James Scott Skinner wrote this lament in 1903 as a tribute to Hector MacDonald, a Scottish Major-General who died through his own hands in India not long before. Although I wouldn´t think of building a monument for an officer of the colonial era, I was really touched by this tune when I first heard it in Achnamara played on small-pipes. Skinner built a monument out of very few notes. So not long ago I gave it a try on banjo. And as I am the proud owner of a digital piano since three months and practiced a lot on the new instrument, I tried to play the tune on piano too. Please forgive some strange notes and extra breaks - I´m new to the piano. (And as Skinner wrote on his sheet music that the lament is to be played slow, I took full advantage of his order 😉) BTW, you can hear Skinner play his tune on this link from the University of Aberdeen.
