MUSIC OF THE PIPES

Otago Witness, Issue 4041, 25 August 1931, Page 68

MUSIC OF THE PIPES

ITS PLACE IN SCOTTISH LIFE ADDRESS BY DR ELDER. The part played.by pipers of the present day in maintaining Scottish traditions and imparting colour to toe national life, and particularly the life of the Scottish soldier, was the theme of an address which Dr J. R. Elder delivered before a large audience in Begg’s Concert Chamber on Tuesday evening. The address was entitled “ The Piper and Scottish Tradition.” Mr W. B. M‘Ewan occupied the chair.

Dr Elder began by explaining that in an endeavour to end warlike activities among the clans, the Government of 1746 passed the severe Disarming Act, which made the possession of arms an offence punishable by heavy fines and transportation, and forbade the wearing of Highland dress. From August 1, 1747, no man or boy in Scotland, unless serving in the King’s forces, might wear plaid, kilt, or tartan trews. The bagpipe was condemned as being an instrument of war. The bagpipe was an ancient instrument known from early times, at any rate in Europe and Asia. The Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans knew of various types of pipes. In many countries of Europe pipes still existed. Pipes first came into use in Scotland, apparently, about the beginning of the fifteenth century, although the large drone of the present-day pipe was not introduced till the beginning of the eighteenth century. From the fifteenth century onwards the Scottish Highlanders made the bagpipe their national instrument, and its music became interwoven with the whole life and tradition of the clan, until the clan piper was not only the musician of his folk but the interpreter of their every emotion. His fierce notes stirred the men to tribal warfare, and accompanied them in the charge; his wail of lament was the dirge of the bereaved for the fallen. In the Lowlands the burgh piper occupied somewhat the same position. By the middle of the fifteenth century, then, the piper was a figure in the national life of Scotland, and the full significance of pipe music seemed to have been developed more as an art under the guidance of ancient masters of the war pipe in the north. Almost all the Lowland Scottish regiments were in existence before Highland regiments were raised, and many of the Lowlanders who enlisted were pipers, although without official status in their regiments. With the raising of the Highland regiments in the eighteenth century the piper began to play a much more definite part in the life of the soldier. .

The lecturer then went on to give details of the history of famous Scottish regiments, all of which now had their pipers. The status of the piper in the Lowland Scottish regiment was of comparatively recent date: ‘ When first raised, the Highland regiments had difficulty in persuading English War Office authorities, who knew nothing of Highland tradition and practice, that a piper was something more than a mere bandsman, and were compelled to enrol their pipers under the guise of drummers. It was not till 1854 that the ; services so long rendered by pipers to the Highland regiments were recognised by the War Office, when an order allowed distinctive regiments one pipe major-: and five pipers. No more than six were provided for today, and regiments desiring to have more than the specified number had to pay all expenses out of their own pockets. Various items of the. pipers’ dress were then dealt with, and their origin and history were given. The piper had an important part to play in the maintenance of regimental tradition. He accompanied his comrades to the battle line, and even under the circumstances of the modern battlefield frequently led the charge after the manner of his predecessors, who roused the clansmen by playing battle music known to all. Tunes commemorating incidents in the life of particular regiments were familiar to many. The regimental march appealed to the soldiers’ instincts for the honour of the regiment, and the lecturer then went on to speak of the various regiments’ marches and the reasons for their being traditional music.

After this, Dr Elder told a number of tales dealing W’ith the piper in war, showing that it was the duty of the piper to maintain the spirits of his comrades by reminding them of their ancestry and their regiment. He pointed out how pipe music followed the Scottish soldier wherever he might be stationed, conveying.a meaning to him which men of other nations, bora in other traditions, could not understand. He told how the pibroch, the classical music of the pipes, was a realm which many regimental pipers never entered. It could be used to express every phase of human emotion, and bore its own message to those who understood, however meaningless and monotonous it seemed to the uninitiated.

The speaker’s remarks on the various classes of pipe music were illustrated by selections typical of a day in the life of a Highland regiment. The Reveille, the Retreat, and the Last Post were played by three buglers from the Otago Regimental Bugle Band, followed by appropriate pipe music, such as “ Hey, Johnnie Cope,” “ Scotland the Brave,” “ Haughs of Cromdale,” and concluding with a lament and the “Green Hills of Tyrol.” . Pipe-major M'Millan played a characteristic pibroch, and Mr G. Stuart Thomson sang “A Hundred Pipers.” At the close of the address the lecturer and the chairman were accorded a vote of thanks on the motion of Mr Thomas Ritchie.