Biography:Patrick McDonald

Patrick McDonald

Given name:	Patrick
Middle name:
Family name:	McDonald (sometimes MacDonald)
Place of birth:	Manse of Durness, Sutherlandshire
Place of death:	Kilmore
Year of birth:	1729
Year of death:	1824
Profile:	Collector, Composer, Musician
Source of information:

Biographical notes

The Reverend Patrick McDonald (sometimes MacDonald) was born in the Manse of Durness, Sutherlandshire, in 1729, the son of a musically inclined father and grandfather. As a child he and his brother were tutored in the violin by the excellent musician Kenneth Sutherland of Cnocbreac, and their sister was reputed to have equaled if not excelled her brothers as an instrumentalist. Brother Joseph, also a skilled bagpiper, left for a post in India but succumbed a few years after his arrival to fever, leaving behind a collection of 86 original airs, but Patrick was educated at the University of Aberdeen and licensed as a preacher. He became the minister of the parish of Kilmore which he headed for 69 years, married and with his wife Barbara raised a large family, dying in 1824. John Glen (1891) remarks:

His ministerial office appears to have deterred him from becoming a bagpipe player like his brother Joseph, but in his handling of the violin, he is acknowledged to have been unexcelled among his presbyterial brethren. An anecdote is related of him, that being in Edinburgh on one occasion as a member of the General Assembly of the Church, he was urged by Stabilini (who was indisposed) to act as his substitute for the evening. He agreed to do so, and it is said that he executed his part so well that his audience were charmed and delighted. It is also said that there was some talk of his clerical brethren taking him to task for this performance in a playhouse, but that the general esteem in which he was held saved him from being brought to book.

McDonald published a volume of music entitled A Collection of Highland Vocal Airs (1784), with the melodies to many Gaelic songs.