cats dying painfully or music from the tartaned gods?

People actually think their music is beautiful? Bagpipes make the ugliest *choked into silence by angry Scottish music fanatics*

I love them. Nothing stirs the emotions like a good pipe band and military drum on Anzac day.

Of course a poorly played pipe sounds like a giant spider wearing pyjamas strangling a cat. Here in Brisbane there are a few excellant pipe bands. I could listen to them all day.

I prefer the sound of Uilleann Pipes they are not as coarse as Bagpipes

Long history here. Ostensibly the only connection I have to Scotland is my first name. But the pipes really get to me.

The amazing thing is that my kids, who are Korean, love them as well. They used to make me play and replay the famous "Queen's Own MacKamikaze Highlanders" sketch from Monty Python because they liked the bagpipe music.

A local restaurant, Runyon's, annually has a piper for St Paddy's and the day before. I believe we have gone there five years running on the appropriate day(s) in March. My kids look forward to it for months ahead of time.

Perhaps there is a touch of the Celt in me. I have blue eyes and freckles and the skirl of the pipes brings out a terribly sentimental streak in me. I can make it through "Scotland the Brave" and "Men of Harlech", etc., and only tear up slightly. But when they get to "Amazing Grace" I CRY LIKE A BABY! (And I'm Jewish!!)

One of the funnier things I've seen was at my cousins wedding a few years back. We tartened up as it was an all Scottish affair. The piper, 'ol one lung' (he lost a lung to cancer) was a chain smoker.. When he struck up the first notes on the church steps, the congregation cracked up laughing. There was smoke billowing out of the pipe drones! Initial thoughts were that his pipes were on fire!

Ok, had to be there.....

I love bagpipes!

I can't say that I listen to that type of music too often because, to me, it is kind of like listening to funeral music, but I love it no less.

We have some of the best pipers in the world here. I f it sounds like cats yowling they are not good pipers. The Dark Island is one of the most beautiful and haunting of tunes-played on the bagpipes by a master piper-totally incredible-the hardest heart would be melted.

Coolup, finally something we disagree on! I very much dislike bagpipes (also violins and fiddles). However, I have absolutely nothing against clarinets

i like bagpipes. I can't really say i dislike any musical instrumental, as long as it's played well. Ok, a little tuba goes
a long way...

I like bagpipes if they are played well, in Scotland when I lived there, they were..
Bagpipes exist in many places though..the French have the equivalent, the Spanish the Greeks...
It's mainly the drone sound, the fourth note that bugs people.

When played well, bagpipes are one of the most hauntingly melancholic and beautiful sounds you can hear. When played badly ...

Pipers playing Scotland the Brave is enjoyable for me ,as is the sound of the panpipes playing the theme to Picnic At Hanging Rock.

I sort of grew up with bagpipes, having a Scottish step-father and all. He was a drummer, both in 'pop' bands and , before that, in pipe bands.
I was dragged to some of the pipe band competitions, including the annual Australian pipe band championship in Maclean at Easter.
After all those years of being 'indoctrinated' with bagpipes, I concur with most of the opinions here - Good pipe playing is worth listening to. But I'll add a slight disclaimer - It is worth listening to in small doses.

Btw, does anyone remember 'Amazing Grace' by the Pipes and Drums of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guard? THAT'S worth listening to!

Bagpipes aren't commonly heard here and are mainly reserved for special ceremonies, memorial services and/or funerals. It is indeed beautiful to hear "Amazing Grace" on the bagpipes.

The high school I attended built a veteran's memorial in the center of the campus during the Vietnam War and it lists the names of all graduates who have given their lives in battle. On Memorial Day of every year a ceremony is held in their honor and dignitaries from all over the state attend, often including the governor and U.S. Senators. The memorial is bordered by buildings on three sides and the band places a trumpeteer on the roof of each building. To this day, the high point for me is to hear those trumpeteers play "Taps" as it echos through the campus and the always present bagpipe corp play "Amazing Grace". It brings a tear every time.

Here's some bagpipe trivia, when the draft was still on in the US, I remember a lot of musician friends who tried to get in to the bagpipe corps, it was considered one of the most honorable outfits if you were going to get drafted...only thing is, it's not that easy to play!

Another Scottish friend of mine said his mother really wanted him to play them, I mean really did...being from Glasgow and all that, yet..well he was left handed and went ahead and learned it right?
However, as any wind instrument player can tell you, if you do invert your hands, you'll start crossing your fingers around...and they realized that the puir boy was playing with his hands switched around.
I've seen this on my kid, who learned by hand for a play, the Pied Piper of Hamlin then I had her get next to me...and I said, "too late to correct that now...you've got your hands upside down!"
A good piper needs coordination.

Anyone been up to Pitlochry lately? There used to be this drunken one that even the American tourists in busloads would pay to stop..please! Every time I visited the woollen mills during my stay in Scotland or the salmon, this guy would be out there playing...

Can't say wether I'm for or against, I love the Military/Massed Pipes Bands but loathe the Lone Piper on the Battlements (or in the street) playing a lament (Dirge is strictly accurate on these occasions).

I guess I had better put in my two-pennyworth here, what with my kilted avatar 'n all....

Guess what? I play the bagpipes (so what's new), and it's been interesting to read the diversity of comments posted here. I'm a player of acceptable level - ie, I can tune up and the music sounds like ... well, music , not haphazard squaking and squalling.

The problem, as I see it, is that there are a whole lot of bad players out there, who love the music but can't reproduce it. Seeing as the nature of the instrument is (let's face it) loud - every time one of these poor struggling players strikes up then there's a whole lot of general public who hear Bad Playing, and the instrument has gotten a bad name as a result. If someone is learning the piano for example and they play badly, how far does the sound carry? Unfortunately the pipers of this world don't have the luxury of committing their errors in private.

As Bruyere pointed out the bagpipes (or versions of them) are played in many countries, and with many different styles. All of these have their merits, and like all music in the end of the day it comes down to personal choice.

If the pitch or the tone of the instrument doesn't appeal to you then of course you're not going to like the music it produces, be it well or badly played. Some people like strings in an orchestra and others prefer woodwinds. Same with pipes.

In the natural world, just to prove my point, the cows love the sound and are calmed and fascinated by piping no matter how badly played, whereas horses get spooked by it. Dogs can blow (excuse the pun) either way.

Just reading the title of the film gives me the shivers...I don't think I remember the theme song, quite frankly, thought they'd used sounds from there.

The drone sound is one of the most common ones in music around the world..a lot of instruments you pick up, like the dulcimer, or the kalimba or others, use it.
Vocally you'll find it in most music around the world.
The current trend in polyphony, the Corsican and Italian groups, use a harmony that people are no longer accustomed to, yet, it comes from long years of singing together at work or during special occasions. I think the bagpipe and other folk instruments keep that tradition.
Many people are uncomfortable with the type of harmony you hear with those groups though. It is rather eery at times!

Guess I've been privileged to have been in a room where people burst into the traditional harmonies in Italy. I'm always glad that it's my range too!

My car was stolen with a bunch of cassettes in it...including my pipers and traditional Scottish music...I'm only now getting around to restoring some of it. Bought a few in music stores in Scotland this past year.

My Mother was born in Scotland so the bagpipes have a special place in her heart.
I remember one year when my aunt who lived in another province was very ill my Mother had a friend of ours who played in the local pipe band come over and for a hour he played the pipes for my aunt over the phone.
She rallied and lived for another year and I have always thought it was because of those pipes and how much they meant to her and my Mother.
I love the sound and I always think of that time when I hear them.
PF

I almost agree with Fosse4, I love a big pipe and drum band, it is really stirring stuff. I watch the Edinburgh Military Tattoo on telly religiously every year. On the other hand, he suggests laments played on the Highland war pipes can be pretty grim affairs. Whilst I would say that this is more common than not, I have heard some lovely playing by lone pipers. Bridie says, "If it sounds like cats yowling they are not good pipers", this is, I guess, true enough. As I have said, I have heard a (very) few evocative and moving laments along with lots of dross. In particular I remember some kid of about fifteen busking to us tourists up at John O'Groats. He played 'Flowers of the Forest' on request and it was very very fine. That sort of playing is rare though and I guess that as Santana2002 implies; good pipers must be very thin on the ground. I do like laments on the Northumbrian pipes though; the quality of the sound they produce is less loud and more appropriate to expressing this type of sentiment.

I also enjoy the Uilleann pipes like Tryst but whilst they are bagpipes they are a social rather than a martial instrument and very different from the war pipes (both Irish and Highland). Until I trod on it last year, one of my treasured CD's was of Spanish Celtic folk music that featured Gallician bagpipes. The music was very evocative and hauntingly eerie. I'm not sure how to describe it Clannad goes Arabic on Class A drugs perhaps?

The memory of bagpipes that most sticks in my mind is the French Bicentennial Parade in Paris. I remember watching it on TV as it became more and more surreal. Huge moving statues and many musical styles all knitted together. At its centre was a musical theme played by a huge troupe of Breton bagpipers, accordionists and hurdy-gurdy players. The theme was repetitive and mesmeric it really drilled down into the base of my brain. Perhaps, Bruyere and Santana2002 will remember it better than I do, they may even have seen it in person?

I don't remember that one...but the bagpipe is going through quite a revival here in some circles..we have an Auvergnat version and several other regional versions too, along with the vieille or hurdy gurdy...talk about drones! My first and only concert was listening outside the walls, next to the cemetary as we didn't have tickets, in George Sand country, the Berry, and all of a sudden this owl fluttered out from behind a tombstone, occasioning a near heart attack on my part!

The other piper revival thing is the modern groups are sticking them in too into rock music;.it's quite interesting.

The one piper that would make me collapse as it's in a film that would never fail to make me cry is the one in the cat's burial in Thomasina...with the children taking her to the wise woman's cottage and assuming she was dead...just thinking of that one is enough to give me the chills!

ONe thing that's odd about the pipe is the time delay, you've got a few notes left in the bag that aren't directly blown into it...you fill it up with air, then you've got a certain time span of notes that you squeeze out of it. I find it very intriguing...
then again, I've always collected instruments.

Tielhard - Please don't get me wrong, I appreciate the skill of the Lone Piper, It's just the tunes of the "Lament" that are a dirge.
Expanding the theme to the Irish and Cumbrian Pipes I think makes my point - the folk music played on them has very few "dirges". The Irish Wake is a celebration of death - a solemn ceremony, and burial followed by a lively party (Ceilidh) and the music mirrors the occasion. I'll defy anyone not to tap their feet when a Ceilidh band are in full flow !

Ah yes Ceilidh or 'didely didely' as we spell it round here I agree with you completely.