Great Highland Bagpipe

Bagpipe, Great Highland
GeneralThe Highland bagpipes, which have become the most familiar of all types of bagpipe, must have been introduced to Canada by the earliest Scottish settlers in Nova Scotia and Upper Canada. Positive data, however, are lacking, and until quite recent times the story has to be told as a series of footnotes to the history of piping in Scotland. Furthermore, although undoubtedly there was much activity, it was difficult for players in isolation from the fountainhead of their tradition to maintain or improve standards, even if their enthusiasm was undimmed. The names are recorded of some Canadian pipers and of Scottish emigré pipers active around World War I; but there is no way of ascertaining their standards of performance, and no one seems to have investigated whether they may have handed down unusual variants of traditional tunes.

The Instrument and its Music
The Highland bagpipe has a single eight-holed chanter with conical bore and a double reed, producing nine notes on a basically Mixolydian scale, and three drones with single reeds (two tenor, one bass), sounding octave intervals below low A on the chanter. The chanter, drones, and stocks usually are made of African blackwood, with ivory or silver mounts (often both), and their manufacture is a skilled business for which, in Scotland, an apprenticeship of five years is required. At least two makers in Canada are so qualified: Jack Dunbar (St Catharines, Ont) and a more recent arrival, Matt Marshall (Bowmanville, Ont). Both have introduced their own chanter patterns, and Dunbar has experimented with new materials (impregnated beech and maple, and even plastic). Gordon Tuck was Pipe Major of Macnish Distillery Pipe Band, St Thomas, Ont in the early 1970s when he began manufacturing his own design of chanter at his factory, Tuck Aluminum Ltd. His chanter, now used exclusively by the band, is responsible for its unique tone. Tuck uses blackwood and plastic and produces complete bagpipes as well as chanters. Elsewhere in Ontario and in British Columbia there are good makers of practice chanters and of reeds, but in 1990 most Canadian pipers still played instruments from Scotland.

The extensive repertoire of the Highland pipes includes marches (2/4, 4/4, 6/8, 3/4), strathspeys, reels, jigs, hornpipes, slow airs, and, above all, piobaireachd (pibroch), the classical variation form. Few piobaireachdan have been composed in the late 20th century, but much light music has been written for pipes. Several published collections contain tunes by Canadian pipers. Two familiar to pipers everywhere, Colonel Robertson and The Mid-Lothian Pipe Band, were composed by Farquhar Beaton, third pipe-major of the 48th Highlanders of Canada. More recent Canadian composers whose tunes have been published include John Wilson (Toronto), George Grant (St-Hubert, Que), W.J. Watt (Winnipeg), A.M. Cairns (Rockcliffe, Ont), Neil Sutherland (Winnipeg), Donald MacNiven (Kirkland Lake, Ont), Sam Scott (Manotick, Ont), William Gilmour (Toronto), Angus Graham (Prince George, BC), Reay Mackay (Toronto), and John Knox MacKenzie (Vancouver). John Wilson's three books of pipe music contain many of his own compositions and settings, and his third volume especially includes many Canadian compositions. Other collections of bagpipe tunes have been produced by pipers Iain MacCrimmon (Alberta 1978), William Livingstone (Ontario 1986), Scott MacAuley (Ontario 1986), Michael Grey (Ontario 1989), and Robert MacNeil (British Columbia 1990)

Teaching, Solo Playing, and Competitions
Pipe bands have a long history in Canada, but good solo players have been slower to appear, partly because there have been few teachers (especially of piobaireachd). A noted Toronto teacher in the years before and after World War II was Murdo MacLeod, and other influential teachers in southern Ontario were Walter Rose and George Duncan (who both lived in Detroit but taught many Canadians). In the Montreal area leading teachers have been George Grant and Alex McNeill (still active in 1979); in the Ottawa area Sam Scott and A.M. Cairns; in the Vancouver area Malcolm Nicholson, Ian Duncan, Jimmy MacMillan, and Ed Esson (still active in 1979). However, much of the credit for the improvement of standards after World War II must go to John Wilson (1906-79), one of the most distinguished players and bagpipe composers of his generation, who emigrated from Scotland and settled in Canada in 1948 and who taught nearly all the best soloists in Ontario and elsewhere. His best-known pupils include William Gilmour, Reay Mackay, Chris Anderson, James McGillivray, James Thomson, William Livingstone, and Robert Worrall. Between 1974 and 1979 the last four, and another Ontario piper, Edward Neigh, won or placed in the most senior professional competitions in Scotland. In 1977 the first prizes at Inverness, the most important of all Scottish solo competitions, went to Canadians: Livingstone won the gold medal for piobaireachd; and Worrall won the march and the strathspey and reel competitions. Livingstone also has won the North American solo championship three times, and Worrall four times. In 1985 Ontario pipers James McGillivray, Michael Grey, and Scott MacAuley took five of the six top honours at Inverness.

British Columbia has produced good solo pipers, such as Donald Cameron, Donald MacIver, James Watt, Willie Barrie, John A. MacLeod, Archie MacIndewar, Hal Senyk, Jamie Troy, and Jack Lee.

In the late 1970s John Wilson, Reay Mackay, and other instructors formed the Ontario School of Piping in Toronto, and William Connell (a former Clasp winner at Inverness) began teaching (in London, Ont) and judging at competitions. In various parts of Canada, notably in Nelson, BC, Fort Qu'Appelle, Sask, Brockville, Ont, Antigonish, NS, Windsor, Ont, and the Gaelic College of Cape Breton in St Ann's, summer schools of piping have been held regularly, and Canadians often have been engaged as instructors, together with pipers from Scotland or the USA. In 1989 piper Scott MacAuley founded the College of Piping and Celtic Performing Arts of Canada in Summerside, PEI. It is affiliated with the Army School of Piping in Edinburgh and is unique in North America.

Good solo pipers in Canada can be heard most readily at the annual competitions held in every province in conjunction with Highland games (see Bands: 7/Highland pipe bands) and at the regular meetings of local piping societies, where the best soloists give recitals. At the 1973 Highland games in Ottawa a gold medal, the first of its kind in North America, began to be offered annually by the Piobaireachd Society; the set tunes for this competition are the same as those for Inverness.

Bagpipes have also been employed by contemporary celtic groups including Rare Air (Na Cabarfeidh) on their albums Stick It In Your Ear (Sometimes We Do This JAK-001), Na Cabarfeidh (Flying Fish FF-286), Mad Plaid (Flying Fish FF-333), Hard to Beat (Green Linnet SIF-1073), and Primeval (Green Linnet SIF-1073); First Draft (FD3-1000 CD); and Rawlins Cross on the cassette A Turn of the Wheel (RCP 1).

Author David Waterhouse

Discography

Abercairney Highlanders; Cameronian Rant; et al. Pipe Major S. MacKinnon. Victor 216534

An Evening of Champions. Bill Livingstone, Jim McGillivray, Bob Worrall, Bruce Gandy, Michael Gray. LICS 5200

A' Sireadh Spòrs. Angus MacDonald. CTP 043 (CD)

Bagpipe Music. William Gilmour. Dom LP 1232

The Cock o' the North. Pipe Sergeant David Ferguson. Berliner 811

Caller Herrin. Pipe Sergeant David Ferguson. Berliner 812

In Session. Michael Grey. TRL 072

Lightning Out of the Prairie Skye. Wes Sheppard and Stuart Anderson. World WRC4-6381 (cass)

Pipe Major Bill Livingstone. LICS 5197 (CD)

Pipe Major John Wilson Visits the British Columbia Pipers' Association. Ara-Mac AML-1

Pipes from the North. Wes Sheppard and Stuart Anderson. Scott's Highland SHS4-111 (cass)

Piping Because We Enjoy It. Murray Henderson, Bruce Gandy, Scott McAuley, Ed Neigh. World WRC-3520

Reel to Reel. Bruce Gandy, Michael Grey, Scott MacAuley, Colin MacLellan. Scott's Highland SHS-114

Ross Farewell to the Black Watch March; Elspeth Campbell; et al. Pipe Major Kenneth McKenzie Baillie. 1923. Victor 19107

William Livingstone Memorial. Various. Scott's Highland SHS-108

See also Discography for Bands: 7/Highland pipe bands

Bibliography

MacKinnon, Pipe Major Stephen. 'The bagpipe in Canada,' Canadian Geographical J, April 1932

Wilson, John. John Wilson's Collection of Highland Bagpipe Music, 2 books, self-published, vol 1 (Edinburgh 1937, Toronto n.d.); vol 2 (Toronto 1957)

- The Canadian Centennial (1867-1967) Collection of Highland Bagpipe Music. John Wilson's Collection, vol 3 (Toronto 1967)

''Dunbars,' North American Scotsman, vol 3, Aug 1972

Wilson, John. 'The great breakthrough,' Piper and Dancer Bulletin, vol 30, Jan 1975

Worrall, Robert. 'Canadian overseas - 1975,' ibid, vol 31, Feb-Mar 1976

Wilson, John. A Professional Piper in Peace and War: The Autobiography and Memoirs of Pipe Major John Wilson of Edinburgh, Scotland and Toronto, Canada (Toronto 1978)

Doig, John. 'The music factory - Macnish marches to a different drummer,' The Canadian, 9 Jun 1979

Cairns, A.M. and Kerr, J.B. Canadian Forces Pipe Band Manual (Ottawa 1980)

Cannon, Roderick D. A Bibliography of Bagpipe Music (Edinburgh 1980)

Gordon, Sandy. 'Bagpipes, you say?' Accents, vol 8, Mar 1982

Livingstone, Willliam. William Livingstone: Bagpipe Music (self published 1986)

MacAulay, Scott. The Scott MacAulay Collection of Highland Bagpipe Music (self published 1986)

MacDonald, Keith E. The Church Piper (Welch 1987)

Walker, Carl Ian Pioneer Pipers of British columbia: A Biographical Directory of Pipers Active in BC by the 1950s (Squamish, BC 1987)

Grey, Michael. Highland Bagpipe Music: Michael Grey's Collection (Coppermill 1990)

MacNeil, Robert. Robert MacNeil's Collection of Music for the Great Highland Bagpipe (R. MacNeil Musikworks 1990)

Waterhouse, David. 'John Wilson and the highland bapipes in Ontario,' Ethnomusicology in Canada, ed R. Witmer, CanMus Documents 5 (Toronto 1990)

Duerden, Charles. 'Summerside's pipe dream becomes a reality,' Atlantic Advocate, Jun 1991

Pekaar, Robert L. An Encyclopedia of Tunes for the Great Highland Bagpipe (London 1994)

Gibson, John G. Traditional Gaelic Bagpiping, 1745-1945 (Montreal 1998)

MacKenzie, John T. There Was a Piper, a Scottish Piper: The Memoirs of Pipe Major John T. MacKenzie (Toronto 2001)

Gibson, John G. Old and New World Highland Bagpiping (Montreal 2002)

Links to Other Sites
Piper and Drummer Online
Tune in to "Piper and Drummer Online" for the latest news, event schedules, competitions, music scores, and more.

SFU Pipe Band
The website for the award winning SFU Pipe Band. Features the latest news, a history of the band, and music clips. A Simon University website.

College of Piping & Celtic Performing Arts of Canada
The website for the College of Piping & Celtic Performing Arts of Canada, based in Summerside, Prince Edward Island. Offers courses in Highland bagpiping, Scottish-style drumming, Highland dancing and Island step dancing. Check out "About Us" for Hall of Fame profiles of prominent college alumni.