Bagpipers at WWII Airshow

[Tasty Rabbit]

While at the Mid Atlantic WWII Airshow weekend in beautiful Reading PA I heard bagpipes amid the sounds of sirens & plane engines . My lady pointed out the flag of Scotland & we headed over to find these guys . Judging from the crowd they acquired they were pretty popular which is impressive when there are huge flying fortresses & such buzzing over head .

[OC Richard]

Well I can't hear the sounds this guy was making, but it's hard to imagine that it was very pleasant.

An experienced piper can usually make correct guesses by merely seeing a piper, and there are a number of red flags here.

For one, his bass drone position isn't one anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of the pipes would exhibit. The bass drone has two tuning pins, and with most pipes the top pin would be pulled out high, up to the hempline, and the lower pin lower, around two finger-breadths. (One finger for old Lawries.) On a few makes of pipes the bass drone wants to have the two pins more or less equal. If you put the bass like there in the photo, with the bottom pin high and the top pin all the way down, the drone won't strike in well, and won't sound right. I'm guessing there was some howling of drones going on there.

Another odd thing is his exaggerated finger posture in the upper hand, which tells me this guy hasn't had instruction or guidance.



This guy looks like a piper, in the way his pipes are adjusted and the way he's holding them (well his tenor pins are oddly low). However he's wearing a blackcock tail in his Glengarry which isn't done with the mode of dress he's wearing. It would have been TOS like the other guy, in WWII, but without the goggles! The blackcock tail was for Full Dress. And his flashes are not of the Argyll pattern.

Neither of the chanters they're playing in their pipes existed in WWII.

I don't want to be negative but playing pipes 40 years as I have, and having seen thousands of pipers and WWII photos, I can't un-see what I've seen.

Actual WWII pipers, St Valery, 1944

[Stitchwiz]

Well I can't hear the sounds this guy was making, but it's hard to imagine that it was very pleasant.

An experienced piper can usually make correct guesses by merely seeing a piper, and there are a number of red flags here.

For one, his bass drone position isn't one anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of the pipes would exhibit. The bass drone has two tuning pins, and with most pipes the top pin would be pulled out high, up to the hempline, and the lower pin lower, around two finger-breadths. (One finger for old Lawries.) On a few makes of pipes the bass drone wants to have the two pins more or less equal. If you put the bass like there in the photo, with the bottom pin high and the top pin all the way down, the drone won't strike in well, and won't sound right. I'm guessing there was some howling of drones going on there.

Another odd thing is his exaggerated finger posture in the upper hand, which tells me this guy hasn't had instruction or guidance.



This guy looks like a piper, in the way his pipes are adjusted and the way he's holding them (well his tenor pins are oddly low). However he's wearing a blackcock tail in his Glengarry which isn't done with the mode of dress he's wearing. It would have been TOS like the other guy, in WWII, but without the goggles! The blackcock tail was for Full Dress. And his flashes are not of the Argyll pattern.

Neither of the chanters they're playing in their pipes existed in WWII.

I don't want to be negative but playing pipes 40 years as I have, and having seen thousands of pipers and WWII photos, I can't un-see what I've seen.

Actual WWII pipers, St Valery, 1944

The OP said "Judging from the crowd they acquired they were pretty popular which is impressive when there are huge flying fortresses & such buzzing over head ."

Perhaps they couldn't tell if the sound was acceptable with the noise of the planes overhead.

That one piper at the top of you post looked like he was in serious pain and trying to ignore it.

[Tasty Rabbit]

I remember that the piper with the tattoos seemed a bit miffed near the end & when they were done took off the blow pipe for some sort of maintenance . I wasn't sure how accurate they were in dress for the time period but I figured people here would know . In the long run I was happy to see Scotland represented at the show in the first place . I saw many younger people taking part in reenacting & dressing up the parts & there sections & tents for everyone but the Japanese .

[freddie]

There's no 'O' in Irn Brew
Anyway, I bet the pipers sounded great. There's nothing like hearing the pipes away in the distance and following the sound.

[Macman]

There's no 'O' in Irn Brew

No "ew" either.

[MacKenzie]

There's no 'O' in Irn Brew

During World War 2, Iron-Brew was not recognised as a "standard drink" by the Government, so it disappeared from the shelves of shops for the duration of the war.
But when the war ended, as unavailable products started to return to shops, the Government brought in new food labeling regulations, and because Iron-Brew was not actually brewed, or made of iron, it had to change its name. So in 1946 Barr's Irn-Bru went on to the shelves of shops all over SCOTLAND.

http://www.scottishstrawberries.com/irnbru.htm

[auteurusa]

Rabble, I am always pleased with the amount of unexpected info I learn from the posts.

A little digging into "Irn Brw" and I now understand it's flavor comes from both caffeine and quinine. The distributor here in the U.S. is in North Carolina, so maybe I'll get my hands around a bottle soon.

Pipe tuning by sight is a skill I hope to better understand. Apparently the bass drone sections need be pulled in more or less opposing directions ? While the tenor drone in the middle requires something more ?

What is distinctive about the chanter that identifies it as belonging to a later period ?

Thanks all.

[Smallpipe]

OC Richard is correct on all instances ... The drones of the first piper are not correctly tuned ... and chanters of WWII period and much later had a sole on them to enhance the sound quality of the chanter - It was often made in Ivory ... you can see them in the picture of the WWII pipers - the little white discs underneath the chanters....
In those days pipes and their chanters were allways made of African Blackwood - the bags of leather and the reeds were ...reed ... nowadays the bags are often synthetic, the chanters often in some plastic, further imitation Ivory, and the drone reeds now use the latest modern materials like carbon fibers and others... Then you have moisture control systems and so on ... Since WWII bagpipes have evolved greatly....