LETTERS Flett from Flotta Sir, In response to your PT Archive
Vol.64,No.5, you might like to know the following. John Flett was a stew- ard in the Officer’s Mess at Fort George as well as a piper. Dad (Pipe Major Donald MacLeod) and John attended Seaforth Regimental din- ners held at Claridges Hotel in Lon- don taking with them the regimental silver on the train from Inverness. They were commanded not to let
the silver out of their sight so they travelled in the guard’s van with their practice chanters going all the way. It was on one such journey south that Flett from Flotta was composed by dad. John Flett was, after Army service, a steward at the Garrick Club in London before he emigrated to Australia where I think he met his wife Joyce. They arrived on my wedding day at Cardonald Gardens but had a plane to catch in London so couldn’t attend. It was lovely to see them however.
I think when John went to Australia he had a difficult job convincing pipers there that he was the actual Flett from Flotta. Mr Hartnell was in charge of the Officer’s Mess at Fort George and his daughter Sylvia, who I met there all those years ago, is still my best friend. Susan Miller (nee MacLeod), Glasgow.
High Road to Gairloch Sir, I have recently purchased a
College of PipingTutor 1 along with a McCallum practice chanter. As I
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• For the low G gracenote just continue the low G theme note and play the rest of
played the pipes to a degree some 35 years ago, I decided to re-educate myself and teach myself to play again. I am progressing quite well but there are a couple of problems that I’m faced with. Firstly, on page 46 of the tutor book, the fourth bar of The High Road to Gairloch there is a ‘throw’ on D from a low G.How is it possible to play the first G gracenote of the throw if I am already on a low G quarter note? Secondly, I am lead to believe that the dots at the end of the first measure mean that I play this measure a second time? If that is the case, why are there two dots at the beginning AND at the end of the second measure? These are probably trivial questions to ask but, rather than plod on, I feel I must resolve these problems. Hoping someone there can find the time to rectify my dilemma. Greetings from Australia. Philip Corson, via email.
the throw as usual. Double dots at the end of a measure mean the preceding music must be played again. If there were no dots at the start of the second part the final double dots would indicate that the whole tune should be played again rather than just the second part. It is not necessary to put the double dots at the start of the first part as that is where the tune begins.