|
■
Yoshifumick Og MacCrimmori's Profile ■
|
|
First name :
Yoshifumi
Family name : Mori Sex : man Date of the birth : 25th September 1954 Interest : purely piobaireachd My Pipes : 1976 Hardies - real Ivory, 2004 Dunfions - silver & Imitation Ivory Piping Career : since 1975 First contact with piobaireachd : 16th January 1973 |
|
■
Yoshifumick Og MacCrimmori's Self-Introduction ■
|
| I
was born in 1954, the 200th anniversary of the
passing of Iain Dall MacKay of Gairloch.
During the first half of my
teenage, I was nothing but a Rock freak. From then on, I started to appreciate various British Traditional Music. Gradually, I was becoming fond of Scottish music especially. The most favorite tune in those days was a singing of Dick Gaughan on "MacCrimmon's Lament" from his album "No More Forever" (Trailer TER 2072/1972). Naturally, I didn't know who was MacCrimmon, in those days. 16th of January 1973 is an unforgettable day for me, for that day I just happend to hear my first piobaireachd on a Ethnic musicr radio program. The narrator, who was a famous Ethnic music scholar, did not tell the exact title of the tune, although he has explained about the piobaireachd. Anyway, I was deeply fascinated by the piobaireachd at once. About a decade later, I had chance to know the title and sauce of the tune as "The MacGregor's Salute" by John MacLellan from the album "Musique Celtique Iles Hebrides / Gaelic Music from Scotland" (OCORA OCR45) In February 1975, my girl friend (my future wife) traveled to Scotland, and she, at my request, have brought back a practice chanter and "Donald MacLeod's Bagpipe Tutor" which was enclosed with four EP records. I started to practice following wee Donald's tutorial by myself. In those days, my favorite album was John D. Burgess's "King of Highland Pipers" (Topic 12T199/1969). As a result, "The Desperate Battle of the Birds" the album's only pibroch became one of my favorite tunes ever since. After almost one year of sole chanter practicing, I joined The Tokyo Piping Society, which led by Dr. Masami Yamane who are well-known for the "KORG - Tuning Trainer". A little while later in 1976, I have gotten my first pipes - R.G.Hardie's real Ivory mounted. In February 1977, I took one month trip to Britain. I visited several local folk clubs and attended some concerts of the British traditional music around London. Naturally, I visited to Scotland - Edinburgh, Glasgow, Loch Lomond, etc.
In October of the same year, Mr. Thomas Pearston also came to Japan as a judge for the Highland Game in Tokyo. He taught me "MacCrimmon's Sweetheart" and "Black Donald's March" on that opportunity. Just after that occasion, P/M Angus MacDonald was invited to Japan for the British Fair held on a long-established department store. I rushed to the store, and asked him to play any piobaireachd. He played for me the urlar of "Lament for the Children". That was a really touching moment.
My encounters with real piobaireachd players are no more than above mentioned. The chance of meeting them is such a rare opportunity here in Japan, therefore I have been collecting almost all recordings of piobaireachd from LPs, Cassette Tapes, CDs, Videos, DVDs, etc. The volume of articles have reached nearly a thousand, in adition to Donald MacLeod's Tutorial Series, Bobs' The Masters of Piobaireachd Series, and some others. Besides, I have obtained all the Piobaireachd Books, Proceedings, and other printed matters of the Piobaireachd Society, and almost all miscellaneous Books concerning about piobaireachd and Highland Piping cultures. I suppose that there are dozens of pipers in Japan, though almost all of them play only Ceol Beag and have little interest in Ceol Mor, exept only a few pipers. Therefore, I used to be a lonesome piobaireachd devotee in Japan for a long period. I have started my own website which is concentrated on piobaireachd and other Scottish culture from 2002. The main purpose of the website is a memorandum for myself, which ensures that I should not forget the contents of books and various printed matters concerning about piobaireachd which I have read. Being a Japanese, I have difficulty in memorizing the contents in English. Of course, I wish my site would make other Japanese pipers to become a bit more interest in Ceol Mor. ●My repertoires on the Pipes
(in learning order) ●Nearly on the Pipes ●Wish
lists ●Especially favorite
renderings of specific tunes ●My favorite books ●My Bibles |
        |
Dr. Yamane had been taking part
in the Piping School in California runned by the
College of Piping from mid '70s. So, in March 1983,
he invited Mr. Seumas MacNeill to Japan for an
intensive tutorial.
