Allan MacDonald - The Moidart Collection

(May 2010) 100 tunes

A mixture of traditional tunes from Scotland and Ireland, and twentieth century compositions, 31 of which are Allan's own.

The 3rd edition of Allan MacDonald's Moidart Collection, A Cheud Ceud (The First Hundred), comprised of one hundred tunes, including a piobaireachd. An audio CD of the tunes accompanies the book.

The first publication of Allan's very popular collection was in 1989. He has dispensed with dotted quavers and semi-quavers in the reels to reflect his own 'open' style of playing.

Allan MacDonald was raised in the small community of Glenuig, in a Gaelic-speaking area of the West Highlands. He began piping at an early age and pursued a competitive career which included winning the Inverness Clasp on two occasions. He was taught by P/M John MacKenzie and also by Bob Nicol of Ballater and Roddy MacDonald of South Uist.

After becoming ambivalent towards the competitive discipline of piping, he encouraged the introduction of alternative styles of playing Ceol Beag ('light music') from the 1970s onwards. In the classical genre of Ceol Mor (piobaireachd), he explored the extent to which modern styles of playing differed from those of the 18th century. In his M Litt thesis, completed at Edinburgh University's School of Scottish Studies, he studied the relationship between piobaireachd and Gaelic language rhythms in song, placing the tunes in their original socio-linguistic context.

A4 paperback, landscape format.

"The Collection contains 51 traditional tunes from Scotland, Ireland and Shetland and 48 twentieth-century compositions, 31 of which are my own. It is very much a personal collection so does not include tunes which I do not play myself..." (Allan MacDonald)