What happened to the Highland bagpipe in the two centuries following Culloden? How was its music transmitted and received? This study presents much new contemporary evidence and uses a range of methods to recreate the changing world of the pipers as they influenced and were influenced by the transformations in Scottish society. It is intended for pipers exploring the achievements and musical concerns of their predecessors; for the general reader interested in a music whose history is akin to that of Scotland's poetry and song; and for all students of the process of tradition.
William Donaldson is a Scottish social historian and piper. Combining newspaper and manuscript evidence from the pipers themselves with a wide range of historical sources, he provides a fresh account of the players and of their musical traditions which have hitherto been the subject of much myth making. For the world-wide piping community, this is the first history of their musical culture.
Contents:
Acknowledgements
Note on the Text
Introduction
1. 'Their songs are of other worlds': Ossian and the Macpherson Paradigm
2. 'Abounding in works of taste and genius': Joseph MacDonald and the Compleat Theory of the Scots Highland Bagpipe
3. 'This warlike and national music': Patrick MacDonald and the Highland Vocal Airs
4. 'Clapping of hands and cries of bravo': The Competitions of the Highland Societies of London and Scotland 1781-1800
5. 'A brilliant assemblage of beauty and elegance, rank and fashion': The Competitions of the Highland Societies of London and Scotland 1800-1844
6. 'The only national instrument in Europe': Donald MacDonald and The Ancient Martial Music of Caledonia
7. 'Legible to every musician': The Collections of Angus MacArthur and Niel MacLeod of Gesto
8. 'A fixed standard for future performers': The Collections of Angus MacKay and Uilleam Ross
9. 'Men who made the pipe their business': The Performer Community 1750-1900
10. 'Many a lonely hour I copied piobaireachds on the mountain side at Ronald's bidding': Literacy, Orality and the Manuscripts of Colin Cameron, John MacDougall Gilles and David Glen
11. 'Within the reach of poor pipers': The Collections of Donald MacPhee and General C.S., Thomason
12. 'Prepare, Sunart, for Ardnamurchan has gone to wreck': The Pipes and the Celtic Revival
13. 'Binding the Piper with Chains of Gold': The Piobaireachd Society 1902-1914
14.' Merry Christmas Scottie Guardie': The Great War and its Aftermath
15. 'This canker growing every year': The Post-War Period 1919-1925
16. 'Pipers' Challenge': The 'redundant' low a Controversy 1925-1930
17. 'Leaving Lochbiosdale by Steamer at Midnight': The Light Music of the Pipe Transformed 1850-1930
18. 'So far from the original': The Piobaireachd Society's Second Series
19. 'Return form the Cave of Gold': The Creation of the MacCrimmon Metaphor
20. 'A Matter of National Importance': Broadcasting Recording and the Passing of John MacDonald
Appendix: Canntaireached and the Oral Mode
Conclusion
Readers' Guide: Piobaireachd and the Great highland Pipe
Bibliography
Index
Review:A masterpiece', George Balderose, The Voice (USA), 2000
'Riveting…a wonderful book', Jim McGillivray, Piper & Drummer (Canada), 2000
'Seminal', David Murray, Piping Times, 2001
'This remarkable book will change the way you think about piob
