Wrong Handed Piper?

[Downunder Kilt]

After reading about the wrong-handed pipers, I thought I would post this, called the Jacobite Piper by Churms:

Fantastic picture, thank for posting it Jack Daw

[OC Richard]

Actually the earliest extant clear depiction of a Highland piper, The Piper To The Laird Grant (1714) shows pipes played that way



and here are some of the aforementioned Strathclyde Police lefties

[saxandpipes]

Actually the earliest extant clear depiction of a Highland piper, The Piper To The Laird Grant (1714) shows pipes played that way



and here are some of the aforementioned Strathclyde Police lefties

Paintings can be rather deceptive, this couldn't be considered proof of anything regarding left and right orientation, as mirrors were one of the artist's primary tools. Things became reversed (inadvertantly) all the time. (Even photographs for that matter can be very easily reversed... if the negative is put the wrong way around into the enlarger!)

As for the Strathclyde Police, I was wondering also about the "uniformity" of a band which had people playing pipes on opposing sides. Having the "lefties march on the outside left seems to have solved that "problem". (I guess it would also work if they were on the right)...

Cheers!

Michael

[Barb T]

Our band has had two pipers who play on the "wrong" side. Both have resulted from an instructor who wasn't paying attention when the young piper learned how to play the practice chanter. In both cases, the student mimicked the instructor in mirror image (as if playing in a mirror). In fact, in both cases, the instructor didn't notice until it was time for the student to actually get pipes, and, by then, it was pretty much too late. And, BTW, it was two different instructors, neither of them very experienced at instruction, and the two were separated by about 15 years in time, so the memory of the first blunder had faded (and the first piper in question had left the band) by the time the second blunder occurred.

[creagdhubh]

Very interesting thread, thanks for sharing!

Slainte,

[Kilted Karl]

as a piper it makes my head whirl and my arms shake.....

But it is interesting. I learn something new everyday.

Your Obedient Servant,

Karl

[Cowher]

I'm a lefty and I play with the bag under my left arm. But my pipe Major plays under her right arm. It sucks to march near her. You always get a drone to the face when she turns

[Bob C]

If I'm not mistaken, Rufus(?) Harley played the pipes under his right arm.

Correct. I met him, once, at the Tartan Day parade in New York City.

[OC Richard]

Paintings can be rather deceptive, this couldn't be considered proof of anything regarding left and right orientation, as mirrors were one of the artist's primary tools. Things became reversed (inadvertantly) all the time.

This argument doesn't hold water, in regards to The Piper to the Laird Grant, due to his sword belt and bonnet cockade being on the usual side.

Why can't we just accept that the piper was a lefty? In some areas on Scotland that was the 'normal' way.

The idea that a painter would paint a portrait from life looking at the model in a mirror the whole time, so that the painting came out reversed, strikes me as ridiculous.

[saxandpipes]

This argument doesn't hold water, in regards to The Piper to the Laird Grant, due to his sword belt and bonnet cockade being on the usual side.

Why can't we just accept that the piper was a lefty? In some areas on Scotland that was the 'normal' way.

The idea that a painter would paint a portrait from life looking at the model in a mirror the whole time, so that the painting came out reversed, strikes me as ridiculous.

What! Holes in my argument? Haha.

I can accept that he may or may not have been a lefty, no argument with that.

Mirrors weren't used in the manner you suggest, but rather in various systems relating to the camera obscura, where a projection of an image was viewed inside a darkened box, after light having passed through a tiny aperture from the outside- created a 2 dimensional image of what ever scene happened to be on the other side. The image appeared upside down, and back to front, until a series of mirrors were added to "correct" the image. This was used basically as a means to plot out the proportions/dimensions/composition of a painting before begining the actual painting stage. (Perhaps I should have been more clear... mirror images were of frequent use in the artist's studio.

In addition, with regard to the position of buttons, swords and other military regalia, a painter would most certainly have been expected to get these details correct (or risk having to do the painting all over again!), whereas I imagine that no such scrutiny would have necessarily been paid to the position of a mere musical instrument.

Also, it has to be remembered that all sorts of studies were created before a painting would even be started, which may have included the use of a camera obscura, and most certainly would have entailed a number of preliminary studies on the pipes for example, the hands, the face, the clothing, until everything was ready to be assembled by the artist into the final master-work. (At which time, he probably didn't have the piper/model/soldier present- at least not for the entire time he may have been working on the painting (could be anything upwards from 2 or 3 months...). The painter quite likely did have the clothing/uniform available to him thoughout the painting process. He may have even had the pipes... "Oy, apprentice, blow this thing up for a sec, would you!..."

In any case, I'm not trying to prove that the piper was not a lefty, merely that it is not possible (without seeing the pipes!) to prove that he was...



Cheers,

Michael