Set Tunes Series 2026: “Ewin of the Battles”

We continue our exclusive 2026 Set Tunes Series by Willie Donaldson with “Ewin of the Battles,” a brief but challenging piece suitable for pipers of virtually every ability.

Donaldson summarizes the short piobaireachd as “a spare little tune throwing much emphasis on high G, perhaps to evoke what Bob Brown would have called ‘a note of high-pitched keening,’ much of whose appeal lies in the elegant descending figures of line two of the ground.”

As with all of the nearly 200 piobaireachds in our Set Tunes Series, which began in 2001, Donaldson provides all known published settings “Ewin of the Battles” and a an audio file of his interpretation of the piece.

The author of the seminal work, The Highland Pipe & Scottish Society, Donaldson explores manuscripts inaccessible to most pipers, comparing and contrasting every published setting of these great tunes in the Set Tunes Series.

What began a quarter-century ago quickly became and remains the greatest free collective piobaireachd resource for pipers worldwide.

Willie Donaldson received more than eight years of ongoing instruction in ceol mor from the great Robert Bell Nicol of Balmoral, Scotland, and we are grateful to him for his work with us over the last 26 years, and for his prodigious lifetime of service to pipers and the art.

Stay tuned to pipes|drums for each new installment in Dr. William Donaldson’s Set Tunes Series.