Sunset the Set

If you were going about promoting a Highland Games, or a pipe band contest, and investing piles of your own time and money would you want the pipe band contests across the grades to be designated a “set” (march, strathspey and reel) or “medley” contest? A set contest, where listeners hear the same narrow repertoire, a maximum of three tempi and two key changes? Or a medley contest where, from a repertoire perspective, almost anything goes? What would an audience prefer? The overwhelming majority would opt for medley. I’d bet my outside tenor on that. If I were a games promoter I’d insist on an across-the-board medley designation.
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Pibroch Piobaireachd

We know there’s politics everywhere. And, when given the option, the way we choose to spell words is no exception. A Canadian, say, living in the United States, might exert quiet subversion by hanging on to Canadian spelling of any number of words. A note to his boss might read, “…followed up on the neighbourhood initiative; successful in addressing the signage colour controversy; local employees in good humour…”. That Canuck is implicitly saying to his American boss, “I’m Canadian, I’m not like you, I spell bigger, better…”. He’s also implicitly proclaiming to his boss he’s an asshole. But that’s a tangent of a different colour.
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Back Pipes

For the last month or so I have been cursed with a “bad back”. I’ve never experienced anything like it. Pain-a-rama. It started on February 16th, “Family Day”, a precious mid-winter holiday here in the province of Ontario, and has, ever so slowly, and almost without mercy, improved.
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Matinée Idle

I caught the joint Strathclyde Police Pipe Band and Bagad Cap Caval concert last Saturday afternoon at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.  While most people were out and about, doing their “messages”, their Saturday chores – maybe even their washing –  I, along with almost 1300 other people, sat and took in a concert.  If it wasn’t for the hard truth that I was in Glasgow on vacation time I’d have almost felt guilty sitting around mid-day when there was Saturday work to be done.  The concert started at 12:30 pm.  A few minutes earlier and the concert may’ve been billed a morning wake-up. Continue reading Matinée Idle…

Money for Nothing

One of the most remarkable changes in the piping world in the last twenty years is the commercialization of the game.  When I say “commercialize” I mean just that, “1. To apply methods of business for profit.  2. a. To do, exploit, or make chiefly for financial gain or, b. To sacrifice the quality of for profit.”  

I suggest to you piping commercialization has grown above the natural levels associated with population growth. 
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Watching Paint Dry & Pipe Band MSRs

This weekend I happened across a quote courtesy of the French philosopher, Francois Marie Arouet (aka Voltaire). He wrote, “the best way to be boring is to leave nothing out”. Ain’t it the truth. Think of the masses of news coverage of the politician who misspeaks, or the chatter after a concert when a singer forgets lyrics or an actor forgets lines – the kind of stuff that morphs to memory, leaves a strong, nearly indelible impression. TV networks make buckets of cash (I guess) producing TV shows of outtakes and “bloopers”. People love it. What makes bull fighting timelessly popular with the Spanish public? The artistry and athleticism of the matador, without doubt. I suspect, though, it’s more the possibility of a good old-fashioned gouging that tells the true tale, a matadorian misstep of the lethal kind keeps the crowds coming, and holds the potential for biggest impression and, dare I say it, most exciting entertainment.
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Q-School: World Pipe Band Championships Style

People heavily involved in the competitive pipe band world (without doubt a far smaller group than those immersed in the “non-competing” pipe band world) know the scoop, the “gen”, when it comes to how the Worlds thing works. We know, when it comes to the Worlds, intense participant passion is the way it is; passion, and for the event itself, a litany of Byzantine rules and quirky subtext. Continue reading Q-School: World Pipe Band Championships Style…

Rumours on the Internets

You don’t have to be very old to remember the world before the Internet.  I think my first foray was around 1996 using a workplace account (for business purposes only, of course).  I imagine there’ll be loads of people in their late 20s who remember, even a little, a pre-Internet world. 
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Variations on a Theme of Good Intentions

Last Saturday at the Georgetown games the band I play in, The Toronto Police Pipe Band, participated in the grade one pipe band contest. The event was a “medley” event and we played a piece of music I built called, “Variations on a Theme of Good Intentions“. What an experience.  We had all anticipated playing this “medley” and the crowd reaction was spine-tingling.  I have never in my long piping career experienced spontaneous, mid-performance cheers from a crowd at a pipe band contest. I’m not sure about the other players  but it was all I could do to hold concentration.  Believe me, these are the kinds of “challenges” we want to be faced with when competing! Forget the results for a moment, reaction like this is a performer’s triumph.  It is what this is all about, or should be. 
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Pipe Band Circles are So Square

I’ve been going on for ages now about the standard competitive pipe band performance configuration, “the circle”.  This arrangement makes no sense to me.  Yeah, everyone can see the hands of the person leading the band, and that helps unison and timing of rhythmic transitions, but what about the many and varied down sides, the good reasons not to perform in a circle?
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