Record

Tune from Joseph MacDonald's Compleat Theory of the Scots Highland Bagpipe, c. 1760, played on an early instrument by Decker Forrest (audio clip)

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Reel

Postcard of Tune from Joseph MacDonald's Compleat Theory of the Scots Highland Bagpipe, c. 1760, played on an early instrument by Decker Forrest (audio clip).
000-000-580-067-C
© National Museums Scotland

Tune from Joseph MacDonald's Compleat Theory of the Scots Highland Bagpipe, c. 1760, played on an early instrument by Decker Forrest (audio clip)

Music from the 18th Century light music repertoire played on a bagpipe chanter made about 1810 by the Skye and Edinburgh pipe maker and publisher Donald MacDonald.

The tune is a reel taken from the manuscript written about 1760 by Joseph MacDonald, the Sutherland-born musician and piper who produced the first analytical study of pipe music performance. Although not named in the original manuscript, the tune was identified in the 1840s as Port Mor Iain 'Ic Eachainn, and is still widely performed as a six-parted competition reel John McKechnie.

Donald MacDonald was one of the most prominent of the early bagpipe makers, with a business in Edinburgh from about 1800 until 1840. He came from a Skye family, the son of John MacDonald of Glenhinnisdale in Trotternish. He was an expert piper and won first prize at the Edinburgh Competition in 1817. He made a variety of instruments including the Great Highland Bagpipe and Scottish bellows-blown small pipes. He was listed in the Edinburgh Post Office Directory for 1824-1825 as 'Pipemaker to the Highland Society of London' at 567 Lawnmarket and this meant that he was making prize bagpipes to be presented as prizes at the annual competitions sponsored by the Highland Society. Donald MacDonald and other Scottish pipemakers were notable for printing and publishing music for the Great Highland Bagpipe. He published his Collection of the Ancient Martial Music of Caledonia about 1820, the first published collection of 'pibroch' music for the Highland bagpipe. This collection preserves a unique record of some aspects of Highland bagpipe playing in the distinctive style and settings of some tunes and their association with the MacArthurs (as masters and teachers of the instrument) and Clan Donald.


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Online ID: 000-000-580-067-C
Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
Project: 0869: The Bagpipe Collection
Project description | View all records in project
Ref: National Museums Scotland  Sound Asset.8
Date: c.1760 (date of tune)
c.1810 (date of manufacture of chanter)
Material:
Dimensions:
What: Tune played on an early instrument
Subject: Colour: Colour (Scran Tags)
Animals: Fish (Scran Tags)
Who: Decker Forrest (performer)
Donald MacDonald (maker of chanter)
Joseph MacDonald (writer of tune)
Where: Scotland, Edinburgh
Scotland, Skye
Event:
Description: Tune from Joseph MacDonald's Compleat Theory of the Scots Highland Bagpipe, c. 1760, played on an early instrument by Decker Forrest.
References:
Translations:
Related Records:
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