Just don't get us playing Kumbya. :)
Colin Hill
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Stewart" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "NSP Mailing List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 9:00 PM
Subject: [NSP] Amazing Grace
Dear Paul Gretton,
Relax. Chill out. Take a pill. The sky isn't about to fall.
Referring to Amazing Grace as an "awful piece of slop" suggests,
to me at least, that you're having a bad hair day, you have some kind
of bee in your bonnet, or you got up on the wrong side of the bed.
Or all of the above. Life's too short to work yourself into such a lather,
my friend.
Oh, I know the tune is hackneyed and shopworn. I know all that. I also
know it's one of only several tunes that ever gets associated with
Highland
bagpipes these days. As a musician, born in Scotland, with a deep love of
piping in all its forms, that bothers me as well. But don't blame the tune
for that.
I went to a beautiful Remembrance Day service yesterday. Here (Canada),
Amazing Grace has been part of such events for a great many years. The
pipe
band and the military band play it together as the wreaths are laid on the
cenotaph. Even though I've heard that "awful piece of slop" thousands of
times,
it still moves me to tears. As does the solitary piper with Floo'ers o'
the Forest.
It's ingrained now, Paul. It's part of something that's bigger than all of
us, part of
a tradition that means a lot to a lot of people.
Don't begrudge us that.
Regards,
Jim
PS
I think Highland Cathedral is a nice tune.
Not ashamed to admit it.
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