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P/M. GS McLennan 'The most complete piper of the 20th century.' |
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In 2006, Cameron Scott, Grade I winner of the P/M. Angus Macdonald Regional Championship, was invited to play a set during the judges recital. Click here to hear a sample. Richard Hawke (New Zealand) won the 2006 McLennan. Click herefor the Ground from his performance. Alan Bevan won the MMSSRR portion of the competition in 2006. Click here for his Braes of Castle Grant We were VERY pleased to have Alexis Meunier join us as the European representative. Click HEre for a sample of his informal performance featuring Brittany's Bagad tradition. |
The history of pipe music is rich with the names of men, and more recently women, who have both sustained the art as well as added new dimensions. In the early twentieth century none shone so bright as George Stewart McLennan, perhaps the most complete player and composer of modern times. Born to a long line of pipers, GS was born to Lt John McLennan (Edinburgh Police) and Elizabeth Stewart on 9 February 1884. He was not a robust child, walking for the first time only at four and a half years, about the same time that his father had him playing Kenmure's On and Awa'! Five years later, he had won the Amateur National Championship for marches, strathspeys and reels (1893) and the Scottish Amateur Championship for piping (1884). Word of the boy genius reached Queen Victoria, who summoned GS to give a performance at the age of ten. The last piper summoned to appear before a monarch had been Patrick Mor MacCrimmon's performance for Charles I in 1626, an event commemorated in the piobaireachd I Had A Kiss of the King's Hand. What GS thought of meeting the queen is unclear, though he appeared to be far more interested in the cakes she served! When the boy's interest seemed to change from piping to the sea, his father became concerned that he might abandon piping for a career in the Royal Navy or Merchant Marine. On 3 October 1899, he sent GS to Edinburgh Castle to deliver a note to Sgt Mitchell of the Gordon Highlanders. Whether he knew what the note said is unclear, but Sgt Mitchell read: 'Please enlist my son the bearer George Stewart McLennan in the 1st Gordon Highlanders and send him up to the Castle as soon as possible.' The die was cast, and he duly reported to duty. As a small man, only five-two and a half, he was in for a good deal of bullying; he taught himself jujitsu and in very short order it was well-known to leave young McLennan alone. He was disappointed to be left behind when the Battalion shipped out to war in South Africa but he quickly rose through the ranks becoming the British Army's youngest Pipe Major in 1905. While serving in Cork, he met Nona Lucking whom he would marry in April 1912 before being posted to the Regimental Depot (Aberdeen) in 1913. Two sons followed, George (1914, who as a medic elected to stay with his comrades at St Valery-en-Caux (1940) and was taken prisoner) and John (1916, killed in action at St Valery-en-Caux). GS returned to the 1st Division in France in 1918, serving not only as a piper but also as a Lewis gunner. He was well-known in the Battalion for sitting in his trench, making pipe reeds to be sent home and sold. It was during this time that GS fell very ill, but refused to leave the Battalion in the trenches; when the Gordons rotated out of the front, he reported to the 4th Canadian Clearing Station where fluid was removed from his left lung. After the Armistice, GS retired with 22 years of service. He returned to Aberdeen, opened a piping shop and carried on with his competitive career. At the age of 40, scarring in his left lung led to his health beginning to fail. At age 45, he lost consciousness, chanter in hand, while teaching his boys to play Dancing Feet. He never recovered and he passed away just before midnight on 1 June 1929. His funeral was something the likes of which Aberdeen and Edinburgh have rarely seen. More than 20,000 people lined the streets from his home in Powis Place to the railway depot, with the Depot and British Legion pipe bands leading his coffin, bourne on a gun carriage. His body was returned to Edinburgh and interred at Echobank Cemetery to the strains of his favourite piobaireachd, Lament for the Children. It is unfortunate that recording equipment was not so widely available during his lifetime. The great William Gray wrote, '[GS's] little finger which seemed as if it had been part of a mechanical contrivance placed in the chanter to make it trill in marches, strathspeys, and reels. George's playing gave me the impressions of the supernatural and kept one spellbound.' His competitive career carried on much as it had in his early years with him winning virtually every contest in the United Kingdom. Part of what sets him apart was his skill at composing fresh, bright, and very musical tunes. While his piobaireachd Lament for Lt John McLennan is not likely to rate as one of the greats, his 'little music' has set the bar to which everyone else aspires. The Gordon Highlanders Music Collection contains an outstanding resource for GS's tunes. The McLennan In recognition of GS's contribution to the piping community, six GS McLennan Invitational Piping Competitions have been held in San Diego, CA. Each competition brought together the top seven pipers in the world for a weekend of amazing music. Friday evening was set aside as a informal opportunity to recover from traveling and to listen to our judges in concert. Among these were P/M. Angus Macdonald (giving what turned out to be his last public performance in North America), Donald MacPherson (who is often favourably compared to GS), Maj. Gavin Stoddart, Jack Lee, and John Wilson. Saturday was devoted to competition: piobaireached in the morning followed by MMSSRR in the afternoon. The day was capped with a sumptuous awards banquet and the opportunity to hear the competitors giving an informal set. While their performances were truly inspiring, perhaps one of the most important functions was the McLennan workshop series, a relaxed Sunday morning opportunity to sit with judges and competitors to work on piping technique. The GS McLennan Memorial Banquet and
Awards The McLennan Series of Workshops |
