I’ve written before about my affection for bagpipes, but they knew no bounds until I wrote my Christmas novella, The Yuletide Bride.
Bagpipes play a central role in the story and are part of its charm (in my opinion).
Kate comes from a Scottish family now living in Nebraska, 1874. While hunting in her grandmother’s old chest, she stumbles upon a curious deerskin bag:
Kate struggled to contain the bundle of old leather and wooden sticks as she lifted it out. She peered closer and saw round holes in one of the sticks. Turning the bundle over, four wooden tubes jutted out the back of what appeared to be a flattened sack covered in the MacDougall plaid. One stick had small holes on the capped end and the other three tubes had knobby endings.
Well, how would you describe bagpipes? Click to Tweet
She struggled with the sticks and the bag, eventually with a little help from her father, figuring out how to blow the instrument. As an experienced reed flute piper, she had an idea of how it worked:
“The short mouthpiece smelled musty and reedy, but when she blew into it, the bag expanded under her arm. She blew and blew to fill the bag until her lungs ached and she felt dizzy. A squawk sounded and Mama’s hands flew to her cheeks.”
Among other things, she needed a new reed.
Our hero, an accomplished fiddler, had trouble being enthusiastic:
“Ewan winced as Kate blew into the bagpipes. The scolding harsh sound grated on him as she wavered the tone trying to find a clear note.”
She stuck to it, however, and by the end of the story . . . well, you’ll have to read it to find out yourself!
Like Kate, I’m a musician. I can play the flute, recorder, clarinet, and most importantly for this project both the bassoon and the oboe–double reed instruments, just like the bagpipes.
Sort of.
To add verisimilitude to the story, I decided to try my mouth on the bagpipes.
Fortunately, I know a former North American clan chief and I appealed to him for assistance with the bagpipes. Click to Tweet
Bill plays the bagpipes, loves bagpipe bands, has traveled many times to Scotland and is a very clever and enthusiastic man.
He was happy to bring out his bagpipes and let me try to play.
We struggled a bit because I needed to be Kate–seeing a confusing jumble for the first time and trying to figure it out.
Bill tried to help me.
It was a lot harder than I expected–particularly given my musical experience.
But it was awfully funny, too.
You can see it and hear it (hold your hands near your ears):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1EKShBMHIM
(You can see how hard Bill tried to help me, including kibbutzing from the family!)
The Yuletide Bride will be rereleased in 2022 as part of a collection.
Thoughts? Reactions? Lurker?