Despite the population sparsity the north of Scotland has produced a high proportion of renowned pipers. In fact almost 40% of the pipers celebrated in ‘Notices of Pipers’ in the Piping Times have come from north of Inverness. This new composition by local musician Carol-Anne Mackay draws on the local piping tradition while commemorating those involved in WWI as part of Strathnaver Museum’s Pibrochs and Poppies project.
Carol-Anne Mackay explains ”as a traditional musician but first and foremost a piper, my hopes for this composition were to create a piece of music that would be in-keeping with piping traditions of our area. I wanted to create something that would suit being played alongside some of the traditional tunes that would have been played at the time of the 1st World War. I also wanted the piece to show how piping traditions have developed over the last 100 years and how Highland Bagpipes are now commonly heard being played in groups along side other instruments such as the accordion, fiddle, guitar and piano.