pipes|drums’ Best of the Decade Awards – Music Collection

As the decade of the 2010s draws to a close, pipes|drums reflects on the accomplishments, recordings and products that highlighted the last 10 years.

And what a 10 years they were!

The decade was rich with piping and drumming achievements. It was hard to decide the very best of the best, so, we of course assembled a group of 50 accomplished pipers and drummers to allow us to democratically determine the winners.

Opinions will vary. It’s all subjective. Our nominees were selected from the annual pipes|drums New Year’s Honours winners, plus select others that rated highly.

We have six categories:

• Pipe Band of the Decade
• Piper of the Decade
• Drummer of the Decade
• Recording of the Decade
• Product of the Decade
• Music Collection of the Decade

Rather than give all of them to you at once time, we will announce one a day, starting with today and the pipes|drums Music Collection of the Decade.

pipes|drums Music Collection of the Decade

Scots Guards Standard Settings of Pipe Music, Volume III
(read the 2012 pipes|drums review)

It was close, but, after the votes were counted, the Scots Guards Standard Settings of Pipe Music, Volume III, released in 2012, garnered 30% of the vote. This prodigious collection is an absolute what’s-what of pipe music, and beautifully takes up where the Scots Guards Standard Settings of Pipe Music, Volume II left off, continuing the tradition set out by the original Scots Guards Standard Settings of Pipe Music of the 1930s.

Lovingly curated by ex-Guardsman Jimmy Banks, the Scots Guards Standard Settings of Pipe Music, Volume III is 300 pages with some 303 compositions.

A few comments from panelists:

• “The best tunes that followed Guards 1 & 2, all in one book. Love it.”
• “The size and quality of this collection overcome its somewhat sketchy publishing ethics and copyright infringement.”
• “Gotta go with an addition to the classic collection.”
• “Even if there were some faux pas committed, it matches the first two volumes in providing easy access to great tunes, including older and hard to find ones.”

Congratulations to the compilers, editors, composers and publisher of the Scots Guards Standard Settings of Pipe Music, Volume III.

Also nominated, along with their percentage of votes:

• Captain John A. MacLellan, MBE – Complete Compositions of Ceol Mor – edited by Colin MacLellan (18%) (2016)
• The Moidart Collection II – Allan MacDonald (18%) (2011)
• Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Collection (12%) (2017)
• The Collection – Chris Armstrong (12%) (2019)
• Piobaireachd Society Collection Book 16 – (9%) (2015)
• The Legend Lives On – A Compilation of Original Tunes Composed by the Greatest Piper of the 20th Century – Donald MacPherson (0%) (2016)
• The Seventh Book of Music for the Highland Bagpipe – Michael Grey (0%) (2018)

Here’s a chart that shows how the voting went:

Stay tuned for the remaining pipes|drums Best of the Decade Award winners over the next five days, and of course the 18th annual pipes|drums New Year’s Honours to be announced on December 31!