William Dixon manuscript

The only direct evidence for the author's identity comes from the manuscript itself, giving his name and two others, Parcival and John, who may have been his sons.

It is recorded that Parcival was apprenticed as a scrivener; this suggests that some of the inscriptions in the book, in an ornate hand, but different styles, are his work.

He was able to publish a transcription that same year, with extensive notes, as The Master Piper;[6] this has recently been reissued in a third edition.

Almost all of the 40 pieces in the manuscript are long variation sets on dance tunes – one, Dorrington, running to 14 strains.

In this manuscript was found a large body of music, of considerable sophistication, readily playable on either Scottish Smallpipes or Border Pipes.

In contrast, Highland pipe music usually specifies complex patterns of grace notes in detail.

Further, the Dixon music tends to avoid repeated notes, and to move predominantly stepwise or in thirds rather than in wider intervals.

In the manuscript most of the triple-time hornpipes and some slip-jigs are wrongly notated, with bar lengths of respectively of 4 or 6 crotchets, when 6 or 9 would follow the melodic patterns.

The rhythms are not always straightforward – the 3/2 hornpipes show the characteristic syncopation of the form, generally across the second beat in even numbered bars.

The tags of different tunes are clearly recognisable, and a feature of the harmonic scheme is how the underlying chords fit with the drones, and the rhythm of the resulting concord and dissonance.

It should be stressed that in some tunes the harmonic pattern is shifted, so the tonic chord does not necessarily fall at the end.

The importance of this structure to the player is that these motifs lie well under the fingers on Border Pipes, so the music is technically not as difficult as it sounds, either to play or to learn.

In particular, the Lowland and Border Pipers’ Society's 1997 Collogue was devoted wholly to the Dixon music and related questions.

[9][10] 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.

In April 2015, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the manuscript's publication, Matt Seattle, alongside pipers Chris Ormston, Iain Gelston and Pete Stewart and fiddler Morag Brown, held a Homecoming Concert in Stamfordham parish church, where many of the Dixon family are buried.