Thursday 1 September 2022
Tune of the Day: MacPherson's Lantern
Pipe march by Roddy Campbell
Today's tune was kindly contributed to our collection by its composer, piper Roddy Campbell from the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. About the title “MacPherson's Lantern”, he writes:
This was of course the moon, in the silvery light of which MacPherson and his clansmen would thoughtfully give Lowland cattle an opportunity to sample newer and higher pastures.
Jamie Macpherson was a late-17th-century Scottish outlaw, who was hanged in 1700 after being convicted of stealing cattle and sheep. He became famed for his song commonly called “Macpherson's Lament”, which he is said to have composed on the eve of his execution.