What they say about Allan Macdonald

Purchase Allan's Work

Moidart Collection II of Music
An Dara Ceud (The second hundred)
Price: £25.00

Reviewed by Michael Grey

There are rare people in this world who seem to have a special knack for shining light – their light – on hidden truths, new ideas and different ways of understanding things. Think Steve Jobs. His name easily springs to mind these days, and his single-handed reinvention of how the world consumes music. In the piping world, a world largely tied to hidebound tradition and, when it comes to music, prone to parochialism and preciousness (think Tolkien's Gollum and the Ring) originals are rare. Still, one name jumps to the top of my list and it's Allan MacDonald.

It's been a good few years since his first big beautiful red book of music blazed a trail of Gaelic-centred music through the piping world. "An Drochaid Chliùteach" (the famous bridge), "Fàg a Phiob Bhocd" (leave the poor pipe alone), "Tar the House" and "Sonny's Mazurka" all among the great melodies in his first hundred published tunes – TheMoidart Collection number one.

The Moidart Collection II, An Deud Ceud (The Second Hundred) does not disappoint: another hundred tunes, another collection of melodies and rhythms to test and influence the thinking and way of playing of our world.

First: full disclosure here. I at first felt awkward in my commitment to review this book. I also aspire to build tunes, publish books and have a genuine soft spot for things Gaelic. Not unlike many of you, perhaps, Allan is also a friend – as are his brothers, Angus and Iain. But it strikes me biases are the natural outcome of deep experience and, I think, it's really that experience that sets us apart. To me it's our experience-driven insight that we bring to the world and it's that which really has any value at all. Anyway, that's my spin. You've been forewarned.

Allan MacDonald's second hundred tunes show us stark evidence that he's blossomed as a composer and arranger. The melodic sophistication and rhythmic intensity of most of the pieces in this book is impressive – and appealing. The 2/4 marches he's pulled together are the best – and most original – since Donald MacLeod's fourth book when the world caught

wind of "The Knightswood Ceilidh."

In tunes like "Fearchar MacRath," "Dòmhnall Eairdsidh Dòmhnullach" and "Calum Eairdsidh Choinnich" – with its cool, extremely original, high G-centred resolving phrase – MacDonald's offered up serious new pieces for our solo competition march repertoire. His competition 2/4 march offerings, including those by his talented brothers Iain and Angus, have what I'll call a "Glenuig-feel" to them: the tunes slide along a sort of broad melodic continuum. With no simple stock question and answer feel, as we'd hear, say, in Willie Lawrie's "Mrs. MacDonald of Dunach," we hear, rather, an eight bar extended melody of "marchiness." Bars one and five are seldom the same; the melody rolls along its natural Gàidhlig-driven path.

Of the 2/4 marches Allan's brother, Iain's "Angus MacKinnon of Eigg," number one, page one, in the second hundred, stands out in a really exceptional way. Sadly, these days, it's only the rare and enlightened solo piping judge who opts to call a new tune from a piper's list. I'd like to think a piece like this will help turn this way of things. "Angus MacKinnon of Eigg" is simply a brilliantly fine composition that needs to be heard.

Allan's music is not always easy to take in. Where Willie Ross may've helped bring old and new bagpipe tunes to the masses with his "standard" settings, Allan sticks to his guns and presents his tunes as he means them to be: authentically non-standard.

And to support his intention he's included a helpful CD with book. Need a hand interpreting the book's tunes? No worries, put on the recording – included with all books.

Allan has established a great brand as being the go-to guy for genuinely well thought out and arranged Gaelic-based tunes. He was raised in a' Ghàidhealtachd, Glenuig in his case, a part of Scotland where Gaelic was the way of things. There surely must've been something in the Glenuig water because in looking at Allan's collection of tunes its worthy of note that he, along with his brothers, all have the same silky smooth sensibility to their music. I call it groovy. It's where we hear pointing where none is expected and melody where none is imagined – and it all works and mesmerizes.

A number of years ago I sought out Gaelic lessons. I wanted to be able to come close to correctly pronouncing a lot of the tunes I played. After a few years I grew frustrated with the lack of conversational opportunities so quit. I'm glad of my time with Isabel MacDonald, the Lewis woman who helped me out. Most pipers will, I think, be sorely lost with the Gaelic titling in Allan's book. I say that only thinking that the tunes and their provenance might've – strangely – benefited with clearer English/Buerla translation. I have a vision of a Fife piper telling the judge they're about to play "Donald MacLean's Farewell to Oban" and "Domnal Earsidy Domhanullatch."

Allan MacDonald's book is a seriously significant work. We have a hundred tunes drawn from the deep well of Gaeldom, the headwater of all that is the great Highland bagpipe. All merit a turn on the chanter, a trot on the boards – or, better yet – an airing in a room full of appreciative people.

I genuinely liked them all – more or less. Heavy on the more.

Still, I'm a piper. And in my experience it's just impossible for a piper to provide unbridled, unanimously outstanding feedback without a twist of the pipes.

I was happy to see the reprinting of five tunes Allan had passed to me for my last book – a great chance to plug the collection here. Tapadh leat! And, of all the tunes in the book, the tune whose charms have eluded me, to now anyway, is "Craigellachie Bridge," Allan's arrangement of the famed eighteenth century fiddler, William Marshall's tune. Quadruplets galore and retro C doublings haven't yet worked for me. Still, I reached for and gleaned this about Marshall:

"Among Mr. Marshall's friends there were some who found the melodies too difficult to play, either on account of wide intervals or other transitions, while others complained of their compass being more extensive than that to which they were accustomed. To them his answer was the he did not write music for bunglers and as all his tunes could be played, he advised to practice more and become better players."

I'd have to think Allan MacDonald and William Marshall might be kindred spirits: great tunesmiths and none made for bunglers.

Allan MacDonald's book is the best in years.

Review taken from:
www.pipesdrums.com

The Moidart Collection II

Allan MacDonald’s first book, “The Moidart Collection,” of one hundred tunes appeared initially in 1989 and is currently in its third printing. His new offering, “The Second Hundred,” comprises compositions by himself, his two brothers Dr. Angus and Iain, plus a broad array of traditional tunes. The notes in the back with background information on eighty-five of the tunes are interesting, given that many of the tunes are from old Scottish and Irish music books and manuscripts. The pages of the book are not numbered but every tune has a number. This works, but it might have been more helpful to put the numbers along with the tunes described at the back to reference them more easily.

Included with the book is a CD of Allan playing fifty-eight of the tunes on a Deger electronic chanter, and eleven of the rest of them can be found at http://www.allanmacdonald.com The quote by Albert Einstein in the inside front cover, “He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice,” is hopefully a go at the metronome morons! They would be confused by the eleven tunes that have time signature changes within them, some of them toggling back and forth between as many as five different time signatures. Of course changing time signatures within a piece of pipe music isn’t new. Take the pibroch Lady MacDonald’s Lament for example. The Ground of that slides easily between 3/4 and 4/4 timing. An example of one of these tunes in the book is the brilliantly named “I Am From Every Place I Have Ever Been Till Now,” composed by Allan regarding a comment made by his granduncle Angus. It goes between 4/4 and 3/4. Conversely “The Fair Canavans,” from Connemara in County Galway is given in straight 9/8 time. But I first heard it played on the box one mad Friday night in The Rusty Mackerel in Teelin a few years ago. The box player was alternating each bar in 9/8 and 12/8 time. Fabulous. My main memory of that night though was an elderly gent wearing a black suit, white shirt and black tie, and a pair of Nike trainers, screaming, “Attack it! Attack it!” in my face as I was attempting to play some strathspeys.

My Plan A was to go through the book methodically and systematically to see what was worth learning. That backfired since I got stuck at tune 1, “Angus MacKinnon of Eigg,” composed by Iain MacDonald. And like the Brazilian national football team I didn’t have much of a Plan B so I finally put the head down and ploughed through each tune twice. Of great interest to me was a section of tunes dedicated to quicksteps, a type of pipe music little heard these days. The one that will be most familiar to pipers is the “Inverness Gathering.” Tune 14, “Mary Weep No More for Me” has to be related to the “Haughs of Cromdale.” This, along with “O’Donnell’s Return” on the next page and several others from the book are on “The Highland Sessions” DVD from the television series of the same name. I found it strange that the BBC took so long to release it as a DVD. It first aired in 2005 and was finally released late 2010. By that time multiple clips were bouncing around Youtube.

Some of the tunes had been picked up by bands before the book was launched in August. Field Marshall Montgomery played “Tommy and Ronnie’s Double Tonic” this past season. St Laurence O’Toole have been using “Dr. Flora MacAuley, Carradale,” although it had already been published in one of P/M Angus MacDonald’s books. And Stuart Liddell’s band of superb young musicians from Inveraray played tune 99, a piece of Gaelic mouth music, in the final of the Worlds at Glasgow Green this year. Now that was high-wire stuff, thrilling all right, made even more so because there was no safety-net and all it would have taken was one mistake for it to fall apart. But it didn’t. And Alex Gandy controlled the jig “Annie’s New Heart” superbly well in the light music final at the Winter Storm contest in Kansas City in January.

Should you buy this book? Well I remember a conversation I had with the late Scott MacAulay in his parents’ house in Hamilton, Ontario. His excellent point was that if a book contained at least one tune he would learn then the book was worth buying. So on the basis of that, plus the tunes mentioned above then yes, I would buy it, because I’ve only scratched the surface here. And while you’re at it go ahead and get The Highland Sessions DVD as well. Allan was the Music Producer.

The Moidart Collection II graphic

Photo credit: Kerstin Grünling