Checkout timing mark 01:00 and catch the lyric “…for he goes birling down and down the white water..”.

“Birling”, you’ll know, is the spinning and moving forward of the logs in the water (and is, in fact, now a sport!) but note that birling is an old Scots word for rotating or to move rapidly – the kind of thing pipers’ pinky fingers do in the closing parts of Donald MacLeod’s “Crossing the Minch”.

M.

I always thought those old cheesy Japanese movies from the 1950s might benefit from a little kick, a little something to give them a boost. I’m not talking Seven Samurai or Rashômon here, I’m talking about movies like those from the Godzilla and Mothra franchises (did they call ever call old movie serials “franchises”?).

Anyway, I thought how great it would be for one to snag a pipe band soundtrack, music to go along with the badly dubbed English.

There must be something about the Japanese language that offers much less concision than English. It must take way more words to say in Japanese what might be said in English. Lips always seem to move long after – a second or two – the English dubs are heard.

Here’s a little something to pass a few minutes of your time. The soundtrack is the Toronto Police Pipe Band from their “Live at the el Mocambo: Raw and Off the Floor” recording from last year. You can download tracks here.

楽しむ

M.

This piece has me and Colin Roy MacLellan playing our hearts out in the March event at Oban. The video speaks for itself. If any piper should ever get uppity about the piper`s true place on the world stage of music, videos like this will quickly bring them down to earth.

Can you imagine the best pianists or violin players – or didgeridoo players, for that matter – having to lay out their music interspersed with`fun-runs`, hill races and caber tosses?

Me neither.

M.

M.

M.

Regardless: the crowd on the field was hugely positive. I think moving forward pipe bands will find that matters more and more.

For anyone interested the name was inspired from the score sheet musings of the ensemble adjudicator at last year’s world’s qualifier: he scrawled, “not playing in the Scottish idiom“.

I think, like some of you, that the percussion accompaniment really makes the thing work. And, surprise, regardless of what bubbleicious1989 thinks, I really think the thing works. Drum Sergeant, Doug Stronach, bassist Reagan Jones and the whole percussionista group constructed inspired and appropriate scoring making great use of space.

Most pipe band people like their musical space jam-packed with clearly audible sound; lots and lots of notes – everywhere. Without “content” as I hear drummers call all them notes, there is no viable accompaniment. Like silence between two new acquaintances, rests or, open space (or “open real estate” as the drumming adjudicator wrote at last week’s contest), is generally uncomfortable for pipe bands. I hope that perspective changes.

One of the most common and ill-informed comments heard around is, “I can’t judge it if I can’t hear it” — usually said in reference to percussion rests in performance. Someone said, “silence is the best of all musical states”. Maybe. Maybe not. Regardless, I know silence in performance is not easy. Perfectly placed silence, or rest, is surely one of the most important and difficult elements in music. It takes a seriously deft hand to pick the right points in time to halt sound and accent melody with rest. A thought to be explored another day.

It’s becoming increasing clear to me that had we submitted “Idiomatica” as a group of named melodies – perhaps “sections” would be a less presumptive word since so many felt it amelodic – the performance would have been perceived very differently and less audacious.

Idiomatica is a medley freely assembled in the style of the band’s choosing. Like any other band in the contest, it is one group’s expression of a medley. A medley of melodies, one that starts off in one planned place and ends in another.

In orchestrating medleys, we can rest and be thankful.

M.

As a sixteen year-old I recall thinking I was pretty clever being able to march [while playing the pipes] to create a St Andrew’s Cross formation — all in a feather bonnet and plaid. The crowds loved it then.

But in this vid we see something on a whole new level! Seriously, wouldn’t your local Highland games crowds — and beyond — eat this Assam Rifles stuff up? I mean, be honest. For sheer entertainment, this trumps pipe band MSRs, medleys and just about anything the best our leading pipe band exponents might dream up.

Go Assam Rifles Pipes & Drums!

M.

I’ll save the lessons learned for another day maybe. Suffice it to say I made a lot of very expensive production mistakes.  We never learn from doing things right so, all-in-all, I have no complaints.

The fantastic string arrangement comes from Owen Pallet.  Owen was very involved in Shambolica!  I was lucky to engage him before he hit it big writing string arrangements for Arcade Fire among others. Bryan Greenwood brought his pop sensibility to the production – though you won’t hear evidence of that in the “Tam O’Shanter Suite”.

The piece was originally written for The Peel Regional Police Pipe Band, during the time I lead the band.  PRP did perform the piece – but never in competition.

I think I’d compete with this today – though it sounds a wee bit staid now when compared to some of the stuff people have the nerve to put out!

Imagine: a pipe band moves up to the line, with a flat-bed truck of orchestral musicans in tow, playing together as a real ensemble.  Sweet! (er, suite!)

M.

M.

Observations: 

Presentation: While performing with intensity, these bands appear relaxed!  Could it be their lack of strict uniforms?  Funky band logos?  I like this – a lot!

Music: with perhaps a little more harmony than we’d hear in the usual Scottish-style contest (excellent musicianship here, by the way), the selections of music are pretty conventional.  I suggest more Breton music in these selections would work perfectly in the current Scottish pipe band format – and give the medleys more character, more cultural authenticity.  Still, bands of very high quality. 

Web presence: the site, owned by L’assemblée des sonneurs en Finistère, must be the role model for any pipe band organization looking to market their people’s music.  Even the video work is a notch above what we see on youtube.com.

Merci Yo!

M.