The Pipe Music of the Western People

[Barry Shears]

Yes, John, one can't underestimate the influence of the Bothy Band on traditional music world wide. I never heard of them until my late twenties but they blew me away when I finally did hear them.
Barry
www.capebretonpiper.com

[Greg in London]

It;s funny to see this now, five years after the last post, when I've looked up the author and the tune several times over the years. It's one of my favourite books, or at least has some tunes that are long term favourites, but difficult to master. They are definitely reminiscent of many old Irish session tunes, though maybe not the ones that are most popular today. Some are set a tone or two out from other more popular settings today (Paddy's Leather Breeches for example). They are certainly not simplified for the pipes. You definitely have a feel that someone from a different tradition has written them, but that if you could just get the phrasing and timing firmly in your mind then they would fall to the fingers better. That's presuming that you wish to play the same way each time - there is a lot of flexibility possible in some of the settings.

I understood there was a second and maybe a third compilation from some lists I saw years ago, but I have never seen one, nor spoken to anyone else who did. Filling in the gaps, I may well have bought mine from Bill Lewington too, along with books by Aillean Domhnallach. They also had gracings that were considered odd then, but are fairly mainstream now.

Anyway, the bit about filling in gaps - in the mid to late 1990s when I used to busk in the West End, I ran into his son Sean Macgloin who had trained to be a solicitor. He was a very good piper (better than me anyway) though he didn't seem very aware of his father's books. He was interested to go through the settings, but was more into more conventional tunes I think.

[Pip01]

Greetings to All,


A most interesting Thread!! :)

And... ah... Music!!... theirs... ours... anybody's !!...
It is... like spoken language... a living thing!!... and
shall... change!!... enlarge... grow... or decline... and
just by its being spoken... or played... :)

Some changes stay... and become... while some but
fall by the wayside... but all... add... to the whole... :)

How fortunate we... to be engulfed... in these.. Seas
of Music!!... :)

Regards to All,

Pip01

[CalumII]

While looking up something unrelated, I discovered that both books mentioned here are listed in Pekaar, and interestingly there is a tune in the "Killasser Ceilidhe" listed as being by Donald MacLeod called "The American Bicentennial". Assuming it's *the* Donald MacLeod, I wonder what the link was?

[Chris M]

I have the book - there is a march strathspey and reel from Donald MacLeod that I do not believe are published elsewhere. I'm just speculating but assume they had met somehow and Donald MacLeod contributed the tunes to the book.


His daughter was recently on ebay offering hundreds of copies of his books for sale as a lot - I'm not sure if she found a buyer. (I didn't have a copy of the Kilasser ceilidhe and she kindly sold me a single copy)