demonstrating the better way to ‘point’ the tune. One of the results of tunes not
being published by their composers is that they may be labelled traditional. The one example of this in this book is the tune Craig-n-Darroch which is labelled traditional but was in fact composed by J. Honeyman (Falkirk) who also composed that other good competition march Lord Alexander Kennedy. I look forward to going through Joe’s fine book over the remainder of the winter (it has over 160 pieces) especially the traditional tunes and recommend the book most strongly to all pipers.
seldom heard. I listened to all the pipers at Oban and Inverness and was impressed by the quality of the instruments and the fingering of the embellishments. Musically, however, there were quite a number who did not, in my opinion, express the tune properly. In some of the tunes they were misled by the Piobaireachd Society’s use of the E gracenote appoggiatura and made it short with a long low A or G while the reverse is what fits the tune. This does not excuse them but does explain why they got it wrong. Marches, salutes, and gatherings should be lively, even arresting, and not slow, doleful, dirges as we heard from quite a number of competitors.The Menzies Salute is in Angus MacKay’s book and his score is rather better than that found in Book 15.The other tune which was poorly
T 24 The Gold Medal
HE tunes set for the Gold Medal this year were less well known than usual and are
played by more than one piper was Queen Anne’s Lament. Again this would not be helped by the PS or Kilberry score where the variation is in common time with four equal long notes which was how some played it, and in doing so lost the melody. Fortunately, there were some very
good performances, more than enough for a good prize list at both Oban and Inverness and there could not have been much between the first three at either venue.
M Strathspeys
ANY pipers know the tunes The Standard on The Braes o’Mar, and the march
Mairi’s Wedding but many may not have realised that they are identical in note sequence but dramatically different in timing. It is important to understand that what we call beats in common time are not single beats but are double pulses and it is how the second pulse is timed that makes the rhythm in a march or a strathspey.The first pulse in both marches and strathspeys are fairly regular and the second pulse in marches is short and quite well described by the dot and cut, making it a third of the first pulse. In the strathspey, however, the second pulse is very short, dramatically short, and is often described as the Scotch Snap.
The tachum is an example of this
well named movement. In almost all printed music the same single dot and cut are used in strathspeys where a double dot and cut would be much nearer what is required (as per Joe’s book). Although the strathspey is for dancing it need not always be a quick