Pipers : a guide to the players and music of the Highland bagpipe / William Donaldson.
| Author/creator | Donaldson, William, 1944- |
| Format | Book |
| Publication Info | Edinburgh : Birlinn, 2005. |
| Description | x, 163 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | The pipes and their music. Introduction -- The instrument. Reeds ; Chanters -- Starting to play -- Learning the basics -- What can go wrong -- Teachers -- Piping 'schools' -- Working clothes -- The pipe band -- Early competitions -- Highland games -- The competition circuit -- The music. The big music (Ceòl Mór) ; The light music (Ceòl Beag) -- Changing repertoire -- Composition in light music -- Composition in pìobaireachd -- What to look and listen for -- Pipers and print -- Patrons and print -- Oral tradition -- Women in piping -- Official support: institutions, information -- And what about language? -- The pipes and other instruments -- Piping and the media -- Conventional beliefs in piping -- And finally... -- Pipers. Dynasties. The MacCrimmons ; The MacArthurs ; The MacKays of Gairloch ; The MacGregors -- Words versus notes. Colin Mór Campbell ; Niel MacLeod of Gesto ; Donald MacDonald ; Angus Mackay -- Three nineteenth-century families. The camerons ; The MacPhersons ; The McLennans -- Editors. William Ross ; C.S. Thomason ; David Glen -- Players and composers. John MacDougall Gillies ; John MacColl ; John MacDonald of Inverness ; Willie Ross ; G.S. McLennan ; Donald MacLeod -- 'The bobs of Balmoral'. Robert Urquhart Brown ; Robert Bell Nicol -- Tunes. 'Black Donald's march' ; 'The Breadalbane fencibles' quickstep' ; 'Lord Breadalbane's march' ; 'The Seaforth highlanders' quickstep' ; 'John MacFadyen of Melfort' ; G.S. McLennan, 'Pìobaireachd' ; John MacDonald, 'Prelude' ; R.B. Nichol, 'Gaelic air'. |
| Abstract | Pipers takes the reader inside the world of the performer community, introducing what pipers do, how they do it, and why. The author's original approach shows how 'traditional music', often assumed to be the anonymous product of a dim and distant past, is the creation of gifted individuals operating in a sophisticated and vigorously ongoing enterprise. Since pipers have often been skilled also on the fiddle, keyboards and small-pipes, or as singers or dancers, their story offers fascinating insights into the whole traditional music and song repertoire of Scotland. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 151-153) and index. |
| LCCN | 2005362746 |
| ISBN | 1841584118 |
| ISBN | 9781841584119 |