Ian Mearns is the Member of Parliament for Gateshead.  His whistle can be heard loud and shrill in the Gallowgate End a St James's Park.

Ian Mearns's Whistle

TOTM for October first by Jack Armstrong and second by Don Clegg

Kielder Burnie/Doon the Redewater

NPS competitions 2021 - intermediates set. 2nd place, no cigar :-)

Tweedside & Shepherd's Hornpipe

Traditional Hungarian tune from the playing of Muzsikas (http://www.muzsikasband.com/en/). Then from recently published Rook ms. #517, variations by Chris Ormston

Tunes in a Strange Year

Régen volt, soká lesz / Welcome Home Me Dearie

A tune/group of tunes commissioned by a bunch of pipers in Oxford!  They are still thinking of a name!

March of the Oxford Pipers (working title)

Two tunes I got from Pauline Cato, the first from Vickers and the second by Pauline herself. Check out her wonderful album 'New Tyne Bridge'
http://www.tomcatmusic.com/details8.htm

Northumbrian Small Pies

The Cow's Corrant/The Jackdaw

Music by William Marshall (1748-1883)
Sound by Tabbush
Fingers by me
From Pauline Cato's album 'New Tyne Bridge'

Chapel Keithack

Gilder Roy

Kirkconnel Lea & Stagshaw Bank Fair (Bellingham 2022 intermediate comps set)

I took inspiration from Ann's Farrington's variations on Bonny at Morn E minor and the cross-rhythms she introduced, switching between 6/8 and 3/4. I also like the transition from darkness to light that switching from minor to major brings. E major is not often encountered on NSP.

Cymbeline's Castle is the remains of a motte-and-bailey castle in woods north of Great Kimble in Buckinghamshire. It's somewhere we often go walking with the dog and is special for a number of reasons: there is a large natural box woodland - important in musical instrument making; it skirts the grounds of Chequers, the country residence of the PM - very much in the news this week; it has the most amazing views over the Vale of Aylesbury - silent in the current lockdown.

Cymbeline’s Castle

Pesky Polska and Out Of Key by David Somerville
Two tunes that stay within a single octave and so do not need any keys when played on the pipes. Pesky Polska is an attempt to write a tune in the style of a Swedish polska. Out Of Key is a jig which deliberately makes quite a lot of use of notes that clash with the drones.

Pesky Polska And Out Of Key

David Somerville

Related tracks