My nephew, Eli is a bagpiper. I have always thought that was so cool. I do not think my love of bagpipe music has anything to do with the Scottish blood from my father's side nor the Irish from my mother's side--both are sufficiently overpowered by the Norman and Anglo-Saxon majority, but maybe it does. There is something that resonates with me from an instrument that has essentially only an octave of range. The bagpipe is an ancient instrument, going back to 1000 BC (that we know of), and maybe it is like klezmer music--anything that old strikes at a primal level for us.
Today is the world bagpipe championship competition on Glasgow Green--of the two major cities in Scotland, Edinburgh is the classier one and Glasgow is the industrial one. I prefer the former, but as a result, I know Glasgow less well, so a chance to return and explore a bit is an upside, but we are really there to see Eli and other world-class bagpipers compete.
Thanks for thinking it's cool Cathy! Something definitely resonated with me too when I first heard it. Even more than an instrument that has only an octave of range, it's fixed in one key, so you essentially only have 9 notes. There are bagpipes, like the Uilleann pipes and the Borderpipes that are chromatic, but the out-of-key notes still aren't used the same way they'd be used on a piano. I agree that old instruments have a primal sound to them - check out this video of my friend Ben playing a piobaireachd, which is essentially classical Scottish music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzOOfUcAASs. I've preferred Glasgow the two times I've been to Scotland but I guess the only time I've made it to Edinburgh was heavy tourist/Fringe time. Hopefully I'll live in Scotland at some point and can give you my opinion then!
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