May 27th is Macfie Day, in recognition of that date in 1981, when the reorganized clan was formally recognized as an active clan once again, by The Lord Lyon King of Arms in Edinburgh.

I have celebrated the month by making two new Macfie contacts, both of them piping-related.

First up, Barry Johnson of Oregon. He began playing the bagpipes after attending the big 1993 Clan Macfie reunion gathering on Colonsay with his wife, a Cathey. Clearly, he never looked back and now he leads a small band called The Caledonians. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, check them out at a Highland Games near you. If you’re not close, then check out some of their performances on their MySpace site.

Barry encouraged me to persist in my efforts (mentioned in a previous post) to contact the Clan Macfie piper, Bob McFie. These efforts paid off during May - I finally made contact. Bob is a really interesting guy, and very well connected in the world of piping. He teaches at the College of Piping, in Glasgow and is also active in Europe (especially Germany) helping pipe bands over there. He tells me he has a big collection of Macfie-related music, some of which he wrote himself, and which he has promised to share with me once he get his computer working again! The tune he wrote for the 1993 Gathering is called The Homecoming, and it looks like I’ll be able to try playing it before too long.

Still, The Homecoming will have to take a back seat to The Lament for Captain MacDougall for now. 11 days until the Salt Lake Highland Games!

OK, so it would be nice to play a tune that commemorates a great victory of your clan over the degenerates who live in the next valley over. Sadly, for the Macfies this is not the case.

The Macfies (or MacPhee, MacPhie, etc.), despite a long and interesting history there, were finally kicked off their ancestral island of Colonsay in 1620, just as another group of people, an ocean away, were arriving to settle the Americas. The Macfies had resisted as long as they could, but their relatively small number, coupled with some double-crossing, finally ushered in the end of their occupancy. The clan moved onto the mainland where they dispersed. Many ultimately moved to North America.

There is a tune that commemorates this dispersal. It is called The Rout of the MacPhees. For better or worse, it is the one tune in the ancient repertoire that names my family, so I feel a certain attachment to it. It is not often played, and I have not been able to find a recording of it, other than Donald MacLeod on practice chanter, on his set of instructional tapes. Lewis Turrell, of New Zealand, became the first overseas player to win the Gold Medal at the Northern Meeting in 1958, playing The Rout of the MacPhees. He learned the tune from Donald MacLeod, and is himself still playing ceol mor, although in his 70s. I called Lewis at his store in Auckland, to see if he had recording of himself playing the tune. Sadly, he did not, but I am sure he will be glad to see that it features among the Piobaireachd Society’s set tunes for 2008 in the Silver Medal list. This means it is likely to be played during the 2008 season, and I may yet find a recording.

For now, I will try to learn the tune, and there is a new point on this story arc. About 15 years ago the Clan Macfie organized a gathering on the Isle of Colonsay. The clan piper, Bob McFie, wrote and played a new piobaireachd for the event. Next step is to contact him and see if I can start learning that tune.

Today is Veteran’s Day in the U.S. and Remembrance Day in the UK. I don’t recall what other countries call it, but I believe the observance is nearly worldwide.

This morning I will march in a parade in my band’s hometown of Bountiful. I think I have inherited my grandfather’s attachment to this observance. At least as it is marked in Europe, although military people are much in evidence, the day is not a celebration of the military, but rather a day to remember the awful cost of war. The military is rightfully included because they were the instruments of a war that killed millions in Europe - mostly needlessly. But that seems to be the case with war most of the time.

The observance (I hesitate to call it a holiday) got started after the Great War, or World War I. I have a connection to this because my crazy great great uncle - R.A. Scott Macfie - joined the Liverpool Scottish Regiment and went to fight in the trenches. He kept meticulous diaries of the horrors he saw and many of them are now permanently housed in the Imperial War Museum in London. In that war many pipers in the highland regiments of the British Army died marching, unarmed, towards German lines. They would strike up a tune and set off. Most were shot in less than a minute.

Years later my grandfather joined the British Navy to fight Hitler’s Germany. My grandfather was always very serious about Remembrance Day. I think he was right. War is serious business. It kills people, and leaves non-fighters bereaved. On Remembrance Day we should remember those who died, and promise ourselves that we will learn the lessons of the wars already fought.

They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the Sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

Laurence Binyon
For the Fallen (1914)

Our kids are homeschooled. Right now, in history, we are studying the period around the American Revolution. In order to personalize the time period for them we are blending in our family history. We are lucky in this respect, since one of the Scottish branches of my family (the sugar-refining MacFie family) has a fairly well documented history going back to the mid-18th century. Before the late 1700s, though, things get a little less clear.

These MacFies came originally from the small island of Colonsay, and I came across this tantalizing nugget of information on a MacFie genealogy website:

The story is told that one Robert Mcfie….who was allegedly born about 1680, was the great-grandson of Hamish Mor (Mcfie) a famous piper…

OK, so it’s just a story, but even if I am not descended from this Hamish Mor McFie, who was he? In some small way, I am still related and my piping ears prick up when the family name shows up. As you know, I would one day like to play the tune The Rout of the MacPhees. Perhaps Hamish Mor had a hand in writing this tune?

I will dig further and let you know….

When I play solo I wear the Macfie tartan. I am a Macfie.

Although I inherited my Finnish surname from my father’s family, my mother’s family is all scottish and the Macfies of Colonsay were her father’s ancestors.

The Macfies (or MacPhies and other variant spellings) lived on the Island of Colonsay until the early 17th century. After they were ejected from the island (following dark deeds and collusion with the pro-English King of Scotland by a so-called friend of the clan) the clan dispersed all over Scotland and many emigrated. There are now Macfies all over the World.

So now I am on a mission to find Macfie tunes and connections in piping. There is a piobaireachd called The Rout of the Macphees. I have a recording of Donald MacLeod playing it on the practice chanter. There is a 6/8 march called Donald Macphee’s March. Donald Macphee himself (prominent piper - mid 19th century) compiled a collection of tunes. Not sure if any are actually written by him.

So, the search goes on. If any Macfies out there read this and can help - Hello, and let me know!