Campbeltown's McCallum bags World title No 8!

[hoots the scoop]

From the Scotsman

http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=2171162005

McCallum bags title No 8 as pipes converge on Blair Castle

JIM GILCHRIST


THE Glenfiddich Piping Championship at Blair Atholl is as much a visual spectacle as an aural one; the pipe drones boom in the Blair Castle ballroom, its darkened walls bristling with antlers and weaponry.

Against this Highland-Gothic backdrop, William McCallum, the defending champion, took the imposing silver-embossed ram's horn trophy for the eighth time, sealing his reputation as top player in the intense world of competition piping.


Making his 18th consecutive appearance in the prestigious event, McCallum fought off competition from nine other players, two of whom were from Canada, two originally from New Zealand and one originally from the United States.

Competitors qualify by dint of their performance during the season - McCallum, a 44-year-old accountant with Strathclyde University, had taken top prizes at this year's Northern Meeting, the Donald MacLeod Memorial competition in Stornoway and the Springbank Invitational in his native Campbeltown.

In the pibroch section, McCallum gave a stately rendition of The Lament for Donald Ban MacCrimmon, while in the "MSR" section, he played Captain Campbell of Drumavoisk, the strathspey Dora MacLeod and the reel Lieutenant-Colonel D J S Murray. He took top place in both categories, giving him victory in the overall championship. Second was Angus MacColl from Oban, while third was New Zealander Greg Wilson.

The unique sound world of "the Glenfiddich" makes serious demands on listeners, who sit through ten pibrochs, each of which lasts ten minutes or more, with its basic theme put through an increasingly complex sequence of variations, ending in the dramatic staccato chatter of the crunluath variation before the theme returns.

Competing at such high standards is "a hard game", McCallum agreed after his win. Asked about his consistent success, he offered no magic formula: "I think the mentality is you have to be good in both the pibroch and the MSR. The championship has always gone to people who were very good in both. And you have to focus. The first few times I played here I don't think I played as well as I was capable of and think it is maybe a case of a wee bit of maturity."

He said that piping had grown rapidly during the past 20 years, and welcomed the way in which it was now reaching broader audiences.

Asked about the argument from some quarters that the intense nature of the competition circuit can promote grace note-perfect playing to please judges rather than musicality, he disagreed: "I would try and play the tune in the style I was taught, and I wouldn't expect any of the players here to be changing what they play to suit the judges.

"What we played today is how it evolved. It is great, stirring, emotional music."

Saturday's event also saw a tribute to the renowned John D Burgess, who died earlier this year, as Roddy MacLeod, the director of the National Piping Centre, played The Battle of Bealach nam Brog, a favourite pibroch of Burgess, who, according to fear an tighe John Wilson "brought huge levels of style and sophistication to piping which will never be forgotten".