Dunaber Music

Allemande Left (Nod to the Judge)

Last night’s final of the Toronto Branch of the Pipers’ & Pipe Band Society of Ontario’s amateur knock-out was a first-class event. The morning after listening to a dozen excellent amateur pipers go through their paces got me to thinking. OK. I was thinking about this last night, but I’m still thinking about it this morning.
Continue reading Allemande Left (Nod to the Judge)…

A Good Reed Soaking is What You Need

My first email of the day was a seriously laugh-out-loud experience. I mean LOL in the real sense. Not just the sort of thing we all do when we often send a sort of nondescript note or text and add “LOL”: “I backed out of the driveway today and nearly hit the neighbour’s cat LOL”. Well, I’m sure you wouldn’t write that, but I know you get my gist.
Continue reading A Good Reed Soaking is What You Need…

December Rose

An unusually warm November and a trellis along the warmish outside of my house made this oddity of nature appear this past weekend.
Continue reading December Rose…

Pipe Bands and Political Parties

One of the few purely academic things I remember from my time grinding away at university and studying political science is about political parties; specifically, the definition of political parties. You’ll know political parties are about bringing together like interests, promoting those interests and engaging people to a level that makes political authority happen. Political parties are about aggregating interest. Simply put, political parties are about bringing together people who think the same way.

It strikes me that pipe bands are no different.
Continue reading Pipe Bands and Political Parties…

A Good Use of Time (Maybe)

I was watching the local news last week and a segment popped up that talked about the release of new internet stats. I can’t find the link to the piece otherwise I’d happily provide it here. Anyway, the story centred on the internet: now preferred over TV for entertainment and info-gathering.
Continue reading A Good Use of Time (Maybe)…

Idiomatica

Idiomatica. A bit of a poncie sort of self-conscious name for a medley, isn’t it. But what fun to say – and play. I feel confident saying that the Toronto Police Pipe Band had a great, if not challenging, winter of practice shaping this puppy up (as Pete Aumonier might say). And If anyone had any doubt about the degree of serious intensity most of the pipe band world takes pipe band music you only have to look to the internet. Yikes. Reading a sampling of the voracious and sometimes downright bitter opinion Idiomatica elicited made me think the Toronto Police Pipe Band might’ve had a cheerier response had we marched on the field and pulled a Sinead (publically rip up a photo of the Pope). Either that or offer the world the 7,864th medley that starts with a marchpipe. Continue reading Idiomatica…

Hank Thoreau

A quote for a lazy (can’t-think-of-anything-to-write) sort of Monday evening:
Continue reading Hank Thoreau…

Smiling on the Judges

I am not a big fan of judging. I mean by that, that I don’t generally get a lot of heel-clicking, raise-your-glass glee out of judging, assessing, pipe band (or solo piping) competitions. Done well, judging, or “adjudicating”, takes great concentration – in fact, its damned hard work. Hats off to those who have for years undertaken the judging challenge with aplomb and undisputable fairness.
Continue reading Smiling on the Judges…

A View of Pipe Band Ensemble

A couple of weeks ago I attended the Pipers’ & Pipe Band Society of Ontario’s annual adjudicator’s seminar. The theme of the day was the always-befuddling topic, “pipe band ensemble”. As you should expect, there was lots of interesting discussion. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a high degree of dislike for the word “ensemble” – I’d never thought much of the word, either; in fact, it was a possible majority who thought the word could be replaced with something better.
Continue reading A View of Pipe Band Ensemble…

Pibroch Piobaireachd

We know there’s politics everywhere. And, when given the option, the way we choose to spell words is no exception. A Canadian, say, living in the United States, might exert quiet subversion by hanging on to Canadian spelling of any number of words. A note to his boss might read, “…followed up on the neighbourhood initiative; successful in addressing the signage colour controversy; local employees in good humour…”. That Canuck is implicitly saying to his American boss, “I’m Canadian, I’m not like you, I spell bigger, better…”. He’s also implicitly proclaiming to his boss he’s an asshole. But that’s a tangent of a different colour.
Continue reading Pibroch Piobaireachd…