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Angus MacKay’s MS, was compiled during the 1830’s and early
’40s by Angus MacKay, principle piper to Queen Victoria from 1843 to 1854. It
contains almost 200 tunes and is one of the largest MS collection
assembled during the 19th century. The manuscript is written out in
fair copy using shorthand conventions pioneered by John MacGregor
in the MacArthur - MacGregor MS. The contents
include transcripts from existing MS sources, and material collected from
Angus’s father, John MacKay, and other tradition-bearers. The thorough
and systematic nature of Angus MacKay’s work
suggests a mind of great energy and ability. He marks the transition of
piping from an oral to a predominantly literate mode and his notational style
is characterised by a concern to develop a
simplified and standardised approach to ornament,
and to reduce the rhythmical ambiguities of earlier scores by specifying note
values with a new precision. Although the suggestion that all later
piper-editors simply copied Angus MacKay’s work has no foundation, his
influence on later collectors and editors was very great.
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