Angus Lawrie’s Legacy
Allan MacDonald. Photo from allanmacdonald.com.
By Ånon Egeland
Translated by Lucy Moffatt
Allan MacDonald (b. 1956) grew up in the small village of Glenuig/Ghlinn Ùige on the west coast of Scotland, in a community where the Gaelic language and traditional music both thrived.
He is acknowledged to be one of the great contemporary bearers of the Scots-Gaelic musical heritage. He is probably best known as a piper – in particular the bellows-blown Lowland pipes – but he also sings in Gaelic and is a skilled player of the tin whistle. His style has been described as a return to the original and the traditional, and away from the stiff, formalised competition style that prevails in much of the Scottish bagpipe milieu.
Although the Jew’s harp – or an tromb, as it’s known in Gaelic – had been with him since boyhood, it wasn’t until he heard recordings of Angus Lawrie that he grasped the potential of this instrument. As I understand it, a meeting with John Wright(1939-2013) – who had met Lawrie and been greatly influenced by him – probably aided that new understanding.
The fact that Allan MacDonald, like Angus Lawrie, was a piper with in-depth knowledge of the repertoire was undoubtedly another good foundation for his approach to the Jew’s harp.
Nowadays, this is part of his “package” and he even offers Jew’s harp lessons.
You can read more about Allan MacDonald here.
And here are some clips that illustrate his work with the Jew’s harp:
Sophie Stephenson stepdances as Allan MacDonald plays his own composition, Buntàta ‘s Sgadan (Potatoes and herrings) on the Jew’s harp – first as a strathspey and then as a reel.
Recording from a 2011 concert with Allan MacDonald on Jew’s harp and Angus Nicholson on Lowland pipes.
Allan MacDonald plays Jew’s harp with four Highland pipes in a group called Seudan.
John Wright and Svein Westad accompany Allan MacDonald, who is playing tin whistle on this occasion. From an international Jew’s harp festival in Jakutia?