SOME LATTER DAY PIPERS.
“Ours the strains renowned in story,
Of peaceful hall or deadly corrie,
Would you call to field or foray,
Melt to love or rouse to glory?
Sound our mountain melody.”
Angus Mac Kay—Queen Victoria’s first piper—His book—Donald Mac Kay—
John Bane Mac Kenzie—The Queen’s offer—The piper’s reply—Donald
Cameron—His achievements—His theory of pipe music—His system of
noting—His last competition—A special reed—“The King of Pipers”—
Other latter day pipers.
After the death of the last Mac Crimmon piper in 1822 no one was left to
maintain the traditions of the hereditary pipers. But the class was not
wholly extinct. The next notable name we come across is one that is not
likely to be soon forgotten by those interested in Highland music. There
is no name better known to the world of pipers than that of Angus Mac
Kay, the compiler of the first really serviceable book of pipe music,
but, curiously enough, very little is known of his life. He belonged to
a well-known family of pipers, and was connected with the famous Mac
Kays of Gairloch. The family home was at Kyleakin, the pretty Skye
village opposite the Kyle terminus of the Highland Railway. His father,
John Mac Kay, was piper to Mac Leod of Raasay, who sent him to Boreraig,
Dunvegan, to be instructed by John _Dubh_ Mac Crimmon. He was afterwards
piper to Lord Willoughby de Eresby in Perthshire, and finally settled in
Kyleakin, where he trained some of the best-known pipers, including John
Bane Mac Kenzie.
[Illustration:
ANGUS MAC KAY: FIRST PIPER TO QUEEN VICTORIA
(_From a drawing in the possession of Duncan Munro, Kyleakin, Skye_)
]
Angus was born in Kyleakin about 1813, and was instructed by his father.
He was piper to Davidson of Tulloch and also to Campbell of Islay.
Afterwards he entered the service of Queen Victoria, in which he
remained for many years. He was, by the way, Her Majesty’s first piper.
He devoted a great deal of his time to collecting and noting the leading
pipe tunes, and in 1838 he published his collection as a book. This was,
and still is, a unique work, being the first systematic collection. Mac
Donald’s, which came before it, was crude and could hardly be played
from except by expert performers, but Mac Kay’s book, which consists of
sixty pibrochs, although it contains various errors, is to this day
considered by many competent judges the best of its kind ever written.
It is the author’s lasting monument, and although comparatively little
is known of his life, it cannot fail to keep his name in remembrance
long after the names of those who were pipers only are forgotten. Mac
Kay was a tall, gentlemanly-looking man, with a taste for literature. He
died at Dumfries on 21st March, 1859, under sad circumstances. His mind
had given way, and when out walking near the Nith, he somehow got into
the river, and was drowned before those with whom he resided were aware
that he was out of their charge. His nephew, Donald Mac Kay, who was
trained at Maryburgh, Ross-shire, by Donald Cameron, became piper to
H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, now King Edward VII., and his wife was for a
long time in the Royal service at Sandringham.
John Mac Kenzie, familiarly known as John Bane Mac Kenzie, or _Am
Piobaire Bàn_, was born near Dingwall about the end of the seventeenth
century, and died in 1864, full of years, and with as high honours as
piper could expect to get. His first situation as piper was with Mr. Mac
Kenzie of Allangrange, about 1820. The following year he entered the
service of Mr. Davidson of Tulloch, where he remained for twelve or
thirteen years. While at Tulloch John was often taken by his master to
Applecross, where a friend of his, a Captain Mac Kenzie, resided. One of
Captain Mac Kenzie’s daughters fell in love with the handsome piper, and
one night they ran away and got married at Crieff. Shortly afterwards
John was appointed piper to the then Marquis of Breadalbane, in whose
service he remained for thirty years, when ill-health forced him to
retire. He spent the evening of his days in a fine cottage which he
bought in the village of Munlochy, Ross-shire, and died in 1864, deeply
regretted by all who knew him. He was buried at Strathpeffer, where a
fine headstone was erected by his wife, to mark his grave.
John Bane Mac Kenzie was the foremost player of his time, and as an all
round exponent of the national instrument it is doubtful if he ever had
an equal. In appearance he was the finest possible specimen of a
Highlander, of tall, handsome physique, upright in appearance as in
character. When in full uniform his tunic was covered with medals and
decorations won at competitions, including the gold medal of the
Highland Society of London, which he won in 1838, when it was first
offered. His knowledge of English was limited, but what he lacked in
English he made up in the quaintly humorous nature of his replies and
his good knowledge of his native tongue. He composed a number of tunes,
the best known of which is “Mac Kenzie’s Farewell to Sutherland.” Her
late Majesty Queen Victoria having seen John, asked his master if his
piper would enter her service. The story of how he declined the Queen’s
offer is worth telling. When she communicated to Breadalbane her desire
to have _Am Piobaire Bàn_ as a member of the Royal household, the chief
felt taken aback, but not wishing to offend Her Majesty, he approached
John on the matter:—
[Illustration:
JOHN BANE MAC KENZIE
(_From a Photograph in the possession of Pipe-Major Ronald Mac Kenzie,
Gordon Castle_)
]
“‘John,’ he said, ‘the Queen wants a piper.’
“‘Yes, ma Lort.’
“‘He must be thoroughly first-rate at marches, and also at strathspeys
and reels, just the same as you are yourself, John.’
“‘Yes, my Lort.’
“‘The Queen also wishes her piper to be a fine specimen of a
Highlander, tall and handsome, with a fine face and figure; in fact,
one something like yourself, John.’
“‘Yes, my Lort.’
“‘There is one other indispensable qualification. He must be sober,
reliable, and in every way a respectable man, just like yourself,
John.’
“‘Yes, my Lort.’
“‘Well, I have now told you all that is required in the man wanted by
the Queen. He must be in all respects like yourself, both as man and
as piper. Can you recommend any?’
“‘Inteet, ma Lort, there’s no sich a man to be found in aal Scotland.’
“‘And will you go yourself, John?’
“‘Na, na, my Lort, na, na.’”
This finished the conversation, and John remained with Breadalbane. This
story, it may be noted, bears a striking resemblance to one told of the
Prince of Wales’s piper in a previous chapter.[15]
Footnote 15:
See page 164.
Queen Victoria seems to have coveted the best of the Highland pipers,
but while no one doubted their loyalty, they did not always agree to
serve Her Majesty. Not only did John Bane Mac Kenzie prefer the service
of his chief to that of his Queen, but Donald Cameron, a pupil of his,
and the piper who, more than any other, was acknowledged to be the true
successor of the Mac Crimmons, declined a similar offer, and remained
with his Highland master.
Eleven years before the last Mac Crimmon piper died, Donald Cameron was
born at “the burn of the music,” in Strath-Conan, Ross-shire, and at
eight years of age he was playing the pipes. The late Mr. Mac Kenzie of
Millbank, an influential Highland gentleman in the district, took a
great interest in the youthful musician, and put him under the tuition
of Big Donald Mac Lennan, of Moy, father of the well-known John Mac
Lennan, piper to the late Earl of Fife. Cameron was next taught by Angus
Mac Kay, whose father, John Mac Kay was taught by John _Dubh_ Mac
Crimmon. His last tutor was John Bane Mac Kenzie. He first competed in
Edinburgh in 1838, at seventeen years of age, and won second prize, a
claymore marked “Andria Varara,” which afterwards came into the
possession of the late Major A. C. Mac Kenzie, Maryburgh, Ross-shire.
[Illustration:
DONALD CAMERON
(_From a Photograph in the possession of Pipe-Major Mac Dougall
Gillies, Glasgow_)
]
The prizes won by Cameron during his career as a professional piper were
not very numerous, but they were all high, and he soon became ineligible
through having won all the possible firsts. In his early days there was
generally a rehearsal of intending competitors, and only the best were
allowed to compete in public, with the result that the very permission
to compete was considered an honour, and the winning of a prize a
distinguished honour. Cameron won at Perth, in 1850, a large silver
challenge medal presented by his employer, the late Colonel Keith W.
Stewart Mac Kenzie of Seaforth; and he won the Highland Society of
London’s challenge gold medal in Inverness in 1859, a feat which was
subsequently performed by his sons, Colin and Alexander; and also six
sets of pipes at different meetings. His first service as piper was with
Mr. Robert Morison, Scallisaig, Glenelg. Afterwards he was employed by
Sir James J. R. Mac Kenzie, Bart., of Scatwell and Rosehaugh, but his
principal service was with Colonel Mac Kenzie of Seaforth, with whom he
continued till his death at Maryburgh in January, 1868. When the Brahan
Company of Volunteers was formed by Seaforth in 1866, Cameron was
appointed honorary piper, and when he died a detachment accompanied his
remains to the burying-ground of the High Church, Inverness.
In 1863, Seaforth presented his piper with the title deeds of one of the
best houses in the village of Maryburgh, thus following to a certain
extent the practice of the chiefs when the piper was a part of the
household. Ten years previously he was selected to be piper to Her
Majesty Queen Victoria, an honour which he highly appreciated, but so
strong was his attachment to Seaforth that he preferred to remain with
him. Donald Cameron was very like the Mac Crimmons. He lived in
different times, but had he lived when they lived he would have been as
one of them. In his theory of pipe music the sounds formed a continuous
and harmonious whole, as distinguished from that of one or two other
well-known pipers, whose playing, even of pibrochs, was marked by its
jerkiness. He was practically an illiterate man, but, besides being able
to read ordinary music, he noted his tunes in a special manner, on the
lines of the _Canntaireachd_ of the Mac Crimmons or the Mac Arthurs.
Each of these systems of notation was different from the others, and the
invention of the piper who originally used it, so if Cameron was
illiterate he was certainly also clever. He was a shrewd old man, with a
fund of stories connected with the Highlands and leading Highland
families. He was a keen angler and a great favourite with Seaforth.
When, at a comparatively early age, he had ceased playing at
competitions, he determined once more to try his skill in public. So he
took advantage of the Northern Meeting, Inverness, where a competition
was to be held for former gold medalists only. This competition was the
first of its kind, and all the best men were there. When Donald Cameron
began to play a great hush fell on the crowd, and he played to an
audience that scarcely breathed. He was, of course, placed first. On
that matter there was no room for dispute. The photograph here
reproduced was taken immediately after that competition.
When Cameron was playing in the year 1859 for the Highland Society of
London’s gold medal at Inverness, he had rather an awkward experience.
The tune was “Mac Intosh’s Lament,” and he had not got much more than
through the ground or _urlar_ when the drones began to slip off his
shoulder. He made several futile attempts to adjust them, but down they
would come, and down they did come, until they rested on his arm. But
this made no difference whatever to the rendering of the tune. He played
just as if the instrument was on his shoulder in the ordinary way. An
onlooker remarked to Alexander Mac Lennan how splendidly he played,
although under a disadvantage. “Sandy” replied that “it made no
difference to Donald although he held the bag between his knees.”
In personal appearance, as the sketch shows, he was the ideal successor
of the hereditary pipers. In 1862 he won a prize of £10 offered by the
Club of True Highlanders for the best rendering of pibrochs, and the
chronicler of the event refers to him as being “with his grand, massive
face and ample grey beard, the very impersonation of an old Highland
piper.” His favourite music was pibroch, but he was an all-round master
of the pipes. Like many old players, he made all his own reeds, and was
very particular about them. He had one special reed, which he used only
on high occasions, such as a guest night at Brahan Castle. He kept it,
when not in use, in an air-tight bottle, and one day a tinker piper
called at his house, and, as usual with the class, begged for a reed.
Mrs. Cameron thoughtlessly gave him this old-looking reed out of the
bottle, and when Donald came home some time after, and was told what had
been done, he was sorely put about. Cameron was one of that small number
of men who could keep up a continuous sound when playing the practice
chanter, a thing very few players can do. He was the composer of some
first-class tunes, including “Kessock Ferry,” “Brahan Castle,” and “Lady
Anne Mac Kenzie’s Farewell to Rosehaugh.” Of his four sons, three became
pipers. Colin, piper to the Duke of Fife, is well known as a teacher of
pipe music; Alexander was piper to the Marquis of Huntly; and Keith
Cameron, now dead, was piper to the Highland Light Infantry. They all
made names for themselves in the musical world, but in no case is their
personality so outstanding as that of their father. Although the mantle
of the Mac Crimmons seemed to fall on him, the changing circumstances of
life made it impossible for him to pass it on to another generation, and
to find the true representative of the old pipers in the pipers of to-
day would task the ingenuity of those best acquainted with the
accomplishments of the different men.
John Bane Mac Kenzie and Donald Cameron were the only players who held
the title, “King of Pipers.” This was played for at the Northern
Meeting, Inverness, and was the prize given at a competition between
champions, the winner being known as the “champion of champions” or
“King of Pipers.” After Donald Cameron’s day, when he won the prize and
the title, the competition lapsed, and though there are now many so-
called “champions,” there is no “King of Pipers.”
Among other latter-day pipers it is almost impossible to pick and
choose. There was Donald Mac Phee, a miner lad from Coatbridge, who
became pipe-maker, teacher, composer of and writer about pipe music, and
died in Glasgow in 1880; William Ross, piper to the Black Watch, and
later to Queen Victoria, who compiled a book containing forty pibrochs,
and 437 strathspeys, marches, and reels; Donald Mac Phedran, a first-
class Glasgow player who had one of the largest known collections of
manuscript tunes; Alexander Cameron, a brother of Donald Cameron, who
won all the champion gold medals, and was looked on as the Mac Crimmon
of his day; Duncan Mac Eachern, an apparently clumsy manipulator of the
pipes, but an able player; Donald Galbraith, a native of Islay;
Alexander Mac Donald, late piper to the Duke of Fife; the Mac Lennans,
especially William Mac Lennan, who as a piper and dancer occupied a
unique position; Alexander Mac Donald, Glentruim, a splendid pibroch
player, who died a few years ago at Aberlour; Malcolm Mac Pherson,
Cluny’s piper, and a well-known pibroch player; John Mac Rae, known as
_Piobaire Beag_, who was piper to Francis, Lord Seaforth, and John Bane
Mac Kenzie’s first tutor; Duncan Campbell, piper to Sir Charles Forbes,
Castle Newe, Strathdon, a piper who on arriving at a competition always
asked if Donald Cameron was there, as “he did not care for anyone else;”
Pipe-Major Alexander Mac Lennan, of the Inverness Militia; John Mac
Lauchlan, a first-rate player of the “little” music; and many others who
deserve to be written about. In our own day we have Colin Cameron, son
of Donald, piper to the Duke of Fife and recognised as not only one of
the best living pipers, but a man who takes more than a passing interest
in the literature of his art and of the Highlands generally; William
Sutherland, Airdrie, now retired, a man who had not his equal at jigs,
was very successful as an all-round player, and composed numerous tunes;
Pipe-Major Mac Dougal Gillies, of the 1st H.L.I., a pupil of Alexander
Cameron, son of Seaforth’s famous piper, and himself one of the best
known and most successful of living players; John Mac Coll of Oban, a
pupil of Mac Phee’s and holder of most of the highest possible honours;
Ronald Mac Kenzie, late of the 78th Highlanders and now piper to the
Duke of Richmond and Gordon; Angus Mac Rae of Callander; Farquhar Mac
Rae of Glasgow, and other leading pipers whose success and popularity
deserve notice. But to do justice to the subject would require a large
amount of space and it would also necessitate comparisons between the
abilities of lately deceased and still living men, which the present
writer is not at all inclined to make. The task of general biographer
would no doubt be pleasant, and there are materials enough in existence
to justify anyone in believing that the result would be well worthy of
the effort, but this is hardly the place for it. It is enough for us, at
present, to know that we still have men fully capable of keeping pipe
music up to the high standard set by its old time exponents and that, if
we have few who, like Saul of old, are head and shoulders above the
crowd, the stature of the crowd itself is of a high average. Perhaps
that very fact will make the task of the biographer all the more
difficult.
[Illustration]
[Illustration:
BAND OF THE SUTHERLAND RIFLES—THE LARGEST VOLUNTEER PIPE BAND IN THE
WORLD
]