Shocking shrieking or stirring skirling?

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33857, 31 May 1975, Page 11

Shocking shrieking or stirring skirling?

(By

DUNCAN GRAY)

“Seven generations of pipers in the family, and then seven years of study” — that’s the traditional condition of mastering the music of bagpipes.

But it does not discourage the increasing number of people, not all of them Scots, x who hope these days .to 'learn this strangest but most rewarding of musical instruments by way of a hobby.

It is a fact that more '■'and more people are endeavouring to distil the haunting or majestic thrill from their own set of pipes, usually second-hand instruments.

This is odd in an age of ready-made entertainment, for although to all Scottish ears, the music of the pipes is indeed “the grandest sound in the world”, others, less well attuned, hear jitst weird snarling, not stirring skirling. The reason for this is that the pipes, even when properly tuned, have no

true harmony, to .ears used to ordinary western music. Tuning is traditional and musically unorthodox, corresponding closely to the strange sounds produced by Indian sitars and other oriental instruments. Nine notes The nine available notes extend only roiighly between low G and high A. This makes it impossible for the pipes to accompany any instrument 1 except other pipes or drums, Pipe bands, with thgjr stirring attack; always skirl in severe unison. no matter how many ’ dozens — or even hundreds — of players.

Unlike most other instruments the pipes have no shutting-off device, so that each individual note leads inevitably' on to the next without a break in the continuous sound. To avoid monotony little grace-notes, or “warblers”, are introduced — the hopping skirls and twists that give the music its peculiar flavour.

In a bagpipe band all these thousanda of ‘‘war.

biers” have to be done simultaneously, which calls for far greater skill than is usually recognised. The pipes themselves consist of a specially soft tanned sheepskin bag, often obtained from Iceland, and frequently treated (by professional pipers, at least) with treacle or molasses and white of egg to maintain suppleness and improve the air-proofing. V alved blow-pipe The odd-looking tubes consist of a simple valved blow-pipe, which fills the bag with air before any music can be produced; the chanter, or flute-like melody pipe, which has eight holes and so produces nine notes, and is played beneath the bag with the fingers of both hands; and' the three uptilted drone pipes to provide the .continuous ground-bass that. is so characteristic of al! pipe music.

Learning the pipes is ideally begun as a child, usually about the age of 10 (younger one* not having

enough puff!), and half-size pipes are made for the purpose.

One starts simply "by playing recorder-fashion on a chanter pipe - with no bag, until there is some proficiency as an ordinary reed-player. For' some folk this may take up to two years.

Three to four years is z about the minimum for anyone to master tlus unusual instrument witn any degree of skill, and most Scottish authorities put the time at nearer double this. Keeping balance Once practice begins with a complete set of pipes, bag and all, the player has to learn the tricky art of maintaining the correct balance between blowing-m and pressing-out.

Practice for up to two or three hours daily is advised for the really keen, and is ideally carried out in a sound-proof room, though church halls and similar buildings are also excellent. It should alwavs b* bora* in mind that th*

pipes'are really an open-air instrument.

No especially great musical ability is needed in a budding piper, but stout lungs are of course essential. The pipes are, in fact, an extremely powerful instrument, demanding great wind power, which explains their shrill carrying volume out of doors. Personal discipline Also needed is a strong sense of rhythm, generally tapped out with the right foot when playing standing still, or kept with the steps when (more correctly) pacing up and down There is, in fact, some need for a fairly tight personal discipline, which today’s growing ranks of amateur learners seem encouragingly prepared to face.

Although everyday pipe tu tes are written down exactly as music for the flute, ancient traditional pipe melodies were always kept in the pipers’ heads.

Even today many Scots pipers memorise their tunes by a strange method of syllabic notation,, chant-

ing to themselves such "spoken notes” as: “I bindo. ho-dro. hin-do. ho-dro, hin-do. ho-dro, hin-dra, ho« dra, hin-do, ho-dro, hm-da, chin-dnne” The Highlanders’ wild martial music was always thus handed down from generation to generation, without any written music at all. Pipe music is of two main kinds, the Ceol Mot or Big Music, which comprise the martial airs and the Pibroch, and Ceol Beag from a Salute to a Gatheiing, from a Taunt to a satire Pibroch is not always a lament, as is commonly suDDOsed - it mav b e a slow and solemn them? followed Native fae-cinatinn harmonies of traditional pipe music are reflected tn their titles, like "The Flowers 'of the Forest.’ “The Massacre of Gleo the King's Hand”. But even minor melodist well played on rhe pipe’ have a. native fascinatioi all their own.