BAGPIPES, FEATURES, HISTORY, NEWS, PIPE BANDS, PIPE MUSIC

HISTORY: HOW MACADAM’S ROADS SPAWNED

THE MODERN DAY PIPE BAND
The late piping scholar, historian and military music expert David Murraywrote this article for Pipe Band
Magazine in 2002. It traces the earliest origins of the pipe band. Of the picture above David wrote: It shows
drummers of the 1st Battalion Seaforth Highlanders in 1883. Note the size of the bass drum and that seven
of the drummers carry flutes. Seven wear the medals for the 2nd Afghan War of 1878/80 plus the Kabul to
Kandahar Star 1880. All seven, plus four more, wear the medal for Tel et Kebir, 1882, and the Khedive’s
Bronze Star presented by the ruler of Egypt. Hard cases these but real soldiers of Queen Victoria.….

By David Murray
The development of the metalled road surface invented by the Scots engineer John MacAdam in
the last decade of the 18th century wrought a huge difference for marching armies and their
bands. Born in Ayr in 1756, John had made a fortune in New York working in his uncle’s counting
house. He came home to Ayrshire in 1783 and began experimenting with a road surface made of
crushed stone bound with gravel and raised to improve drainage.
It was known as the Macadamised system of road construction. With the adoption of the Macadam
system it became possible for formed bodies of troops to cover long distances on foot marching in step
and cadence accompanied by music. The rate of marching could also be increased and became settled at
108 to the minute, the old quickstep. This worked out at two miles to the marching hour, allowing for the
regulation ten-minute halt in every hour, a rate of progress that suited the heavily laden soldiers and the
marching bands as well.
Thus the requirement arose for music to cheer the marching troops on their way. Hitherto there had been
two sources, the Corps of Drums and the Band of Musik as it was called. Although the Highland, and some
of the Scottish, regiments had recruited pipers unofficially for years, it was not yet the custom for the
pipers, one per company, to play together on parade or anywhere else, far less to play along with the
drums. There is evidence that they occasionally combined to play Retreat or Tattoo as a group. It is
difficult for some to accept that the Highland, that is the kilted, regiments, marched to the Corps of
Drums, but it is none the less true.

The Band of Musik was very small, consisting of clarinets, flutes, trumpets and horns with a small
percussion section. The necessity of playing on the march led to the invention by the mid-19th century of
the valved brass instruments we see today and the consequent increase in numbers of the marching
band. Now if the music was to play its part on the line of march, it had to project an audible marching
beat. As has been noted, side drums were issued free, but for use on the line of march a louder drum was
required. This was the bass drum, which had to be purchased at regimental expense, which meant the
officers paid.

The bass drum of the marching era was a much more impressive instrument than it latterly became. It
was massive. Its diameter was between 32″ to 42″ wide. The shell was 18″ deep, and sometimes more. Its
tone was loud, deep, and resonant and could be heard down the whole length of the marching column,
which could stretch for half a mile in the case of a battalion at full strength with transport. The bass
drummer had to be sufficiently robust to carry it without tiring. When not being played it was carried by
means of two swivel attachments with hand grips. It was usual for two learner drummers or drummer
boys to march with the band for this purpose.

The bass drum was supplemented by the tenor drum, which first appears in a price list of 1839. The
original marching tenor drum was some 24″ deep and slight-ly less in diameter. Like the bass drum, the
tenor drum had no snares and was played with felt headed sticks. There is evidence that it was
sometimes played with wooden sticks like the side drum, and it features in the instrumentation of some
military bands of the mid-Victorian period. Two tenor drums, flanking the bass drummer or sometimes
the front rank, were usual in the Corps of Drums. Two bass drums were required, one for the Corps of
Drums and one for the Military Band.

The bass and tenor drummers of the Corps of Drums flourished their drumsticks while playing. The bass
drummer of the Military Band contented himself with keeping a steady marching rhythm. In the later
18th and early 19th centuries the fashion was for the percussion instruments in the Military Band – bass
drum, tenor drums, cymbals and triangle – to be played by black drummers dressed in exotic costumes.

They were encouraged to leap and caper about when the band played so as to draw attention to
themselves and the band. The flourishing of drumsticks by bass and tenor drummers and the animal
skins worn by the bass section are believed to be a relic of the tradition of the black drummers. The stage
is now set for the appearance of the pipe band.
ORIGINS OF THE PIPE BAND PART TWO AND
HOW THE RETREAT MARCH BEGAN

Part two of David Murray’s treatise on the origins of the pipe band. Read part 1 here. Of the picture above
David tells us: Pipers of the 78th Ross-shire Buffs, Shorecliffe, Kent 1862. P/M Alexander MacKellar and his
five pipers. The Lance Corporal standing is Ronald MacKenzie, one of the giants of his day. The Pipe Major
wears the medals for the Persian War of 1856/57 and the Indian Mutiny 1857/58. MacKellar claimed to
have composed The Barren Rocks of Aden but other sources attribute the first two parts to James Mauchline
also of the 78th.

By David Murray
It seems about time that we considered the introduction of the Highland piper into the marching
band. Pipers tend to be associated with the kilted regiments but there is evidence that they first
made their appearance in two at least of the regiments now classified as Lowland. Until 1881, the
four (not three!!) Lowland regiments were dressed in the same uniform as all the other regiments
of the line, English, Welsh, or Irish.
For those regiments, no concessions were made to ethnic or any other origins until 1881. The kilt, on the
other hand, was originally authorised as a recruiting gimmick to tempt young Highlanders to enlist.
Several factors, which need not be examined here, ensured its survival. The earliest authentic
representation of a piper in a Lowland regiment is in a painting of the 25th Edinburgh Regiment made in
Minorca in 1759. He wears the kilt.
By about 1840, ten or more pipers were to be found in each of the Highland regiments and often in the
Lowland too, although the Royal Scots seem to have allowed the tradition to lapse. Until 1854, any pipers
that a Highland regiment wished to maintain were clothed and equipped by the officers.

It is generally believed that the Army, that is the War Office, had set its face against pipers in any shape or
form. This was not the case. The official line was that the Highland regiments could have as many pipers
as they liked providing that the number of drummers and bandsmen was correspondingly reduced. This
is what stuck in the craw of the Highland officers. However, persistence finally paid off in 1854 when the
Highland regiments were allowed to hold a pipe major and five pipers in addition to the permitted
number of men. It is from this date that the story of the pipe band begins.

Of course, the reality must have been different. Imagine our ten pipers standing in a circle getting tuned
up prior to going on parade. The fifes needed no tuning but the drummers would be bracing up and
tapping their drums, rattling out beatings on the counter hoops and on anywhere else that would make a
noise. The pipers start settling the pipes down by playing a march in a circle. Now at this time the Corps
of Drums were also playing folk tunes like The Muckin’ and Geordie’s Byre as marches, so the drummers
would have the beatings off.

The drummers would join in as much for a lark as anything else. It was therefore a painless decision to
detail some of the drummers to play along with the pipers. This was so natural that precisely when this
was first done has never been recorded, although there is evidence to suggest that it was usual by the
time of the Crimean War of 1854/56. A print made soon after that war of the last march of the Highland
Brigade at Dover shows the pipers of the Black Watch leading and playing, while behind them come the
drummers who are quite clearly beating.

Gradually over a period of time the Pipes and Drums began to oust the Corps of Drums, although several
regiments maintained both, at least up to the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, and the Scots Guards
still do. The Corps of Drums had played the major part at the beating of Reveille, Retreat and Tattoo, three
of the four main events of the soldier’s day. These duties the Pipes and Drums took over. Have you ever
wondered why marches in 3/4 and 9/8 time are called Retreat marches? Well, I’ll tell you …

The procedure at Retreat followed a set routine. The regulations in force at the time when the pipes were
taking over from the fifes stated that for Retreat the Drum Major was at liberty to choose any tune that he
liked ‘provided that it had three beats in the bar, that being the time signature of the drum beating, which
is regulation’. So the pipe tunes had to be chosen or composed to follow the drum beating, and not the
other way round!

Similarly with the other two commitments. The Pipes and Drums had to conform to the regulation tunes
on these occasions, Reveille and Tattoo, which is why the tune called Granny Duncan is still played when
the Pipes and Drums of the Black Watch and The Highlanders beat ‘Long Reveille’. It was originally ‘lifted’
from the fifes, where its name was ‘Old Mother Reilly’. The salute ‘The Point of War’ and its drum beating
are also lifted from the Corps of Drums. It was, and is, played at certain stages of the Reveille and Tattoo
sequences as well as a Salute, with the troops presenting arms. And the slow march we call the 74th’s
Slow March was originally The Belle Isle March played by the Corps of Drums. The Siege of Belle Isle, an
island off the coast of France, took place in 1761.

BAGPIPES, BLOG, COMMENT, FEATURES, HISTORY, PIPE BANDS, PIPE MUSIC, SOLO PIPING

HISTORY: THE ORIGINS OF THE MODERN DAY

PIPE BAND PART 3
The late piping historian and military music expert Lt. Col. David Murray continues his examination of the
origins of the pipe band. You can read earlier excerpts here and here.

By David Murray
The influence of John MacAdam’s road surface also had its effect on the music. On the line of
march, the Pipes and Drums and the Military Band played alternately, the Military Band usually
being stationed half way down the column. The ‘double tap’ on the bass drum also served as the
signal for the other band to get ready to take over. In the old days, marching in step was confined
to the drill ground or parade square so the marches did not have to be very long.
Most marches of the period usually consist of a couple of eight bar phrases repeated. With the improved
roads, more variety and longer tunes came to be demanded, as much by the soldiers as by the pipers. The
early pipe marches were often folk tunes, dances, and song airs. In their original form these were boring
for the pipers to play so they were played ‘diminished’ that is with all note values halved. The tune
Killiecrankie is a case in point. The song air is what we hear nowadays, but there exists a good 4 part 2/4
march, very rarely played now, in which the crotchets of the song tune are played as quavers, the quavers
as semi-quavers and so on. This process also served to show off the pipers’ fingering dexterity.

The pipe marches composed for the marching pipe band now tended to have four parts – The 79th’s
Farewell, The Barren Rocks, My Native Highland Home, and The Atholl Highlanders, The Blue Bonnets,
Pibroch o’ Donuil Dubh. It also became customary to play two or more two- part marches one after the
other, the first per-haps four times then changing to the second, or the first once through, change to the
second, then back to the first, playing the two as one four- part march. This was called playing them
‘double barrelled’.

The procedure was for the Pipes and Drums to play a four-part march five times over, making three ten
minute sessions. In between, the baton was handed to the Military Band who played their march card
three times. Tom Reid, brother of the famous Bob, considered this to involve too much playing. He had
served in the Royal Scots Fusiliers and I can remember him sounding off to this effect in Bob’s back shop
at 60 George Street, Glasgow.

Now the object of this procedure was to ease the burden for the marching infantryman whose load until
the beginning of World War 2 was a heavy one, some 60lbs being about the average. The aim was to set a
steady marching pace, as nothing could infuriate the soldiers more than constant changes of step and
time. In this the drummers were the key men, the bass drummer the kingpin of the corps of drums. The
beatings were simple by modern standards. They can be seen in the two volumes of ‘The Army Manual of
Bagpipe Music and Drum Beatings’. These two volumes were intended to ease the problems that arose
when Massed Pipes and Drums had to be assembled for some of the state occasions or searchlight tattoos
popular in the 1930s. The first volume appeared in 1934, the second following in 1937. They were not
universally welcomed. Each regiment had its own cherished settings for both pipe tunes and drum
beatings, which it was extremely reluctant to alter.

The earliest recorded instance of a civilian pipe band would appear to be that of the Govan Police, formed
in 1885 at the behest of the Chief Constable [The band is pictured up top]. The pipers and drummers
were dressed as soldiers, as indeed are the majority of pipe bands today [now altered to more civilian
Highland wear]. The history of the pipe band movement is outwith the scope of this article. Suffice it to
say that following the appearance of the rod tension drum in 1930 and the success of the Dalziel Highland
Pipe Band at Cowal in 1931 equipped with complete set of rod tensioned drums, military and civilian
drumming began to follow separate lines of development. The military remained the bastion of tradition
and the rope tension drum. The civilian component eagerly set about pushing back the frontiers of
knowledge and skill. The two were to come together as a result of World War 2, which broke out on
September 3rd, 1939.
 Piper in the desert…no one
bothered about tone or fingering

The pipers of the competing pipe band had a different outlook from that of their soldier counterparts.
Quite simply, while pounding the hot and dusty roads of Egypt and India nobody cared very much about
the finer points of tone or whether the grips on the top hand were coming out together. Even on the big
occasions when Retreat was beaten in barracks simple tunes were the rule. My Home, The Atholl and
Breadalbane Gathering, Stumpie, and The High Road to Linton would do for the ‘set’ while The Green
Hills or After the Battle could look after the 3/4 part of the programme. Even in the days before
instruction in schools became a feature of the educational scene, pipers in the competing civilian pipe
bands tended to be more accomplished players than the soldiers. The tunes they played in competition
came from the ‘heavier’ end of the repertoire and precise and clean fingering was demanded, as well as
tone.

BAGPIPES, COMMENT, FEATURES, HISTORY, PIPE BANDS, PIPE MUSIC

HISTORY: ORIGINS OF THE MODERN DAY PIPE

BAND – CONCLUSION
 By David Murray
We conclude David Murray’s revealing history. Read earlier excerpts here. Of the picture above David writes,
‘Pipes and Drums of the 2nd Battalion King’s Own Scottish Borderers, Poona, India, 1909. The Pipes and
Drums comprises Drum Major, Pipe Major and 19 pipers, one bass and 16 side drums [including tenors]. The
battalion in India was kept up to full strength by drafts from the ‘home’ battalion. A typical pipe band in the
marching days of Empire, although most would have had only two tenors and eight side drums. Note that all
the drummers carry bugles. indicating that the pipe band is about to beat ‘Retreat’.
The increasing sophistication of civilian pipe bands and the standards of excellence they were
reaching were to make the whole outlook personified by the ‘Army Manuals’ appear not only
redundant but positively old-fashioned.
The old tunes and drum beatings had their place as long as the infantry marched in column of route to get
from A to B but as World War 2 progressed these occasions became rare, and after it disappeared
completely. The day of the marching band was over, never to return. In Europe, the increase in motor
traffic made marching on the public road positively dangerous; and while there was plenty of marching
overseas, it tended to be through the jungles of Malaya or over the mountains of Korea rather than along
the straight dusty roads of India.

A different class of drummer was also being fostered in the world of the competing pipe bands. Not being
marching bands in the military sense, they felt free to experiment and to break new ground. The tunes
they played tended more and more to be chosen from the more difficult end of the repertoire. However, it
was not until after the war that the influence of the civilian competing fraternity became a factor to
consider especially after the National Service scheme got into its stride. Young, keen, and accomplished
pipers and drummers were attracted to those regiments with a good pipe band reputation. But these
drummers in particular, trained to the height of virtuosity taken for granted in civilian bands simply fell
about laughing when confronted with the drum scores in the ‘Army Manual’. These were not only
outdated but also redundant.

The impact of those young, dedicated and highly skilled pipe band drummers led to an immeasurable rise
in drumming expertise in the military. It was not always welcomed. To senior regimental officers this
syncopated drumming was ‘jazz’, with all the decadence and lowering of moral standards that the term
implied for them. To the Drum Majors, brought up on the old beatings, this modern stuff was too clever
by half. But it appealed to the drummers, and by the time National Service ended in 1962 the modern
approach had superseded the old traditional style, in which the set beatings went with the time signature
not the tune.

The 1960s saw the rope tension drums replaced by rod tension, not only in the Army, but also in the navy
and the airforce. The rod tension drums looked well on parade when emblazoned with crests and battle
honours in the same way as the older pattern. This went a long way to sweetening the pill as far as the
older generation was concerned.

But now a strange reversal of role was beginning to occur. The civilian pipe band had been modelled to a
great extent on those of the Army, but now, paradoxically, the reverse was more and more the case. Army
pipe bands began to seek to emulate and surpass their civilian counterparts in playing skills, both in
selecting more difficult tunes and in arranging their own drum beatings to accompany them. The more
adventurous regiments began to think about challenging the civilians on their own soil, the competition
field.

Senior officers were not too sure about this. It verged on the unthinkable that their pipe band should
voluntarily lay itself open to being defeated by a bunch of civilians. The police pipe bands, being based on
a disciplined structure not unlike that of an armed service, were different, but the thought of some of the
others was a bit much. Still, the step was taken, and it was then that some appreciation of the depth of
skill, knowledge, and dedication taken for granted in, say, a Grade 1 pipe band began to percolate through
to the soldiers. The fact that this standard of excellence was achieved in the performers’ spare time and
without any thought of remuneration either was something beyond the military experience.

So the position as we see it today is that the military tradition has been superseded by that of the pipe
band movement. When a military Pipes and Drums beats ‘Retreat’, the medley selection has long replaced
the old march, strathspey and reel, and march ‘set’. The drum fanfare has ousted the ‘Drummers Call’ and
the crescendo rolls. The bugle call, which formerly opened the programme, is all but silent. It must be said
that the military tradition has been thereby enhanced, sad as it is to see the disappearance of old customs.

But on the other hand, no civilian pipe band is without its Pipe Major and Drum Major, wearing the red
sash and the four inverted chevrons of the old 1st Class Staff Sergeant and its Pipe and Drum Sergeants,
with three stripes up and the red sash to boot. The full dress, in which a civilian pipe band is still expected
to turn out on important occasions, is that of the Highland regiments, feather bonnet and all. Drummers
in tartan trousers? Perish the thought. The Retreat march in 3/4 and especially 9/8 time, goes from
strength to strength. The pipe band still drills to the old words of command and steps off with the three-
pace roll, the last vestige, it is said, of the ancient ‘English March’. All square, wouldn’t you say?