The pipes are calling
Category Life in Cape Breton
The thing that drew me to Cape Breton originally was the music - it permeates the island and you hear it everywhere. While there are plenty of locals who would prefer to listen to contemporary music, Cape Breton celtic music is still very popular with a wide cross section of the population. I've had a few good laughs on warm summer evenings getting passed by a car of teenagers and hearing fiddle music blaring from the sound system.
And then there are the bagpipes. While not as common as fiddle players here, it is still considered good form to have a piper at any big event. If you are a car dealer who wants to have a big sale on the weekend, you get a piper to stand outside and play. If your church is having its 100 year anniversary, you get a piper or two to show up.
The thing that drew me to Cape Breton originally was the music - it permeates the island and you hear it everywhere. While there are plenty of locals who would prefer to listen to contemporary music, Cape Breton celtic music is still very popular with a wide cross section of the population. I've had a few good laughs on warm summer evenings getting passed by a car of teenagers and hearing fiddle music blaring from the sound system.
And then there are the bagpipes. While not as common as fiddle players here, it is still considered good form to have a piper at any big event. If you are a car dealer who wants to have a big sale on the weekend, you get a piper to stand outside and play. If your church is having its 100 year anniversary, you get a piper or two to show up.
Many people hear the bagpipe as just noise but I happen to really like them. One of my favorite memories from last summer was going down to the Marble Mountain beach early in the morning one day to help set up tables and tents for the annual Marble Mountain Day festival. It was early and uncharacteristically foggy. All of a sudden, I heard the drone of a bag pipe start and quickly followed by a couple of tunes that floated across the water. As the fog lifted, I could see that someone had walked to the end of the commercial pier and was practicing not knowing that we were working on the beach.
Of course you can't have bag pipes without bag pipe jokes such as:
"Why are there no Bagpipes on Star Trek - it takes place in the future"
"How are a bag pipe and an onion different? - no one cries when you cut a bag pipe in half"
Or this quote from an old Danish manuscript talking about a voyager's trip to Scotland. "Many individuals there play the bag pipes. It is a very difficult instrument to play. Many people wish it was impossible."
But my new favorite is from Saturday's Globe and Mail in an article by Peter Newman about the history of the Hudson Bay Company and one of its early directors who took a piper with him as he traveled to all of the back water trading posts. "The most puzzled observers of these musical interludes were aboriginal people, who had never seen or heard such a weird instrument. According to what was most likely an apocryphal story, a puzzled Cree reportedly told his chief that one white man was dressed like a woman, in a skirt of many colours. He had whiskers growing from his belt and fancy leggings. He carried a black swan which had many legs with ribbons tied to them. The swan's body he put under his arm upside down then put its head in his mouth and bit it. At the same time, he pinched its neck with his fingers and squeezed the body under his arm, until it made a terrible noise."
Of course you can't have bag pipes without bag pipe jokes such as:
"Why are there no Bagpipes on Star Trek - it takes place in the future"
"How are a bag pipe and an onion different? - no one cries when you cut a bag pipe in half"
Or this quote from an old Danish manuscript talking about a voyager's trip to Scotland. "Many individuals there play the bag pipes. It is a very difficult instrument to play. Many people wish it was impossible."
But my new favorite is from Saturday's Globe and Mail in an article by Peter Newman about the history of the Hudson Bay Company and one of its early directors who took a piper with him as he traveled to all of the back water trading posts. "The most puzzled observers of these musical interludes were aboriginal people, who had never seen or heard such a weird instrument. According to what was most likely an apocryphal story, a puzzled Cree reportedly told his chief that one white man was dressed like a woman, in a skirt of many colours. He had whiskers growing from his belt and fancy leggings. He carried a black swan which had many legs with ribbons tied to them. The swan's body he put under his arm upside down then put its head in his mouth and bit it. At the same time, he pinched its neck with his fingers and squeezed the body under his arm, until it made a terrible noise."