loughlin made another im-promptu contribution, a nice moment toround of a thoroughly enjoyable record-ing.

Pete Stewart

You can hear a selection of sample tracks at www.myspace.com/piperpaulmartinand the CD is for sale for £10 + p&p at www.hornpipemusic.co.uk.

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In a television interview a couple ofyears ago Aberdeen soul singer andcomposer Annie Lennox credited

her father’s piobaireachd playing as havinginspired some of her songs. Julian Goo-dacre, our Society Hon. President, inthe booklet which accompanies his lat-est CD Some of me Pipes admits to beingan aficionado of Dusty Springfield,whose response to his gift of an earlyGoodacre cassette was a signed photo-graph. Was she inspired by the sound ofthe English bagpipe? We shall neverknow. You can hear “I only want to bewith you” on track 3 as un hommage àDusty, on Leicestershire smallpipe andharp.Some of me Pipes – full title Some of me

Pipes, Some of me Tunes, Some of me Friends- is an unorthodox CD. Julian takes theopportunity to thank his friends for theircontribution to his music and his lifeand to acknowledge the part played byhis native land and the English bagpipein his music making. The Highlandbagpipe and the bellows-blown pipes ofScottish or English Borders don’t get alook-in. The only exception is Matt Seat-tle playing his Border pipe in ‘The Bon-ny Braes of Elcho’.The bulk of the tunes are Julian’s with

trad getting proper acknowledgement asdo the parts played by the many first-class musicians.To compose, arrange and learn 23

tunes is no mean feat. Dance music

predominates - all that is required areparticipants who can dance Englishcountry dances.For others such as myself, the unusual

melodic lines and style of playing thepipe with its generous grace notes anddeliberate crossing notes are a refreshingchange. One also marvels at a tune-smith who can select a tree which hasreached the end of its natural life andcreate a musical instrument. Then thereis Julian’s gift of finding eleven musi-cians who can resonate with him.And now a look at the tunes, or at least

most of them.‘The Thorn’ is an ear-catching mazurka

played at a good dance tempo on threedifferent English pipes.‘Flaxen Lass of Allways’; A tune I

heard and took to a few moons ago,thinking it was a song for a lost love butit recollects a Goodacre family dog ofyesteryear. The Leicestershire small pipeis joined with beautiful harp playing and

Julian plays the Goodacre Way

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continues successfully from DustySpringfield’s ‘ I only want to be with you’.‘Night Star’ and ‘Mariette’s Jacket’ are

two polkas played on two pipes withmelodeon, hurdy-gurdy, fiddle, sousa-phone and trombone – it really works!Just before, there is a recording of‘Captain Bergar’s Slow Revenge’. Now,Captain Gabriel Berger (slight spellingdifference) shot himself with a musketon 3 August, 1886. He had intended toshoot the composer (the tune goes onand on) but was not a good shot.‘The Cambo Question’ gains from its

being played on Cornish double pipeand an outstanding low D English greatpipe.‘Ma Chère Célestine’: full of thoughts

personal to Julian although the eventshappened over 100 years ago. To mymind it is the most sophisticated tune onthe whole CD.‘The Obvious Daughter’: A bit on the

long side but a very fine tune for Leices-tershire small pipe decorated with con-tributions from Steve Lawrence onbouzouki, guitar and percussion.‘The Leicestershire Lowlanders’ is de-

scribed by Julian as a fine and deeplytraditional English tune, a variant ofwhich has been played for several cen-turies in Scotland. I discussed this viewwith Jeannie Campbell and we agreed

that the rhythm of the notes can befound in both Atholl Highlanders andBlue Bonnets but the melodic line di-verges quite quickly.The 2008 Edinburgh Festival provided

a platform for Julian, accompanied byJohn Hegley, to play ‘The Saunt’ (Saintin old Scots but really a particular agri-cultural field in Leicestershire). ThatFestival also heard the evergreen Eng-lish dance ‘Shepherds Hey’ on Cornishpipes accompanied by Tony Curtis onkeyboards (Some like it hot but I preferclassical music myself). Tony is not onthe CD, but John Hegley is, playingmandolin.On the 13th track Jules plays a 14 inch

triangle – not to be missed..Then there is ‘The Bonny Braes of

Elcho’, an old favourite of mine, withMatt Seattle on bellows-blown Borderpipe.Shouldn’t ‘The Piper’s Wedding’, ‘The

‘Washbasin’ and ‘The Bridal(?Bridle)Path’ be given a predominantharp and a whispering Leicestershiresmallpipe accompaniment? I only asked.‘The Cyrilleanne Mariage’ – music for a

Pyrenees wedding brings Some of Me Pipesto a joyful end with a warm atmosphereand the scent of mountain flowers.

Ian K Murray

‘Some of me pipes’ is available from www.goodbagpipes.com/someofmecd.htmPrice £10.50 + p&p

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Steenie Steenson, well-kent grumpy oldpiper, sends us his ramblings and rattlings

Aword or two, by way of greeting,about the back lill. I’ve beenshivering it now for nigh on

three hundred years but I never pinchedit once. I should have thought it wasclear enough, what Thomson said in hislife of Jimmy Allan about old manAllan’s challenge to ‘shiver the back lillwith ye or e’er a piper in Britain’. “Theback lill is the thumbhole”, Thomsonsays “which Will was allowed by the bestperformers to trill with uncommon dex-terity”, and William Brockie agreed;“shivering the back lill ... a peculiar trillwith the thumb.” And wasn’t I the onewith the finest finger for the backliltbetween Berwick and Carlisle?Well, enough of that; times change,

more’s the pity. Time was when a low-land piper played for lowland dancing,and all that was needed was a firm graspof the dance and a good grip of theground. Now it’s all about somethingthey call pulse, which to a lowland danc-er is about as much use as a dripping tap.But then, who’s playing lowland dancesprings these days?And another thing, what was all that

about the Highland pipes outlasting theLowland because they had the bettertunes? And there’s me thinking it hadsomething to do with the British Army -

and even they were playing mostly Low-land tunes by the time they took thepipes seriously.On a different tack, I couldn’t help

noticing a little spark of contention incyberspace (I’m not entirely stuck in thepast) following an announcement aboutthe National Celtic Festival at Portar-lington, Victoria (held around mid-win-ter, during the weekend of June 11 - 14).Apparently this event will include

“smallpipe & uilleann pipe workshops,massed bands, small group and soloCeltic piping & drumming contests, anda concert featuring various Celtic bag-pipes. The contests are open to anyCeltic bagpipe - players of small pipes,border pipes & UP are particularly en-couraged to enter.”To which, one well-known proponent

of the border pipes enquired‘Since when do Border pipes qualify as

'Celtic'?So far, no answer; one can only wait ...To finish, let me tell you something a

little whispering reed told me; there is astyle-revolution on its way in the bellowsdepartment. Are you ready for it? Oncethis hits the streets you won’t want to bewithout your own. Don’t forget whereyou heard about it first ...

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Barga School of Piping, Traditional Music and Dance, Tuscany20-26 June www.hamishmoore.com

Newcastleton Traditional Music Festival, Scottish Borders2-4th JulyBorder Pipe Competition, Novice and Open Classes

Ceòlas music and dance summer school, South Uist4th - 9th July 2010Fin Moore teaches piping for dancing; www.ceolas.co.uk/

Prince Edward Island Fiddle CampJune 20-26 2010; smallpipe and border pipe events and more:

http://peifiddlecamp.com

Piping Live! 2010, GlasgowTuesday 10th August 2010Lunchtime Workshop (College of Piping)Evening Concert (10pm - National Piping Centre)http://www.pipinglive.co.uk/

Common Ground Summer SchoolWest Park Centre, Dundee, 1st-6th August, 2010

Pipers’ Gathering

Killington, Vermont, USA, 13th-16th August, 2010.www.pipersgathering.org.

LBPS CollogueNov 6 Edinburgh; Ross Anderson and Iain McInnes; www.lbps.net

SessionsNorth-East England; The session at the Swan in Greenside is no more, since thepub closed.East Lothian; Hamish Moore’s sessions in Prestonpans are no moreLondon: The London session persists; 3rd Thursday of every month except July& August; 95 Horseferry Rd.; contact Jock Agnew 01621 8/55447North-East England; Monthly sessions in the Old Crown, Hesket, Newmarket.Contact Anita or Richard Evans 01697473799