These tunes can be downloaded and printed for personal use; for commercial use please notify MCPS and/or PRS as appropriate.

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Lindisfarne

Composed in 1990 before I took up the pipes, Lindisfarne is my most recorded and requested tune. It is an air, not a waltz, and I find it wants to be played more slowly now than on the recordings. It appears elsewhere on the www, mostly in unauthorised and incorrect versions. Here is the official version, enjoy it.

Port Joan Morrison

This was a Christmas present for Joan. Port is from Puirt, the Gaelic for tune, and some of the inspiration for this Port came from the 17th century Ports recorded by my friend lutenist Rob MacKillop on his Flowers of the Forest CD. Rob completed the circle by arranging it for lute and recording it on The Healing (both CDs on Greentrax, and highly recommended). I recorded it with Mr McFall's String Quartet on Border Seasons. Rob plays it more slowly than I do, and it works well both ways.

Planxty Pringle

Planxty Pringle was commissioned by my then bank manager Simon Pringle for his 50th birthday in 1997. Simon suggested the title, so I tried to come up with something a little Carolanesque which would also work on the pipes. The chord sequence is perhaps more Purcell than Carolan, but it's a nice wee tune. It's on the Border Directors CD and Canadian Highland pipe luminary Jim McGillivray has also recorded it.

I'll Gang Nae Mair Tae Yon Toun

This is an old fiddle and pipe reel and song tune, and one of many which were given new lyrics by Robert Burns. Burns doesn't mention Border pipes in any of his writings, but he is undoubtedly part of the same cultural world as Border piping. This version has material from Peacock, Aird and Oswald; my job has been to unify and complete it as a satisfying pipe variation set.

Now Westlin Winds

One of Burns' finest songs; he specified a different tune for it, but this is the one it is sung to today. It is a lovely air; no-one seems to know where it comes from but to my ears it has a the flavour of an Irish slow air. It is recorded on the Border Seasons CD.

Gingling Geordie

An attractive tune from The Master Piper, my edition of William Dixon's 1733 manuscript of Border pipe tunes. There are earlier and later settings of this, and it survives as the Northumbrian smallpipe tune Wylam Away. The 6/4 rhythm is an old-fashioned way of writing 6/8 jig time.