Traditions of the Old Pipers, Angus MacPherson of Invershin recounts his family and musical pedigree in 1959 (audio clip)

Angus MacPherson of Invershin, aged 82, recounts his family (and musical) pedigree in 1959.

The MacPhersons were a prominent piping family from Laggan in Badenoch. The family had close ties with Raasay, and their playing style reflected the musical legacy of the MacKays and the MacCrimmons in Raasay and Skye. Authentic performance styles were passed from generation to generation, and great significance was attached to proper teaching in an authentic style.

Piobaireachd, a Gaelic term meaning literally 'piping', is used for a form of classical music for the Great Highland Bagpipe. The tunes in extended form developed the air, known in Gaelic as ùrlar ('ground'), in a series of variations with increasingly elaborate but formulaic gracenoting. This style of composition probably preserves musical conventions of earlier centuries and required the player to be strictly trained. It is essentially the instrumental 'praise' music of Scottish Gaelic society, composed to commemorate great events, and the lives, achievements and deaths of clan chieftains and leaders of society.

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