Old and New World Highland Bagpiping (Volume 38) (McGill-Queen’s Studies in Ethnic History)

Old and New World Highland Bagpiping provides a comprehensive biographical and genealogical account of pipers and piping in highland Scotland and Gaelic Cape Breton. Cover Title Copyright Contents Charts and Table Preface Illustrations and Maps Introduction PART ONE: PIPING IN THE JACOBITE HIGHLANDS FROM 1745 1 The MacGregors and Piping in Glengarry 2 Keppoch, Clanranald, and Cameron Piping 3 Piping in MacLean Country 4 Fraser, Farquharson, MacIntosh, Grant, Chisholm, and Barra MacNeil Pipers 5 Raasay MacLeods, Glencoe MacDonalds, Appin Stewarts, and Cluny MacPhersons PART TWO: "HEREDITARY" OR CHIEFS' PIPERS IN HANOVERIAN SCOTLAND 6 Piping in MacCrimmon and MacDonald Skye and in Strathspey (Grants) 7 Piping in Glenorchy/Breadalbane, in Islay, and in MacDougall and MacIntyre Territory 8 Sutherland and Gairloch, Seaforth, and Gordon Piping PART THREE: NEW WORLD PIPING IN CAPE BRETON 9 The East Bay Area of Cape Breton and the MacLean Pipers in Washabuck 10 Piping and Tradition in the Margarees, Inverness County 11 Piping in the Glendale Area, River Denys Mountain, Melford, Big Marsh, Orangedale, and Valley Mills 12 Pipers, Piping, and Cultural Glimpses of West Lake Ainslie 13 Reverend Archibald Campbell's Observations of Piping in Judique 14 Some Pipers in Northern Cape Breton Conclusion Glossary B C D E F G H I J L M P R S T U V W Notes Bibliography Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T V W The work is the result of over thirty years of oral fieldwork among the last Gaels in Cape Breton, for whom piping fit unself-consciously into community life, as well as an exhaustive synthesis of Scottish archival and secondary sources. Reflecting the invaluable memories of now-deceased new world Gaelic lore-bearers, John Gibson shows that traditional community piping in both the old and new world Gàihealtachlan was, and for a long time remained, the same, exposing the distortions introduced by the tendency to interpret the written record from the perspective of modern, post-eighteenth-century bagpiping. Following up the argument in his previous book, Traditional Gaelic Bagpiping, 1745-1945, Gibson traces the shift from tradition to modernism in the old world through detailed genealogies, focusing on how the social function of the Scottish piper changed and step-dance piping progressively disappeared. Old and New World Highland Bagpiping will stir controversy and debate in the piping world while providing reminders of the value of oral history and the importance of describing cultural phenomena with great care and detail. -- Amazon.com Old and New World Highland Bagpiping will stir controversy and debate in the piping world while providing a comprehensive biographical and genealogical account of pipers and piping in both Highland Scotland and Gaelic Cape Breton. The result of over thirty years of oral fieldwork among the last Gaels in Cape Breton, as well as an exhaustive synthesis of Scottish archival sources, Old and New World Highland Bagpiping shows that traditional community piping in the old and new world Gaidhealtachdan was, and for a long time remained, the same. John Gibson exposes the distortions introduced by the tendency to interpret the written record from the perspective of modern, post-eighteenth-century bagpiping.