The Highland bagpipe has long been a central strand of Scottish
identity, but what happened to the Highland bagpipe in the two centuries
following Culloden? How was its music transmitted and received? This
study presents contemporary evidence and uses a range of methods to
recreate the changing world of the pipers as they influenced and were
influenced by the transformation in Scottish society. This book is
intended for pipers exploring the achievements and musical concerns of
their predecessors; for the general reader interested in a music whose
history is akin to that of Scotland's poetry and song; and for all
students of the process of tradition.Combining newspaper and manuscript
evidence from the pipers themselves with a wide range of historical
sources, the author harnesses the insights of the practical player to
those of the historian and provides a fresh account of the players and
their musical traditions, which have previously been the subject of much
myth-making. This is the first history of the musical culture of the
worldwide piping community.