Bagpipes Challenged

[Freelander Sporrano]

From the Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/apr/19/scotland

[highlander_Daz]

Hugh Cheape a leading authority on the much-loved - and loathed - instrument,


"Until the battle of Culloden in 1745 ended the Jacobite rebellion by the Highland chieftains led by Bonnie Prince Charlie, clan chiefs were great patrons of piping and pipe music; cultivating new musical styles, sponsoring musicians who founded piping dynasties and their own piping colleges."

"He is scathing about the pipes allegedly played at the battles of Culloden in 1745 and at Flodden in 1513."

1745? ?? hes obviously not than much of a leading authority then. credibility is now sub zero in my eyes.

is this a late april fool?

hugh Jass ?

[Finn]

Horse puckey!

[PiobBear]

I've read Cheape's books and respect his scholarship, but the article is contradictory on several points and I get the distinct impression is intentionally inflammatory.

"contrary to popular myth, the great Highland bagpipe never led the Scots clans into battle against the English, nor did kilted pipers carry them around the castles of Highland chieftains, playing laments to the fallen."

"Until the battle of Culloden in 1745 ended the Jacobite rebellion by the Highland chieftains led by Bonnie Prince Charlie, clan chiefs were great patrons of piping and pipe music; cultivating new musical styles, sponsoring musicians who founded piping dynasties and their own piping colleges." ibid.

James Reed, a Jacobite piper in Ogilvy's (a "Highland cheiftan") Regiment was executed November 15th 1745 in York for his role in the Jacobite Rebellion (piping "the Scots clans into battle against the English"). James Campbell, piper in Glengyle's regiment, was tried and sentenced to transportation November 21st 1748. Robert Jamieson, piper in the Duke of Perth's regiment, Allan M'Donall, piper in Lord Nairn's regiment, Nicholas Carr, a piper in Gordon's regiment, John Ballantine, a piper in Lord George's regiment,and Sinclair, also a piper in Ogilvie's regiment, were listed as captured in English court records (Graham, Traditional Gaelic Bagpiping, 1745-1945. McGill-Queens Press; 1998).



The Roman Legions played the tibia uticularis (which they probably appropriated from Greece and Thebes) all across Europe, and until the introduction of chamber music in the Renaissance the bagpipe in one form or another was the most common and popular instrument in Europe. The type of bagpipe I play today is occasionally referred to as a British Army pattern, in the same key (Bb) as their military brass bands, and undoubtedly designed to meet the needs of the bagpipes primary post-Culloden patron, the British Army's Highland regiments. However, to say that it "was actually invented less than 200 years ago" is a bit of a stretch I think; I'd have to read the book to see what he really said.


"The bagpipe in Scotland has suffered a malaise of misunderstanding and misinterpretation, of misappropriation and manipulation of a lively and vital musical culture. Its treatment might even serve as a metaphor for Scottish history and culture since the 18th century."
Hugh Cheape

That is indisputably a true statement, considering some of the poppycock brigadoonery of Romanticists like Walter Scott and the Victorian "Celtic Revival".

[Draelore]

Hmmmm,

Actually, my take on the article is that the current form of the "Great Highland Pipes" is as close a resemblance to the pipes played a Culloden as the modern 8 yard kilt resembles what the highlanders wore.

So, my take away is that the Great Highland Pipes are a modern musical instrument that is descended from a long line of similar instruments. And since the Scots were the only ones to preserve this instrument, they get to claim it.

Andy

[Oldhiker]

The Scots did not invent the pipes, they perfected them

[RobertParker]

Most of the musical instruments we play today are modernized versions of instruments that have been around for centuries. Whether this author's statements are to any degree accurate or not, the idea that the pipes have been changed over time is not remarkably surprising.

I know we as humans find it easy to latch onto romanticised ideas about whatever things we identify with; and it's easy for us to get out of whack at the idea of someone challenging that which we identify with so closely. Nonetheless, this stuff changes.

[Jack Daw]

If you were a piper as short as 30 years ago, the frustration level in playing would have been much higher. It was difficult to keep the pipes in tune for very long because of the fickleness of cane drone reeds. Today's synthetic drone reeds make life as a piper much less a headache. Because of their increased steadiness, even a grade 4 pipe band can sound comparatively fantastic today. If you were to watch "The Drum" or "Wee Willy Winkie", you'd think the pipers were tone deaf.

[cessna152towser]

Looks like a cheap stunt to get himself better known. Although it is true that piping has changed in recent years. I used to play using a sheepskin bag until as recent as ten years ago but nowadays the pipers all seem to have goretex bags.

[JerseyLawyer]

I think it's even less than that, Jack. When I started playing, about 15 years ago, give or take, the first synthetic reeds were just coming out - the ones with the popsicle stick cane tongue on a plastic body. We've come a long way since then, though I still know how to tie in a hide bag and we have a recipe for homemade seasoning floating around the house somewhere. Chanters have gotten a lot sharper even since then, and there's a big difference from thirty years ago and earlier. Then there's the invention of the high tension snare drum, which changed pipe band drumming, plus ensemble, which changed the general rule that whatever tenor drummers did, they were never to actually /hit/ the drum... It all continues to evolve.

Anyway - I agree that the article is inflammatory - it is the Guardian, after all. It's true - and no great secret - that the Great Highland Bagpipe as we know it is only two hundred years old or so. The second tenor drone was added in, I think, the late 18th Century. Light music is, by the same standard, relatively recent. But the modern instrument is descended from a line of earlier pipes.

And some pipers are tone deaf. ;)