 The "Bobs of Balmoral", was the name given to pipers Robert U.Brown and Robert B. Nicol. They served as pipers at the Balmoral Estate in Scotland from 1927 until their deaths in the1970's. In their lifetimes they achieved legendary greatness in Scotland and abroad for their piping, particularly as piobaireachd (classical bagpipe music) players and teachers, and taught many pupils. They inspired generations of dedicated pipers.
Robert Brown and Robert Nicol are considered two of the greatest piobaireachd teachers of all time. Highland pipers who are piobaireachd players will often refer to something perhaps most easily termed their "piobaireachd lineage," which refers to the succession of teachers that taught them piobaireachd. They will list the players between themselves and the great "Bobs of Balmoral," or "two Bobs." These pipers take great pride in the fact that their tradition is an oral one, especially when related to the great music, or piobaireachd. Many of the great piobaireachd players today learned directly or indirectly from the two Bobs.
The Bobs of Balmoral gained their reputation as the greatest teachers of piobaireachd largely through their tuition with the man widely considered to be the greatest piobaireachd teacher of all time, John MacDonald of Inverness. He studied with a variety of great pipers who could all trace their roots back to some of the father figures of piping, including the great MacCrimmons. He was known to be a fierce teacher, insisting on exacting standards of his pupils. The two Bobs studied with MacDonald for fifteen years, spending four to six weeks at a time under his tutelage each year, coming home with at least 12 new piobaireachds each year.
When their competing days were over, the "Bobs" began the task of passing their knowledge to future generations and a steady strean of pipers beat a path to their Deeside homes, many armed with tape recorders, as in the case of Norman Matheson. Norman build up a sizable collection of taped lessons, particularly of Nicol, and he exchanged copies of these recordings for others made at schools given by the "Bobs" around the world. A library of their singing and playing " Masters of Piobaireach" was thus accumulated. To date these recordings extend to eight CDs which are listed listed in our bagpipe music section
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