Music review: Triplepipes

Published on Friday 21 August 2009 18:55

TRIPLEPIPES, LUST AND SPILT BLOOD

THE HUB, EDINBURGH

ANYONE would think that Scotland's musical past was nothing but doom and gloom listening to this mournful collection of material presented by Concerto Caledonian at the first of the Caledonia Sessions at The Hub. The early music group was joined by folk singer/guitarists Martin Carthy and Alasdair Roberts and singer/clarsach player Patsy Seddon for a programme that dotted around between the 13th and 18th centuries with no real sense of purpose.

Starting with Salve Splendor from the Inchcolm Antiphoner played by Barnaby Brown on the triplepipe – an intriguing early form of bagpipe without the bag – there were then two curious attempts at piobaireachd on the flute and bray harp. Although consummate performances, they were overshadowed by the real thing: MacCrimmon's haunting Earl of Ross's Pibrach played by Brown on the bagpipes.

How music and songs are passed on over time – usually in pubs – was the most interesting part of the concert and Carthy's version of The Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens proved this point.

The story of the man dispatched to Norway to bring home Scottish Queen Margaret in 1290 survives in various guises, the result of the musical equivalent of Chinese whispers, and was a beacon in this sea of musical melancholy.