I bring in Dr. Matthew Welch, an old SFU bandmate turned avant-garde composer, to talk about his new book on the history and future of bagpipe music. His book picks up where Joseph MacDonald's 1760s Compleat Theory left off, tracing everything from the invention of the competition march in the mid-1800s to what the bagpipe's future could look like.
Matthew's central point is that tradition is a river, not a block of ice — it's meant to keep flowing, not stay frozen in place. The music coming out today isn't the same as what Joseph MacDonald heard, and that's fine — the instrument itself, its chanters and reeds, has changed enormously since the mid-1800s even though we tend to think of it as static.
The strike-in and the tuning ritual are worth questioning, not just accepting as unavoidable tradition. Matthew redesigned his own tuning approach entirely when he started performing with other musicians, because a piobaireachd setup built to peak after thirty minutes is the opposite of what a stage performance with a ten-minute wait actually needs.
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Composing teenager, as internet the before a tunes🔒
Compleat Theory, explained Joseph MacDonald's🔒
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instruments jam other the Why doesn't bagpipe easily with🔒
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for strike-in ritual Rebuilding tuning the and stage🔒
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river, block of ice Tradition not as a a🔒
is piobaireachd acquired the Why people that taste hooks🔒
books, collaborators questions: Audience and drones,🔒
About this class
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