Pipe lament in memory of Alex

Special composition remembers musician

A beautiful bagpipe composition has emerged out of the sadness at the death of young Pitlochry piper Alex Duncan last year.

News that the 26-year-old member of the traditional music big band, The Gordon Duncan Experience, had passed as a result of a blood disorder was described by Andy Shearer, creative director for contemporary music for Horsecross Arts, as “the heaviest and cruellest blow for many of us” in an already awful year.

In the Gordon Duncan Experience, Alex was one of the most experienced musicians and, as Gordon’s nephew, a representative of the Duncan family alongside his twin sister Tina.

In response to Alex’s death, master piper and composer Roddy MacDonald, a longtime friend of the Duncan family in Pitlochry, was moved to compose a ‘piobaireachd’ in Alex’s memory.

The word ‘piobaireachd’ literally means pipe playing or pipe music, but is used to describe the classical music of the great Highland bagpipe.

‘Lament For Alex Duncan’ was presented for the first time at the Glenfiddich Piping Championship in Blair Castle at the end of October, played by John Dew and with Alex’s parents Ian and Chris in attendance.

John Dew, a recent graduate from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s BMus Traditional Music- Piping degree course, played the lament at this year’s online Glenfiddich Piping Championship, held behind closed doors in the ballroom of Blair Castle.

Roddy, who lives in Australia, composed the tune for talented piper Alex, who played with Police Scotland Fife Pipe Band but in his short life, also played with Coupar Angus Pipe Band, the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland, Pitlochry and Blair Atholl, Drambuie Kirkliston, Lothian and Borders Police, Vale of Atholl, Grampian Police, The Pipers’ Trail, the Scottish Music Parade, the Gordon Duncan Experience and the Atholl Highlanders.

Horsecross Arts has made the Lament for Alex Duncan available to listen to on its social media page .

G o t o h t t p s : / / w w w . keepgoingtogether.co.uk/ post/day-286-lament-for-alexduncan

Roddy was moved to compose a ‘piobaireachd’ in Alex’s memory