strathspey Archive: Bagpipe music for Scottish Country dances

I'm updating my music collection and would like to find bagpipe music for
Scottish Country dances - preferably with chords at beginning and end - I
have the one for Blue Bonnets from Memories of a Scottish Dance Weekend and
I have one for Reel of the Royal Scots (however, it has no chords and I love
the music but drives everyone batty when I try to use it since they don't
know when to start). Does anyone know of any others?
Thanks
Dianna
Dianna L. Shipman
diannashipman@worldnet.att.net
Dianna L. Shipman, P.C., Attorney at Law
1436 W.Gray, #134
Houston, TX 77019-4946
web page: http://home.att.net/~diannashipman
phone: 713-522-1212

I have a cassette with piano and bagpipe recordings of Bonnie Geordie's
Wig, Kiss Under the Stairs, Happy Returns and Lady Charlotte Bruce,
played by Nancy Dickson and Bill Clement (no chords, 4 bars intro to
begin), and pipes only for Argyle Broadswords, MacDonald of Sleat,
MacLeod of Harris, Shepherd's Crook, Bonnie Ann, Rouken Glen, Over the
Dee and Over the Don, McNeil of Barra. Published by Scottish Records
under the title "Broadswords".

Susi
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Susi Mayr
Vienna, Austria
susi@redrose.co.at
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Dianna Shipman wrote:
>
> I'm updating my music collection and would like to find bagpipe music for
> Scottish Country dances - preferably with chords at beginning and end - I
> have the one for Blue Bonnets from Memories of a Scottish Dance Weekend and
> I have one for Reel of the Royal Scots (however, it has no chords and I love
> the music but drives everyone batty when I try to use it since they don't
> know when to start). Does anyone know of any others?
> Thanks
> Dianna
> Dianna L. Shipman
> diannashipman@worldnet.att.net
> Dianna L. Shipman, P.C., Attorney at Law
> 1436 W.Gray, #134
> Houston, TX 77019-4946
> web page: http://home.att.net/~diannashipman
> phone: 713-522-1212

At 14:09 23/06/99 -0500, you wrote:
>I'm updating my music collection and would like to find bagpipe music for
>Scottish Country dances - preferably with chords at beginning and end -
>I have one for Reel of the Royal Scots (however, it has no chords and I love
>the music but drives everyone batty when I try to use it since they don't
>know when to start). Does anyone know of any others?
>Thanks
>Dianna L. Shipman

Hello again Diana,

Bobby Browns recording "Ready And" has the Reel of The Royal Scots with
pipes and chords. If you are using tapes, you can with a little practice,
put a chord onto the recording yourself.

Cheers

Murray Wilson
Auckland NZ

Talk about timing. I've been looking for a recording of Bonnie Geordie's
Wig. I'll look for this one. Thanks.

Richard L Walker
Pensacola, FL 32504-7726 USA
rlwalker@granis.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Susi Mayr [mailto:susi@redrose.co.at]
I have a cassette with piano and bagpipe recordings of Bonnie Geordie's
Wig, Kiss Under the Stairs, Happy Returns and Lady Charlotte Bruce,
played by Nancy Dickson and Bill Clement (no chords, 4 bars intro to
begin), and pipes only for Argyle Broadswords, MacDonald of Sleat,
MacLeod of Harris, Shepherd's Crook, Bonnie Ann, Rouken Glen, Over the
Dee and Over the Don, McNeil of Barra. Published by Scottish Records
under the title "Broadswords".

Dianna Shipman wrote:
>
> I'm updating my music collection and would like to find bagpipe music for
> Scottish Country dances - preferably with chords at beginning and end - I
> have the one for Blue Bonnets from Memories of a Scottish Dance Weekend and
> I have one for Reel of the Royal Scots (however, it has no chords and I love
> the music but drives everyone batty when I try to use it since they don't
> know when to start).

Pipes *alone* really can't do a chord-type intro. The quick
stoppage of sound between chord and tune isn't do-able.

What usually happens is the pipes play an intro consisting of the
final 4 bars of the first reel. That's what the Royal Scots do on
the old RSCDS disc containing the Reel of the Royal Scots [the one
that came with a corrected version on a little 7" disc]. Notice
that the 1st 4 bars on that recording are without drums. The
dancing should begin right along with the drums in bar 5.

Best,

-John-

It's the same on the Nancy Dickson/Bill Clement recording - the piano
joins in on bar 5.

Susi

> What usually happens is the pipes play an intro consisting of the
> final 4 bars of the first reel. That's what the Royal Scots do on
> the old RSCDS disc containing the Reel of the Royal Scots [the one
> that came with a corrected version on a little 7" disc]. Notice
> that the 1st 4 bars on that recording are without drums. The
> dancing should begin right along with the drums in bar 5.
>
> Best,
>
> -John-
>
> --
> John Cahill <piobair@earthlink.net>

--
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Susi Mayr
Vienna, Austria
susi@redrose.co.at
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Would someone care to comment on phrasing the bows & curtsies in a four bar
intro?
This seems to be a problem for most dancers, especially with pipes.
Jack Pollock
Waynesville, North Carolina, USA
-----Original Message-----
From: Susi Mayr <susi@redrose.co.at>
To: strathspey@tm.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de
<strathspey@tm.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de>
Date: Wednesday, June 23, 1999 10:56 PM
Subject: Re: Bagpipe music for Scottish Country dances

>It's the same on the Nancy Dickson/Bill Clement recording - the piano
>joins in on bar 5.
>
>Susi
>
>> What usually happens is the pipes play an intro consisting of the
>> final 4 bars of the first reel. That's what the Royal Scots do on
>> the old RSCDS disc containing the Reel of the Royal Scots [the one
>> that came with a corrected version on a little 7" disc]. Notice
>> that the 1st 4 bars on that recording are without drums. The
>> dancing should begin right along with the drums in bar 5.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> -John-
>>
>> --
>> John Cahill <piobair@earthlink.net>
>
>--
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>Susi Mayr
>Vienna, Austria
>susi@redrose.co.at
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>

Jack Pollock <jpollock@primeline.com> asks:

> Would someone care to comment on phrasing the bows & curtsies in a four
> bar intro? This seems to be a problem for most dancers, especially with
> pipes.

In quick-time dances, your standard run-of-the-mill bow or curtsey takes
the equivalent of two bars of music (listen carefully to your favourite
recording). Pianists, for example, usually play a three-part chord
consisting of a pick-up note (to give you advance warning that something
is about to happen), the beginning of the chord proper (for you to go
down into the bow) and a flourish (or something) in the middle (so you
know when to start coming up again to be ready for the beginning of the
dance). The two bars count from the beginning of the chord proper, and
the flourish comes at the start of the second bar. To complicate things
even further, the dance tune itself usually starts with another pick-up
note, the time for which comes out of the second bar of the chord.
(Incidentally, listen to your teacher counting you in with a `Ready ...
and'. The timing of this is just like that of a chord, only it doesn't
have an extra pick-up note at the start, since you don't need `advance
warning'.)

What you do with a four-bar introduction is stand for two bars and bow
or curtsey for the next two bars. You can consider the first two bars an
extended `advance warning', and the rest goes on as discussed above.

Be careful when you're talking about this with pipers, though. They tend
to count their bars differently, so if you ask a piper for an n-bar
introduction, be very sure that you both agree how much music that
amounts to!

Anselm
--
Anselm Lingnau ......................... lingnau@tm.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de
I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman
church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church,
nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. -- Thomas Paine

I use two different methods:

1. This is better for men's bows, hold for 2, bow on 3, come up on 4. There
are variations,
but this is the simplest.

2. I like this for the ladies: Step toward 4th intermediate on 1 with right
foot, curtsey on 2 with left foot behind, step back to 1st position
with left foot on 3, and bring
right foot to 1st position or 3rd position on 4.

Hope this gives you some ideas and help,

Rosey
Strathlevn@aol.com