THESIS 3.1


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 1 — EVOLUTION AFTER SEPARATION


3.1 In Scotland Post-Culloden Culture


may have had less effect on the lifestyle of Highland Gaels than originally imagined (See article featured in Piping Today issue 55), dramatic social, religious and economic changes in the early 19th century, culminat- ing with the Highland Clearances, would leave Gaelic society in the West Highlands and Islands a shadow of its former self. There were many internal factors that would


W


come to wear down Gaelic culture in the remaining population, perhaps the largest of which was the vast amount of these communi- ties that uprooted to resettle in Eastern Canada, the United States and Australasia. While there may not be any concise documentation of the total number of Gaels who left Scotland, it is easy to understand the extent to which these emigrations affected the Scottish Highlands. With tens of thousands of immigrants settling in Nova Scotia alone, the total figures for 19th century immigrations to the New World are almost unimaginable. This factor has been lamented by many and directly linked to the decline of traditional Gaelic culture. Nova Sco- tian piper and musicologist Barry Shears notes in his book, Dance to the Piper: “There is little doubt that this ‘brain drain’ of talent was one of the main causes for the eventual decline of ‘traditional’ bagpipe music in Scotland.” Many Gaels who did not voluntarily leave the country were forced out of the Highlands by their landlords, who Shears suggests, had become “increasingly anglicised” and profit- driven. With prices pushed above the level of affordability for many families, those who could not pay to emigrate had little choice but


PIPING TODAY • 42


HILE it has been suggested that the laws stemming from the English victory at Culloden


to move, either to less workable land on the coast, or often to large cities. Gaelic language and tradition would have little or no place in these new locations and would be left behind by generations to come. Such relocations are surely responsible for the assimilation of many Gaels into more modern Anglo-Scottish society. If the effects of the Clearances were not stag- gering enough, new social factors would soon add to the impetus for change in the struggling Highland communities. Among the myriad of cultural changes at work in the 19th century, shifts in religion and education would come to the forefront as forces of change targeted at Gaelic life. In religion, the agent of change took form as


a new wave of evangelical Protestantism, with harsh critiques of traditional music and dance. Remaining Catholic parishes in the Highlands


evangelical leanings sometime before leaving Scotland. After emigrating he gave up playing the pipes stating that it “tended to lead him into temptation”. Although no longer playing, Angus refused to sell or give away his once prized pipes. He instead tied a stone to them and threw them into a lake where they would tempt no one. In education, dramatic changes were brought


on by the Education Act of 1872, which established compulsory elementary school attendance throughout Scotland. Under this act, Gaelic was replaced, setting English as the standard for future education. This programme would systematically bring on the decline of the Gaelic language in the years to come. No scholar has focused more on the connec- tion between piping and the Gaelic language than Allan MacDonald, whose MLitt thesis,


‘With an emphasis put on ‘folk’ life and culture, all things ‘Highland’ came into vogue. This proved especially true in the creation of the ‘Highland Societies’ of both London and Scotland’


maintained a conservative backing for tradi- tional Gaelic culture, while the fissure of the Protestant Church of Scotland and the creation of the Free Church of Scotland brought increas- ingly radical teachings in many protestant areas. Period accounts note that gatherings and cei- lidhs, once popular in Gaelic society, were now infrequent and had shifted focus from music and poetry to discussions of politics or religion. An early example of this new attitude can be seen in Shears’ account of Angus Morrison, a second tier immigrant to Cape Breton landing in the 1820s. While he was once a highly suc- cessful piper, he is said to have adopted more


The Relationship between Pibroch and Gaelic Song, explores the divorce of the Gaelic song- air tradition from a parallel piece of the piping tradition known as pibroch. Commenting on elements of an aural tradition, in chapter two of his thesis he writes: “For any society’s traditional music to be properly appreciated by its people, it is surely an elementary condi- tion that the music contains similar rhythmic features which are present in the language of that society.” A good analogy to this phenomenon, as discussed in MacDonald’s examination of the pibroch tradition, would be the exportation of


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52