Yet another timely blog from Dr Kageyama. This one lists visualization techniques to help you prepare for a performance or competition. I assume we all actually play our cool settings and interpretations in front of other people, yes? Perhaps we compete. Perhaps we play at events or recitals. Perhaps we’re hired. Or perhaps you do […]
Month: May 2016
Let the Competitions Begin!
I’ve received some interesting emails from competitors as the season begins to ramp up this year. Many remain quite dismayed by the reception they are receiving from local judges when competing with settings other than Piobaireachd Society Collection or Kilberry. In all cases I’ve received, the judge rejected the performance based on a reported personal […]
Pibroch on the Hardanger fiddle
Yesterday, Delphian Records released the CD counterpart to my PhD thesis: Spellweaving. The experimental rehearsals for this were a source of deep joy. I was sharing pibroch with two wonderful musicians who were receptive, supremely capable and from whom I had much to learn. It was an invigorating two-way exchange from which I emerged wiser […]
MacLeod’s Dog Short Tail
The tune ‘Macleod’s Dog Short Tail’, recorded in the Campbell Canntaireachd, is also called ‘An Ann a Mhire Tha Sibh’, or ‘Salute on the Birth of Rory Mor’ by Angus MacKay. The former name has a possible explanation, which ties in with the other two. Around the end of the 16th century, a war between […]
B J MacLachlan Orme
In yet another example of our effort to edify our readers, today we wish to direct your attention to the Extracts of Letters from and about Simon Fraser Describing his Piobaireachd and Heritage. This collection was assembled in 1978 by Dr. Orme on a visit to the National Library of Scotland, from MSS 9613-9624 (among others). […]
Musical Materials, phase 1 - FINISHED!!!
Today, the Alt Pibroch Club reached a major milestone. The most significant musical notations and published research on every pibroch notated before 1841 are now online, under one roof, comprehensively cross-indexed. The early sources have never been so accessible - in fact, there is only one more source to add before we can say that all pibroch notations from before 1841 are […]
Living Piobaireachd: a piping conundrum
‘Living’ piobaireachd implies the present and progress or movement into the future. This has been the essence of a number of recent articles on this site; for example the involvement of a scientific approach to improving performance as advocated in David’s ‘The Bullet-Proof Musician’. Although I must admit that the wry thought crossed my mind […]