Scottish Harp

Tree of Strings: Crann Nan Teud This in-depth study on the history of the harp in Scotland draws on unpublished documents, family papers and manuscripts, which should throw new light on the background of these ancient and beautiful instruments. This volume should be of interest to historians, musicologists and harp players, and also any reader with a general interest in Scottish and Celtic culture. Scottish Harp.

The Scots Fiddle: Tunes, Tales and... Traditions of the North-east and Central Highlands. The first of a three-volume extended edition of "The Scots Fiddle", this text combines an extensive collection of traditional fiddle music, over 160 tunes, with background narratives and anecdotes on the history, legends and traditions associated with the music, and biographical sketches on composers and song-writers, and instruction on playing, through the provision of bowings and finger-board positions. The book is also illustrated throughout with steel engravings. The music provided includes slow airs, pastorals, strathspeys, reels, jigs, hornpipes and marches, tunes from the 18th and 19th centuries as well as new compositions.

MacPherson's Rant: And Other Tales of... the Scottish Fiddle. The fiddle has long played an important parting Scottish musical tradition. Here in MacPherson's Rant and Other Tales of the Scottish Fiddle there are stories that reflect that importance. Whether the fiddle is in the hands of the notorious Highland freebooter MacPherson or being played by a young man learning a fairy tune, these tales reflect a traditional culture that us still thriving. Some of the stories are truly ancient while others quite modern, but all show that throughout Scotland there has long been a ready audience for music made by horsehair on catgut. Today as Scottish culture continues to thrive in the face of all the modern world can throw at it we should perhaps think on what Robert Burns once aid to a friend, 'Lang may yer elbuck, jink an diddle.' In addition to introducing some of the most famous, as well as some of the lesser-known, tales of the Scottish fiddle, Stuart McHardy also examines the history of the instrument, its repertoire and the place the fiddle and the fiddler have played in Scottish culture over the centuries. The result is a lively and informative companion to one of the central elements of the Scottish musical tradition. Scottish Fiddle.

Highland Dancing: Textbook of the... Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing. This is the sixth edition of the Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing textbooks. It covers positions, movements and steps, with illustrations to complement the text. Scottish Dancing.

Traditional Step-dancing in Scotland The popular view of Scottish solo step-dances has always been the Sword Dance and the Highland Fling seen at Highland Games. In the early 1950s, the authors of this work began to question whether there was a greater history and variety to step-dancing in Scotland. Between 1950 and 1967 they travelled all over Scotland in their quest, and this book provides a record of their literary research and collecting. It aims to show: that Highland Games dances are only a small part of a rich heritage; how the once numerous dances were taught by popular dancing masters; and the link to step-dancing in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, a subject covered by the text in an appendix. The book also contains instructions for the step-dances collected from mainland Scotland, the Hebrides and Cape Breton, including clog-dances and dirk dances. Scottish Dancing.

The Highland Bagpipe and Its Music Roderick Cannon's classic work, a definitive and critically acclaimed history of the origins and music of Scotland's most famous instrument. The eminently readable text will be of interest not only to pipers but to all those music lovers world wide who are intrigued to know more about the character and extraordinary history of the legendary pipes. The author covers both Ccol Mor and Ccol Beag, Piobaireachd, dance music, martial music, music for competitions and music for pleasure, music for pipe bands as well as a commentary on the state of piping today. Updated from its last paperback edition, this book is the only comprehensive history of piping in print and has never been surpassed. Scottish Bagpipes.

Old and New World Highland Bagpiping Old and New World Highland Bagpiping provides a comprehensive biographical and genealogical account of pipers and piping in highland Scotland and Gaelic Cape Breton. The work is the result of over thirty years of oral fieldwork among the last Gaels in Cape Breton, for whom piping fit unself-consciously into community life, as well as an exhaustive synthesis of Scottish archival and secondary sources. Reflecting the invaluable memories of now-deceased new world Gaelic lore-bearers, John Gibson shows that traditional community piping in both the old and new world Gaihealtachlan was, and for a long time remained, the same, exposing the distortions introduced by the tendency to interpret the written record from the perspective of modern, post-eighteenth-century bagpiping. Following up the argument in his previous book, Traditional Gaelic Bagpiping, 1745-1945, Gibson traces the shift from tradition to modernism in the old world through detailed genealogies, focusing on how the social function of the Scottish piper changed and step-dance piping progressively disappeared. Old and New World Highland Bagpiping will stir controversy and debate in the piping world while providing reminders of the value of oral history and the importance of describing cultural phenomena with great care and detail.

The Jimmy Shand Story: The King of... Scottish Dance Music. A biography of the musician, Jimmy Shand. This book ranges from his boyhood in East Wemyss, Scotland, through the early years as an amateur accordian player, right up to the present day. It includes a listing of Shand's recordings on vinyl, cassette and CD, and also his sheet music compositions.

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