Brown & Nicol: The Bobs of Balmoral
Among legendary instructors of piobaireachd, there are the MacCrimmon family of centuries ago, and two more contemporary teachers, Robert Brown and Robert Nicol, the so-called “Bobs of Balmoral.” Formerly pipers to the Royal Family during the reign of George V, the two Bobs served as pipers at the Balmoral Estate in Scotland from 1927 until both men passed away in the 1970s.
The two Bobs were dedicated to building their mastery of the repertoire and spent weeks every year (for 15 years) learning a dozen new piobaireachd pieces from demi-legend John MacDonald of Inverness. They realized that eventually a piper’s competitive days are over, and once Nicol and Brown had retired from competition, they set about the task of passing on everything they’d learned to the latest generation of Highland pipers.
Many of the great piobaireachd players today learned directly or indirectly from the two Bobs. As their greatest legacy to the teaching of the ceol mor, Brown and Nicol recorded a six-volume instructional milestone, Masters of Piobaireachd, between 1972 and 1976; the six volumes have been released individually on CD, and contain recorded lessons with instruction on the playing of each piece, the singing of each piece in canntaireachd, and a rendition played by one of the Bobs on his set of Highland pipes.
Recordings featuring Brown & Nicol: The Bobs of Balmoral
Masters of Piobaireachd,
Vol. 1
Masters of Piobaireachd, Vol. 2
Masters of Piobaireachd, Vol. 3
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