Vancouver ban bagpipes on streets

[mountaingal]

Vancouver's engineering department has written a ban on bagpipe buskers,saying dem producing peer noise. Naturally, folks are upset, and the mayor, himself of Scottish heritage, is vowing to bring it up for a vote. Nuff argument expected.

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[mountaingal]

Re: Vancouver ban bagpipes on streets

i have a secret fondness for the pipes. went to a highschool where the principal was scottish and would dance over swords at end of year assembies, his kilt flying. also, in my line of work, encounter pipes and drums at formal occasions such as openings and ceremonies.

culturally, scottish bagpipes are used for funerals. the tradition of using them in north america for fallen uniformed service people (cops, firefighters) is rooted in the potato famine. meaning that the irish who came over in masses were usually given the most dangerous jobs due to prejudice. these jobs included police and firefighters, and many died in the line of duty. they used their tradition of piping for funerals, originally with irish bagpipes, but switched to scottish bagpipes which are louder. the tradition eventually extended to fallen military.

couple years ago when a toronto cop was killed in the line of duty (run over by a stolen snowplow), there was a huge parade, and it featured pipes and drums. it was incredibly moving, especially when they do the slow march.

here's some amateur video of the pipes and drums at the funeral for Elizabeth the Queen Mother, daughter of a scottish earl.

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[mountaingal]

Re: Vancouver ban bagpipes on streets

this bbc video of the QM's funeral. gets going after a few seconds. at :13 u can see a young Prince William up close (he had hair!!), along with basically the male members of the british royal family. the pipes start at about :30, and at :45 you see the royal men doing the slow march. the video, if u can watch the whole 9 mins, gives a good sense of the drama of scottish bagpipes in a formal and sombre ceremony.

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[Gen]

Re: Vancouver ban bagpipes on streets

I like them too.

I don't even mind when or where they are played

[mountaingal]

Re: Vancouver ban bagpipes on streets

the brits exported bagpipe culture to a lot of their colonial outposts. a bit ironic, considering that the origins of the bagpipe were apparently in the middle east. today, PAKISTAN is the world's largest producer of bagpipes.

i love this lickle video of a Punjabi bagpipe team. they are so lively dem even bruk out a kind of maypole half way thru. apparently these kind of bands are popular at weddings in india.

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[Wahalla]

Re: Vancouver ban bagpipes on streets

Pipes are not exclusively scottish.. there is a Afgan and a north African version... There are pipes in all celtic countries from North western Spain to the edge of france asw well as Cornwall, Wales and Ireland

I like pipes... and it is a sight to see the Massed Pipes at the Lonarch gatehring.. (on Bill Conolerys place up in Strathsdon)... My daughter has done Scottish Highland dance for the past 8 years and just got Bronze Medal...thinks she got a highly commended.. and is going for the Silver now.... (She has four certificates in it as well)

And I like good haggis and .. Went to the local castle today and Don Robin yesterday nay sight of a pipe though!!!

[mountaingal]

Re: Vancouver ban bagpipes on streets

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Gen</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I like them too.

I don't even mind when or where they are played </div></div>

i tear up when i hear bagpipes on solemn occasions, esp when dem play amazing grace.

[mountaingal]

Re: Vancouver ban bagpipes on streets

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Wahalla</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Pipes are not exclusively scottish.. there is a Afgan and a north African version... There are pipes in all celtic countries from North western Spain to the edge of france asw well as Cornwall, Wales and Ireland

I like pipes... and it is a sight to see the Massed Pipes at the Lonarch gatehring.. (on Bill Conolerys place up in Strathsdon)... My daughter has done Scottish Highland dance for the past 8 years and just got Bronze Medal...thinks she got a highly commended.. and is going for the Silver now.... (She has four certificates in it as well)

And I like good haggis and .. Went to the local castle today and Don Robin yesterday nay sight of a pipe though!!! </div></div>

to your daughter, Wahalla, for going into highland dancing. maybe she will come to Canada one day to compete - this country apparently has the biggest population of people of Scottish heritage outside the mother country.

there is a certain amount of pomp in pipes, yes, and massed pipes can really bring it. the precision of the marchers, and the swinging kilts can create a certain awesome spectacle.

This short video of the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment), back from Iraq, doing a march past in Dundee in 2005 gives a taste of the street-level excitement of pipes and drums. if u look close, u can see some black soldiers in kilts.

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[mountaingal]

Re: Vancouver ban bagpipes on streets

This video is of a popular Iranian bagpipe player name Saeid Shanbehzadeh in the US a couple years ago. the way him hold the bagpipe is so tender, is like imma hold a woman im actually start wine a lickle a 1:20 or thereso. crowd loved him.

he's a lickle swarthy for an iranian, and some of his dance moves later in the video seem almost africanish...

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[mountaingal]

Re: Vancouver ban bagpipes on streets

generally, there are three parts to the instrument:

- the bag, which is inflated, either by blowing into it or by using bellows
- the chanter, the flute-like part which plays the melody
- drones, which carry the bass and tenor tones

the scottish bagpipes, like the one from iran, is inflated by the player blowing into it.

the irish uillean (sounds like &quot;illan&quot, is the bagpipes the irish in america gave up at their funerals in favour of the louder scottish bagpipesl. the uillean is inflated with bellows. the sound is amazing - higher and at the same time, more mournful, imo. if u ever heard of the word &quot;keen&quot; - kind of wailing - the uillean gives u a sense of what that word means.

this guy, Tiarnan Ó Duinnchinn, is apparently one of Ireland's top uillean players.

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this one by Seamus Ennis gives more of the keening sound.

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[Wahalla]

Re: Vancouver ban bagpipes on streets

one of my friends was a master piper in the London Scottish Regiment. he is from StE. He went to various pipe competions in Europe. He was a medic in Iraq. The bands are all trained medics.

Daughter dances a lot she unfotunately is too tall to be a professional. High land is my favourite of her disciplones. But she has too much Jamaican and Taino she has difficulty with the stillness of the upper body. Mean brown belt at 11 though.

Scotland is making itself distinint from England and wales, with tradtions of dance, pipes music and kilts. I mean u my children dance the gay gordon. so there is poltical impact. This is one aspect of Scotland that i like the reistance to a bland mid atlantic cultural hegmony.

Last week there was a feature on a Scotish Islamic SNP MSP whowore the national Kilt when taking the oath of office.