Stick these in your pipe and blow
As the old joke goes, you know a bagpipe is out of tune when someone is playing it.
Yet as odd as they sound, bagpipes are well-loved not only in Scotland and the U.S., but across the globe. So for Bagpipe Appreciation Day Saturday, check out these 10 facts from Oxford University, Clan.com, and Bagpipe.co.uk:
1. In Gaelic, “bagpipe” translates into P’iob mho’r (“big pipe”).
2. Some historians believe bagpipes originated in Egypt before 1,000 B.C.E., brought to Scotland by invading Romans. Infamous Emperor Nero was rumored to be a skilled piper. Later literature offers better evidence, such as a play by Aristophanes around 400 B.C.E. describing pipers from Thebes who sound like “dogs in distress.”
3. While other cultures developed similar pipes, the global export of Highland bagpipes by the roving British army (who used them to scare enemies) likely made theirs the popular choice since WWII. The only musical instrument associated with warfare, they were once banned.
4. Police and army regiments around the world feature them in pipe bands, including North America, Australia and New Zealand, Hong Kong, Uganda, Pakistan, Iran, Sri Lanka and Oman.
5. The world’s largest bagpipe producer is Pakistan.
6. Traditionally, bagpipes were made from a whole animal skin such as a sheep’s, turned inside out, with pipes attached where the legs and neck would be.
7. Bagpipes parts include the air supply blowpipe, the bag (sound comes from the movement of air), the chanter, and drones (tubes releasing sounds). The chanter is the melody pipe, while drones provide a constant note. For the Great Highland bagpipe, the chanter is never silent, so there can be no rest between notes and the volume remains steady.
8. The song “A Flame of Wrath for Patrick MacCrimmon” is a piping standard. It’s named for the story of a piper from Glenelg, near The Isle of Skye, who set a whole village alight to avenge his brother’s murder, playing the song as he watched it burn.
9. They say Queen Elizabeth is so fond of bagpipes, rather than using an alarm clock, a kilt-clad piper rouses her from slumber at precisely 9:30 a.m. Hubby Prince Philip supposedly hates them (awkward).
10. Piping has become so popular that there are more pipe bands in the U.S. than in Scotland.
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Today’s weird word: Cacophony — a discordant mixture of sounds.
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Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network who misses her old desk at North Idaho College when the summer pipers played. Contact her at Sholeh@cdapress.com.