Donald MacDonald Manuscript

Represented in the 4th. Column of the "Tunes and Sources" section by the letters  D0

R. D. Cannon

© The Piobaireachd Society 2003

Donald MacDonald was born in Skye in 1767. He became the leading pipe-maker of his day, and a collector of the traditional pipe music, and pioneer of the modern method of writing pipe music on the stave. After many years of study, he published his first collection of piobaireachd in 1820.

The Piobaireachd Society has now published a new edition of Donald’s book. It presents the 23 pieces in complete detail. MacDonald styles of notation and ornamentation and are preserved, but the layout uses the concise graphical methods familiar to users of other Piobaireachd Society publications. Introductory chapters give the historical background, describe the source materials, and give a general overview of MacDonald’s style of playing. To help in using this book as a performing text, there is a short summary of the main features of Macdonald’s notation, with editorial suggestions as to how they can be played.

  This Book may be purchased Online using this link.   Donald Macdonald Book  

Also on this website are facsimiles of the Hannay-MacAuslan manuscript, which was one of MacDonald’s sources, and of the first edition of the book. The facsimile of the first edition is complemented by a Table of “anomalies” such as printing errors which have been corrected in the edited version. The Table is accessed via the "button" marked "Editorial Table."