Spotlight on a Community Piper - Donald Macdonald

How long have you been a piper? Who do you play bagpipes with?

After university in the early 1980’s, where I studied to be an architect, I took lessons at the Folklore Centre in Ottawa as a break from the drafting board. Liking it a lot, I joined the Sons of Scotland Pipe Band soon after. After an hiatus of a few years raising four children, I rejoined this band in 2005 and I am currently the Band Manager (though some of those smart alecs say I’m the “Bad Manager”)

What tartan do you wear?

For years I wore the Macdonald modern tartan (mostly red, with some dark green and blue). My new kilt is the Ancient Macdonald (of Clanranald) which has lighter colours and is also a very popular tartan in Glengarry county, Nova Scotia and my ancestral province of Prince Edward Island. Also the “Ancient” tartan seems more appropriate for those “sunset years” that are on the horizon.

What is your favourite song to play?

I like the 6/8 slow air Mist Covered Mountains very much and often I play that with the theme from Local Hero, a Mark Knopler song from the 1982 movie of the same name which featured both tunes. In 2013 I visited the picturesque North sea side village of Pennan (Aberdeenshire) where the movie was filmed and I played these tunes on the dock.

I am pictured below at Glencoe on our 2017 Band trip to Scotland where I played The Massacre of Glencoe (“Cruel was the snow that swept Glencoe”) which goes to the tune of Colonel Robertson. This song commemorated the horrible slaughter of 30 of the MacIan Macdonalds of Glencoe in February 1692 by a Government regiment of Campbells who were guests of MacIan. The Campbell of Argyll tartan happens to be the tartan of the Sons of Scotland Pipe Band, but on that day I insisted on wearing my Macdonald tartan. I told that story to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle a few days later after the band had played a Royal concert. She replied saying that “that was very good”, meaning without any doubt, the choice of tartan, not the massacre.

Are you playing any shows soon?

Through the 2020 COVID-19 period, I arranged a number of concerts at retirement and long term care homes in the Ottawa area where our band played outside the facility. On Remembrance Day this year, at the Perley Rideau Veterans Health Care Centre the Band toured the entire exterior of the building stopping to play outside of the dining rooms at lunch time. It is always such an honour to be with these veterans on November 11.. We hope to repeat this performance on December 13 at the PRHCC, in an event sponsored by the German Embassy.

What’s your favourite thing about playing the bagpipes?

The bagpipes have helped me get over my shyness :) But really the coolest thing as a solo bagpiper is being able to have such a powerful presence, either outside, say by a serene body of water or inside, perhaps within a large beautiful church. The reverberance of the pipes cannot be matched by most other instruments. And as they say, it is the perfect “distancing” instrument during COVID-19.

What else do you do when you aren’t playing the bagpipes?

Like most guys during this pandemic, fixing up my patios and backyard is an on-going and satisfying pass-time, though I wonder how the song “Don’t get around much anymore” sounds on the bagpipes?

Tell us something that might surprise us about you.

I have been studying the fiddle for the past few years as it expands the repertoire (and musical keys) of the Irish, Scottish and Maritime music I love to play. My teacher is the very talented Denis Lanctot from Papineau PQ. I play an Ottawa-made violin that has been in my family for 4 generations.

Who is your mentor?

Through the years, all of my music teachers and band pipe majors have taught me so much and I respect them so much for their dedication. In my early days, the late Cape Breton musician John Allan Cameron made a great impression on me as he brought the Scottish music alive for many of us in Canada.