Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Scottish Great Highland bagpipes are the best known in the Anglophone world; however, bagpipes have been played for a millennium or more throughout large parts of Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia, including Turkey, the Caucasus, and around the Persian Gulf. The term bagpipe is equally correct in the singular or plural, though pipers usually refer to the bagpipes as "the pipes", "a set of pipes" or "a stand of pipes".
DeKalb is a city in DeKalb County, Illinois, United States. The population was 43,862 according to the 2010 census, up from 39,018 at the 2000 census. The city is named after decorated Franconian-French war hero Johann de Kalb, who died during the American Revolutionary War.
The Great Highland bagpipe is a type of bagpipe native to Scotland. It has acquired widespread recognition through its usage in the British military and in pipe bands throughout the world.
A pipe band is a musical ensemble consisting of pipers and drummers. The term used by military pipe bands, pipes and drums, is also common.
United States military bands include musical ensembles maintained by the United States Army, United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, United States Air Force, and United States Coast Guard. More broadly, they can also include musical ensembles of other federal and state uniformed services, including the Public Health Service and NOAA Corps, the state defense forces, and the senior military colleges.
A tattoo is a military performance of music or display of armed forces in general. The term comes from the early 17th century Dutch phrase doe den tap toe, a signal sounded by drummers or trumpeters to instruct innkeepers near military garrisons to stop serving beer and for soldiers to return to their barracks, and is unrelated to the Tahitian origins of an ink tattoo.
Jori Lance Chisholm is an American professional bagpipe player and teacher who lives in Seattle, Washington. Chisholm is a successful solo competitor winning the United States Gold Medal four times and has placed in the top three in Scotland's Argyllshire Gathering Gold Medal competition. He played with the six-time Grade One World Champion Simon Fraser University Pipe Band and was a featured solo performer for the band on multiple occasions. Chisholm has performed in front of sold-out audiences with The Chieftains and with ex-Grateful Dead rocker Bob Weir and his band Ratdog, and has been featured as a soloist or band member on over 20 recordings. His debut solo album Bagpipe Revolution was nominated for Album of the Year by Pipes|Drums magazine. He writes the "Sound Technique" column for the National Piping Centre’s bi-monthly Piping Today Magazine. The New York Times featured Chisholm's online teaching program, BagpipeLessons.com, and described him as a "top-tier teacher" in a front-page story about the growth of Skype music lessons. A cover story in American Profile Magazine named Chisholm one of the "world's elite pipers."
This article defines a number of terms that are exclusive, or whose meaning is exclusive, to piping and pipers.
Martial music or military music is a specific genre of music intended for use in military settings. Much of the military music has been composed to announce military events as with bugle calls and fanfares, or accompany marching formations with drum cadences, or mark special occasions as by military bands. However, music has been employed in battle for centuries, sometimes to intimidate the enemy and other times to encourage combatants, or to assist in organization and timing of actions in warfare. Depending on the culture, a variety of percussion and musical instruments have been used, such as drums, fifes, bugles, trumpets or other horns, bagpipes, triangles, cymbals, as well as larger military bands or full orchestras. Although some martial music has been composed in written form, other music has been developed or taught by ear, such as bugle calls or drum cadences, relying on group memory to coordinate the sounds.
Roderick 'Roddy' (R.S.) MacDonald is a pipe major, living in Brisbane, Australia, and a composer of tunes for the bagpipes.
The College of Piping and Celtic Performing Arts of Canada, established in 1990 in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada, is an international school teaching Highland bagpiping, Scottish-style snare drumming, Highland Dancing and Island step dancing. General (Ret'd) John de Chastelain was a director at the College. The College of Piping is the most prestigious piping organisation on Prince Edward Island. The College has won 5th place in Grade 3B at the 2012 World Pipe Band Championships and 4th place in Grade 3b at the 2007 World Pipe Band Championships. In addition to these accomplishments are numerous awards from Atlantic Canada, Quebec and the Eastern United States. Many of the members of The College of Piping Pipe Bands are also award-winning soloists, bringing home local, regional, national and international prizes for their respective grade.
John Davie Burgess was an eminent bagpipe player.
The Band of the Royal Military College began in 1953 as a small Highland contingent consisting of bagpipers and drummers. To celebrate the 60th anniversary for the RMC Band; the band was presented in 2013 with artwork displaying a lone RMC piper and a RMC bugler playing last post; kilt pins featuring the RMC logo, and a drum skin featuring the RMC logo.
Canadian military bands are a group of personnel in the Canadian Armed Forces that performs musical duties for military functions. Military bands form a part of the Music Branch of the Canadian Armed Forces, composed of six full-time professional Regular Force bands, 15 Regular Force voluntary bands, and 53 part-time reserve force bands. Bands of the Music Branch are often badged with the unit or Canadian Forces base insignia that they support.
The United States Air Force Pipe Band was a highland unit of the United States Air Force. Organized in 1960 from a predecessor unit that had been activated in 1950, it was deactivated ten years later.
Basel Tattoo is an annual military tattoo show performed by International military bands, display teams, popular musicians, and tattoo formations in Basel, Switzerland.
The Brazilian Marine Pipes, Drum and Bugle Corps is the only field music formation in service in the Brazilian Marine Corps and within the wider Brazilian Navy, and one of a few active formations today in service in the Brazilian Armed Forces. Formed in 1822 on the basis of the field music formations of the present day Portuguese Marine Corps stationed in Brazil, it is also the oldest in South America.
A Mounted band is a military or civilian musical ensemble composed of musician playing their instruments while being mounted on an animal. The instrumentation of these bands are limited, with the musician having to play his/her instrument, as well as steer the animal to the designated location. Most mounted bands therefore use instruments that can easily be held, such as bugles, horns, and Fanfare trumpets. Timpani and glockenspiels are also a common feature, usually located at the head of a band. Although a band that is mounted on any member of the Equidae and Camelidae family are considered to be a mounted band, horses are the most common animal used in mounted bands, mostly being employed in military bands in Europe, North and South America, and some parts of Asia.
