Circa 1808: George Clarke, a piper of the 71st, carrying the delineated silver pipes he was awarded by the Highland Society for his brave conduct at the Battle of Veimeria on 21st August, 1808. He continued to play his instrument to rouse his comrades, despite being severely wounded. ‘The Highland Piper, George Clarke’, engraved by Rosenburgh.
Societies’ of both London and Scotland. These two entities, perhaps more than any other lone factor, were instrumental in creating the romantic model of the archetypal Highlander that exists to this date. Founded in the spring of 1778, the Highland
Society of London was comprised of a group of 25 Scottish expatriates living in London. This grew into a highly exclusive club patronised by the upper crust of society, including parliamen- tarians and those who owned land in Scotland. The clout wielded by this organisation was great enough to bring about the repeal of the infamous Scottish Dress and Disarming Acts by 1782. The Highland Society of Scotland was incorporated as a sister organisation in 1784. While the Society’s goals were numerous and varied in nature, the first three are of special interest in this case:
1. The restoration of Highland Dress
2. The preservation of the Ancient Music of the Highlands
3. The cultivation of Gaelic and the rescuing of the valuable remains of Celtic Literature
While these goals were perhaps conceived with the best of intentions, in practice, their application of quintessentially Victorian cul- tural values to their perception of a ‘once great tradition’ was often more improvisatory than preservative.
American karaoke to many foreign markets. In 19th century Scotland and in this more modern example, music that is transplanted into a new linguistic field often loses an expressive element rooted in the understanding of the culture and language that created it. With music, language, and dance, three vital
and inseparable elements of traditional Gaelic music, all under simultaneous attack, it is not surprising that a significant decline in the tradi- tion would occur during this period. Change in any one of these elements could have easily had
severe consequences for the rest of the tradition. In this case, all three of these elements were challenged, leaving traditional Gaelic culture pushed to the remote fringes of society.
The Victorian Era DURING the late 18th and early 19th centu- ries, a sense of nationalistic romanticism began entering the British consciousness. There, 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
The most critical of the Societies’ initiatives was their invention of the piping competition. Evolving quickly from its humble beginnings in 1781 with 13 pipers, an inaugural poetic recita- tion and a small panel of judges; the event came to include a large audience and churchyard processional, with the later additions of props, lights, orchestral bands, and choreographed dances. This competition sphere quickly came to represent something completely separate from any piping tradition seen in traditional Gaelic society. Hugh Cheape notes in his defini- tive book, Bagpipes: a National Collection of a National Instrument: “More and more emphasis was put on outward appearances, the splendour and glamour of Highland dress, then develop- ing dramatic new fashionable formats, and with an increased military emphasis emerging during and after the Napoleonic Wars. Bagpipe music would be customarily characterised as ‘martial strains’, the piper becoming a stereotype, conforming, especially by the 1820s,
PIPING TODAY • 43
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