A sports stadium, with a pipe band playing, features in this week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph. So take a tour of bands across a century and across Europe.
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Massed pipe bands in the Scottish Borders at Floors Castle, reputed to be Scotland's largest inhabited house, standing in parkland overlooking the River Tweed at Kelso. It was built by the architect William Adam, for the 1st Duke of Roxburghe in 1721 and later embellished by William Playfair. Despite its name, it is a large country house - not a castle fortress built for defence.
My home village of Earlston in the Scottish Borders, with Melrose Pipe Band leading the fancy dress parade at Civic Week - sadly curtailed 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid pandemic.
Back to 1923 and Earlston Clown Band. Its origins are obscure, but it was a popular participant in many events across the region up to the outbreak of World War Two. Notice the man on the front left wearing a kilt, incongruously with a policeman's helmet!
We took a short break in the city of Dundee and coincided with a youth pipe band companionship. The smartly dressed bands were all practising in streets off the square prior to going on parade.
Taking a break!
My cousin's grandfather Edward Stewart Ingram Smith (1871-1923), whose family came from Unst in the Shetland Isles. Edward's daughter Ella (who lived to the age of 99) left notes relating how her father wore the kilt, played the bagpipes and spoke Gaelic He enjoyed art and painted in oils. He was well
educated in Edinburgh and spoke with a soft lilting accent.
Leaving school, Edward joined the army as a Gordon Highlander, but did not settle and was bought out by his parents. In 1915 at the age of 44, and now living in Blackpool, Lancashire, Edward, as a previously serving soldier, was called up to return to the army and he joined the kilted Liverpool Scottish Regiment.
Edward served in France, but was gassed and injured at the Battle of the Somme. After the Battle of Delville Wood, where he was wounded in action, he was invalided back to England and hospitalised. But he remained thereafter a broken and sad man.
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St. Gilgen in the Austrian lakes, where we saw the the parade marking a local festival, with the band and spectators dressed in traditional costume.
On a visit to Krakow in Poland, we visited the castle and came across a gathering for an event - we never did find out any details, but enjoyed seeing the bands and the uniforms. Here two unusual instruments - can anyone (Mike?) tell us more?
The Band that Never Was
No band in sight - but I had to include a photograph of the Scots Guards in Edinburgh.
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I love a pipe band, the music, the kilts, the bagpipes, the handsome scotsmen. We don't see them very often, just occasionally for special events and parades. Are they a dying breed? I hope not.
ReplyDeleteOne of the neighboring cities has a long history of holding a St. Patrick's Day parade which has been canceled the last 2 years due to COVID. However, it's a wonderful event in a good year. I am always amazed how many groups of kilted bagpipers there are locally and how many troups of Irish dancers there are. I never hear anything about them recruiting new members or practicing but they turn out in full force for the parade!
ReplyDeleteSo many terrific band uniforms here.
ReplyDeleteI've loved the sound of bagpipes ever since a boyfriend took me to see The Black Watch and Coldstream Guard perform in San Francisco. Not only the sound, but the pageantry - the color and dress! And I love the way the bands start with a slow tempo, their sporrans swinging slowly, then speed up with each successive number. It takes my breath away. Two years ago at the Royal Tattoo when the massed pipe bands came marching out onto the esplanade I was so emotional I was laughing and crying at the same time. The thrill of being there to experience it all in person was overwhelming. I have to assume that my belief in genetic memory and the fact that my ancestral roots go way back in Scottish history are the reason for such an emotional response to the sound of bagpipes and the wonderful pageantry certainly doesn't hurt! :)
ReplyDeleteWe have (in the past) Highland Games nearby on "Grandfather Mountain" with lots of great music by pipers. I have not attended, but enjoyed the virtual program last year.
ReplyDeleteWell done on all the kilts and pipers. Your mystery Polish instruments are interesting. The first photo with a man shouldering a pair of conical tubes, actually carries two wooden alphorns, or the Polish folk equivalent. He must have a partner though for the second horn.
ReplyDeleteThe next photo has a glockenspiel on right, essentially a marching xylophone, and on the left a Polish, or probably Ruthenia (Galicia), folk bagpipe with a goat's head on the chanter. The Scots had no patent on the bagpipes. But no nationality can match the Scots for dazzling color uniforms. It's still the ultimate brand image, especially with the pipes and drums. I considered doing a Scottish theme this weekend, but I thought my brass band photo a better match. The next time Alan picks a Scottish theme I have a particularly good story about an American band that co-opted the Scots' "brand" in an unlikely place.
Amazing pictures, including those of your cousin's grandfather. Imagine enlisting in the army at 44yo.
ReplyDeleteYou did an excellent job of finding photos to go with the theme. That was a sad story about the soldier in the family. The Great War changed so many lives.
ReplyDeleteCan't believe it's now Tues and I'm finally commenting here. I appreciated your personal photos of family members, as well as your sharing from your travels...great kilted bands photos!
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