"correct place for a piper?" Topic

I am basing my 71st Highlanders and am wondering where to put the piper. I am using 2 drummers and two ensigns also along with a few officers. One thought I had was to have one base with the 2 drummers in the rear and the two ensigns in the front and another base with an officer and sergeant in front and piper and private in the rear. That way the piper would be in the same rank as the drummers when the regiment is in line. Would the piper be leading the regiment from the front though?

On the march perhaps; in battle, you'd want him out of the line of fire (much like the drummers). At this stage in the Army's history, I have a feeling they were still paid by the Colonel and were not part of the official establishment – although often they would be privates, or maybe a drummer, out to earn a little extra pay. I assume highland regiments had fifers in the grenadier company in the AWI, like other line regiments, but I think that by the Napoleonic period the pipers had replaced them.

..in the pub?

Seriously, even quite recently, irrespective of what might be wise, or even more strangely, financially prudent, pipers have shown and continue to show a marked tendency to be in completely the wrong place – namely where it is the most risky.. Not sure where that leaves you – ten places front rank 'fore perhaps…

You "hired" the regiment, where would you put the piper?

With the rules I use, there is a single line of figures. So, this does not come up.
Piper goes on the command stand.

Up on some torchlit battlements!

More seriously, putting him behind the CO is a good idea, as he would have been considered a personal retainer of the man who paid him.

Got agree with Musketier. Mine are in different positions depending on the manufacturer. Usually paired with the drummer , or with the drummer and a sergeant.

On the command stand, where else? Is the piper purely entertainment. Playing music to keep the morale up and keep everyone in step or was the piper used to rely commands in much the same way as a drummer or trumpeter?

He was there to play "Highland Laddie", "The Black Bear", and "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head".

I never read of pipers relaying commands like a bugler, but more for morale and pacing on the march. I would put him, as you say, in line with the drummers. Chukidar is correct, I think, that pipers di not stay in any particular place- at Waterloo piper McKay piped the outside lines of the square, which is both awesome and foolish. I know a guy who, when he was in the Marines in Bosnia or Kosovo, would climb up onto a low roof each evening to pipe. One night he was interrupted by one of his guys waving frantically. He had been under fire for some time a didn't know it. Bullet holes around him in the wall.

Wasn't there a piper in the 42nd who had a leg shot off during the disasterous FIW assault on Fort Ticondoroga who kept on playing until he died. I know it was called Fort Carrilon (spelling?) at the time.

They have an old manekin display of that at the fort museum – the staff seem to think its not a true story, but the display is well known and gory enough that it has to stay.

I usually put him with the command stand, even though they did not play with the drums at this time.

"Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" LOL! They take requests!

I thought they played "Help".

On the Carrier I was stationed on, there were two guys that practiced playing pipes on the hanger deck. Usually when the Air Wing wasn't aboard. It would echo eerily throughout most of the ship.

The worst I heard was a Coast Guard cutter docked at Mass Maritime, where the piper was playing "It's A Small World After All" on the fantail…

I've been learning the pipes and I'll be damned if I ever play that song.

Eric

Any piper playing "small world" should be drummed out of the band, unless he did it on a bet for free pitchers for the rest of the band. I used to play "everyone knows its windy" in crowds so the other guys could find me.

Thank you for the tips gentlemen, I opted to put him behind the commander. It is a 6 stand regiment so I have a command stand with two drummers in the front and two ensigns in the back. The main officer is in a "follow me boys" pose so he will be just left of the command stand with the piper behind him. In the end I just went with what looked best when the troops are in line.

@NY Irish;

Hey! Got to agree with you on " Small World"! T'other tune I can't abide on bagpipes, ( or in any other fashion!) is Amazing Grace! Any body plays that at my funeral I'll come back and haunt them!

One of my favourite tunes to play on the pipes is " Windy", by The Association; too! I thought the title entirely appropos. Ever try " House of the rising Sun", or Beethoven's " Ode to Joy"? " All my loving" by the Beatles?

Ode to Joy I have played, badly. The others I have not tried. I haven't played with a band or in parade for a number of years, and the babies cry when I try to practice, so my skills are rusty to say the least. Maybe this year…

And here I thought *I* was the only person to realize that "Windy" was adaptable to the bagpipe!

"Blowin' In the Wind" is another good 'un to get people's attention (but don't play it within earshot of a judge at a competition or you can kiss your chances at a prize goodbye).

You get asked to play all sorts of inappropriate or trite things at weddings or funerals; some can be arranged for bagpipes, others cannot. It's a limited instrument, musically, which is why it's usually only played with other bagpipes or with drums, and for traditional piping tunes, not Broadway show tunes or church hymns or pop songs.

I'm not keen on the overplayed "Amazing Grace" myself, but it's almost de rigeur at funerals in the US, the only tune recognizable to most non-pipers and the thing funeral directors always push on a grieving family. Amazing Grace and "that other one." ("Scotland the Brave")

A pity because traditional Scottish laments or slow airs are almost always prettier and more moving. I'll always play or suggest these if I have any input at all. Once in a while, I'll encounter someone who knows about Celtic music or piping and then the repertoire expands gloriously (every blue moon someone will even ask for a pibroch).

"Flowers of the Forest"

Very junior subalterns should be placed in front of the piper to catch any bullets meant for the piper.

"The job of subalterns is to show the men how to die well."

Correct place for a piper?

Surely the correct answer is, "Just out of earshot!"

ba-da-boom!