Old style Highland piping

[Nathan]

As you may know, the Highland bagpiping tradition went through some pretty major changes when it became part of the British Army. Many people think that Highland bagpipes have always been like they are today, but this is not the case. They weren't always made of African blackwood for one thing. This was a development that went along with the British colonization of Africa. They weren't always as loud, as high pitched and they didn't even always have as many drones as they do today. They weren't always exclusively associated with the military but were associated just as much with parties and dancing. In short, there was much more experimentation among pipe builders when they were making them for individual players. A lot of people who compare Irish and Scottish pipes historically miss the fact that the modern Highland pipes weren't used in Scotland either and that the Irish warpipes referred to in early sources, could well have been the exact same instrument (or within the range of instruments) from which the modern Great Highland Bagpipe rather recently evolved.

When the Highlanders arrived in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton during the Highland clearances, they brought their pipes and piping style with them. The drones for pipes were usually turned out of local wood (often ash, maple etc...) by the local furniture maker as he would be the one with the lathe. There are drawings and early photographs of Highland pipes from the 1800s in the Nova Scotia archives, some had two drones, some had two wooden drones and a brass one and some had the three drones you see today. I haven't done the research in Scotland, but I would bet similar variation could be found in the documentary records.

These local, quieter pipes went out of favour after the Nova Scotia Scots went to Europe to fight in the Great War. Canadian military regiments used British style bagpipes and obtained them through commonwealth supply chains. These pipes were of very high quality though louder, more uniform and ornate than the ones they were replacing and players moved to them without much thought.

If there is doubt regarding the increase in volume that came with African wood and a wider bore, one only has to check the historical references (Gaidlig song lyrics, poems, paintings) to see that fiddles and pipes were routinely played together. This cannot be done on modern Great Highland pipes without electrical sound reinforcement for the fiddler as the military pipes completely drown out the fiddler. That's to say nothing about the tuning of modern pipes which have gotten significantly brighter (higher pitched) due to pipe band competitions. Most piping and fiddling repertoire is written in A but the pipes are closer to a modern Bb although admittedly, A wasn't always universally 440 Hz.

While pipe bands caught on in Cape Breton through the Canadian military and more recent immigrants from Scotland (they have never stopped coming), a tradition of piping for set dances remained in Cape Breton. As I mentioned in another thread, the phrasing and swing of the tunes was altered to suit marching bands in the military.

If you want to hear the old piping style, to my knowledge, you have to go to Cape Breton. Here is a fabulous example of traditional 1800s dance style piping. The MacKenzie Brothers from Mabou are performing in Glasgow at the Celtic Connection Festival in this clip. Enjoy the music, and you pipers out there, why not learn some of these tunes and try and revive this exciting style where you live?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLayjKtWduQ