Piper thrills audience

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33463, 19 February 1974, Page 14

Piper thrills audience

Last evening, one of the all-time greats of Highland piping, Donald McPherson, of Glasgow, gave a recital in the Horticultural Hall. The 300 people present were a most appreciative audience, the biggest group yet seen at a Highland Piping Society concert.

Donald MacPherson was once described by the “Piping Times” as “not a piper, but a prize-winning machine.” His outstanding ability has kept him in the forefront of players and teachers for the last 25 years.

Playing Lawrie drones with a Hardie chanter, Mr MacPherson began the programme with ceol beag, the small music of the pipes—marches, strathspeys, reels and so on. With no mannerisms in

either stance or playing, Mr. MacPherson makes piping look and sound deceptively simple. His impeccable rhythm and a clean, incisive tone from a well-tuned chanter, in a mixture of common and uncommon tunes gained the appreciation of the audience.

As his first piobaireachd, Mr MacPherson played "The

Battle of Auldum,” a cheerful tune composed after Montrose resoundingly defeated one of Cromwell’s armies. As with all piobaireachds, there is a ground (urlar) and variations of increasing complexity, requiring considerable musicianship and finger dexterity. The piobaireachd is the ceol mor or great music of the pipe;. Later in the programme, Mr MacPherson played his second piobaireachd, the well-known “I got a kiss from the King’s hand," said to have been composed extempore by the famed Patrick Mor MacCrimmon after the King allowed MacCrimmon to kiss his hand on hearing of his almost legandary skill on the pipes. The time was the Battle of Sherrifmuir, one of the innumerable tribal fights that the Scots dignify with the name of clan glory.

Two other pipers assisted in the evening’s programme. At short notice, Airdrie Stewart played his silver-mounted Hendersons with a Grainger chanter, and later William Boyle, perhaps New Zealand’s greatest all-round piper, teacher, judge and administrator. played his silvermounted Robertsons with a Grainger chanter. Neither piper suffered in comparison with Mr MacPherson, and the members of the audience who came from as far afield as Auckland and Dunedin, were quick to show their appreciation.

Donald MacPherson will hold instructional evenings at the St Andrew's College bandroom on February 19 and 28 at 7 p.m. Although piping may not be regarded by many as music, there was no doubt about the matter lari evening. As with the Indian sitar, there is a growing appreciation that instruments mav differ in tone qua’itv and complexity, but remain capable of a great range of feeling and mood. Donald MacPherson, also a competent pianist, demonstrated this with a remarkable disola” of rhythmic vita’ity, firmer dexterity and fine-toned musicianship. —A.R.W.