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LERWICK
ROYAL
BRITISH
LEGION
PIPE
BAND
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The Great Highland Bagpipes by TG Davison. The Great Highland bagpipes are known world-wide as the instrument of Scotland, for playing the music of the Scottish people, but many people do not know the history behind the instrument affiliated with Scotland. The pipes started their journey in the year 2500-2800BC in the Sumerian kingdom. 3900 years before they made their first appearance in Scotland. On an archaeological dig in the Royal burial cemetery at Ur of the Chaldees in Mesopotamia, the first and oldest set of bagpipes were unearthed. These were a double pipe made of metal. Sources have little or nothing to tell us of the bagpipe or piping in Europe from Roman to around the 12th centaury, but there are numerous mentions of pipers playing these instruments all over the world. The pipes as a folk instrument in Scotland show us that the Picts carved into stone pipers and pipes, but it is not until the late 14th centaury that the pipes truly came into their own in Scotland. The pipes had a hard and arduous journey from Sumatra to the shores of Scotland. There are a diverse number of pipes that have been played and are still played throughout the world, but the most commonly used set are the Great Highland Bagpipes. Most pipes have two drones, as in the biniou pipes of Brittany or the French musette pipes. There is also the Irish uillean, the Spanish gaita pipes and the Northumberland pipes, which have a bellows attached and are pumped with air by squeezing the bellows with one arm and forcing the air through the bag, under the other arm. Early written evidence is frequently cited to define and explain origins but key terms in early sources may be ambiguous and misleading. Scholars seem to agree that the earliest reference to a bagpipe is in a possibly satirical jibe by the Athenian poet, Aristophanes, of about 425BC. He describes pipers from Thebes- whom as traditional enemies of Athens he could readily insult- blowing on a pipe with a bag of dogskin and with a chanter of bone. The Great Highland bagpipes arrived in Scotland only after moving through the near east, into Europe via Germany, Finland, France, England, Wales, Ireland and then Scotland arriving on Scottish soil as a set of uillean pipes with two drones, a chanter, mouth piece and all attached to a bag usually made of goat or sheepskin. The large bass drone was fitted by the Scots giving the pipes a total of two tenor drones, a bass drone, mouth piece and chanter all attached to a sheepskin bag. Thus the Great Highland Bagpipes were born and are now played all over the world. To the Scots they are not only a musical instrument, but also an instrument of war!! Pipes have been played by Scottish soldiers in most wars, from the Jacobite rebellion through to the conflicts that still go on in today’s world. After the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 they were outlawed and only in 1933 after many years of fighting with the English law did it become legal to play them in public. Piping competitions are played world-wide and there are many bands that play at these venues, but the world championship has always been held in Scotland, with bands from all over the world travelling to Glasgow to take part in this magnificent gathering. The Strathclyde police band have the honour of being world champions for six successive years on the trot, a record that will be very hard to beat. The bagpipes are an instrument, which are very hard to play and a good set of lungs along with very supple fingers are needed to play them with any sort of ease. Today the sheepskin bag is being replaced more and more with synthetic bags made from materials such as Gortex, but personally I still prefer a solid sheepskin bag under my arm when I am playing. Cane reeds are also being replaced by hi-tech plastic reeds, which give of a very distinctive sound when played. Tam Davison is a piper with the band.
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Royal British Legion Pipe Band. Copyright © 2003,
2004, 2005.
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