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Dance to the Piper: The Highland Bagpipe in Nova Scotia

by Barry Shears (Cape Breton University Press, 239pp, inc CD)

BARRY SHEARS' new book is filled with the rhythms of dance, figuratively and literally. It is dance rhythm that makes Cape Breton piping distinguishable from other kinds of Scottish piping (by “Scottish piping” I mean the sort of music played by people who play the Highland bagpipe in the commercial mainstream of competition, schools, recordings and publications, regardless of their nationality). Cape Breton piping was seen by many pipers throughout the world as an attractive and exciting alternative to the static world of pipe band and solo competition piping. In the middle 1990s it was “rediscovered” and championed by many pipers in Scotland and throughout the world. It continues to be an abiding source of inspiration and debate.

The debate may have died down a bit in recent years, but here Shears puts most of the arguments to bed for good. This book is a massive expansion on the material Shears included in his successful tune books, which inspired the contemporary renaissance of Cape Breton style. In it he

covers all aspects of the history, technique, repertoire and social setting of pipe music in Cape Breton. He also gives a detailed history of pipemaking in Nova Scotia, which is surprising in the length and breadth of its development. Although Shears touches on pibroch and explains it along with many other basics of piping, his main subject is dance music: strathspey reels, reels, jigs and to a lesser degree marches and hornpipes.

The many photographs are fascinating, and it's clear that piping was more about the music than the costume in Cape Breton. The CD is wonderful and will do much to inspire and educate pipers wishing to play exciting music. I first encountered many of these tracks on a cassette tape played for me by a noted figure in Scottish piping 15 years ago. Unfortunately, he didn't mention where the tracks had come from and suggested they should make their way through the world, passed on from piper to piper. It's a nice idea, but Shears deserves credit for spending his family vacations tracking down the old pipers before they died and finding the even older recordings tucked away in remote corners of Cape Breton.

The quality of the research in this book rivals many others. Shears leaves nothing to speculation and is vigilant in proving his points with sound reasoning and sources. The text is heavily footnoted and all statements are sourced. Speculation and romantic notions have and perhaps still are too much a part of piping “lore”. Shears goes to great lengths to eschew that sort of thing. He can be forgiven for being protective of his native style which others not bom in Cape Breton have assumed for themselves. This book will be of interest

to members of this society because it is an in depth study of the source of both repertoire and style championed by many of the more famous bellows pipers today. Anyone who has attended the LBPS competition or one of its Grand Concerts of Scottish Piping will have heard at least one piper who claims inspiration from, or special knowledge of, the Cape Breton piping tradition. In some extreme instances, what sounds speeded up and rounded to the Scottish piping mainstream is often explained as being in the Cape Breton or old Gaelic style.

It could be argued that the speeded up and rounded style owes more to the Bothy Band and Paddy Keenan than the descendants of John Roy MacKay who emigrated to Cape Breton in 1805. Claiming the MacKays of Gairloch as part of one's piping apostolic succession is more poetic and avoids the taint of any link to Irish folk music. The Donegal tradition is closer to Cape Breton than any Scottish style existing now. Scottish reel playing is identified by dotted and cut rhythms, while what distinguishes Cape Breton reel playing from mainstream Irish reel playing is a more pronounced “bump ditty” rhythm, accentuated by the foot beating patterns Alex Currie and others used as they played their pipes sitting down.

If not for the thoroughly researched historical data presented in a clear, methodic fashion, buy this book for the CD. Or buy it for the appendix on technique, the photographs and the wonderful anecdotes about pipers in the early days when practice chanters were made from saplings using a hot iron rod, and pipe chanters themselves were rare and cherished by families for generations. For whatever reason you choose to read this book you will be richly rewarded. If you have ever made claims on what we casually refer to as Cape Breton piping, or studied with someone who did, this book is required reading.

Dance to the Piper is available from Cape Breton University Press, P.O. Box 5300, Sydney. Nova Scotia BIP 6L2, Canada,$ 23.95 (Canadian), paperback.