Traditional Gaelic Bagpiping, 1745-1945 [Paperback]

John G. Gibson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2000

The bagpipe is one of the cultural icons of Scottish highlanders, but in the twentieth century traditional Scottish Gaelic piping has all but disappeared. Few recordings were ever made of traditional pipe music and there are almost no Gaelic-speaking pipers of the old school left. Recording an important aspect of Gaelic culture before it disappears, John Gibson chronicles the decline of traditional Highland Gaelic bagpiping - and Gaelic culture as a whole - and provides examples of traditional bagpipe music that have survived in the New World. Pulling together what is known of eighteenth-century West Highland piping and pipers and relating this to the effects of changing social conditions on traditional Scottish Gaelic piping since the suppression of the last Jacobite rebellion, Gibson presents a new interpretation of the decline of Gaelic piping and a new view of Gaelic society prior to the Highland diaspora. Refuting widely accepted opinions that after Culloden pipes and pipers were effectively banned in Scotland by the Disarming Act (1746), Gibson reveals that traditional dance bagpiping continued at least to the mid-nineteenth century. He argues that the dramatic depopulation of the Highlands in the nineteenth century was one of the main reasons for the decline of piping. Following the path of Scottish emigrants, Gibson traces the history of bagpiping in the New World and uncovers examples of late eighteenth-century traditional bagpiping and dance in Gaelic Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He argues that these anachronistic cultural forms provide a vital link to the vanished folk music and culture of the Scottish highlanders. This definitive study throws light on the ways pipers and piping contributed to social integration in the days of the clan system and on the decline in Scottish Gaelic culture following the abolition of clans. It also illuminates the cultural problems faced by all ethnic minorities assimilated into unitary multinational societies. John G. Gibson is a Scots-born writer-historian living in Judique, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A must-read for all piping aficionados and those with a taste for the sacred cow." The Voice "This is a book that every piping enthusiast should read." Celtic Heritage "Traditional Gaelic Bagpiping's contribution to the region's cultural history is priceless." Atlantic Books Today "By studying and reinterpreting the historical relationship between traditional Scottish and New World preliterate piping Traditional Gaelic Bagpiping, 1745-1945 vastly enriches our knowledge of both of them. A monumental contribution to Scottish and Canadian cultural studies." Robin Lorimer, musicologist

Product Details

• Paperback: 406 pages
• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press (November 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0773521348
• ISBN-13: 978-0773521346
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,267,514 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scholarly but easily accessible writing, October 10, 2000

By 

Thomas H. Moore (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Traditional Gaelic Piping, 1745-1945 (Hardcover)

This book is a great gift to those of us who enjoy Celtic music, and especially the Great Highland Bagpipe, and wish to enrich our understanding of the origins and traditions of this increasingly regarded art form. Gibson focuses on the bagpipe as an instrument "of the people," who used the pipe and its music more or less for everyday and special occasions, from entertainment at the hearth to music for weddings and funerals, the latter of which, perhaps ironically, is what most people today associate with the bagpipe. But Gibson also intelligently, and sometimes rather provocatively, discusses the other piping tradition, the grand and myth-laden one of ceol mor ("big music") or piobaireachd, the classical music of the Highland pipe, a strict and often dour-sounding theme-and-variations form that may have developed from harp music, and which has tradionally been viewed as the "original" and somehow more artistically worthwhile music of the pipe. In developing his major themes, Gibson masterfully describes the history and culture of Scotland and, eventually, Cape Breton, where so much of the piping tradition was carried forward in perhaps a purer (and, amazingly, not at all sentimentalizing) form, after the Clearances and emigraton had taken their toll on Scottish culture. Of special interest is Gibson's denunciation of the eternally heard claim that the Highland pipe was proscribed as an instrument of war, along with all weapons and Highland dress, after Culloden in 1746. He effectively shows that from a legal standpoint this was never actually the case, though in a way, he simply spoils a lovely if somewhat silly myth that has only added to the romance of this impressive instrument. A must-have book for every Celtophile and lover of pipe music!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth the read!, July 29, 2001

By 

Donald B. Willis (Lyndhurst, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Traditional Gaelic Piping, 1745-1945 (Hardcover)

This is an absolutely fabulous book for anyone interested in the tradtional style of piping that has gradually disappeared over the years. It is well documented, follows a logical course of instruction from Scotland to Nova Scotia and gives quite a bit of what I think is extremely interesting information about the old "community pipers" of Cape Breton and their parallel style of piping. I've read and re-read the volume, highlighting areas of import and interest as I went along until my volume looks like a well-thumbed and multi-indexed textbook - which in my case, it is. The only area of disappointment is that I wished it contained more photographs of some of the old-time pipers like Joe Hughie MacIntyre, etc. But, the text makes up for any shortcomings in that area and is definately a MUST read for pipers with an interest in the beginnings of their craft or anyone who just enjoys the skirll of the pipes. I highly recommend this book.