Andrew Hayward

The Fair Maid of Barra

Dunedin has 'first of its kind' concert

Here's the first of the footage from last weekend's concert:

 

http://www.ch9.co.nz/node/14905

 

More to follow.

 

www.andrewhayward.co.nz

 

 

Dunedinburgh Tattoo Gimmick

Last weekend I was involved with a performance given by the combined City of Dunedin pipe bands. Because I am a new member of the band, and because not many supporters of the band know my face, I played a role in an opening sketch whereby I was disguised in my casual clothes, and sitting in the audience as if that's where I belonged. When the MC came on stage with a shiny set of bagpipes (mine), he explained briefly how the worked and then opened the stage to any member of the audience who was brave enough to have a go at paying them. As rehearsed, I raised my hand and shouted, "Yeah, I'm keen!" The unsuspecting audience cheered me on as I made my way toward the stage.

 

The MC asked me my name and then handed me my pipes, which I took from him clumsily and put over the wrong shoulder. He smiled, then corrected me and gave me some helpful advice. I pretended to struggle. I made some horrible squeely noises with my chanter and I under blew my drones quite a lot, but the audience encouraged me nonetheless. My fingers were mixed up and I couldn't keep the bass drone on my shoulder, so I stopped pretending to be out of breath.

 

I asked the MC for one more try, except this time I blew up properly and started playing the Green Hills of Tyrol. I hope the audience was surprised, for they were certainly amused when the curtains opened and the rest of the combined band marched on stage joining me in the repeat of Green Hills. We received some very positive feedback from the audience, who generally thought it was a hilarious gimmick and a great way to open a concert.

 

Photos and video footage from the concert will follow.

 

www.andrewhayward.co.nz

 

Dunedinburgh Tattoo

Tickets are on sale now!

www.andrewhayward.co.nz

With piper (that's me!)

www.andrewhayward.co.nz

Bagpipe music + copyright

Isn't it interesting that there is very little copyright protection in the world of fashion design? Designers, as it turns out, rip each other off all the time. Consumers like you and me do not often need to look far for perfectly sufficient 'imitation' designs of much higher-priced shirts, shoes and pants. I learned about it all this week in my music profession paper. Our lecturer played us this TEDtalk videofile:

It got me thinking about the copyright issues relating to bagpipe music.

The earliest collection of bagpipe sheet music that I know of is the Scots Guards collection (in 2 volumes). A tutor once told me that the release of these books was the biggest and most exciting thing to happen to bagpiping in the 1950s. Many, many pipers now own a copy. I don't have these books here with me in Dunedin, but I know from memory that the Gordon Highlanders' collection of bagpipe music has a very clear reminder about copyright at the beginning of each volume.

          

Of course, owners of copyright do not actually need to provide such reminders, but it should be assumed that all sheet music is protected by copyright, even if it doesn't display the © sign.

The issue with bagpipe sheet music is that most of it does not display the copyright (©) symbol, so many pipers assume that they are free to photcopy it, and re-distribute it however they please. Either this, or pipers just have little respect for copyright law. Much of the physical bagpipe sheet music that has been handed to me in the past 10 years is a photocopy from some book, and I have also been taught and encouraged to copy sheet music into a bagpipe music writer for digital storage and distribution. Even (or, especially) the music of contemporary piping Gods such as Robert Mathieson and Gordon Duncan is treated in this way, and their copyright warnings are very clear.

So is there such a thing as a financially-successful bagpipe music composer? No. Guts for me, but I have deduced that the bagpipe world still has very strong folk culture, whereby tunes are passed on from piper to piper quite freely, without any concern for the right to copy, and generally, people don't seem to mind.

Anyway, it's not as if anyone else chases this up...

www.andrewhayward.co.nz

Music at Otago 28/02/11

Well I made it. It has been about eight months since I started applying for universities and after a somewhat laid-back holiday of working and learning to drive,  today I was shoved back into action with a powerful force. After only one day of lectures, I believe I have a good idea as to which of my papers will be most interesting and enjoyable for me, and which of my papers will bring my mind to ultimately explode.

Nonetheless, it's good to get back on track with my academic goals, and to plant the seeds of greatness from which I will reap in my musical career to come.

View more of my photos on Flickr:

www.andrewhayward.co.nz

Octagonal Day: Dunedin's Pipe Band Competition

Feeling right at home this weekend, I enjoyed watching and listening to many of the South Island's highland bagpipe bands competing in the Octagon. From what I recall of the annual RNZPBA Summer Schools, South Island piping is 'interesting' and kind of 'weird', but yesterday and today I was quite impressed with many of these South Island pipers and their pipe bands. I especially enjoyed the Canterbury Caledonian Pipe Band, and the City of Invercargill Highland Pipe Band, both of which played rollicking strathspeys in their MSRs, and one of them, I think, played Mrs. John MacColl - a favourite 2/4 march of mine.

This is the City of Dunedin Grade 2 pipe band. I am told they have 3: a grade 2, a grade 4 and a juvenile band. I would like to join their grade 2 band, partly because they wear one of my family tartans, Gordon, but mostly because it has been a while since I have played in a pipe band and I feel my technique is getting a bit sloppy.

In all, this was an excellent weekend of piping. I only wish I could have bought some haggis for my dinner.

www.andrewhayward.co.nz

My Homepage: www.andrewhayward.co.nz

I have been working on a little project over the summer, and I am happy to announce that it is finally ready for viewing!

My homepage is www.andrewhayward.co.nz. I hope this site will help me promote myself as a piper and tutor in Dunedin.

Some changes to appear in the next few months:

• Audio clips of my wedding, corporate event and funeral repertoire;
• Videos and photos of some of my events;
• More detail about the hiring process;

That's all for now.

Photos from The Butterflies' End of Year Recital