The Hamish Moore School of Traditional Scots and Gaelic Song, Music and Dance which has been an annual event in Barga for many years (articles here) will not take place this year because of the Covid-19 restrictions but this afternoon, the man himself walked into the city un- announced a couple of days ago, set up his musical instrument outside Da Aristo’s and started to play (article here)
This afternoon he visited another of the historic bottega in Barga Vecchia – that of Gabriele Bombardi – the builder and repairer of wind instruments such as the sax, clarinets, flutes and trumpets.
Bombardi Gabriele costruttore e riparatore di strumenti a fiato quali sax , clarinetti , flauti , trombe .Cambio tamponi , regolazione molle , sostituzioni , restauro strumenti antichi a fiato e a corda . Costruzione e riparazione strumenti a corda , accordatura pianoforti .Disponibile per preventivo gratutito . Si riceve su appuntamento .’
Hamish Moore
BOTH as a piper and as a pipemaker, Hamish Moore has had a vital influence on the Scottish piping scene over the past three decades, particularly in what has become known as the “cauld wind revival” – the renaissance of Scotland’s hitherto forgotten bellows-blown bagpipes.
A time-served piper from a family of pipers, since the mid-1980s, Hamish has been producing – latterly with the help of his son, Fin – high quality sets of Scottish small pipes and Border pipes, with such success that the firm has closed its order books until it catches up with its waiting list. In concerts and recordings, Hamish’s playing has carried the torch for a revival of interest in bellows-blown pipes which has seen them become commonplace on the piping and wider folk scene, compared to 30 years ago when they seemed the arcane, antiquarian interest of a few enthusiasts.
The Hamish Moore School of Traditional Scots and Gaelic Song, Music and Dance
Firstly the school will eschew the stereotypical view of what Scottish Culture is – the parody of itself which was a politically motivated creation.
They will be rediscovering and celebrating with the help of the best of their tradition bearers their beautiful past traditions which have been saved for them, are now main stream, and represent a living tradition. The school in Barga is just a small strand of the exciting movement which has overtaken Scotland.
More than this they will be breaking down the artificially created barriers between the different elements of our tradition.
For this reason they study two disciplines, each interrelated and they will come together at the end of each day for an integrated session. Each of these parts when re-united will support and enhance each other and the product will be greater than the sum of the parts. There will be tears of joy and sadness when alchemy is achieved.
Barga will provide the rest: – the wonderful welcoming people, the spectacular food, the beauty of the city where magic happens and the chance and random meetings will constantly take place in piazzas and inspire a tune or a song – living – soaring – maybe even to heaven. — Hamish Moore
The Hamish Moore site can be seen here and all the articles written on barganews by Hamish since 2008 can be seen here