About Hector Macandrew

Hector Macandrew  was born in 1903, in a cottage on the Fyvie Castle Estate in Aberdeenshire, where his father was head gardener and piper to Lord Leith. His father, Peter, was a good fiddler as well as a piper and Hector Macandrew's brother Pat was also a prize-winning piper. As a young Hector Macandrew, he received some classical training in Edinburgh and blended this with his deep appreciation for the aural tradition dating back to the Gows, which he venerated and embodied. Like his father, he became an estate gardener, eventually working at Keithhall House in Inverurie, the residence of the Earl of Kintore. By 1933, he was much in demand as a player at social occasions and on Radio Aberdeen. During World War II, he served in the Royal Artillery with the Eighth Army, seeing action from El Alamein to Trieste. After the war, he committed himself to preserving the tradition of Scottish fiddle playing. Upon returning home, he made recordings with the Parlophone label, the School of Scottish Studies, and the BBC. His cottage in Cults became a hub for Scottish fiddling enthusiasts. He judged many fiddle competitions and met Yehudi Menuhin at one such event in Perth, who was deeply impressed by his knowledge and playing of traditional Scottish fiddling. In 1974, they collaborated on a BBC television program about Scots fiddle music at Blair Castle, where Niel Gow had played 200 years earlier. Menuhin later wrote of Hector Macandrew, "He was the voice of Scotland... When I met this man and heard him play, I knew I was in the presence of Scottish history." Hector Macandrew was an expert in playing pipe music on the fiddle and had many friends in the piping community. He especially admired pipers like G. S. McLennan, Angus Mackay, and William Lawrie. However, for him, the strathspey was the soul of Scottish fiddling, and his unique approach to these tunes was highly personal. He especially cherished "Craigellachie Bridge" by William Marshall, whose challenging compositions MacAndrew greatly admired. A prolific composer himself, Hector Macandrew's collection of 97 tunes, *The MacAndrew Collection*, was published posthumously in 2002, adding a valuable contribution to the library of Scottish fiddlers. His air "Gight Castle" remains particularly haunting. Hector Macandrew's technique incorporated traditional elements like the up-driven bow, 4th finger unisons, and double stopping, with his impeccable intonation and varied tone adding depth to everything he played. He was meticulous in maintaining his Pietro Guarneri violin. One of his pupils, Douglas Lawrence, recalled Hector Macandrew playing the final movement of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto from memory, demonstrating his technical brilliance and deep mastery of the instrument. Hector Macandrew passed away on 5 April 1980 following a stroke, but his legacy as the greatest Scots fiddler of his generation remains, acknowledged by the likes of Ron Gonnella, Ian Powrie, and Willie Hunter.