John Forbes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Wed, 23 Mar 2005 19:38:06 -0500 (EST), D. Glenn Arthur Jr.
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > The irony there is that although bagpipes are today associated
> > primarily with the Scots in most people's minds, darn near every
> > culture seems to have come up with the idea -- a bladder or
> > bellows supplying air to one or more single- or double-reed pipes --
> > independently at some point in history. I've got more recordings
> > of Flemish bagpipes than Scottish ones in my CD collection.
>
> Do I take it you're a Pibroch lover? Or not?
Um ... honestly, I haven't heard enough of the form to have
an answer. Most of the Scottish music I know -- pipe tunes
or otherwise -- is dance tunes (strathspeys, reels, jigs,
marches), and most of the rest is airs and songs. I've heard
Pibroch (though off the top of my head I don't remember whether
it was on pipes or fiddle), but only once or twice and not
recently.
I've heard long bagpipe performances from other traditions
than Scottish but even apart from the different-country
aspect, it hasn't matched the description of Pibroch. Much
of it has been uptempo throughout, often danceable, and some
seems to be largely improvised or medleys of shorter tunes.
I'm going to have to check my CDs to see what slow bagpipe
tunes I've got, and what centuries they're from, but when I
buy early-music recordings (which is what most of the bagpipe
music I've got is), I mostly buy dance music and songs. So
there's quite a lot of bagpipe music from various countries
and centuries that I haven't gotten around to yet.
When I hear pipes live, they're usually eith German or Scottish,
and the Scottish is usually competition pieces -- heavy on the
dance repertoire -- at festivals. (The band I play in, The
Homespun Celidh Band, is a fiddle band, not a pipe band, but
we've had pipers join us on occasion. Oh, and our second CD
is out, sort of -- we had a handful of "pre-release" copies
burned while we're waiting for the big pressed-and-shrink-wrapped
order to be done.)
-- Glenn
