You know me, gotta get 4 birds with every stone. Today’s post is to:
- introduce you to a Facebook group I’ve created named the MSRHJ Society
- share my recent competition success in grade 2 MSR and HJ competitions
- share some audio that encapsulates the two above while demonstrating some drone reeds in a Colin Kyo bagpipe
- have a short discussion on competition tempos taken from a bobdunsire.com forum post of mine
1 – The MSRHJ Society (March, Strathspey, Reel, Hornpipe, Jig), at this point, exists solely as a Facebook group because Facebook is an easy platform within which to organize group member videos and discussion. It is moderated to be a safe space to upload your own performances within the competitive light music genres (6/8 marches are okay too) where you can discuss those performances with other group members. I grew up listening to the 1984 Grant’s Piping Championship and William Livingstone Sr. Invitational albums, the former featuring Mx2 Sx2 Rx2 and the latter MSRHJ as their respective competition formats. I am very fond of both formats as I feel once through a tune isn’t really enough and I enjoy the incorporation of traditional hornpipes and jigs into the MSR. If you’re interested, jump on over and join the group on Facebook (which requires a Facebook account).
2 – I recently had success in the MSR and HJ grade 2 events at the Salado, TX Scottish Festival, winning both; I do not play piobaireachd.* Below are my score sheets and below that are recordings I made three days later of the same tunes I played in the competition to give you an idea of where I’m at with these tunes in the context of the score sheets. I did not think to do this until after I had played my competition M with a different SR, so I played a different M with my competition SR, hence why there are 3 recordings and only 2 score sheets. Again, these are not recordings made during my competition, just the same tunes save for the extra SR after the relevant M and an extra M before the relevant SR.
MSR score sheet – Jack Lee – Mrs. Duncan MacFadyen, Inveraray Castle, Rejected Suitor
Mrs. Duncan MacFadyen, Duncan Lamont, Drumlithie
Jeannie Carruthers, Inveraray Castle, Rejected Suitor
HJ score sheet – Bob Richardson – The Redundancy, Kenneth MacDonald’s Jig
The Redundancy, Kenneth MacDonald’s Jig
The recordings above feature a different set of pipes than what I played in competition. In this post, I feature Colin Kyo drones with Redwood tenors and a Crozier glass fiber bass (except for the last recording down below). I am also using a different Colin Kyo chanter and chanter reed than what I used in competition (John Elliott Sound Supreme = competition, Husk = recordings).
3 – I used to play full Ezeedrone in my Kyos but I have struggled as of late to get the sound I once had. I have set up of a local friend’s set of Kyos with Redwood tenors and I *think* original Kinnaird bass, so I opted to try Redwood tenors in my set again and they delivered. Lovely bold, but smooth tone, with a great harmonic. I paired them with a Crozier glass bass I acquired used with a set of pipes some years ago. This Crozier bass has good tone, but is unstable for some reason; perhaps the bridle is old and loose, or something. It needed drastic retuning between sets far more than the Redwoods which was quite minimal. Below are some other MSR and HJ sets I recorded with this set up before trying a different bass reed to conclude.
The Clan MacColl, MacBeth’s, Traditional – what do you think of my timing choice for Traditional (which is largely written without dot/cut rhythms in Donald MacLeod’s book 3)?
John MacColl’s March to Kilbowie Cottage, Doune of Invernochty, Roderick MacDonald
Lucy Cassidy, The Herringwife – Tunes I decided to learn because of John Wilson and Hugh McCallum’s World’s Greatest Pipers albums, respectively.
Lastly, I decided this Crozier glass wasn’t stable enough for me so I threw in an older prototype of the Overtone (Ackland) 480 reeds that I tested back in February and only rediscovered recently as being a solid, though very bold reed; played here with the Redwood tenors from above.
Major Manson’s Farewell to Clachantrushal, Susan MacLeod, Captain Lachlan MacPhail of Tiree – Connor Sinclair recently won the Glenfiddich light music contest (Mx2 Sx2 Rx2) playing these first two tunes; I do not know his reel, Broadford Bay, so I played Iain MacFadyen’s reel from the Grant’s album I mentioned earlier (which Iain played with Kantara to El Arish and Inveraray Castle – another two of my tunes).
The old prototype Overtone (Ackland) is a good bass, but a bit overpowering of the Redwood tenors. I realized after the practice session that I have a spare original Kinnaird bass since I’m using an X-TREME bass with the Kinnaird tenors in my solo pipe (Gellaitry). But, I was blown out so I’ll try the original Kinnaird bass tomorrow; perhaps my local friend and I will play the exact same drone set up in our Kyos after all. Though I might just buy me another X-TREME bass, it’s a good reed I already use in my Gellaitry and 1950 Henderson.
EDIT: 2019-11-13 Below are two recordings with the original Kinnaird bass. I like! The first is a HJ preceded by me tuning the drones; this recording is drone heavy because of the mic placement.
Tuning, PM George Allan, Alan MacPherson of Mosspark – not bad for not having played the jig in years, I’m thinking
74th’s Farewell to Edinburgh, Shepherd’s Crook, Alick C MacGregor – this MSR is basically opposite of the HJ above with regard to mic placement
END OF EDIT
The rest of the Glenfiddich performances can be heard by going to The National Piping Centre’s VIMEO page.
4 – Here are the tempos from the Glenfiddich competition as best as I could tell (M S R):
Connor 69 120 80
Finlay 65 115 79
Niall 67 120 82
Callum 66 117 83
Stuart 66 113 81
Glenn 68 120 85
Gordon 70 121 79
Iain 70 117 78
Andrew 67 114 80
Jack 64 115 78
Strathspeys were the hardest as the tempo would fluctuate up to 25 bpm sometimes (125 down to 100) over technical or heavily navigated sections.
Contrasting with the same competition in 1984 (Grant’s):
Iain MacFadyen: Kantara to El Arish at 74 bpm, Inveraray Castle at 142 bpm, and Captain Lachlan MacPhail of Tiree at 95 bpm. Truly an engaging performance. The slowest reel came from Hugh MacCallum’s John MacKechnie at 85 bpm. Other reels included Malcolm MacRae’s at 98, Murray Henderson’s at 92, Gavin Stoddart’s at 90, and Bill Livingstone’s at 94. Other strathspey tempos were anywhere from 128-138. Marches in the low 70s.
You know where I’m going with this. Modern competition tempos have slowed. Personally, I think at modern tempos, some tunes are losing their melodies.
*I played through Hiharin Dro O Dro (twice!), I am proud to play a pipe, and Lament for Patrick Og MacCrimmon over the span of two days since returning from competition, so maybe there’s a piobaireachd player in there somewhere after all.