At the end of my first day hiking the West Highland Way in Scotland, I ended up in the small village of Drymen. On Thursdays throughout the summer, the Strathendrick Pipe Band plays on the village green and as luck would have it, I was there on a Thursday evening. It was my second day in the country and I was delighted to have a chance at this little cultural treat.
You’ve probably heard bagpipes before; maybe even a moving performance of “Amazing Grace.” But I bet there’s some things about this little oddball instrument you didn’t know.
Scottish Bagpipes Aren’t Totally Unique
Dozens of cultures around the world have instruments like bagpipes. Fundamentally, bagpipes are wind instruments. The bag constantly supplies air to a chanter and a drone and that air comes from either a blowing into the bag or from bellows.
Other places with piping traditions include Spain, Ireland, Portugal, the Balkans, Romania, the Middle East, western Asia and even northern Africa. Across cultures, bagpipes traditionally provided music for dancing and as dance bands proliferated and traditional dances declined so did the bagpipes.
Scottish Highland Bagpipes are Old
While many cultures throughout the world have bagpipe instruments, the Scottish Highland pipes seem to be among some of the first. While one Clan claims to have the remnants of a set of pipes that were carried in battle in 1314, the most concrete reference to Scottish bagpipes is in 1396.
A poem from 1598 references a style of pipes unique to the Highlands and there are carvings depicting bagpipes dating to the 1600s. Many of the compositions written for bagpipes came from the 1500s in the form of battle tunes, marches and laments. By the 1600s, specific families developed a strong piping tradition. The bagpipes have a long and deep history in Scotland, where they flourished, in contrast with many places in the rest of the world.
Bagpipes Have a Strong Association with the Military
In the Scottish Highlands, the bagpipes became an instrument of war. Historian George Buchanan claimed they had replaced the trumpet on the battlefield. Great Highland bagpipes are limited to 9 notes, but those notes can carry up to nine miles and are not easily drowned.
In the 1700s after the British quelled the Jacobite uprising, much of the Highland traditions were suppressed, including wearing tartans and bagpipes. Piping families kept the traditions alive in remote areas of the country, such as the Isle of Sky. However, Queen Victoria had a keen interest in Scottish culture, and with her support much of the culture was revived. Additionally, Highlanders were considered to be excellent troops and made up a number of regiments in the British Army. These regiments included bagpipers throughout World War II.
There is Specialized Bagpipe Music
Pibroch is a music genre that is very closely associated with the Scottish Highlands and bagpipes. The compositions are generally longer, which lead to the alternative name cèol mòr, which means “big music.” The pieces fall into four broad categories: laments, salutes, gathering and rowing tunes.
What I find particularly interesting is that the pibroch doesn’t follow traditional music notation and were subsequently taught and passed on orally. The tunes do not follow a strict meter or tempo, which also adds to the difficulty of notion, though there have been modern attempts to create a system.
The pibroch was initially written for other instruments, mainly the flute and harp, though as the bagpipes’ prominence rose, so did their use of the pibroch. There’s around 300 pibroch compositions, with many being written by the MacCrimmons on the Isle of Skye.
Bagpipes in Thailand
I have quite a connection to Thailand, having lived there for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer. Turns out that Thailand has a bit of a special connection with the bagpipes.
In 1921, King Rama VI ordered that the bagpipes become the official instrument of a paramilitary corps called the Wild Tiger Corps. However, in spite of arriving with a set of instructions, no one could figure out how to play them. Some of the corps members went to the British embassy to learn, and then passed it on to other corps members. The Wild Tiger Corps disbanded in 1925, however, the bagpipe band lives on at Vachiravuth High School.
What’s an instrument that you find particularly fascinating?