Set Tunes Series 2026: “Salute on the Birth of Rory Mor”

We continue our exclusive 2026 Set Tunes Series by Willie Donaldson with “Salute on the Birth of Rory Mor.”

About this relatively brief piece, Donaldson writes: “The tonal family to which ‘Salute on the Birth of Rory Mor’ belongs begins with the tune Colin Campbell called ‘Brian O duffs Lament’ (elsewhere known as ‘The Frenzy of Meeting’), and continuing through ‘The Brother’s Lament’; three nameless pieces; then ‘A Glass,’ ‘Aird’s Lament,’ and what Colin Campbell calls ‘Glass Mhoir’ (which is nowadays known as ‘The Finger Lock’), ‘One of the Cragich’ (‘Hiotrotra hinbainbain’) and ‘McNeil is tighearna ann.'”

As with all of the nearly 200 piobaireachds in our Set Tunes Series, which began in 2001, Dr. Donaldson provides all known published settings of “Salute on the Birth of Rory Mor” and an audio file of his interpretation of the piece.

The author of the seminal work, The Highland Pipe & Scottish Society, Willie 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.