Peter Reid’s Manuscript

The Peter Reid MS, is dated Glasgow 1826. Reid was one of the pipers who welcomed George IV to Scotland on the famous royal visit of 1822. Reid originally hailed from Campbeltown (born c. 1801) , and may have been a pupil of Donald MacDonald: certainly he seems to have been bred up in the ornate and richly expressive MacArthur style of which he was evidently a good exponent. Although clearly influenced by Donald MacDonald’s notational conventions, Reid takes an independent line with regard to expression and his settings often seem strikingly fluent and musical in comparison with MacDonald’s ‘squarer’ more boxy style. The MS contains 43 tunes and a selection of poems, on ‘Highland’ and piping subjects, some possibly composed by Reid himself.

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