I mentioned elsewhere that I’m co-hosting a folk / traditional radio programme here in Aberdeen. A few weeks back we were sent a 5-track “promo” CD by a young Scottish duo - Eddie Seaman [ Highland pipes and whistles ] and Luc McNally [ guitar and vocals ]. All of the tracks are good, but there is one particularly outstanding tune on the CD which I’ve never come across before. It’s an air / march kind of tune, composed by the late Pipe Major John D. Burgess in memory of his time with the “Invergordon Distillery Pipe Band”. It’s called [ unsurprisingly ] “Invergordon Distillery”, and I’ve just come across Eddie playing it on a “Youtube” video.
I’m not sure the link will work - here it is anyway,
A nice little tune, and very catchy. Perhaps due to being on whistle the tune is very sweet, but a fiddler could give it a rawer, more swaggering treatment and I imagine it would still sound “right”.
Really nice Tune Kenny.. I’d love to be sitting next to you and listen to you playing it .
What a perfect way to present these beautiful tunes.. just Whistle and Guitar.. (even if the Musicians were surrounded by Marshall amps …
May I be permitted a wee thread hijack ? Scottish in content..
Kenny,I’ve just got myself a new Motorcycle ( well,a new 1937 one anyway ) and it came from,I think,your part of the world..
First registered in 1938 to ..
Mr Kenneth Mackenzie
Achnahaird Farm
Achiltibuie by Garve
Ross Shire Scotland
Do you know the area ? … the Farm is still there !
To many people the sound of the Highland pipes, and even more so of a Pipe Band, gets in the way of noticing that there are many quite lovely pipe tunes.
Put any of them on whistle, with nice string accompaniment, and suddenly non-pipers can hear how nice the tunes are.
One such is the very attractive Tommy MacDonald of Barguilleann.
Here it is, by the late wonderful Alasdair Gillies
If one can get past the fact that it’s a pipe band and just listen to the music… here is the same tune, Tommy MacDonald of Barguilleann, followed by the wonderful jig McKenna’s Ceilidh
I couldn’t agree more with this. I love the sound of the bagpipes. When I was a child my old Argyllshire grandfather used to take me every year to Cowal Highland Games as well as Gourock Highland Games. Nowadays, many many of the tunes I play on the whistle are bagpipe tunes.
P.S. Fan of Alasdair Gillies, the great Gordon Duncan, and Anthony Byrne to name but a few
Absolutely agree. Thanks, Kenny. Will you be playing this on the show?
I’m working on the tune, too, with the help of the ABC that whoanellie provided. I like it better every time I try it.
I’m having trouble with the second (and 6th and 10th) bar, around 0:48 in the video, which whoanellie gives as “|f2 e{f}e f>e{fe}de|”. To my unsophisticated ear, it sounds more like “|fee<f e2de|”. Can anyone give me some guidance on what Eddie Seaman is doing in that bar?
I may have gotten the phrasing wrong above. Or not. But it makes as much sense this way, too:
|f>e{f}ef (3efe de| or even more plainly as |feef (3efe de|
In other words, it’s:
B1 to B2, cut with B1
Then back to B1
Then a triplet: B2, B1, B2
Then B3 to B2
I agree with Kenny–this is a terrific little tune. But all the more so thanks to Eddie Seaman’s playing of it on the clip. Sweet whistle, well played, but what really draws me in is his easy way with the timing. It’s “softer” than the usual approach to ensemble piping, freed from a strict adherence to the dotted and clipped notes. Suits the solo whistle perfectly. I’ve been playing this on an A whistle. Goes well with Dougie MacLean’s tune, One Summer’s Morning, in D (still on the A whistle).
whoanellie,
Thanks for the suggestion of One Summer’s Morning as a companion tune. I tried to figure out the tune by ear, but it was beyond my meager ability, so looked it up on the Session and I see why. I’m also trying both tunes on my newly-acquired Freeman A whistle. A nice finger workout with all of those “Strathspey snaps”! It seems there are quite a few of these D tunes that go down to the low A, which makes it nice to have the A whistle.
Dick
In my opinion many of the nicest melodies in the Highland pipe repertoire are “2/4 Marches”.
Though there are lovely retreat marches, 6/8 marches, strathspeys, reels, jigs, etc etc for some reason I find the best of the 2/4 marches to stand above all other pipe music (well except for piobaireachd).
Here’s one of the most tuneful ones, Jimmy Young. Played on whistle, slowed down a tad, and with tasty guitar accompaniment, it would be wonderful.
Here it is, and very well played. There are so many lovely little twists to the melody!
Another excellent 2/4 march is John MacDonald Of Glencoe. I’m so used to hearing it on the pipes, I was pleased to find it played on accordion by a Scottish ceilidh band
More usually heard is like this, on the pipes, with snare. Scottish snare isn’t many peoples’ cup of tea but I love it. Bar 7 of this tune, running through all parts, is particularly nice (and tricky to play)
Today is a good day. Thanks to Weejie over at The Session, I learned that my favourite whistle tune is twice as long as I thought–Invergordon’s Welcome To Queen Elizabeth II–and I have ABC from which to learn the second half.
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