Chiff and Fipple Forums

You can download Crowley's tutor and tune book for free from www.piob.info. It's out of copyright

Ross

I have just put online Robert Riddell's "Collection of Scotch, Galwegian and Border Tunes". This book was published in 1794, and thus is safely out of copyright. It's on my music page at http://www.piob.info and the direct URL is http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/musicfiles/manuscripts/riddel...

I finally got round to scanning the Sutherland manuscript - over 250 pages of tunes, from about 1785, and one of the reference sources for the pastoral pipes. I wrote an article on this in An Piobaire a couple of years ago. Anyway, the images are now up at http://www.piob.info. Happy new year to all...

I play a full set in C made for me by Joe. I waited two years for the full set and a further three for the regs, but it was worth it. I've played a lot of other sets, including sets by Geoff Wooff and Timothy Kenna, but this set I have from Joe is the favourite. It has a lovely mellow sound and the ...

Tadhg Crowley learned GHB first, then UP. His tutor, which was published in 1936, uses embellishments that will sit easily under the fingers of anyone who's also played the GHB. Part 1: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/musicfiles/manuscripts/crowley-tutor1.pdf Part 2: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/mu...

Jarlath's version is nice and lively:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DImLYvVcYJs

Ross Anderson
www.piob.info

Track 11 ("Forever Until Tomorrow") is a slow air I've heard Ronan play before

The Lament for O'Neill

Ross

Volume 3 of O'farrell is now up on www.piob.info. The direct URL is

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/Papers/ofarrellspc3.pdf

I also hope to get volume 4 up in the next week or so. Matt Seattle has lent me his copy so it's just a matter of finding the time to copy it and scan it (thanks, Matt!)

Ross

Tadhg Crowley learned the highland pipes first, and the uilleans second. It shows. A lot of his settings use highland gracings, and they fall very naturally under the fingers if you ever learned the other instrument

Ross

Well, I've now played through much the Ennis book. It's fascinating and brilliant - the community owes a huge thankyou to Pat for spending so many years of his life on this work. There's one thing that needs fixing, though. I'm sure other pipers have come across this too but been too polite to say. ...

I have just scanned the first volume of "O'Farrell's Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes" and put it online at www.piob.info. I'll do the other volumes when I get round to it

Ross

The other recording of Alasdrum I know is on Dickie Deegan's "Music of the Irish Celts"

Ross

I have put online at www.piob.info a scan of the Rook manuscript. This dates from about 1840 and has over 1000 tunes; it gives us versions of a lot of tunes that lie between the earliest manuscript sources and the later printed collections. The manuscript is believed to be from North East England an...

It's quite plausible that Seamus picked this up from the Highland pipes. There, there's a movement called a 'grip' which consists of a short seven-finger note (G on the highland chanter, D on the uilleann) split with a three-finger gracenote. In Highland notation, a grip from the two-finger note bac...

My Kenna chanter plays in D as the note was understood in 1812 - near modern C sharp. If you go to the Early Music Show you can buy baroque flutes, oboes etc that are similarly tuned. There are whole orchestras who play in baroque pitch. So narrowbore D chanters are nothing new - they are where it a...