William Dixon Manuscript - Modern Response

Modern Response

The publication of the music in 1995 led to a very significant response – Border Pipers now had available a much larger body of traditional music appropriate to the instrument, and this led to considerable discussion in the community about how it might be approached. In particular, the Lowland and Border Pipers’ Society's 1997 Collogue was devoted wholly to the Dixon music and related questions. The talks given there have since been published by the LBPS as Out of the Flames. In 1999, Matt Seattle released a CD, also called Out of the Flames, DGM 9907, in which several of the Dixon tunes were recorded - many pipers and others have released recordings of Dixon tunes since then. Matt Seattle maintains a 'Dixxxography', of all recordings of the Dixon music, at http://forums.bobdunsire.com/forums/showthread.php?t=114867. Currently, there have been 37 recordings, including 23 of the tunes. The recent third edition of The Master Piper includes, inter alia, a much fuller discussion of the relationships between the Dixon tunes and those in other published and manuscript sources. Many of these relationships have been greatly clarified since the first edition appeared.