The Tunes Click on a composer to learn about the tunes
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| Miss Christine Anderson | 4 part 2/4 March. This tune was named for Chris who I stayed with on a most memorable band trip to Alaska in June 2000. |
| Pipe Major John Downie | 4 part 2/4 March. John was my tutor when started playing the pipes. Also the Pipe Major of the City of Auckland Pipe Band, NZ for many years. |
| Warren Ross | 4 part 2/4 March. Warren is one of those jovial characters in the pipe band world who always manages to raise a laugh. A fine side drummer. |
| The Groundsman's March | 2 part 4/4 March. |
| P & D 1st Royal Engineers | 4 part 6/8 March. Written for the pipe band I played with in Stockholm, Sweden. |
| The Castle March | 4 part 6/8 March. The castle in question is Breuberg Castle, Hessen, Germany. I taught at a summer school there for 2 weeks just before the worlds in 2004. |
| Pipe Major Niklas Hannah | 4 part 6/8 March. Niklas is ex Pipe Major of the Engineers in Stockholm. A fine piper with a superb ear for tuning. |
| The Fisherwife | 2 part Strathspey. Named by my girlfriend as I was stuck on a name. |
| Miss Heather King | 2 part Strathspey. Heather is my grandmother. |
| Miss McClish's Fancy | 4 part Strathspey. I met Michelle McClish on a band trip to Alaska. She is a Highland and National dancer so a strathspey for her seemed appropriate. |
| Code Red | 2 part reel. I was in Scotland to watch the Worlds and every night our sleep was interupted by the fire alarm in our accomodation. |
| Two Finger Tango | 2 part Reel. Least said about the title the better. |
| The Metaphoricalist | 2 part Reel. Mathias Cramier, the tutor or The Engineers 'B' band was full of very imaginative ways to describe the phrasing of a tune. |
| A Fistfull of Pennies | 2 part Reel. I composed most of my tunes while working in Michigan for a short while. I was one day standing in a shop with a hand full of small coins. |
| Bottom of the Barrel | 2 part Reel. I was scraping for a reel to fit into a medley and this tune came to me. there and then it was written, named and played that night. |
| The Bongo Boys | 2 part Reel. A bunch of lads accompanying some pipers on their djembe and bongo at a summer school on Germany. |
| The Backseat Pipers | 2 part Reel. We've all been there at some stage. Drunk, playing our pipes with the bass drone sticking out of the window of a taxi. |
| The Mountain Maker | 2 part Reel. We all know somebody who blow things out of proportion. This tune name comes from the english saying 'making a mountain out of a mole hill'. |
| Paddy's Last Stand | 4 part Jig. I had an irish drinking buddy a few years back. At closing time he would stand firm anouncing loudly 'we will not be moved' until we finished our drinks. |
| Swigger's Jig | 2 part Jig. Named for Al Stacey, nickname Swigger, a fine musician. Singer, guitar and banjo player with Auckland Irish band 'The Dogs Bollox'. |
| The Morning After | 2 part Jig. The morning after the night before, another tune named after a pub night. |
| Busker's Bridge | 4 part Slip Jig. The bridge in question is in central Stockholm on Drotningsgatan. Many buskers would entertain the public during the summer months. |
| The Turncoat | 2 part Jig. Everybody know someone who will change their loyalties at the drop of a hat. |
| Kiwis on Ice | 2 part Jig. I worked in Stockholm for a while. During the winter the water froze over and we could walk across to the restaurant where we ate instead of walking the road. |
| Turning Tide | 6 part Jig. Writing and working on this collection has been a turning point for me. |
| Hair of the Dog | 2 part Jig. Another drinking title denoting the taking of a drink in the morning to cure a hangover. The cause is the cure, yeah right! |
| Thick as Thieves | 4 part Jig. Just like a thief, this jig is tricky and complicated requiring nibble fingers. |
| The Freestyler | 4 part Slip Jig. Denoting the style of this tune. It requires open and free finger work. |
| Omapere Meltdown | 4 part Hornpipe. Just after New Years in 2000 I spent a few days camping at Omapere, Northland, NZ with 2 lovely ladies, Barbara West and Tine Helner( from Denmark).Both were side drummers with The City of Auckland Pipe Band at the time. |
| Jake's Drum | 4 part Hornpipe. A good friend of mine and fellow bandsman, Marie Jacobi, asked me to compose a tune for her fathers birthday as a gift from her. His nickname during his band days was Jake. |
| Victory on the Green | 2 part Hornpipe. Written to celebrate the winning of Grade 3A at the World Pipe Band Champs in 2001. Playing with The P & D of the 1st royal Engineers, Stockholm. |
| The Big Day Out | 2 part Hornpipe. Written as a entry tune for a medley. |
| Taking the Front | 2 part Hornpipe. Another tune to start a medley. |
| The Bassman Cometh | 2 part Hornpipe. How is it that most bass drummers are never on time? On this occasion we were waiting for ours and when he arrived someone was heard to announce 'The bassman cometh' |
| Whiplash Willie | 4 part Hornpipe. One of the contributors to this collection, Andrew McHale, was involved in a car accident and got whiplash. That week when he arrived at band practice that week someone was heard to say' here he is, whiplash willie'. Written for Andy. |
| The Rum Man | 4 part Hornpipe. One of my friends suggested I name a tune after myself suggesting The Rum Man as a title. Rum being my drink of choice. |
| The Michigan Left | 4 part Hornpipe. In Michigan if you come up to a main road and need to turn left onto it you have to turn right then cross into a turning lane and do a u-turn to finally go the way you want. It is called a Michigan left, go figure that one out! |
| Northern Lights | 2 part Slow Air. Title tune for the book. Never saw the Northern Lights though. |
| Farewell to Byzantium | 2 part Slow Air. Byzantium is a cafe on Auckland's Ponsonby Road where friend would meet on a Sunday for brunch. |
| Craignure | 2 part Air. I took a trip around Scotland for three week with my girlfriend. Craignure is a small town on the Isle of Mull where we camped for a couple of nights where we woke each morning to a beautiful view of the sea and mainland mountains. |
| The Shores of Lake St. Clair | 2 Part Slow Air . When I was working in Michigan I lived close to the shores of this lake. |
| The Final Call | 3 part Funeral Air. No real explanation needed here. I wrote this tune as a possible lament other than the usual Flowers of the Forest. |
Iain's Tunes, in his own words
| Pipe Major Tom Harboe | 4 part 6/8 March. Composed in honour of the band's Pipe Major (Heather Pipes & Drums, Copenhagen). He is an excellent teacher. |
| Pipe Sergeant André Mittun | 4 part 6/8 March. André is the band's Pipe Sergeant and a friend. He often critiques my compositions and offers good advice, so I wanted to formally recognize him by naming a tune after him. |
| Finger on the Pulse | 2 part Strathspey. A little strathspey with the title reflecting the particular pulse or idiom of strathspey playing. |
| Side by Side | 4 part Jig. Written to honour two side drummers in the band, who were married in 2003. The tune was played at their wedding reception, much to their surprise. |
| Unchartered Waters | 4 part Hornpipe. The name of the tune reflects the fact it was the first hornpipe I had ever written and was feeling my way a bit during the composition. |
| The Piper's Obsession | 4 part Hornpipe. This one refers to me (Iain), as I had an ongoing obsession to own a full silver set of pipes. The obsession has now been satisfied. |
| Song for Maureen | 2 part Slow Air. As I had never written a tune in honour of my partner, Maureen, I composed this air. I was looking for a romantic sounding melody line. Fortunately she liked the result. |
Johan's Tunes, in his own words
| The Poodle and the Bass Drum | 4 part 4/4 March. During a trip with the "Caledonian Pipe Band" to Brittany, our bassdrummer was very annoyed when a poodle mistakingly took his bass drum for a car wheel. I had had problems finding a name for this 4/4 march which eventually got the name "Poodle and the Bass Drum". I really find most marches of this kind boring and easy to "predict", so it has been difficult for me to compose what I think quite a good 4/4 march. |
| Ulf Schönberg's Brilliant Idea | 3 part Strathspey. This tune is simply named to commemorate that it was Ulf's idea to put together the "Svenska Säckpipefraktionen", which goal was to perform and compete with tunes written by ourselves. I would probably never have started making pipe tunes otherwise. |
| The Frog | 2 part Reel. The frog was actually the first and only tune I ever completed, many years before my time with "Svenska Säckpipefraktionen". If it hadn't been for Ulf it would have ended there. |
| The Half-hour | 4 part Jig. The jig "The half-hour" was written in that time, which is very unusual for me. |
| Admiring the View | 4 part Hornpipe. Admiring the View was written after coming home after I have had to spend some time standing in a cue which was moving very slowly. In the cue was this girl ... |
| The Cobblestones | 2 part Hornpipe. The Cobblestones is an association to what I think the tune sounds like. |
| The Mess in the Tuning Room | 4 part Hornpipe. This tune was finished close to the time when the "Svenska Säckpipefraktionen" had been competing at an indoor competetion in Germany (The BAG Competition at Ludwigshafen, Germany 1995), which we won. The name refers to the mess when my pipes fell apart and were temporarily fixed, in the tuning room just prior to the quintet competition in the tuning room (Click here to see photo) |
| The Bus Stop | 4 part Hornpipe. I started to write the The Bus Stop waiting, quite a long time, for a bus. |