Robertson-MacPhail Archive 2
that John MacDonald visited MacPhail’s hospital in Frimley, Surrey, around Feb 1938.We know this because the doctor asked all visiting pipers to sign the visitor’s book he kept, and John MacDonald’s signature appears near entries for 1938. I feel we must pursue all lines of enquiry to establish
authorship. If we compare the handwriting in the MS with that in a letterMacDonald wrote to DrMacPhail (although at a much later date) it seems to be by the same hand.Of course, this is not conclusive proof, but, if we add together firstly, that John MacDonald did visit MacPhail in Surrey, did instruct in the south at that time, that the MS came from Dr. MacPhail and that the dates written on it are several and all around ‘1912 Inverness’ we have a strong ‘hint’ that it is by MacDonald. Luckily for us, who ever did write the
e taken that the semi-quaver is cut sharply.’ C• ‘Give the first note of the Taorluath and
f • ‘A cadence gets less time when in b • ‘The suibhal is played slow but care must
MS used very good quality Indian ink for writing out the tunes, and thus, even a century later, each is very clear and it is plain how he intended the tunes to be played. Well now,what does he say about the tunes? Right at the beginning of the book he writes out some general rules:
ront of a dotted note than it does when in front of a plain note’
runluath plenty of time.’ In addition to these general points on the first
page, he also comments that: ‘In the following Piobaireachds the Crunluath mach is not shown but must be played just the same’. This last comment can be misleading since it is quite obvious that he did not mean this for all the tunes. It is not possible, or intended, that an ‘a mach’
should be played in some of the tunes e.g. ‘The Lament forMaryMacleod’. I presume he took this as read by those he intended to instruct from the manuscript. Mary Macleod is one of the most interesting
tunes the writer has copied out.He appends some 19
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60