Gordon Duncan

Bio:

Gordon Duncan was one of a young generation of Scottish pipers who opened up the piping scene to a more innovative approach. He began playing at the age of 8, taught initially by Bill Hepburn, then by his father and his older brother Iain Duncan, himself a successful piper and Pipe Major. He was a highly successful junior competitor, but at the age of seventeen stopped competing regularly to focus on the folk scene. He recorded with a number of bands, including Wolfstone, The Tannahill Weavers, Ceolbeag, and the Dougie MacLean Band. He continued to compete at local competitions and this came to a head in 1993 after a blistering display at a knockout competition (which he won) hosted by the College of Piping in Glasgow. The principal of the College, Seumas MacNeill stood up, and famously said "If that's what piping's about today, I'm taking up the fiddle,"'. A year later (1994), Duncan released a solo album, entitled Just for Seumas. It displayed the full range of Duncan's mastery of piping, opening with a tune from Seumas MacNeill's own collection of music, through traditional competition material, piobaireachd and music arranged with snare drum, guitar, and bouzouki accompaniment, to the memorable closing track consisting of a heavy dance beat accompanying Duncan's playing. This track included what was then seen as sacrilege - the first line of the piobaireachd Lament for Mary MacLeod was used as a harmony line for a reel. He followed up this album with the circular breath, with Gerry O'Connor on banjo. One of the most notable features of this album is that almost all Duncan's compositions played on the album are included as sheet music in the sleeve notes. Musically, Duncan was hugely innovative and his first 'hit' composition is a classic example. Although pipers have known for hundreds of years that it is possible to manipulate the bagpipe chanter to obtain accidentals outside the bagpipe's mixolydian scale, these were never used or their possibilities considered until the 1980s when a few pipers began to look into them. Duncan was the first piper to write a 'hit' tune using them, and the result Andy Renwick's Ferret, an exiting reel in A minor swept the piping world in the late 1980s. Duncan continued to look for inspiration from all sources and his last album, Thunderstruck released in 2003, continued this process. With the astonishing The Belly Dancer, a piece in the previously unheard of Phrygian mode and the title track, a development of an AC/DC riff, Duncan proved he was not standing still. This page was created by a fan. The above tunes are the copyright of Gordon Duncan. This tribute is not meant to infringe on that copyright in any way, nor is any profit being made.

Member Since:

July 31, 2008

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Sounds Like:

Gordon Duncan

Record Label:

Greentrax