Burns Night – tradition of piping in the haggis
by Dr Keith Souter
Tonight is Burns Night, the anniversary of the birth of Scotland’s famous poet. It is traditional at a Burns Supper to pipe in the haggis. Now I admit that the bagpipe is not everyone’s favourite instrument, perhaps because it is so loud. Well, there is good reason there, because the Great Highland Bagpipe was a martial instruments, played going into battle.
I have an inborn affection for the instrument, since my great-grandfather was a piper.
He served in the Gordon Highlanders and was decorated for his part as a piper at the Battle of the Dargai Heights in 1897 in the northwest frontier of India, now Pakistan. He was wounded and invalided out, becoming for a while a music hall artiste. Then during the Great War, he re-enlisted as a piper only to be wounded again at the Battle of Loos on the Western Front in 1915.
One of my hobbies is the writing of crime novels, and Inspector Torquil McKinnon my detective in the series plays the pipes and is known among his friends as ‘Piper.’ He is, of course, based upon my great grandfather. When I am plotting and writing my novels I play the pipes.
The bagpipe is not an easy instrument to play. Many years ago a good friend was an ex-pipe major and he gave me lessons.
The bagpipe consists of several parts. The bag is traditionally made of animal skin, although nowadays Gore-Tex is often used. A blowpipe, correctly called an insufflation tube is used to fill the airtight bag. There are three drone pipes which rest upon the left shoulder and a chanter, rather like a recorder, is played with the two hands. The bag is kept blown up and a constant stream of air is squeezed from the bag by a slight bellows movement of the elbow. The air flows over the four reeds, one in the chanter, and one in each drone.
I have spoken at several Burns Suppers, but I have never had the privilege of piping in the haggis. The simple truth is that I am only permitted to practice when there is no one else in the house. But perhaps one day.