This is the first installment in what will hopefully be a series of short blogs about tunes written or arranged by Tim Cummings. Tim runs a small tunebook publishing business in Vermont called Beithe Publishing. It’s a gem of publishing house focusing on new music for bagpipes.
Photo by Ryan MacDonald
From Tim:
One of my college students failed to turn up to a lesson one day, and so I decided to make the best use of the spare time by writing a new tune. I wanted to try one in the Lydian mode, as it’s rarely used and I didn’t know of any other pipe tunes based on that scale. This reel seemed to write itself in a matter of minutes. The Lydian scale is essentially a major scale with a raised 4th. On the Scottish smallpipes that happens naturally when we base a tune in G; our C# is an augmented 4th above G. The whole effect is secured with a drone tuned to G. One thing I love about the Lydian mode is that it often creates a light, ethereal aura, almost taking the listener away into some mysterious, fictional world. John Williams used the Lydian mode for some of his E.T. soundtrack; ditto for Thomas Newman in many of his film scores. The title of this particular reel suggests a far-away fictional ocean, while also nodding to the C# that gives it its unique Lydian flavor.
Download PDF of The Sharpe Sea
[…] APNA viewers may have notice some contributions to this site by Tim in the form of original written music, and video performance. Tim often instructs at elbow piping workshops and always has a fascinating […]