Pipers

by William Donaldson

It is a lively introductory guide to what pipers do and why, showing how 'tradition', often thought of as a vague and anonymous process, is in fact created by a whole succession of brilliantly gifted individual teachers, players and composers. The author uses many historical sources to explore the rich heritage of piping, an activity strongly rooted in Scotland's past. Pipers also focuses on the individual players themselves with a wide range of interviews and anecdotes to provide a fresh account of this key musical cohort.

Genres: Music

176 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2004

About the author

William Donaldson is a graduate of the University of Aberdeen (M.A., Ph.D.) and worked for twenty five years with Britain’s Open University before becoming a visiting lecturer at M.I.T. in 2010. He has written on the political song culture of the Scottish Jacobites, tracing the creation of the semi-mythical figure “Bonnie Prince Charlie”. He pioneered the use of newspaper sources to study the popular culture of Victorian Scotland and in particular its use of vernacular Scots to deal with the whole range of the contemporary world. He has written also in the field of traditional music, being author of two books on the music and history of the Highland bagpipe.

He is the author of several prize-winning books: Popular Literature in Victorian Scotland (Aberdeen 1986) which won the Blackwell Prize; The Jacobite Song (Aberdeen, 1988) which won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award and was runner-up for the Folklore Society’s Katherine Briggs Memorial Prize; and The Highland Pipe and Scottish Society (Edinburgh, 2000, with later editions 2008, 2013) which was voted joint Research Book of the Year by the Saltire Society.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book - learnt lots whilst reading this book - particularly liked the bios on the old masters from the 19th century and early 20th century. The author really gave Archibald Campbell and the Piobraireachd Society a hard time and perhaps it is deserved. Donaldson took a more scholarly approach to this than did Alistair Campsie. This book is recommended for anyone who loves the pipes and thinks that Amazing Grace is representational of what pipe music actually his - this book will dispell that myth!

[Andre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent overview of the GHB and its present masters.