Piobaireachd (classical bagpiping music) and BEAUTY (philosophically even)
...
Taylor, good 'to PIobaireachd' with you last night :)
Regarding
A
beauty and Piobaireachd? - re these Ma & Marsalis' Guidelines for Practicing a Musical Instrument - http://scottmacleod.com/
All apart from what I'll coin as 'Piobaireachd philosophy,' here are a definition and some thoughts/connections about beauty (re Ma & Marsalis, initially) and Piobaireachd ...
... so here's a definition of beauty:
"a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, (especially the sight)" (which sight aspect could relate to kilts and the Scottish kit of Piobaireachd players?)
Beauty re these "Guidelines ... " - http://scottmacleod.com/
2 never make a sound without hearing it first; hear it in your mind.
4 join feelings into your music when you feel bad, to integrate your feelings with your mind and body.
5 Relax and practice slowly.
7 Practice expressively.
Be serious – invest yourself expressively.
Be serious – invest yourself expressively.
10 Think for yourself.
Don’t become a robot, but don’t dismiss what you’re taught.
Don’t become a robot, but don’t dismiss what you’re taught.
12 Look for connections. (Make the social aspect of practicing regenerative - S.M.)
Music washes away the dust of everyday life from your feet.
Music washes away the dust of everyday life from your feet.
and ...
B
synthesize all 4 Piobaireachds in CoP Yellow Tutor Vol. 4 together in your bodymind into 'one computer program' for playing all 200-300 'major' Piobaireachds (and not just the form underlying "The Company's Lament"? :) ... would take 'deep listening' and internalization :)
and ...
C
exploring the Dixon manuscript may be a fascinating way to bring into circulation again new great tunes ...
"William Dixon manuscript - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org › wiki › William_Dixon_manuscript
The William Dixon manuscript, written down between 1733 and 1738 in Northumberland, is the oldest known manuscript of pipe music from the British Isles, and the most important source of music for the Border pipes"
... and even regarding - https://wiki.
D
But how too to find the most lyrical tunes, in general, to each of our ears? ... Write an algorithm for this (with echoes of brilliant Tufts' Anthropology Prof. Nick Seaver's work on the culture of algorithm and recommender systems ... and now there's some similar in Google Tensorflow
— Nick Seaver (@npseaver) September 23, 2020
and ...
I'd like to be able to think & speak as remarkably as Princeton philosopher, and Humean, David Kellogg Lewis - https://plato.stanford.edu/
... and here's something with David Lewis in the title from UC Davis Social Sciences (as a kind of expression of a 'California school of philosophy' even? ... I went to a Stanford conference on this a few years ago (in blog too))
and ...
E
Looks like Siubhal (fingering movement) may have been misspelled in The College of Piping's (CoP) Yellow Tutor, Vol. 4 -
Siubhal
A type of Piobaireachd variation, pronounced "shoo-al", similar to the Dithis. Consisting of a G gracenote to Low A, followed by the theme note. If the theme note is a B or C, it is accompanied by a D gracenote.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
A type of Piobaireachd variation, pronounced "shoo-al", similar to the Dithis. Consisting of a G gracenote to Low A, followed by the theme note. If the theme note is a B or C, it is accompanied by a D gracenote.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Let's explore further the Canntaireachd too for the siubhal :)
Thoughts, questions, ideas, suggestions?
Cheers,
Scott
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| 3:39 PM (3 hours ago) |  | ||
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So, Angus MacLellan and wee Donald MacLeod in comparison regarding some of the below and playing "The Company's Lament"? (And maybe we can find some examples of MacLeod playing Piobaireachd very differently, and when not instructing too:)
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Here's PM Donald MacLeod:
The Company's Lament
Pipe Major Donald MacLeod M.B.E.
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Scott:
Deep listening really seems to be the key; as we've established, there's only so much that can be written down to convey how a tune should sound and the classic method of listening to master pipers really helps illustrate it best. "Listening" is its own form of practice, in a way.
I'll keep a note about the closed F. I'd been closing the G instead for a while before I realized what I was doing. Bridging the chili with the other notes can be tricky and I'm working on that. too.
Found a good recording by Gary West, by the way. I think that's Wendy Stewart on the guitar; an interesting interpretation.
Taylor
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| 6:21 PM (2 hours ago) | | ||
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Am liking the duet with hints of harp, and Gary West's piping of The Company's Lament, in particular ... Beautiful
Appreciating the language here and the Scots' focus too ...
Thanks for sharing this Piobaireachd, Taylor!
* *
Some of the above Scottish small pipes' theory starts from the 'outside' of Piobaireachd playing culture ... and it would be interesting to develop further 'Piobaireachd philosophy' - as thinking about, and teaching and learning - re beauty for example, from the inside of this piping culture too :)
Some bios -
Angus MacLellan (again?) and mentioning his relationship with wee Donald re as 'big Angus':) -
https://www.pipesdrums.com/
(My first set of highland bagpipes in the 1970s were Grainger and Campbell)
and
PM Donald MacLeod
Musical cheers,
Scott
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Taylor,
Re middle finger down in Piobaireachd for high As or high Gs:
... in listening to my skipping old Yellow Tutor compact disk CD recording again, I just heard Angus MacLellan say that the high G in Piobaireachd is always played with the middle finger down (and the thumb too, of course). And there's a considerable difference between playing a high G with and without a middle finger down (in Piobaireachd) tone-wise ...
I had learned that 'the high A in Piobaireachd is always played with middle finger on chanter' - and found this here too;
"And the fingering isn't optional...but the high A fingering is optional it seems. I prefer the traditional (same as high G, middle finger down) but many players are opting for the light music high A nowadays. Don't know why."
http://forums.bobdunsire.com/
http://forums.bobdunsire.com/
So, let's talk about this on Thursday further ... and regarding a 'tone question' for high G and high A, and playing Piobaireachd learning in part from the CoP Tutor ... and the tones we like, as well as what we want to learn further. (I'm not, for one, planning to compete on GHB in Piobaireachd, in any Highland Games for example, but I think tone and tuning ar very important on SSP too).
Cheers, Scott
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Taylor,
You expressed interest in playing a jig for next week or soon. How about "Glasgow City Police Pipers" which is composed by PM Donald MacLeod, and is a really great tune too, - for the following week?
Here are 3 versions of sheet music digitally -
& without grace notes
(It's mentioned in this article - https://projects.
Cheers,
Scott
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Hi Ma,
Nice to talk earlier!
Making ongoing recordings for "Honey in the Bag" Scottish small pipes' album, using the "Audacity" recording App (but last night had to reboot my whole computer at 11 since recording App didn't work, so didn't record). I was playing the hornpipes Zeto the Bubbleman, The Pumpkin's Fancy, and The Streaker, some of which are the great Gordon Duncan tunes, and at 64 bpm. Am aiming for 74bpm - 82 bpm (https://scott-macleod.
Am not sure about getting this to CD, I think .. and in the PIpers of Distinction series out of Scotland, if at all possible, beyond online via Bandcamp - https://
Some thoughts yesterday about Piobaireachd and beauty - https://scott-macleod.
How is your day going, and what are you up to this weekend?
Love, Scott
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotropa_uniflora
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Monotropa_uniflora
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