Music-making

I really liked this quote.  It made me think a little differently about music-making:

“No good opera plot can be sensible:… people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.”

  ~W.H. Auden (English poet)  

It Should Never Be a Chore to Play

You sometimes make your luck and you sometimes chance on luck but however it comes I can tell you I’ve had a fair bit of it when it comes to tuition.  The 20th century master, Captain John MacLellan, is one teacher who helped me a lot; he left a big impression.  Of his many memorable pieces of advice one that stays close to the surface is this:
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Early 20th Century Pipe Band Ensemble

A while ago I happened across a great site, the University of California’s (Santa Barbara) Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project. Here you can have a listen to any one of a vast array of mp3 recordings lifted from the university’s collection of almost 8,000 wax cylinders.
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Music-making Advice

My friend (and electronic music-maker) Mikael Hansson just passed me a quote that I absolutely love. 

So, some fantastic advice from Brian Eno, the “father of modern ambient music” and co-producer of the good U2 stuff:

“Play more things that make me dance around and less things that make me sit and look miserable in a plastic chair”

Yes, please.

M.

Pipe Band Circles are So Square

I’ve been going on for ages now about the standard competitive pipe band performance configuration, “the circle”.  This arrangement makes no sense to me.  Yeah, everyone can see the hands of the person leading the band, and that helps unison and timing of rhythmic transitions, but what about the many and varied down sides, the good reasons not to perform in a circle?
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A Jig, “Jenny Hazzard”: Score & Sound File

I’ve had a couple of notes from people looking for “more jigs”.  So for the jig hounds here is a 4-parted 6/8 jig, “Jenny Hazzard”, from “Old & New Tunes“, published 1995.   I’ve played this in solo jig competitions with success and I’m pretty sure Peel Police Pipe Band played a couple of parts in a competition medley when I was PM in the mid 90s. 
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A Great Spirit

When I decided to start making recordings that went beyond a capella bagpipes a lot of good musical things started happening.  One of the best?  The chance was created to work with other, non-bagpipe musicians.  One of the first musicians – and best – that I’ve worked with is fiddler and violin-playing maestro, Oliver Schroer.
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My First Outdoor Pipe Band Contest

Southern Ontario in general and the Toronto area especially used to see a lot of teaching happening – and a lot of kids’ pipe bands.  I can’t say for certain today how much teaching is going on but I do know we don’t have many “junior” bands around, the kind built for kids. 
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A Huge Part of Pipe Band Ensemble

There seems to be a fair bit of upset these days about ruling that came to be as a result of a vote at the recent Annual General Meeting of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association. Apparently members in attendance voted to remove the “best bass section” prize from the list of those awarded at major pipe band championships. The upset appears to be coming mainly from bass and tenor drummers caught off-guard by the rule change. Like most meetings of this kind attendance was reportedly sparse and a poor representation of general membership. What transpired is a good reminder for next year’s meeting: turn up if you want a voice. I have to admit, to be fair, that not turning up at an AGM never stopped me from crabbing about what I viewed was an ill-conceived rule or policy change.
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Be Open to Something New (Also Score & Sound File: “The Oyster Wives’ Rant”)

In honour of St Patrick’s Day, a quote from the great Irish novelist, Jonathan Swift:
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