Pipers takes the reader inside the world of the performer community of
Scottish piping, introducing the instrument itself and the various
different repertories. It also discusses piping techniques as well as
information on some of the great piping dynasties and individual pipers.
Dr Willie Donaldson shows how 'traditional music', often assumed to be
the anonymous product of a dim and distant past, is the creation of
gifted individuals operating in a sophisticated and vigorously ongoing
enterprise. Since pipers have often been skilled also on the fiddle,
keyboards and small-pipes, or as singers or dancers, their story offers
fascinating insights into the whole traditional music and song
repertoire of Scotland.
Pipers is a well-informed and highly readable account by a prize-winning
author who is a piper and composer of pipe music as well as an
internationally recognized historian of Scottish tradition.