Scottish Power Pipe Band, led by Pipe Major Chris Armstrong, playing its medley at the European Pipe Band Championships held in Grant Park, Forres on 28 June 2014.
The medley was:
Neil (Tetris) Johnston
The Shaggy Grey Buck
A Flame of Wrath for Patrick Coagach
Struan Robertson
An t-Seann Cailleach (The Old Crone?)
Kennedy's Favourite
A Flame of Wrath for Patrick Coagach (Reprise)
The inclusion of extracts from the piobaireachd A Flame of Wrath for Patrick Coagach by Donald Mòr MacCrimmon (c.1570 - 1640) will be a point of interest for many. The 'flame of wrath' was the revenge torching of a number of MacKenzie houses in Kintail by Donald Mòr MacCrimmon to avenge the murder of his brother, Patrick, called Coagach because he had a squint in one of his eyes.
The entire piobaireachd is constucted from only five notes (a pentatonic scale based on A) and the short phrases and repeated fifths suggest alarm, anger, a call to arms, and violent revenge. [What a difference to the second half of the more cheerful Cutting Bracken which is based on the same notes!] The reprise here is relentless in its intensity and brings this medley to an almost symphonic conclusion.
This very fine performance earned Scottish Power Pipe Band second place in the Grade One Championship.
