At the Stone Mountain Highland Games, Sunday, Oct. 19, John Cantrell, a 13-year old eighth-grader at Tryon Seventh-day Adventist School, who lives in Green Creek, came away with two gold medals for his performances in the 17-and-under division of the Scottish bagpipe competition.

The required pieces for this event are a 2/4 March and a complete Piobaireachd. The march is a traditional Scottish tune, decorated with oddly-named embellishments such as “doublings” and “tachums.”

The Piobaireachd, a highly developed piece of classical music, is written specifically for the bagpipes and is considered by experts to be the most important form of pipe music.

The Piobaireachd is ten minutes or longer with variations that increase in complexity and finishes with two variations which include rapid fingering movements called “crunluaths” and “taorluaths.” Sheet music is not allowed in competition and the memorization of such a piece is in itself a major accomplishment. The judges also grade on expression, timing and phrasing. An additional reward for his first place finishes was the presentation of the Harvey Ritch Memorial plaque. Ritch, a well-known figure in North Carolina piping circles, passed away in June of this year.

Cantrell has studied piping for four years, first under Pipe Major Kenneth Swinton and currently Pipe Major Sandy Jones.

– article submitted by Glenn Cantrell