Full Description
As recommended by Alastair Campbell on The Rest is Politics podcast: 'Absolutely brilliant'
'Alive with the author's enthusiasm for the instrument.' — TLS
'Highly entertaining... highly readable ... a very accessible history of the bagpipe, warts and all.' — Bagpipe News
A diverse history of the pipes--from inspiring terror on battlefields to enriching cultures worldwide.
History's first named bagpiper is a man playing a pipe 'with a bag tucked under his armpit' in the first century CE. He was the Roman Emperor Nero. Since then, this improbable conflation of bag and sticks has become the world's most beloved and contested instrument. Another piping emperor, Tsar Peter the Great, decided that his departed pet bear would live on--as a bagpipe.
This vivid history tells the long story of an instrument boasting over 130 varieties, yet commonly associated with just one, from one country: Scotland's Great Highland Bagpipe. In fact, the pipes are played across the globe, illuminating societies in remarkable, unexpected ways. Richard McLauchlan charts the rise of women pipers; investigates class, privilege and capitalism in the piping world; and explores how a 'national instrument' can shift in meaning amidst the currents of identity.
The vibrancy and inventiveness of today's pipers showcase the allure of this fabled, fascinating instrument, to which McLauchlan is our surefooted guide.
A guide to one of the most loved and contested instruments of all time from a Scottish writer and piper
Emphasises the global history of the pipes and includes discussion of gender, class, privilege and capitalism in the piping world
Explores how the meaning behind a 'national instrument' can evolve with the currents of a people's identity
Contents
A Note on Quotations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
PART I: FOUNDATIONS
Chapter 1. Sing Your Infant Joy
Chapter 2. By Came an Angel
Chapter 3. All That We See is Vision
Chapter 4. Create a System
PART II: ENERGY
Chapter 5. Money Is Useless
Chapter 6. Love! Love! Love!
Chapter 7. Why Does the Raven Cry?
Chapter 8. A Mighty & Awful Change
PART III: DIVINITY
Chapter 9. Sympathy Came Forth
Chapter 10. Nature, Mother of All
Chapter 11. No Other Christianity
Chapter 12. Fountains of Living Waters
Notes
Select Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Index
