You will be paying the Edinburgh Military Tattoo's pipers a fine compliment when you go home if you tell nobody you have enjoyed 'the skirl of the pipes'; for properly, to a piper, a skirl is a squeal or a wrong note and there are few if any of those on the Castle esplanade.
There are usually five or six pipe bands massed in the Edinburgh Tattoo. The infantry battalions of the Scottish Division are always well represented and the regular services will provide at least one other band -perhaps from the Guards, the Cavalry, the Gurkhas or the Royal Air Force. The musicians in these bands are all fighting servicemen for whom combat must take priority over piping and drumming. In the infantry, for example, the pipe band usually has the official role of battalion machine gun platoon.
Unlike civilian pipe bands, the Army musicians have no choice but to perform a wide and varied repertoire of tunes and to fulfill an equal diversity of engagements. They do not have the luxury of existing only to compete in championships and of choosing their commitments and their tunes. Their musicianship is nonetheless superb, for which we may thank the Army School of Piping. Virtually all senior British military pipers have attended the School as have many pipers from overseas contingents at the Tattoo. That so many musicians have attained such high standards here is all the more impressive when one appreciates that the School has only two staff. Its Director is also Director of Army Bagpipe Music; his only colleague at the School is its Pipe Major and Chief Instructor.
The School, based in Edinburgh Castle, was founded in 1910 on the initiative of the Piobaireachd Society. Among its regular courses are a seven month Pipe Majors' Course and a three week Class One Pipers' Course. Since 1981 the Army School of Piping has been formally tasked with assisting the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, helping to select some of the pipe bands from outwith the British services, putting together the programme of pipe music and directing the overall performance.
So spectacular and polished is this performance that one can scarcely credit the Army's Director of Bagpipe Music when he says 'We knock the show together in about three hours'. Such, however, is the case. The music has been sent to all the bands -military, civilian and overseas - some six months in advance so they all know the tunes thoroughly. When the bands meet for the first time, less than a week before the show opens, it should be necessary only to demonstrate that they have done their homework. This job, known as 'proving the music, involves playing through all the tunes and takes about half an hour. The Director can immediately gauge the feel of the music and of the bands; he knows at once whether things will go smoothly. Almost invariably they do, nothing more being needed than to weld the different bands' personalities into a uniform whole.
After proving the music the bands rehearse their marching and massed formations three times - without playing - so that everyone is confident about the various manoeuvres. With a nine-thirty start it is not uncommon to finish the initial rehearsal with the show almost ready by a quarter past twelve - and that includes a coffee break! Thereafter it is merely a question of adding polish. Army bands, of course, are groomed from the start to parade; civilian bands are not always used to parading en masse, nor to striding out in the march, nor to marking time in military fashion.
However, despite the severely limited time, by dint of hard work and professionalism, the massed pipes and drums are ready for their display and finale within four days.
Before every performance the pipers play through all their tunes within the Castle. This practice, under the band's pipe majors, supervised by the Director of the Army School of Piping, is doubly useful. It sharpens still further the accuracy of playing and it 'plays in' the pipes, ensuring everyone is tuned to precisely the same pitch. Not all the pipers, incidentally, use identical instruments. There are standard Army bagpipes on issue, produced by some of the world's finest makers. However, like many good things the pipes mature with age so although outstanding instruments are still being made, old pipes are usually better than new. Many pipers therefore prefer to play their own rather than Army issue bagpipes; indeed they are encouraged to do so by the military authorities and take great pride in old sets of pipes, often elaborately decorated with ivory and silver, which can be worth several thousand pounds.
All this helps to explain the splendid sound you hear as the massed pipes and drums march out across the drawbridge and down the esplanade. It is truly something special, well worthy of the Castle setting and in the highest traditions of Army piping. But spare a thought too for the band's maginficent turnout. It will have taken each musician the best part of an hour to clean and prepare his or her uniform and pipers have to spend almost as long again simply putting it on. Such is the dedication which goes into giving you the finest display of military bagpipe music anywhere in the world.
| 
|