There is only one other item in this conference which includes the 
string 'bagpipe', according to the search I just did using Backtalk.  I 
happen to like the bagpipes.  Maybe there are others, or at least 
sympathizers.

29 responses total.

I've just come from the best assembly of live bagpipe music I've ever 
heard, the Saline Celtic Parade.  There were 5 marching bagpipe bands 
there.  My 5 year old son covered up his ears, always a good sign.  I 
thought it was really nice.

I should note, I know absolutely nothing about bagpipes, except I like 
their sound.  Maybe I'll learn more.

I did a search on amazon.com for bagpipe CDs, and didn't find any at 
all.  There were some CDs which included bagpipe music, but there wasn't 
anything called "Scottish Bagpipe Marching Band" or anything like that.

So then I did a search on Google, and got thousands of links.  About how 
to play the bagpipe, how to find others who play, about playing 
different types of bagpipes (there are different types, wow!), about 
bagpipe organizations in New Zealand... but I didn't see CDs.

I'm certain there are CDs of primarily bagpipes, or pipes and drums.  
Does anyone have any to recommend?

I did find a few downloadable MP3 files and the like.  Maybe someday 
when I have a whole lot of time I'll download and save a bunch of them.

One of the most beautiful sounds on earth is that of a
bagpipe being played ppp.

Must be one of those newfangled ones with the volume knobs...

Heh.  Exactly right.  I love the pipes, but not the volume you get from being
right next to even one.  When we visited my inlaws in Milwaukee, they'd gotten
tickets to a Tannahill Weavers concert - wonderful seats if it had been
something else, about 3rd row.

Scots pipe & drum marching bands used to have a fair number of LPs out back
in those days, so I'm surprised you can't find anything on CD.

And if it's not that style of stuff you want but just a piper, I used to have
an LP or two by Seamus Ennis - Irish piper, but solo pipe all alone. 
_The_Pure_Drop_ was one, I think.  Don't know if his stuff has been converted
to CD.   (Lent them away & never got them back.)

Bagpipe music never did much for me.  I do like the already-famous 
bagpipe entrance at the end of Maxwell Davies' "An Orkney Wedding, with 
Sunrise," composed in the 1980s.

I have to say, the few attempts I've heard at sticking bagpipes into a concert
piece have done nothing for me.  I don't remember whether I've heard Davies'
effort or not, though.  

For some reason, when I try to order books and music on-line, I think 
"amazon.com" and not "borders.com".  That was a mistake in this case; 
when I went to borders.com and entered "bagpipe" into the search engine, 
I got a ton of returns that all seemed promising.

So I went to Borders, the main store.

I'd entered their classical section once before, looking for CDs of 
marching music, and encountered a woman asking if she could help.  I 
found to my surprise she could help, all right; she gave me a tour of 
their marching music selections, along with recommendations about 
different types and different conductors.

I ran into her again -- I still didn't get her name -- and she was 
almost as helpful about bagpipe music.  She led me to the two sections 
where such CDs can be found; marching music and Gaelic music.  I bought 
three CDs.  I have *got* to remember that there is expertise to be found 
at that Borders.

So what have I found out.  I'm sure that's what you want to know.

There are two overwhelmingly well-known pieces of bagpipe music.  One is 
"Amazing Grace", which you no doubt know everything about that you want 
to.  It's a well-known song.

The other, the one I keep hearing from bagpipe marching bands, and 
which you'll probably always hear anytime you hear bagpipes played, is 
"Scotland the Brave".  The words to this can be found by searching the 
Web.  I have no idea (yet) when the song was written, or what it's 
about, except a sort of general call to arms.  Perhaps everyone else 
here knows all about it; if so, please enlighten me.

Of the 3 CDs I bought, 2 are collections of medleys.  Here's the name of 
one typical track: "The Battle of Waterloo/Killiecrankie/Scotland the 
Brave/The Rowan Tree/The Water is Wide/Galician Jig/Asturian Jug".  the 
two CDs are compilations of music from several different bands, with 
enormous names, such as "Pipes and Drums of the 1st BN. Scots Guards".  
This isn't stuff designed for the Top 40.

My main purpose for it is putting it on my hard drive at work, 
using RealJukebox, along with all of my other marching music, for use in 
blocking out the distractions around me.  I put on the headphones when I 
get too distracted, and turn up the volume loud enough to block 
everything out, and then hope my phone doesn't ring while I do my work.

If people annoy me enough, I can use these CDs as combat music.  I'll 
play it on the speakers.  What better combat music than bagpipes?  
(Hopefully I'll generally be able to resist this urge, or else I won't 
be here long.)

Anyway, typing in all these song titles and band names takes a lot of 
time.

I actually know very little about Scotland the Brave.  Now, if you want to
know about bawdy parodies of Scotland the Brave, I may be the one to ask.
Pity, really...

Of course, there are bagpipes and there are bagpipes.  Most people think of
those used in Scottish pipe & drum corps.  Those are filled with air from the
piper's breath, which collects in a bag which must be squeezed under the arm
to force air through the chanter and drones.  The uillean (sp) pipes, used
most commonly in Irish traditional music, employs a bellows, controlled by
the piper, to force the air through.  Very often the drones are disconnected,
as the uillean pipe(s) carry the melody with other instruments.

There are all sorts of pipes, e.g. the Northumbrian pipes, pitched in
different keys.  I don't know enough to talk sensibly about details.

My impression is that Northumbrian pipes also have a bellows-filled bag, and
to my ear they also have a mellower tone than the highland pipes.

(On the former point I'm going from memory of photographs, & could well be
wrong.)

   ((( classicalmusic item:60  <--->  music item:319 )))

Hmm, I should keep more of an eye on the classicalmusic conference.  :)
Recordings with bagpipes are one of the things I tend to collect, 
mostly as an outgrowth of an interest in Scottish, Irish and 
continental European folk music.  
 
At this time of night, just tossing some names out: 
   Spain:  Susana Seivane, Xose Budino.  I think Susana Seivane's CD is
           currently in the playstations at Borders.  A guy named 
           Hevia from Spain has had two giant hit albums playing pipes.
   Brittany:  Brittany has a pipe & drum corps tradition similar to the 
              Scottish one; the only band I know by name is Bagad Kemper
   Ireland:  Davy Spillane and his old band Moving Hearts.  Moving Hearts
             was an attempt to build an Irish rock sound using uillean
             pipes as the lead instrument instead of electric guitars.
             Their last album "The Storm" remains in print and is highly
             recommended.  Spillane had three or four albums I liked a 
             lot before he went all squishy "new age."
   Northumbria: Kathryn Tickell is the best known Northumbrian piper for 
                the last decade or so, she has bunches of albums out.
   Scotland:  Battlefield Band always have a bagpipe player.  Runrig, an 
              arena rock band, use a lot of bagpipes.  MacUmba put 
              bagpipes into a setting of African percussion.  Lots, lots
              more I can't remember now.

Somewhere in a box I have a two-CD set, "A Celebration of Bagpipes in 
Europe."

I hadn't realized that Davy Spillane had a pre-squishy period.  I'll have to
take a look at that sometime.

Wow, Ken; thanks!  That's a lot of information.

"Maybe it's bred in the bone, but the sound of (bag)pipes is a little bit of
heaven for some of us"--nancy O'keefe

 :) I find it amuseing how diverse the reactions to 'pipes are. Personally
there's nothing more relaxing than 'cadence to arms' but some people would
rather jump in a lake.

I love the Scottish bagpipe - because of a love of Scottish Dancing, and
years of doing Highland and Country dancing. I can't do the dancing
anymore, so I seldom listen to just the music. It reminds me of loss,
after a while. 

I was in the parade mentioned in #1, though I wasn't carrying a bagpipe.  The
only other piece of information I have to offer at this time is that my uncle
is a pretty good uillean piper.  

resp:11 I remember an exchange student to our high school who showed 
us an instrument he'd crafted himself.  I don't know if it could be 
called 'pipes,' but the drone was created by turning a crank.  Rather 
than holes, it had keys to the side, making it more a bit like an 
accordion or concertina, I guess.

Any idea on what that's called?  Has anyone heard of such an 
instrument?

hurdy gurdy?  

A hurdy-gurdy is a stringed instrument, using a wooden disk as a bowing
mechanism.  

Nonetheless, I suspect that's what jaklumen is thinking of.  (It sounds just
enough like a bagpipe to confuse some people.)

There's a hurdy-gurdy site, with picture, at:

http://www.hurdygurdy.com/hg/hghome.html

Perhaps it is a variant of a hurdy-gurdy.. I'm not sure.

Okay, I went to the website (thanks, Ken), and it's a hurdy-gurdy.  
The instrument was homemade, so it wasn't as finely crafted.

I know a guy who makes violins for a living.

Is he in Ann Arbor?  We visited the place in Ann Arbor once.

Yes, he's in Ann Arbor.  Dave Burgess.  Really interesting guy.

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