Scotland Bagpipes History
Though bagpipes can be found in cultures throughout Europe, North Africa and the Persian Gulf and their use has spread to many other countries, they are most clearly identified in Western culture with Scotland, thanks to their diffusion throughout the world in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries as a key instrument in military marching bands of the British Empire.
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Early History
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The bagpipe appears to have been invented in first-century Rome to allow pipers to sustain playing without having to continuously fill their mouths with air and blow it out, which quickly led to fatigue. (The historian Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus reports that the emperor Nero played one.)
Scotland's tourism website, visitscotland.com, reports that the bagpipe may have come to the British Isles with the Roman occupation at about that time; an artifact found in England that dates from the next century depicts a bagpiper. Because of travel and trade between the southern and northern ends of Britain, and because Scottish mercenaries served with Roman troops on the continent, it is likely that the bagpipe was introduced in the north soon after its invention.
The Middle Ages
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By the medieval era, the bagpipe, which had undergone variations in different lands and regions, was widely used in England as accompaniment for laborers, and one is mentioned in Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," written late in the 14th century. Soon after, bagpipes appeared in accounts of battles in Scotland, and they were mentioned in military records from there that date to the early 1600s.
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Scottish Bagpipers
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Documentation also appeared around this time indicating that bagpipers had some social standing, and chiefs of Highland clans in Scotland appointed pipers to play for them and at public events; many towns in the Lowlands hired pipers for the same purpose. Dynasties of hereditary official clan bagpipers soon became instrumental, so to speak, in promoting and developing playing, and a distinctive genre of classical called in Scottish Gaelic "piobaireachd" and in Lowland Scots "pibroch" (pronounced virtually the same), meaning "piping," developed.
Bagpipes Back in Britain
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When England and Scotland united in the early 1700s, their military forces also merged, though many units remained distinct. The bagpipe, with a long tradition of use in Scottish armies, thus eventually became informally associated with the army of Great Britain, which featured numerous regiments attired in supposedly traditional Highland garb and marching to the skirl of what became identified as the nation's musical instrument.
Significance
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As the British Empire expanded around the globe, the instrument known as the Great Highland bagpipe become a worldwide phenomenon, and it is still played in countries that were colonies or protectorates of the crown, especially during the empire's heyday during the Victorian era. (Due to Queen Victoria's influence, bagpipers were officially incorporated into the Highland regiments in the 1840s.) Ironically, it was during this period that similar instruments declined in popularity around the world.
Modern Appeal
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The piob mhor, or Great Highland bagpipe, still features in marches and parades of the United Kingdom's military forces as well as in the music of many countries that were formerly part of the British Empire, and the instrument is popular in many countries with significant numbers of people of Celtic heritage.
Many audio recordings by pipe bands, which include bagpipes and often other instruments such as drums (such ensembles in the military are also called pipes and drums), are available, and the instrument is often featured in movie soundtracks. In addition, to this day, many people enjoy the sound and spectacle of a pipe band marching in Highland regalia, whether in Scotland or abroad.
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References
- Photo Credit scottish pipe band marching on the grass - blur image by Elnur from Fotolia.com
