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Since the year 2000, Dr. William Donaldson has contributed his exclusive analysis of tunes set by the Piobaireachd Society for the major solo piping competitions at the Northern Meeting, Argyllshire Gathering and other significant events.

The author of the seminal work, The Highland Pipe & Scottish Society, Dr. Donaldson explores manuscripts inaccessible to most pipers, and compares and contrasts settings of these great tunes, which now number more than 100 in our series.

In addition to his work as a lecturer in Scottish history with the Open University, William Donaldson received more than eight years of ongoing instruction in ceol mor from the great Robert Bell Nicol of Balmoral, Scotland.

Dr. Donaldson also provides his on musical interpretation of the piobaireachds in MP3 file format.

Please note that the Set Tunes Series is available to all for free and copyright remains with Dr. Donaldson.

pipes|drums' presentation of Dr. William Donaldson's Set Tunes Series is the largest online collection of piobaireachd in the world. We are grateful to him for his work.



This Years' Set Tunes
09 - "Lost Pibroch": Introduction to the Set Tunes Series 2009PDF
Aldearn, The Battle of (number 2)PDFMP3
Dead, Lament for thePDFMP3
Desperate Battle, ThePDFMP3
Harp Tree, Lament for thePDF
John Garbh MacLeod of Raasay's Lament (revised)PDFMP3
MacDonalds' Salute, The (revised)PDFMP3
MacDonald's Tutor, Lament for (revised)PDFMP3
MacIntosh's LamentPDFMP3
MacKays' Banner, ThePDFMP3
MacLeod of Colbecks, Lament for (revised)PDFMP3
MacLeod of MacLeod's LamentPDFMP3
MacRaes' March, ThePDFMP3
Nameless - Hiharin dro o droPDFMP3
Patrick Og MacCrimmon, Lament for (revised)PDFMP3
Tulloch ArdPDFMP3
Waternish, The Battle of (revised)PDFMP3


Previous Years' Set Tunes
End of the Great Bridge, The (II)PDFMP3
I Am Proud To Play A PipePDFMP3
King's Taxes, ThePDFMP3
MacNab's Salute, The ClanPDFMP3
Park Piobaireachd, The #2 (II)PDFMP3
Rout of the MacPhees, ThePDFMP3
Sobieski's SalutePDFMP3
Stewarts' White Banner, The (II)PDFMP3




February 9, 1883

George S. McLennan born, Edinburgh.

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Limit yourself to only two big piping and drumming goals this year; write them down; revisit them; and check in December if you have achieved them.

Andrew Berhoff, Toronto