@bagpie@mastodon.scot
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bagpie

@bagpie@mastodon.scot

Traditional musician, playing mostly Scottish music on lowland bagpipes & tin whistles. I also play the gaita, a bagpipe from Iberia (with a particular interest in the lesser known bagpipe music of Portugal). Some of my other interests include European travel, by train if possible, and European folk traditions, especially carnival. Oh, and I’m a bit of a clown… literally ➡️ http://absurdistpipeband.com

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bagpie, to Scotland
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The views from Connel Bridge have always been great but the new cantilevered walkway really gives an uninterrupted vista.

simonvarwell, to random Esperanto
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Guess where I’ve been the last couple of days for work.

bagpie,
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@simonvarwell Huddersfield?

simonvarwell, to random Esperanto
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Ode to a rucksack.

As part of a big clearout, I got rid of my trusty old rucksack. It’s battered, stained and has lost a few straps, so I don’t mourn its passing - but I do celebrate its life.

I can’t remember precisely how old it is but I recall taking it on a camp aged 15. Since then it’s been to uni with me, been on countless ferries and trains, crossed Europe to Kosovo and back in 1999, been my trusty steed on my big travels of 2001, and been there in the journeys of my first two books.

bagpie,
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@timrichards @simonvarwell Coincidentally that is the exact same model as my old rucksack (different colours though), now languishing somewhere in the loft. I found mine in a charity shop in Derry, happy to replace the old fashioned one I’d been using, built like a tank with an external metal frame but heavy and uncomfortable.

If only they could talk. It got stolen once but amazingly I found it again, hanging from a tree above a river. Thieves had tried to dispose of it unsuccessfully.

bagpie, to FolkMusic
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Here's my setting of Maggie Lauder, certainly an auld tune as it seems to have first appeared, as far as I know, sometime in the 1600s.

The notation for my setting is over here - https://bagpie.net/auld-tunes-maggie-lauder/

A video of me playing the old tune Maggie Lauder on my Lowland bagpipes

bagpie, to FolkMusic
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Time for another auld tune. Jack Lattin was once popular all across these islands. Composed in Ireland sometime in the early 1700s it quickly spread across the Irish Sea and appears in many music collections of the 18th century.

Read more about this tune and find the notation on my website - https://bagpie.net/auld-tunes-jack-lattin/

video/mp4

bagpie, to random
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Jeez, visiting Kilchurn Castle is a miserable experience these days. The landowners have gone to town on prohibition signs, most of them appearing multiple times: NO drone flying, NO wedding or commercial photography, you are under 24 hour CCTV surveillance, NO camping, NO fires - bombarded with negativity before you even get to the castle. Then the castle itself is surrounded by industrial herras fencing in case it falls down and kills you. It’s definitely better viewed from afar I’d say.

bagpie,
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@russellt I did wonder about the legality of them, especially the drone and wedding photography signs.

bagpie, to Trains
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Last leg of the trip, back home to Argyll on the West Highland Line. Looking forward to sleeping in my own bed.

A video taken through the dirty windows of the train to Oban. The view is across Loch Long to the hills behind.

bagpie, to random
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Ferry was 40 minutes late so also late getting into Glasgow. Still got time for this delight though, chicken kabsa and a pot of Arabic tea.

bagpie,
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@simonvarwell Pasha on North Frederick Street. Two minutes from Queen Street, just off George Square. Fast too so handy if you have a train to catch but don’t have much time.

bagpie, to random
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Now time for the very comfortable Hannon’s coach from Belfast to Glasgow. This is the bus that travels on the ferry so no need to take your bags off and check onto the ferry as a foot passenger. It’s a little more expensive that the Citylink option but worth it to avoid the extra hassle of two busses and the ferry check in. Delighted that the bus isn’t crowded, I’m not particularly keen on long bus journeys elbow to elbow with folk you don’t know.

bagpie, to Bagpipes
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Well this was a random find in an Oban charity shop yesterday, a program for the 1981 Falkirk Tryst Bi-Centenary Piping Competition, signed on the back by eight of the participants.

It has a chronological history of the Highland Society of London's competitions from 1781 but no mention of bellows pipers not being allowed to compete or two drone pipes being discouraged. :)

The back cover of the program with the signature of eight famous pipers of the era.
A photograph of one of the pages of the program with a list of competitors and tunes that they played.

bagpie, to FolkMusic
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And now the last of my 40 settings from the manuscript. I enjoyed creating pipe friendly settings, I can't say I enjoyed recording them. I don't think recording tunes that I am unfamiliar with does the tunes or my piping justice.

A quick play through of my setting of Unfortunate Jock from The Drummond Castle Manuscript, Book 1, dated 1737.

View all my settings here - https://bagpie.net/drummond-book-one/

A video of me playing through my setting of Unfortunate Jock from The Drummond Castle Manuscript, Book 1, dated 1737. The musical notation is onscreen throughout

bagpie, to FolkMusic
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A quick play through of my setting of Kick The World Before You from The Drummond Castle Manuscript, Book 1, dated 1737.

View all my settings here - https://bagpie.net/drummond-book-one/

A video of me playing through my setting of Kick The World Before You from The Drummond Castle Manuscript, Book 1, dated 1737. The musical notation is onscreen throughout.

bagpie,
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@simonvarwell Haven’t found any information on the origin of the title. Often tunes from this era are connected to songs but didn’t see any mention of that here. It must have been pretty popular as it appears in loads of manuscripts and publications through the 1700s and 1800s

bagpie, to FolkMusic
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A quick play through of my setting of O'er Bogie from The Drummond Castle Manuscript, Book 1, dated 1737.

View all my settings here - https://bagpie.net/drummond-book-one/

A video of me playing through my setting of O'er Bogie from The Drummond Castle Manuscript, Book 1, dated 1737. The musical notation is onscreen throughout

bagpie, to FolkMusic
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A quick play through of my setting of The Old Wife Beyond The Fire from The Drummond Castle Manuscript, Book 1, dated 1737.

View all my settings here - https://bagpie.net/drummond-book-one/

A video of me playing through my setting of The Old Wife Beyond The Fire from The Drummond Castle Manuscript, Book 1, dated 1737. The musical notation is onscreen throughout

bagpie, to FolkMusic
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A quick play through of my setting of King Of Damascus from The Drummond Castle Manuscript, Book 1, dated 1737.

View all my settings here - https://bagpie.net/drummond-book-one/

A video of me playing through my setting of King Of Damascus from The Drummond Castle Manuscript, Book 1, dated 1737. The musical notation is onscreen throughout

bagpie,
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@Wen Thanks. You aware of Jeremy Kingsbury and his podcast?

bagpie,
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@Wen One thing that becomes really clear after spending years delving into this stuff is that we have so much shared repertoire with Ireland, North of England etc. I think the styles have become more distinct over the centuries but I suspect they were once closer than we imagine.

bagpie,
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@Wen Aye, definitely more diversity in piping culture the further east you go. I have a wee gaida from the Bulgarian / Greek border, quite a different beast altogether. I’m very fond of Portuguese piping culture, and Portugal in general.

bagpie, to Scotland
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We had a mighty session in The Oban Inn on Wednesday night. I think there were 15 musicians at one point and, with a very appreciative audience, the tunes were fair flowing.

A wide angle black and white photograph of traditional musicians playing at a session in a pub in Oban< Scotland.
A black and white photograph of traditional musicians playing at a session in a pub in Oban, Scotland.
A black and white photograph of a traditional musician playing a clarsach at a session in a pub in Oban, Scotland.

bagpie,
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Some more photographs of our traditional music session in Oban on Wednesday night.

A black and white photograph of traditional musicians playing at a session in a pub in Oban, Scotland.
A black and white photograph of traditional musicians playing at a session in a pub in Oban, Scotland.
A black and white photograph of traditional musicians playing at a session in a pub in Oban, Scotland.

bagpie, to FolkMusic
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A quick play through of my setting of Rob Shore In Harvest from The Drummond Castle Manuscript, Book 1, dated 1737.

View all my settings here - https://bagpie.net/drummond-book-one/

A video of me playing through my setting of Rob Shore In Harvest from The Drummond Castle Manuscript, Book 1, dated 1737. The musical notation is onscreen throughout.

bagpie, to random
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14 years ago today we had our only gig with our band The Toffee Works. I loved playing with them but the distance between us (nearly 400 miles) wasn't ideal.

Here's a montage of some pics of the gig in Cumbria. The audio was recorded at a rehearsal in Colin Blakey's place in Kendal. In the band were myself, Rab Woods, Jon Brindley and Tim Veitch.

The first tune is Young And Lusty Was I from the William Dixon Manuscript of 1733 and the second tune was written by Rab.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeq5eLS6l0w

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