Raw Scotland

[scheherazade_79]

true. I was lucky, I suppose, since I didn't start marching until college, and always marched in very good corps (Phantom Regiment among them).

Did you learn how to goose-step?

 

[gauchecritic]

The wife and I have promised ourselves we'll be going to Edinburgh next summer. I have always had a burning desire to see the Tattoo for real, rather than on TV. If only to avoid the annoying voice over guy !!

Problem is, accommodation in Edinburgh during the 3 weeks of the festival........expensive, and almost impossible to get. Guess we should start looking now for next August.

Or go really early then buy a sticker that says; "I came for the fringe and stayed for the Tatoo."

On the subject of rhythm and this being Literotica: Naked girls + drums

 

[kendo1]

I'll put up a link to Saor Patrol that I recorded at Hunter Square this year, once I figure out how to upload it.
In the meantime, here's a clip of Clanadonia playing at the same square. It gets interesting about the five minute mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEq9Qhx1bGI&feature=related

I should mention that it is not all Scottish heathen bands that perform as street artists. From about 10.00 in the morning until 8.00 at night, from Hunter Square to the top of the High St (part of the Royal Mile) and crosswise from the Meadows over the High St and down to Princess St there are about fifteen pitches where different artists perform every 45 minutes for the month of August. Performers are from all corners of the globe - music, dance, magicians, jugglers... the list goes on. These are just the free ones.
There were over 2500 different shows on at the Fringe this year, which is the unofficial Festival. The main Festival- opera, plays, music, etc was about 500 shows.

And then there is the Jazz Festival, Book Festival, Film Festival...

It gets kinda busy.

 

[lance gt]

Thanks Kendo

Being Scottish by birth, I loved watching my cousin play in the Edinburgh Tattoo. The amount of co-ordination involved is staggering. Of course, the skirl of the pipes will always make me weep when a lone piper starts a dirge and is joined en masse by dozens more, (like Amazing Grace) Drums are the old forms of communication by man and that is what is primal in all people everywhere. Every country and race has their own form of drumming to relate to their culture and all are magnificent. But you just gotta love a bunch of heathen Scotsmen marching around in kilts and marching to their own beat.

 

[Teloz]

They may not be Scottish...

... but this lot can bang a drum or two.

What a terrific thread! I've loved it!

 

[lance gt]

Interesting teloz. It's also interesting that the Japanese are the oldest culture allowing women as drummers in ceremonial and entertainment events. Men primarily have dominated this since the beginning. American Indians, as I'm told, still don't allow women to practice doing it. And all this started with banging some sticks on a log to tell somebody dinner was ready. Go figure.

 

[Teloz]

I don't know if Kendo will agree with me, but to be really moved to tears you need to stand in front of a war memorial covered in poppy wreaths at the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, (Armistice Day or Remembrance Day.) and listen to Flowers of the Forest played by a lone piper. It chokes me up just writing about it.

Compared with that, Amazing Grace is pop music!

 

[lance gt]

I don't know if Kendo will agree with me, but to be really moved to tears you need to stand in front of a war memorial covered in poppy wreaths at the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, (Armistice Day or Remembrance Day.) and listen to Flowers of the Forest played by a lone piper. It chokes me up just writing about it.

Compared with that, Amazing Grace is pop music!

Or Dvorak's Coming Home, I wept openly at my Dad's funeral when the RCL pipers played it for him. Still play it at the anniversary of all occasions.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

These guys are very cool.

Top Secret Drum Corps.

Ah, the Swiss joy in precision! Wonderful.

 

[TxRad]

Bumped cause I like the drums.

 

[Lady_Fiona]

I've been going up to Scotland for about 20 years now and 7 years ago a I married a Glaswegian so we get up there a lot.

We tend to holiday in Invernesshire and the cottage we go to is on the Firth. About 3 years ago I woke up at 4am to hear the sound of the pipes floating across the water, it was so quiet you could hear every single note. My husband missed it, I was just so taken with it, I simply lay there and listened. I have no idea why someone chose that time of day to play, I am just glad they did.

I love Scotland, everything about it is beautiful and passionate and wild. Now, our son is learning to love it every bit as much as I do and my husband is getting an appreciation of how lucky he is to have the heritage he does.


I'll stop gushing now

 

[lance gt]

I've been going up to Scotland for about 20 years now and 7 years ago a I married a Glaswegian so we get up there a lot.

We tend to holiday in Invernesshire and the cottage we go to is on the Firth. About 3 years ago I woke up at 4am to hear the sound of the pipes floating across the water, it was so quiet you could hear every single note. My husband missed it, I was just so taken with it, I simply lay there and listened. I have no idea why someone chose that time of day to play, I am just glad they did.

I love Scotland, everything about it is beautiful and passionate and wild. Now, our son is learning to love it every bit as much as I do and my husband is getting an appreciation of how lucky he is to have the heritage he does.


I'll stop gushing now

I totally agree Fiona, the first time I heard my cousin play the pipes, it sent shivers down my spine. It's such a haunting sound that some love and some don't. If it hits you the right way, it can bring tears to your eyes when the right tune is played. I only got as far as practicing on the chanter and wish I had of stuck with it. Without a doubt, when my time comes to leave this earth, I'll be piped back home to the land of my birth.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

All I can think is that some raiding Scot managed to get down into those parts of the world my ancestors came from because every time the pipes begin to wail, the hair stands up on the back of my neck. Sometimes I cry, sometimes I start reaching around for a claidheamh mòr. There is nothing like them in the world. I remember reading about the Falklands campaign where the Highlanders were besieging the Argentines in Port Arthur. I had to wonder what the effect the pipes had on the defenders coming through the fog and sleet. Then there was the knowledge that the British had brought the Gurkha's along, too. Brrrr . . .