Pipes of Scotland

Although we most commonly associate bagpipes with Scotland and Ireland, pipes arouse in many pastoral cultures around the world. It is not a stretch to list the pipes as an ancestor of the organ which is an important part of Sunday worship services. Today in North America, outside of Gaelic events like the many Highland Games, bagpipes are most commonly heard at the funerals of fallen heroes, specifically police and military funerals.

The funereal association of piping is a direct contrast to their original function, which was to provide dance music for pastoral celebrations. One of the distinguishing features of bagpipes is of course the bag, which is typically made from a whole animal skin. The reeds of the bagpipes are held within the wooden stocks which are tied into the holes in the skin, rendering it airtight.

Elements which make the music of the bagpipes unique include the drones; pipes which are not fingered but whose reeds are tuned to harmonize with the melody pipe or chanter. Since the reeds of the bagpipes, including that in the chanter, are sounded by the constant airflow from the bag (which the player inflates via a blow tube), there is no practical way to break the sound between the notes. Thus, the music is constant with flourishes between the movements.

The pipes seemed doomed to obscurity as other instruments came along which were as portable but had greater versatility. However, the British discovered that regiments raised in the Scottish Highlands were particularly effective in expanding and defending the Empire. Each regiment’s pipers would play a distinctive tune so that the soldiers could find and stay with their units during the confusion of battle. Great numbers of pipers were trained for service in the First and Second World Wars, and pipers are still a part of most units from the Commonwealth Nations. Pipers were used in the assault on enemy lines in the Second Battle of El Alamein in 1943.