by Benjamin Miller
Ben Miller is a recent graduate of the music programme at Saint Michael’s College in Burlington, Vermont, where he also received the award of Outstanding Fine Arts Major in Music for the class of 2011. During his studies he focused primarily on bagpipe performance, music theory, and musicology, with a heavy interest in folk traditions. He is currently studying for a masters degree in Highland Studies at the University of Edinburgh.
Evolution of the Highland Bagpipe within the
Musical Traditions of Scotland and Cape Breton THESIS — CHAPTER THREE SUMMARY — PART 2 — EVOLUTION IN CAPE BRETON
3.2 Evolution in Cape Breton O
VER 200 years after forces of change began their slow, and per- haps unrealised, transformation of
Gaelic dance-music in Scotland, the distant island of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia still holds many vestiges of this forgotten style. Perhaps the transplanted roots of Gaelic pipe music, brought from the Highlands and Western Isles, are to be found in the vibrant and free-flowing culture of this New World Gaidhealtachd. Somehow, after facing many of the same obstacles seen centuries earlier in the ‘Old Country’, Cape Breton Gaels have managed to retain the essence of this ancient music despite the loss of their historic lan- guage and the modernisation of their culture to meet the needs of the 20th century. The connection and interdependence of
Gaelic language and music in the development and preservation of Gaelic society is immedi- ately apparent, but the puzzling differences in the dichotomy of these two elements in Cape Breton and Scotland seems inexplicable at times. In his book, Traditional Gaelic Bagpiping: 1746-1945, John Gibson suggests that Scotland has preserved the Gaelic language in many ways, while experiencing a dramatic reshaping of their musical tradition; and Cape Breton has conversely, lost the Gaelic language in most areas, but managed to preserve the fundamental nature of their Gaelic music tradition. This can only be explained by the number of over- whelmingly musical and culturally homogenous communities that made up the core of Cape Breton’s early settlements. These communities were allowed to flourish for years, in nearly
‘A pre-Victorian style of Gaelic Highland music — the music of community pipers and fiddlers: strathspeys, reels, and jigs played for the scotch fours, set dances, and solo step-dancing’
complete geographic isolation not possible in Gaelic Scotland during this period. Even during periods of modernisation during the 20th cen- tury, the Cape Breton Gaels remained a majority within developing urban centres, in contrast to the Gaelic minorities seen in Lowland Scotland during earlier centuries, creating a drastically slower pace for any cultural changes.
Isolation and Preservation EVEN in the 21st century, it is easy to see how a long-forgotten tradition might manage to linger on in the remote island of Cape Breton. Long since the relatively late introduction of major infrastructure and modern communications to this region, life still seems to move slowly. While driving through any of the island’s main two-lane highways, one is often surrounded by wilderness. Dense forests, rugged mountains and wide lakes make up the backbone of this environment. Even with the introduction of modern communications and transporta- tion, this locale remains physically removed from urban centres such as Halifax, five hours southwest of Cape Breton’s most urbanised city, Sydney, with a population of under 25,000. While travelling through the vast majority of
the island, it is very clear that there is no connec- tion to 3G mobile broadband and many other characteristics of the modern globalised setting. The distinguishing isolation of this locale
was certainly much greater in years past. When Scottish immigrants landed on Cape Breton Island in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, they were greeted, in many areas, with forests that stretched from coast to coast. Emigrating from the far less wooded settings of the Outer Hebrides, settlers were oftentimes ill-equipped to deal with clearing land and travelling through their new environment. Early homes and farms were notably crude and primitive. Adding to the isolation of these immigrants were the harsh winters characteristic of the north-eastern At- lantic coastline. While early immigrants quickly claimed the best available areas on the coastline, the majority of the population would come to be located in the “backland” areas further inland, where insufficient infrastructure and a lack of bridges would continue to limit travel into the 20th century. Further increasing the isolation of these new world Gaels was their preference for endogamy, marrying between Gaelic families whenever possible, to protect their culture.
PIPING TODAY • 29
THESIS 3.2
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