A long-lost recording of a legendary piper can now be heard for the first time since it was made 125 years ago.
The extremely rare performance of Gordon Highlander Pipe Major G.S. McLennan playing the reel De’il Among the Tailors has been released by his descendants to mark the 90th anniversary of his death.
Given its age and the primitive equipment used – a Victorian home phonograph – the recording is of very poor quality. But the recording is still expected to be of huge interest to pipers, who still regard Mr McLennan as one of the finest ever players and composers.
He served in the Gordons during the First World War, and after the leaving the army ran a bagpipe-makers in Bath Street, Aberdeen.
Known as the Stravinsky of the bagpipe, Mr McLennan’s talent had been evident from a young age, and when he was just 11 he played by Royal Command before Queen Victoria.
The recordings were made around that time on three waxed cylinders.
Yesterday the piper’s grandson Hamish McLennan, of Thurso, said: “It is of a 10-year-old laddie playing half-sized pipes 125-years-ago so the quality is not good. But it serves no purpose being locked away, so we have put it on the website. This is its first public airing for a very long time.”
For many years, pipers had assumed the recordings were lost.
To listen, visit www.gsmclennan.co.uk
Even today, some of Mr McLennan’s compositions such as The Little Cascade and Mrs MacPherson of Inveran are still regarded by pipers as masterpieces.
When he died, 20,000 people lined the streets to pay their respects to the cortege on its journey through Aberdeen. At the graveside, his friend Pipe Major Robert Reid of Glasgow is said to have played a lament “beautifully” but with tears running down his face.