Greetings, everyone!
I was wondering if any of you have had the chance to hear or play a piece for organ and bagpipes called The Highland Cathedral. It is my favorite piece of classical music but sadly is not very well known and the only good recording that I have located of it is currently "out of print". It is so beautiful and I'm wondering really how famous it is among other organists. The only good recording I know of is owned by our state's radio station, so I have to content myself with that. Looking foward to your anwers! Bill
I heard this piece for the first time ever today while listening to Minnesota Public Radio online at work. What a piece! I researched it online, found your post, and now I'm posting here! The playlist at www.mpr.org lists:
Thank you very much for that! That is exactly the recording that I have heard and endeavored to find. It's really worth a lot of money, I think, if I could locate it but so far haven't had much sucsess. It's the recording my radio station has (WPR) so perhaps there's more than one in existance.
Bill
I'll use the label name and search some more
I was also researching this piece for a bride and stumbled across your post. I have found two recordings of this piece for two pipers and organ and both of these are different arrangements. Can you believe that there already exists two separate versions for such a recent composition? Anyways, these are not professional recordings, but I hope they can satiate your appetite for the time being.
It has a version for bagpipes, drums, brass and organ. It is the first track. You can click on the first pair of notes to hear an excerpt of it in Real Player.
I have also attached an image I found of the sheet music. It is the version in Recording 2 above.
I used to play an arrangement of this in a brass band. So if you don't mind transcribing from a score, you could always try searching for brass band arrangements of this piece.
Is it really a recent composition? I was under the assumption it was at least a couple hundred years old. Thank you so much for the copy of the sheet music, Ecnice, I was having visions of rummaging through dusty old German cathedrals to find it!! What makes it even more nice is that it's in my favorite key. Have you had any experience playing the piece?
Thanks all of you for your precious information as I was desperately trying to find music sheets for the pipes and organ version of Highland Cathedral.
I live in France and had no idea where to find this.
As a small contribution, here are links to how this music came about and its different versions:
This is a query related to the whole series of posts on Highland Cathedral. Thanks for all the useful and correct information. A very good forum!
I would like to buy the Koch Swann 1988 CD "Musica Variata" for my own use, but have had no luck so far. It seems to exist in a music store in South Africa but, "due to international licensing law, we can't sell it to anybody who isn't local..." I do see it on NPR play lists, so somebody must have a copy...
I have even tried EBay.
Any further leads to purchase of this CD would be most appreciated.
Bonnie,
I have searched for this version myself quite extensively and as far as I know it's not longer available---at least here in the US. I find it quite interesting that many public radio stations have it, and wonder how they got a hold of it!
I endeavored to upload from my computer the file for you of this recording, but it was a little on the slow side and would have taken me forever (literally!) so I offer my sincere apologies for not being able to help more.
Regards, Bill
Hi everybody
This piece is indeed beautiful - I really love it and might actually want to play it sometime.
I have a curiosity question regarding the notation of the bag pipe. I am an amateur organ player, but have no experience with bag pipes. When I read the score as posted by ecnice, it seems to me that the bag pipe notes are written in a strange key.
They are marked with the symbol for "normal piano right hand key" (this is called the G key in danish, don't know the english term). In this key, the first notes read: a - d - e - f - e - d... which would sound like a minor chord, but listening to the recordings, it is certainly a major chord (the "tonic" i believe it's called, it must be an E-flat, to match the organ).
What is going on here? Is this common notation for bagpipe music?
I know this is not a bag pipe forum, but maybe somebody could still provide a hint?
I have listened to this particular recording via a local radio station - and would like to obtain a copy of the CD...A previous writer commented that it seemed to be available in South Africa - which is where I am!
If anyone knows where, or from which SA store one can get hold of this CD I would appreciate the info...
This is so beautiful. The piece reminds me of the celtic music I hear
from Irland. You noticed my last name Tooley is Irish? It's beautiful!
I almost cried when I heard it. Thanks for playing it bagpipe and pipe
organ style. Now I have something else to try on the church's pipe
organ.
I own a copy of LC 1083. I had no idea the CD was so rare until I ran across this thread. My Dad bought a few of these discs the first time he heard "Highland Cathedral" on Wisconsin Public Radio a number of years ago. Unfortunately, I have none for sale.
Ever since I heard that recording, though, I've been looking for the sheet music to the arrangement played by Musica Variata. I have never been able to get my hands on it. Does anyone know if it is actually in print or is it just a manuscript somewhere? I tried writing to Spelmans several years ago, but I never got a response. Perhaps my German was so poor he didn't know what I was asking!
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Highland Cathedral - Ensemble Musica Variata
