Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 May 20 - 07:01 PM

I have a hard time telling Scotland the Brave from the Garry Owen, despite Errol Flynn.

Love bagpipes, but I truly *loathe* Amazing Grace. You are not wretches, and neither am I. Barf.

Now lemme tell you how I *really* feel...

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: cnd
Date: 08 May 20 - 06:19 PM

NC State University's marching band does a military appreciation halftime show every year, rotating between a set of shows every three years. One year is an armed forces salute, one is a medley of patriotic songs (America the Beautiful, Battle Hymn of the Republic, maybe a few others?), but the third and by far my favorite is Amazing Grace, which combines the marching band and the bagpipers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIiyzZwdP8U

That's a video of it, but because the camera is so high up it doesn't quite capture the full sound of the bagpipes. To hear that in person is probably the most powerful halftime show I've seen.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 08 May 20 - 12:16 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJi-uKOlLV4&list=RDOJi-uKOlLV4&start_radio=1

It certainly has staying power.

When she gets to the end of it, she begins speaking. You might wish to lower your volume control just a bit earlier than that.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Leadfingers
Date: 30 Jun 11 - 08:05 AM

There is a discrepancy with the date of the Erliest Pipe Band recordoing of Amazing grace - I was in the RAF Cosford Boy entrant Band in 1959 , and was threatened with Disciplinary Action when three of us played AG after marching the lads to work one morning ! We had heard the record and learned it then !!

Ex Sergeant Piper !!

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Joe_F
Date: 29 Jun 11 - 08:04 PM

The first time I heard "Amazing Grace" was in the '60s, at the beginning of the movie _Alice's Restaurant_. Since then, I have mostly heard it sung by persons of my acquaintance whom I admire, so it has that sentimental value for me. It is on my list of magical songs, and for my book I have amalgamated all the various versions I have seen & heard.

I indeed have a tape of the Royal Scots Dragoons with that song on it, but I listen to it seldom enough that I do not consider it overperformed.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Jack Campin
Date: 29 Jun 11 - 07:22 PM

Back in 1779 most hymns were written to one of a few standard metres and it was expected that you might vary the tune. This survived in Scotland well into the 20th century, when you got editions of hymnbooks and more particularly psalters with the pages split horizontally, so you could turn the text and music pages independently and match them up however you wanted.

Newton would have intended it to be sung but not to any specific tune.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Jun 11 - 07:12 PM

I'd like to have all the pipers in the world get together and play any of the ditties mentioned above.......while at the bottom of the Marianas Trench. I would consider that an excellent massed-pipe bands gala!

Short of that, how about the UN passes a rule stating no form of piping can be done in public or on recordings until the piper can play "Flight of the Bumblebee."


Spaw

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: GUEST,Urbane Guerrilla
Date: 29 Jun 11 - 06:37 PM

My first piping teacher, teaching me out of the College of Piping's Tutor, Vol. One, which starts you on Scots Wha Ha'e, which I suppose may be regarded now as the earlier Scottish national anthem, that perhaps STB should be called the Scottish national march.

It and AG are two tunes no piper should be allowed out in public without, both for reasons of popular request and that if you can play the standard setting of STB well, you've arrived at a good -- beginning -- technical standard of play and can at least hold your end up in a massed-bands set.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Artful Codger
Date: 04 Sep 05 - 02:40 PM

There is an a cappella version of Amazing Grace sung to a different tune on "Classic Mountain Songs from Smithsonian Folkways". The singer is Horton Barker, and the track was recorded in 1962. Horton sang what he called the "old melody", which he learned from a neighbor. The notes say "Amazing Grace", credited to John Newton (1725-18097), was first published in 1779, but they neglect to mention whether any music was published with it. Those of you sick to death of the usual tune might appreciate this alternative.
--Rob

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: BH
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 06:47 PM

To me the the most memorable renditions of this wonderful piece are Paul Robeson's and Bill Crofut's. Not overproduced on a recording and sounding as coming from the soul.

Bagpipes---what can I say---personal taste I guess.

Bill Hahn

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: GUEST,Julie
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 05:22 PM

I wonder if Amazing Grace and Scotland the Brave are so popular because they are so readily identifiable to the ear. After all, a lot of bagpipe tunes sound really similar to the untrained .....

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Genie
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 12:55 AM

LOL, Geoff!

Kim C, You say, "What the original tune (to John Newton's lyrics) was, no one seems to know...". I believe he wrote the "lyrics" as a poem, with no reference to music, and folks put the words to music later. Am I right?

Genie

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Burke
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 02:34 PM

"Whales and Nightingales" - 1970 Nov 12 (Certified Gold, 1971 Apr 6) - Elektra EKS-75010 (stereo LP), 75010-2 (CD), TC5-75010 (cassette) This was recorded at St. Paul's Chapel at Columbia University in New York City with many of Judy's friends forming the choir.

There's a small book, that I have only as a photocopy where Judy writes about the meaning of Amazing Grace for herself. From what I remember, she says she grew up in a church where it was sung so she knew it all her life. She's also included in Bill Moyer's PBS program on Amazing Grace so you could see if you can find the video & see what she has to say. I watched it, but have forgotten.

There's a detailed discography of both Judy Collins & Joan Baez in rec.music.folk from July 1997. The Subject line is Amazing Grace as Folk. You can try to locate it at groups.google.com. I'm not sure how to link directly, but maybe this will work. Really ugly clicky

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Les from Hull
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 01:27 PM

Here's a thought - how come a cavalry regiment has a pipe and drum band? Surely THAT must scare the horses!

Who can date the Judy Collins thing (and what was it anyway). Did she get the idea from the Great Awakening recording in 1969? I'm sure that I wasn't the only one of us on this forum that was at the Isle of Wight Festival in '69.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Burke
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 12:58 PM

I don't know a way to search everything that's been recorded, but I did do a search in WorldCat. But what I found would comfirm smallpiper's conjecture, unless you want to blame it on the Edinburgh Military Tattoo of 1972.

Searching Bagpipe AND "Amazing Grace" on recordings only, I got 141 hits (lots of duplicates) but none are prior to 1972. Unless these are the same, there seem to be 2 from 1972:
Regimental Band and Pipes and Drums of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
Pipes and Drums of the Regimental Brigade of Scotland.

Released in 1973, the first cut for a the recording of the 1972 Edinburgh military tattoo: (Pipes & drums) Amazing grace / trad.

Unfortunately, other Tattoo recordings in earlier years do not all provide track lists. But Amazing Grace is conspicously absent from a recording called "Scottish pipe band favourites" done in 1970.

So did the pipers get the idea from Judy Collins?

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: smallpiper
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 12:16 PM

No I don't remember that gem however I hope he landed on sothing nice and soft like a duck!

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 11:49 AM

I am surprised that nobody has mentioned that when the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards had their record in the charts, the video which accompanied it consisted of the piper being thrown out of an aeroplane from a height of several thousand feet.
We always thought that was very appropriate treatment for somebody who plays Amazing Grace on Higland pipes.
Quack!

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Blackcatter
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 12:02 AM

Joan Baez sang it at Woodstock - Arlo might have, as well, but it's not on any list I've seen or heard.

"Silver Taps was played with one bugle near the gravesite and the other some distance removed so the effect was that of an echo"

That's probably why it sounds bad on TV - the whole distance thing is messed up because they have mics close by both buglers (though I can't remember when I actually heard is played on a bugle - just coronets & trumpets).

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 07:40 PM

Thread drift, but... First time I ever heard Amazing Grace it was Arlo Guthrie singing it at Woodstock. Or was it Joan Baez? One of them. I wasn't in a state to pay too much heed to sorting out that kind of detail. I think it was Arlo. Anyway I remember thinking "that's a great song".

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 07:25 PM

The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards' version is "OUR TUNE": we met on a dance floor in a Nurses' Home in Brighton when it was a No 1 hit in the UK in 1972, and tried to shuffle round the dance floor to it! I was born in Scotland and we have lived here for the last 16 years,and still together after 29 years so I think it must have had something about it: some people even get married to it, it's not just for funerals! The pipes certainly do something for me, though I have to agree that "Highland Cathedral" is perhaps even more stirring (even if written by a German and not a Scot!) And as for that Alphorn, it wasn't the chap at Lake Louise in Canada was it? He played "Amazing Grace" to the Rockies and then told us his name was Niel Gow, no less, a descendant of himself with the fiddle.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Kim C
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 06:42 PM

Speaking of interesting bagpipe versions of songs... several years ago, Peter Schickele did a show on bagpipes, and one of the tunes he played was... sit down, y'all... the theme from Magnificent Seven.

The scary part was, it was Really Good.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: SharonA
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 04:50 PM

Kim: Hey, don't thank me; thank Liland, who did all that work!

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Melani
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 04:03 PM

I really like "Amazing Grace" done on bagpipes. Of course, I like bagpipes in general. I thnik the best use I ever heard of it was in the remake of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Kim C
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 03:10 PM

thanks Sharon, that's a great link. :-)

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 12:08 PM

The only people who have any right to lay down rules about what's played at funerals are the bereaved. As I said, it's not an entertainment.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: SharonA
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 11:40 AM

Kim C: Check out that link I posted earlier in this thread. There you'll find many verses added later, not just the 10,000-years one, plus you can link from there to the six original verses that appeared in "Olney Hymns" in 1779 (the original title of John Newton's work = "Faith's Review and Expectation") AND to a midi of the tune used for the song by the Old Regular Baptists of Kentucky. It's not 100% clear from that page whether the Regular-Baptists tune is the original one.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 11:03 AM

at the services for whom some piper will play 'Amazing Grace' and himself be summarily executed, and so on; a brilliant scheme, soon will be rid of them!

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 10:58 AM

The international court in the Hague should cause anyone caught playing Amazing Grace on the pipes to be summmarily executed on the spot.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 10:25 AM

I think it is played on the pipes because:

1. It is such a simple tune, ANYONE can play it on the pipes, the first time you pick up a practice chanter, you can play amazing grace.

2. It's a tune many people can recognize, almost everyone (meaning Americans, to whom this curse almost exclusively applies) knows the words, as opposed to Flowers of the Forest, which is a much more appropriate piobroch air for memorials, and a much more beautiful song.

3. It's in many ways a non-sectarian, or pan-religious song, not tied to a particular creed, as such, not a Catholic, or Orange, or whatever song, just an old style hymn, so somewhat inoffensive to many people trying to decided how to memorialize a diverse group, which is why it has become so popular at US services. It fits many situations, where either the deceased are a group from various religious faiths, or the people gathered to memorialize a deceased member of a group of various faiths, like firefighters or police officers, etc. would not feel uncomfortable or excluded.

that said, I can't stand hearing this song, which is lovely for a choir of voices, played by one or any number of bagpipes. It is wretched. The Royakl Scots Dragoon Guards started it, must have gotten wanted something more popular to play, but it should have been nipped in the bud.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Kim C
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 10:03 AM

"New Britain" also known as "Loving Lambs" appeared in print sometime in the 1830s. John Newton wrote the words to Amazing Grace in the 1700s. What the original tune was, no one seems to know - I have read that hymns at that time were often chanted, rather than sung. Which may explain the great number of hymns that were written in the 1700s but use melodies from later on. Play around in the Cyber Hymnal a little while and you'll see.

I believe it's the last verse, about the 10,000 years, that was added later, but I don't know off the top of my head.

As I said, GUEST, all those things are true. Amazing Grace is a favorite song of mine, and I have more than one fond memory of singing it. I also love the bagpipes. It's just that I get tired of the two going together and I wanted some clarification of how that happened in the first place.

I remember Fox on the Run - I was just a wee lassie in the 70s but I can recall really liking that tune. I haven't heard it enough over the years to get tired of it. Didn't Tom T. Hall write that?

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: weepiper
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 09:53 AM

I don't want Scotland the Brave or Flower of Scotland as my national anthem, thanks all the same. I vote for Hamish Henderson's Freedom Come A' Ye.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 09:14 AM

Teribus, as far as I know Scotland doesn't actually have an official national anthem. I assume the only way to obtain one would be by a ruling of the Scottish Assembly, preferably preceded bt a referendum. Songs sung at sporting events do not necessarily an anthem make.

If I ever get asked to participate in a referendum for a Scottish National Anthem, my vote will go to Andy M. Stewart's "Rambling Rover".

Murray

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: GUEST,Taliesn
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 08:52 AM

I might mention that the "Amazing Grace" melody sounds as awesome when master electric bass musican, Chris Squire of *Yes* , would include it in his virtuoso bass solos during his *instrumental* piece entitled "The Fish".

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: SharonA
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 08:48 AM

Teribus says: "Tune most commonly associated with the hymn is Scottish."

Are you sure? The name of the tune is "New Britain"! According to this page that Liland created – http://www.geocities.com/cigneto/thctxt/en/amazinggr2.html – "Despite its name, NEW BRITAIN appears to be a tune of American origin, first published and most widely attested in the fasola shapenote tradition of the second quarter of the 19th century, whence it migrated into mainstream hymnals in the twentieth century as the customary tune for 'Amazing Grace' ".

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: BanjoRay
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 08:17 AM

The best Amazing Grace I've heard recently was sung by Debby McClatchy - she's written a superb tune for it. It has the advantage that you could sing it on stage without being lynched.

Cheers
Ray

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Teribus
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 07:11 AM

The version sung and played now has the following ancestry:

Originally and English hymn written by a reformed captain of a slaver.

Words most commonly sung now originate from the United States.

Tune most commonly associated with the hymn is Scottish.

So why shouldn't it be played on the bagpipes.

As far as I know and I haven't heard of any change the "official" national anthem of Scotland is still Scotland the Brave. The more commonly played, however, "unofficial" national anthem of Scotland is Flower of Scotland. For Northern Ireland it's The Londonderry Air, for Wales it is "Land of My Fathers" and for England it's "Land of Hope and Glory". These are the tunes played at sporting events (Commonwealth Games). I said as far as I know regarding the Scots one because it's been so long since we won a gold at anything I haven't heard a Scots one played.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Banjer
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 05:48 AM

Speaking of Taps - I once again heard the "double" or "repeat" version of taps played today at ground zero. You know, where one horn plays a line and a second horn plays the same line just after.

That 'version' of Taps is known as Silver Taps, and when done properly is a very moving and haunting experience. The last time I heard it was at a young soldiers' funeral. It was a military funeral and he was a friend of our family. His mother had asked me to see if I could find someone who could arrange Silver Taps. I was able to locate, through the JROTC Instructor at school, a pair of buglers who could pull it off. Silver Taps was played with one bugle near the gravesite and the other some distance removed so the effect was that of an echo. The second bugler would start on the line before the first was finished and the harmony of the two horns was excellent!

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From:
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 12:37 AM

sorry for the intrusion folks......but as i recall it (from an old.....ancient really......piper friend)who once told me that the tune of "Amazing Grace" had been arround for over at least (just a guess really) 300 years ago, and it wasn't until the Victorian era that some bright soul penned the words that we know today as "Amazing Grace"......just a thought.....

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Blackcatter
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 12:23 AM

I think part of the reason that some songs are over-played on the bagpipes is because (at least in the U.S.) the pipes have become a ceremonial instrument. 90% of Americans only hear the bagpipes at funerals, parades, & marches that are connected with police & fire departments.

Why police & fire departments seem to have adopted the pipes can only be partially explained by the number of Scots & Irish that served on the forces over the years.

That being said - ceremonial functions rely heavily on all aspects of tradition - therefore, Amazing Grace & Scotland the Brave are almost always played (plaid?) because they sound right in ceremonial situations. It's like Taps played on a horn and the National Anthem sung poorly before any sporting event.

Speaking of Taps - I once again heard the "double" or "repeat" version of taps played today at ground zero. You know, where one horn plays a line and a second horn plays the same line just after. I think it stinks. To me it ruins the pure tone of the one horn and it's like their trying to make Taps "better."

Yeesh.

Pax yall

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 11:51 PM

I'm way sick of this song these days, too, but my favourite "Amazing Grace" has to be the version by Dropkick Murphys.

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Chip2447
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 11:31 PM

Call me a sucker, but I love the tune when played on the pipes, yeah, overdone at times, but still poignant. Personally, I rarely think that there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Goes for Scotland the Brave also.

There are gazillions of good pipe tunes out there, and given the opportunity, I'll listen to all of them. Praps one day, I''l get off my butt and learn to play something other than the two aforementioned tunes on my chanter.

So, I'll finish the way I started, sorta...
Call me a sucker, but I love the pipes.

Chip2447(plays both of them on the ocarinas)

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Bill D
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 11:13 PM

The last time I heard Amazing Grace played that I enjoyed it was played on an Alpenhorn..between two buildings, late at night. Really moving and haunting...

There are times when a song is good & appropriate....but some things are just done to death because of being a simplistic tune that people can remember...if I NEVER hear "Fox on the Run" again, it will be too soon!..Amazing Grace?...well, maybe I'll ask the next Alpenhorn player I run into on the street for it!..;>}

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 09:26 PM

G'day pipe-lovers ...

And it has been played for ever (well, since Sir Henry Bishop wrote it ...) by the Pipe Band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards because it is their "official" hymn - with a pun on the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards' nickname "The Amazing Greys".

As well, any tune with a short enough range for Highland pipes will also have a short enough range for most voices to join in without neding to create a harmony line on the fly.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Barry T
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 09:08 PM

Smallpiper is bang on target: most of us pipers gag at the thought of playing Amazing Grace and Scotland the Brave. It's the listeners who demand or expect it.

Both are great tunes, though, especially if played in a massed band setting with pipe bands and brass and reed bands in counterpoint. They're just overplayed, when there are hundreds of equally evocative tunes that could be selected.

A second reason these two tunes are called for on days like today is that they're among the (short) list of tunes that virtually every piper and pipe band can be expected to know how to play... even if they've never had the opportunity to practise together.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: kendall
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 09:06 PM

It's worn out.What I can't figure out is, why does every major funeral here have bagpipes anyway?

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: greg stephens
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 07:34 PM

If I had a pound for every Englishman who could tell the difference between any one of those tunes played on the bagpipes I'd have...well,maybe enough for a pint.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 07:28 PM

Scotland the Brave...[has]...the advantage of waking the English up!

Shame it doesn't wake your football team up!

ROTFLMAO

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 07:26 PM

The Flowers of the Forest is the more traditional lament for a funeral. As in Eric Bogle's No Man's Land.

But Amazing Grace is great on the pipes, and hits the spot.

Funerals aren't about entertainment and giving people a bit of variety. That's especially so in the kind of context of the FDNY funerals, where solidarity with the other fallen is obviously important, and having the same tune on the pipes must help emphasise that, and could be a source of strength and comfort to those involved.

I'm sure the pipers wish there weren't so many funerals too.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: smallpiper
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 07:22 PM

Yeah but they don't associate "Hey Johnny Cope" with porrage!

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: The Walrus
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 07:19 PM

smallpiper,

"...Scotland the Brave is just another one of those over played tunes ....However it does have the advantage of waking the English up! ..."

I always thought that was what "Hey Johnny Cope" was for.

Walrus

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: smallpiper
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 06:48 PM

AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG Scotland the Brave !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No the national anthem is Flower of Scotland.

Scotland the Brave is just another one of those over played tunes and it drives me nearly as mad as playing Amazing Grace! However it does have the advantage of waking the English up!

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Banjer
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 06:44 PM

While on this train of thought, (I personally love hearing the pipes, BTW) why is it that at almost any event, parade, or gathering of any sort, Scotland The Brave is played? It would seem to me that song is more like a national anthem and that it should be revered like our Star Spangled Banner. Not that I mind hearing Scotland THe Brave, it is very pretty tune. As for Amazing Grace on the pipes, the hearing of it never fails to dampen the eyes....It is such a beautiful melody.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: smallpiper
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 06:26 PM

I rather think that the Pipe Band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards had a lot to do with it by have a hit record with it in the 70's. As a piper, personally, I hate playing it but am always being asked to play it. Its boring to play and I think it sounds crappy BUT people identify with it for some reason and they like it - possibly because its the only pipe tune that they've ever heard. There are a lot more tunes that are more evocitive and emotional - e.g. Highland Cathederal, Flowers of the Forest _ I guess we'll only hear an end to Amazing Grace when some one has a hit with a different tune (Mull of Bloody Kintire is another pet hate)

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Les from Hull
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 06:20 PM

I imagine that whoever put Amazing Grace and the bagpipes together had heard the recording by the Great Awakening (used extensively at the Isle of Wight Pop Festival in 1969). It was done on guitars but it sounded 'really bagpipey'.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: RichM
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 06:17 PM

The problem with "traditional" music is that, well, it becomes common: often played, often cherished.

There was a great bluegrass tune in the 70's : Fox On The Run- that was so overplayed that now NO ONE will do it. Too bad, it's a great harmony song.
Time to brush off the dust on some less known songs and play the **** out of 'em?

Rich McCarthy

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: BH
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 06:12 PM

It may well be that besides being a simple melody with only slightly changed words over the years it speaks to people of all denominations. It does that in a most haunting way.

As for the bagpipes---well, I don't klnow how that came about since it is used fairly universally. To me, personally, I find the bagpipe sound one I care not at all for.

Bill Hahn

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 06:11 PM

..and lots of people like it...

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Kim C
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 06:11 PM

Guest, you are right about all those things. I'm not disputing that one bit. It does sound really good on the pipes, and it's a great tune, in fact, one of my favorites... which is why I'm a little peeved that it's become so COMMON in the last few years.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 06:09 PM

...and the words are very uplifting...

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From:
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 06:05 PM

Karen, check out this thread

Amazing Grace

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 06:05 PM

It's easy to play/sing too...

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: greg stephens
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 06:04 PM

I think if you track this one back you'll find Judy Collins was largely responsible. The bagpipers hadnt taken it up before her hit, as far as I recall. Neither was it used in every cliche situation. It was known, but it wasnt that well-known.

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Kim C
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 05:54 PM

Yes, but aren't there others?

Subject: RE: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 05:46 PM

Because it's a good tune and sounds good when played on bagpipes?

Subject: Amazing Grace and the Bagpipes
From: Kim C
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 05:41 PM

I would like to know how it is that Amazing Grace is the Only Hymn Ever Written as well as The Only Tune Bagpipers Know.

Seriously, I mean no offense. I am curious as to how Amazing Grace became so closely associated with the bagpipes, and why it has to get played so often. It's like the Orange Blossom Special of the bagpipes.

And anytime there's a hymn-sing, you know someone is going to want to do Amazing Grace.

(can you tell I'm just a WEE BIT tired of it?)

Feeling a wee bit punchy today ----- Kim C