On 11 April Helen Capes wrote: If a tune sounds good on the pipes, I say, "Go for it!".
Good advice Helen. Tunes such as Flowers of the Forest transposed into D (pipes D that is) sound wonderful. Lots of material can be played on the pipes. The thing to remember is that the inherent lack of dynamic range on the pipes means that not all of it works well. Even fiddlers have their problems re appropriateness. As Stewart Hardy remarks when asked to play such material at weddings, "yes, I could play that for you but you might be very disappointed with the result"! Related to this, someone with a deep knowledge of the big fiddle-airs will not be as impressed by a pipes rendition of such tunes as out and out pipers might be. So my advice would be, play whatever pleases you in private but if playing in public give some thought to the audience and their level of understanding and knowledge of the pieces presented. Having said that, novelty pieces can have their place in a long programme. As aye Anthony -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
