Home [] Bill & Gabe's [] Trip to Maxville [] Highland Games [] Pipe Bands [] 2008 Trip
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| While the dancers danced and the atheletes threw things, the pipers and drummers piped and drummed before judges. Piping competitions include piobaireachd (the classical music repetoire of the bagpipe) and various combinations of soloists, trios and full bands. All but the piobaireachd are held outdoors. From early morning until long into the night the fairgrounds rang with piping and drumming from all directions. The tenor drummer (above, right) won top honors for the day with his precise and energetic style. | |
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Pipe bands around the world are divided into five grades of quality. We watched the Grade One ('pro' level) competition with perhaps 500 spectators. Top bands traveled to Maxville from all points of North America. For the MSR part of the judging (March-Strathspey-Reel), the band marches in formation and stops at a line. A judge gives the pipe major the assigned tunes on the spot, and the band proceeds to the judging circle to play. |
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In a second round, each band also plays a 6-minute medley of it's own choosing. These varied arrangements are typically the biggest crowd-pleasers. |
The atheletes, highland dancers and the winners of the various music competitions were honored at Sunday's awards ceremony. Royal Canadian Mounties on horseback led a parade of notables onto the field. The afternoon culminated with full massed bands, and the remarkable experience of witnessing 66 pipe bands --1,600 pipers and drmmers in all -- entering in waves and finally playing in unison for an audience of several thousand.
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| Click for a movie of massed bands turning 180° playing "Scotland the Brave" | Click for a movie of one of the younger pipeband winners celebrating in the beer tent... |
