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Manran published this week
This week sees the launch of a stunning collection of Blair Douglas’s tunes and Gaelic songs. Manran* features about fifty of Blair’s compositions all in staff notation, coupled with extensive background notes in Gaelic and English. Settings for the pipes are provided for a number of the tunes. The collection includes many of Blair’s best-known compositions such as Kate Martin’s Waltz, Solus m’Àigh, Nelson Mandela’s Welcome to the City of Glasgow, Angels from the Ashes and Skye Glen Waltz.
Given that Blair is a consummate musician with an international reputation, this collection has been eagerly awaited. Blair is also considered to be one of this generation’s foremost tunesmith and song-writers. Their enduring popularity with music aficionados is eloquent testimony to that, as is the fact that many of his tunes have entered to repertoires of traditional musicians and pipers. The publication of Manran is very timely coming a few weeks after Blair received the accolade of being chosen as Composer of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards.
Blair was born in Uig in Skye and a rich musical vein came down to him from both sides of the family. His mother, Ina who was of North Uist people was herself a great singer and musician and many singers and tradition bearers pepper his father Alasdair’s family. They were from the north end of the island, their forebears having come originally from the Borders to Skye. So, as they say in Gaelic, Blair did not have to buy his musical ability, it was already in his blood. Blessed with this innate talent Blair has, through tuition he received and the influences to which he was exposed honed and perfected his abilities.
It was the playing of the late, lamented Niall Cheòis of Lewis which inspired Blair to buy an accordion. This he quickly mastered and then he teamed up with Calum and Rory MacDonald, fellow Skyemen with North Uist connections and together they formed the Run Rig Dance Band to play at the North Uist & Bernera Association concert in Glasgow. For Run Rig, the rest, as they say, is history but Blair eventually pursued a solo career. His first album, Celtology was published in 1984 and remarkably is still available, not in the original vinyl, but on CD. Thereafter came the CDs, Beneath the Beret published in 1990, A Summer in Skye in 1996 and in 2004 Angels from the Ashes was published and two years later saw the publication of Stay Strong.
To mark the publication of Manran, a small launch event will be held in Aros, Portree on Saturday 4th April at 2.30pm.
*Mànran, -ain, -an, s. .m. Tuneful sound, melody. 2 Humming of a song or tune, cooing. 3 Entertainment, feasting. 4 Blandishment, dalliance, amorous discourse. 5 Report, rumour, intelligence, news. 6 Murmur. 7 Love-song or sonnet. 8 Humming song. 9 Dandering.
Manran published this week
This week sees the launch of a stunning collection of Blair Douglas’s tunes and Gaelic songs. Manran* features about fifty of Blair’s compositions all in staff notation, coupled with extensive background notes in Gaelic and English. Settings for the pipes are provided for a number of the tunes. The collection includes many of Blair’s best-known compositions such as Kate Martin’s Waltz, Solus m’Àigh, Nelson Mandela’s Welcome to the City of Glasgow, Angels from the Ashes and Skye Glen Waltz.
Given that Blair is a consummate musician with an international reputation, this collection has been eagerly awaited. Blair is also considered to be one of this generation’s foremost tunesmith and song-writers. Their enduring popularity with music aficionados is eloquent testimony to that, as is the fact that many of his tunes have entered to repertoires of traditional musicians and pipers. The publication of Manran is very timely coming a few weeks after Blair received the accolade of being chosen as Composer of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards.
Blair was born in Uig in Skye and a rich musical vein came down to him from both sides of the family. His mother, Ina who was of North Uist people was herself a great singer and musician and many singers and tradition bearers pepper his father Alasdair’s family. They were from the north end of the island, their forebears having come originally from the Borders to Skye. So, as they say in Gaelic, Blair did not have to buy his musical ability, it was already in his blood. Blessed with this innate talent Blair has, through tuition he received and the influences to which he was exposed honed and perfected his abilities.
It was the playing of the late, lamented Niall Cheòis of Lewis which inspired Blair to buy an accordion. This he quickly mastered and then he teamed up with Calum and Rory MacDonald, fellow Skyemen with North Uist connections and together they formed the Run Rig Dance Band to play at the North Uist & Bernera Association concert in Glasgow. For Run Rig, the rest, as they say, is history but Blair eventually pursued a solo career. His first album, Celtology was published in 1984 and remarkably is still available, not in the original vinyl, but on CD. Thereafter came the CDs, Beneath the Beret published in 1990, A Summer in Skye in 1996 and in 2004 Angels from the Ashes was published and two years later saw the publication of Stay Strong.
To mark the publication of Manran, a small launch event will be held in Aros, Portree on Saturday 4th April at 2.30pm.
*Mànran, -ain, -an, s. .m. Tuneful sound, melody. 2 Humming of a song or tune, cooing. 3 Entertainment, feasting. 4 Blandishment, dalliance, amorous discourse. 5 Report, rumour, intelligence, news. 6 Murmur. 7 Love-song or sonnet. 8 Humming song. 9 Dandering.
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