Jo Morrison wrote this review which ran on Folk Tales.
It often seems that the average listener thinks there are three tunes on the bagpipes: “Scotland the Brave,” “Amazing Grace,” and “The Other One,” which encompasses the entire remains of the bagpipe repertoire, which is amazingly extensive. Despite this impression by the general public, there is also a strong sentiment held for the bagpipes by a large portion of the population. These people feel pride, joy, or sorrow whenever they hear the pipes played. This strong emotional response to the instrument, by those with little or no knowledge of the instrument, shows how the pipes have held a visceral grip on our emotions for centuries.
The Piper in Peace and War discusses these natural feelings, and gives excellent explanation for their origin. This is done through a simple and concise explanation of the history of the bagpipe within the British military, and the way this instrument has also taken hold in other military units, including in such places as India. Although written in 1927, this book has an easy-going style and unstilted manner that makes it easy to read. The format is uncomplicated, with several sets of introductory remarks, followed by a brief general explanation of the piper and his duties. This is followed by series of chapters, each about a different regiment. These are wonderful vignettes into the life of the military piper.
Leading the soldiers into war, the pipers were often considered essential for the success of a regiment. It is noted in the introduction of the book that there were over 500 pipers killed during World War I, and another 600-plus wounded. This text was likely written as a tribute to these pipers that led other men into battle.
Pipers not only led the troops during times of war, but also in times of peace, for drilling and marching. It is interesting to note that the bagpipers not only had the duties of calling the soldiers to their drills and assemblies, but they were also responsible for providing the bulk of the entertainment during recreational hours. This means the pipers were on duty almost all the time. In addition to these musical duties, all but those in the Scots‚ Guards had to perform their regular military duties as well.
Charles Malcolm collected his data by going from regiment to regiment, interviewing its members and writing down anecdotes and stories. These anecdotes range from heart warming to outrageous in content, but all have a place in Scottish/British history. Take, for example, the story of the tiny group left to fend for themselves with no weapons or ammunition save a few fixed bayonets. They prepared to meet the charge, and the piper, having no better weapon, sounded his drones, pointing the drones in the face of the enemy. The approaching march halted, and the enemy retreated, flying “like the wind, mistaking the bagpipe for some infernal machine.”
The book is peppered with other interesting tidbits, including a listing of the tunes used for various purposes by the various regiments. For instance, while “Johnny Cope” is a popular reveille in many regiments, there is only one unit that used “Lochaber No More” for lights-out, while it was banned for all but funeral playing in many of the regiments. Similarly, the pipe-major for the outfit laid down the law regarding what music was and was not appropriate, and popular tunes of the time such as “Annie Laurie” and “A Man’s a Man for a’ that” were banned in certain regiments, purely for reasons of personal taste.
This book includes information about the lowland regiments having spent years fighting for their right to have paid pipers on their rosters, the same as their highland counterparts. It discusses the role and status of the piper in relation to the other servicemen. It gives tidbits about the use of pipes during wartime. It also lists short biographies of a number of well-known pipers. All of this information is laid out in a simple narrative style, skipping merrily from one story to the next. Although informative and easy to read, this method would make finding reference to a particular story difficult if it were not for the helpful subject headings at the top of each page. There is also a fairly extensive index at the back.
The book does have a number of failings, however. There is a definite format to the information, telling stories by regiment, but the overall effect is still somewhat scattershot at best. The stories meander from theme to theme with little or no transition between the stories. The information is almost entirely anecdotal, and although we are assured in the introductory material that Charles Malcolm was an excellent scholar who put much time and research into his text, he failed to give much of any credit to his sources. We have no idea where these anecdotes came from, nor do we have any evidence that he checked his sources against other sources in any way. This leaves the text without a lot of authority.
Add to this that the anecdotes are presented in more of a summary format, rather than in an oral-history form of presentation, and the historical value of the book is lessened even further. Finally, the book is clearly dated, for the information has not been in any way updated since the text was first written in 1927. The new introduction, written in 1993, notes that since 1927 the Scottish battalions have dropped from 20 to 7 in number, and that number has actually been reduced even more since 1993, since at least one more pair of regiments has combined since that time.
Despite these objections, this is a wonderful book for those interested in a general history of the bagpipe as it relates to military history. It gives an excellent overview of the life and times of the bagpiper, and will serve as an interesting and informative introduction to the way the bagpipe fits into military history. For another well-presented view of the role of the pipes in the military, see the movie “Tunes of Glory.”
(Hardwick Press, 1993)
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