Thursday 24 May 2012
Tune of the Day: The Balmoral Highlanders
Traditional Scottish pipe tune
This march was composed by Highland Piper Angus Mackay of Raasay, who was piper to Queen Victoria from 1843 to 1853. Mackay wrote, while still in his early twenties, a book entitled A Collection of Ancient Piobaireachd, or Highland Pipe Music, which served as a piper's bible for many decades after its appearance in 1838.
The word Balmoral is said to mean “the house of the laird”, the root being the Gaelic baile, a homestead or, later, village.