Music: Banff Festival

Bonaparte once said to a musician: “There is only one musical instrument I know that never gets out of tune—that is the drum.”

Had he been a Scot he could have said “the bagpipe,” which never fails to rally battling Scots. But Scotland, which has been shouting, for centuries about her great men, has never produced a Bonaparte, so the epigram remains to be said.

Three hundred years ago a band of Scotsmen, wearied of ecclesiastical feuds and tyrannous wars, sailed for America. Seeking a climate like their own they landed in Acadia, secured a grant from James I, fought the French, remained at Nova Scotia and colonized. Later some of them moved westward. Today Scottish-Canadians largely people the Dominion.

Last week the Canadian Rockies around Banff, Alberta, rang with the slogan* of Scottish clans and the skirl of their bagpipes. Descendants of the early settlers from all over the Dominion gathered for their third annual Highland Gathering and Music Festival. They danced the sword dance, sailor hornpipe and Highland Fling. They contended in throwing the caber, putting the stone. But chiefly they piped the bagpipes, vying for 21 prizes.

The bagpipe has a place in Genesis. In Egypt it was called the as-it and was piped ceremonially. In Rome it was called tibia utricularis. Colleges were formed for its instruction; Nero piped. Invading Romans took it to Britain. Early Britons named it the chorus. Itinerant pipers carried it farther into the Highlands and Iceland. The weird Asiatic music appealed to Celtic and Gaelic imaginations and stuck with them.

The bagpipe was the forerunner of the pipe-organ. Some early man found that by blowing into a bag with several ramifying reeds attached he could produce many notes at once. That and the “drone,” a bell-ended pipe attached to the bag which sounds an uninterrupted bass note, are the main characteristics of the bagpipe. It has a limited range of notes, is very difficult to play. The bag is held under the piper’s left arm, the blowpipe which feeds the bag is held in his mouth, his fingers play along the “chaunter,” the melody pipe punctuated with lateral holes. The reeds point skyward.

In France the bagpipe was a favorite instrument in Marie Antoinette’s day. Marie herself piped. Courtiers called it the musette and equipped it with hand bellows so that their pretty faces would not be empurpled by hard blowing. Respectability came to the musette when Schubert and Handel wrote pieces for it, when a musette player played in the Opera orchestra in Paris in the iSth century.

Every Scots chief had his hereditary piper who was entitled to a gilli (servant) to carry his pipes. The piper had the status of a gentleman. Wherever the chief went, his piper went along too. In the early morning while the laird was dressing the piper promenaded in front of the castle, piping his master a good morning. In emulation of the Scottish lairds, the English kings had their court pipers. Henry VIII was a notable bagpiper. Today in front of Buckingham Palace there parades in the morning the King’s Piper. George V keenly enjoys the music, as did his grandmother, Queen Victoria, who kept two court pipers. One of them, Thomas O’Hannigan, went home one day after playing for Her Majesty and died of apoplexy.

There developed in Scotland a warlike form of music called in Gaelic Piobaireachd in English, pibroch. It became the national classical music and had many variations. These were taught on the Island of Skye by one John M’Crummen, professor at the Skye Bagpipe-College. His pupils, illiterate Highland lads, could not read music so were taught verbal note-equivalents, thus:

hodroho, hodroho, haninin, hiechin

hodroha, hodroho, hodroho, hachin

hiodroho, hodroho, haninin, hiechin

hiundratalateriri, hiendratatateriri

hiundratatateriri, hiundratatateriri

When the clans gathered in old Scotland there were always bagpiping contests. At every public meeting the piper played to enliven the audience. In 18th century football matches, each team had its bag-piper who entered the field and played the pibroch during the game to inspirit the players. When the clans broke up the art died down, and for many a year was pursued only by individual musicians.

At the Banff Festival the old contests are revived. There were 14,000 people (most of them in kilts) watching the outdoor piping and dancing contests. Among them were kilted Lieutenant-Governor Robert Randolph Bruce of British Columbia and William Egbert of Alberta, and the Rev. Charles William Gordon (Ralph Connor), Canadian Novelist author of The Sky Pilot, To Him that Hath, who conducted an open air religious service at Lake Devil’s Cauldron. Some of last week’s events were:

Piobaireachd. Pipers had to play the warlike Cumha-Mhican-Toisich (Mackintosh’s Lament). They were judged on their interpretation and feeling, technical facility and smart appearance. First prize: $75 and a gold medal for the best Piobaireachd piper in Canada. Winner: Norman McPherson of Hamilton, Ont.

Marches. Pipers could choose from a list of tunes, were judged on their spirited playing, marching time (85-90 beats per minute), upright carriage. Winner: Pipe Major Stephen McKinnon of Montreal.

Strathspeys and Reels. Pipers could choose their piece from a list including: The Sheep Wife, Take Your Gun to the Hills, Over the Isles to America, The Rejected Lover. Winner: Piper Hector McDonald of Montreal.

Youths. Boys between 16-21 contested for Best-Boy Piper in Canada, played the same tunes as their elders. The winner got a gold medal and $10.

Dances. The Highland Fling, the Irish Jig, Sailor’s Hornpipe and the Sword Dance were among the dances. Dancers were judged for ease and grace, correct costume, expressive “hauling” and “heaving.” The sword dancer, who dances over a naked sword crossing its sheath, must not touch either, but must dance fast, with abandon. Best-Dressed Highlander. He must own his clothes. His shoes must be low-cut brogues without buckles. The kilt must be made of his clan tartan, worn plain, no bows, no ribbons. The sporran (bag) must be of mottled leather or fur. If fur, the animal must be native to the Highlands, either otter, wildcat, badger, fox or skunk. The head must be mounted on the fur.

Best dressed Highlander was Merchant Thomas Campbell, president of the Highland Games Association of Ed monton.

Notable among the singers at the Banff Festival was Marjorie Kennedy-Fraser, composer, concert-singer of Scottish music, famed for her rediscovery of Hebridean folk songs. She comes from a family known in the lowlands as the “Singing Kennedys” and has spent many years in the Hebrides Islands, off the northern coast of Scotland, learning the songs of the native crofters and singing them to exiled Scots in the colonies. She traveled to Banff from Scotland especially for the festival.

New Orchestra

No Germanic city like Milwaukee can long endure without music of its own. One Milwaukee orchestra lately died. Last week another was born, named the Milwaukee Philharmonic, with 65 players from the old. Frank Laird Waller, the new conductor, is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin who has been organist, accompanist, vocal teacher, guest conductor in Paris, Dresden, Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Rochester, Minneapolis, Cincinnati. With steady, vigorous beat he last week directed his Milwaukee debut. Featured were Tenor Edward Johnson, Soprano Yvonne Gall and Baritone William Phillips in excerpts from Faust. The rest was straight fare—Wagner’s Rienzi Overture, Liszt’s Les Preludes, Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony; also there was George Gershwin’s American in Paris whose absurdities caused the usual giggles. Suggested Critic Richand S. Davis of the Milwaukee Journal: “He should now construct A Frenchman in Chicago, which ought to be an even more impish diversion.”

* Slogan originally meant a clan war-cry.