Mountain Piping Photo: Ryan Macdonald Photography

by Timothy Cummings OLD-TIME MUSIC Mountain Piping Photo: Ryan MacDonald Photography ’ALL go git yer pipes and let’s I’ll give you a little geography and history Ulster Scots). These were a hardy, rugged scare the hell outta them Yan- lesson before we go any further with that people, and many of them would have been “Y kee boys!” particular concept. able to have claimed a genealogical link to the It’s a curious call-to-arms, and I’m pretty ‘Appalachia’ is the term often used to de- Reivers — those rascally, lawless folk who con- sure it has never been uttered by anybody. Nor scribe a particular region of the eastern United tinually raided each other’s farms on either side have there been many instances of “cotton- States, one primarily located around the lower of the Scotland/England border. The frontier pickin” and “pìobaireachd” being delivered half of the Appalachian mountain chain that people didn’t just bring their tales of bereave- in the same sentence. And probably not runs from northern Georgia all the way up to ment, but also their culture: storytelling, anything like “Davey, do you play a raccoon Maine and beyond into Canada. A lot of peo- ballad-singing, fiddling, and foot-stomping. or a possum bag?” ple pronounce the name as “App-a-Lay-sha”, Like the Scottish settlers who arrived a little Why not? Well, because the bagpipe but many folks who call those old, forested later in Cape Breton, they kept a firm grip on hardly existed where people spoke like that hills their home might prefer to say “App-a- their roots, long after their ancient familial — the American South — until well after the Latch-a”, as in, “I’ll throw an apple atcha.” It roots were yanked out of Lowland soil. American Civil War. It’s a sad and remarkable actually doesn’t matter how you say it. But These immigrants had other fact, when you begin to realise just how rich what was once a Native American name now commonalities with the the musical traditions are in that region. The carries a significant amount of meaning, espe- Cape Bretoners scarcity of the pipes is even more surprising cially in regards to the remarkable “hill people” in that they when you consider the heritage of the early who have lived there for generations. Scots-Irish settlers, and the strong historical, The first significant groups of white set- cultural links to the British Isles. tlers to Appalachia arrived in the mid-1700s, But the lack of piping “down South” is most of them having originally called beginning to change, as globalisation does its Scotland, Ireland, or north- thing, cross-cultural collaborations increase in ern England their home speed and intensity, and Americans begin to (many were take a greater interest in their cultural heritage and personal genealogies. What ought to have happened over 200 years ago, is only now just getting under- way: mountain piping. PIPING TODAY • 20 A NATIVE of eastern Tennessee, Tim Cummings now resides in the foothills of Vermont’s Green PIPE MAKER OLD-TIME MUSIC Mountains, where he teaches, performs, arranges, and composes piping-related music. He also runs Beithe Publishing, a small cottage industry devoted to promoting new repertoire for Scottish-style pipes. Among his publications is ‘An Appalachian Collection’, which is Photo: Timothy Cummings available online. Since completing the Appalachian tune book, Tim has enthusiastically taken up both shape- note singing and clawhammer banjo. were not of extravagant means, and became noticeably gentler and more meditative, hardly quite isolated in their new mountainous different in effect than the manner in which homeland. They held on to the only things the West Africans played it before they got that still had meaning to them, not the least yanked from their native soil. of which was their music. But interestingly, Most old-time tunes today are close cousins their music is not all that similar to that of to those old fi ddle tunes from the other side of Cape Breton, as you might be tempted to the Atlantic. Many are so strikingly similar, think. Though the Southerners kept a very it seems their only sign of evolution is a new strong and rich oral-tradition in place, they title. Hop High Ladies, for example is almost also allowed these keepsakes to be infl uenced note-for-note what most of us pipers know by outside fl avorings, and morph slowly over as Miss MacLeod’s. The Battle of Waterloo time. It’s a natural and inevitable process became Bonaparte Crossing the Rockies. (No, — the evolution of culture, the imprint of he didn’t actually....) Campbell’s Farewell so many ‘fi ngerprints’, and the infl uence of to Red Castle grew a third part and is more neighbours — so it’s understandable that widely known as Campbell’s Farewell to Red they would tweak melodies and alter lyrics to Gap. New Rigg’d Ship, in 6/8, not only became suit local characters, events, and place names. Chapel Hill Serenade, it also spun off a 2/4 It’s not so surprising even, that they would sibling, Green Willis. later adopt an instrument the African slaves I will make a slight digression here: it was had brought over from West Africa, which not such an uncommon occurrence for a eventually developed into the banjo as we Scottish 6/8 tune to wake up in eastern now know it1. Tennessee and see a 2/4 tune in the mirror. The music of these early settlers evolved Most musicologists blame the five-string into what is now referred to as “old-time” banjo for that sleight-of-hand, and for the fact or “mountain” music. It is important to that almost no jigs are part of the old-time understand that old-time music is distinct repertoire today. This is because the banjo, from bluegrass; it is a predecessor to, and when played in the clawhammer style, major infl uence of bluegrass (and country), produces a constant bum-tiddy, bumpa-tiddy and many old-timey proponents fi nd the syncopated rhythm that cannot really serve any earlier style has a simpler and more rustic other time signature other than 2/4 (or 4/4). charm to it. The fi ddling is somehow And since the most common instrumentation more organic, a little more raw, and for an old-time dance was originally just a the “clawhammer”, or “frailing” style fi ddle and a banjo, you can begin to appreciate of playing the fi ve-string banjo is why old Scottish jigs became de-jigged. 1 It is worth noting that there was very little slavery in Appalachia, largely due to a mountainous landscape that did not suit plantation-style farms. Most of the slave plantations existed further to the south and east of Appalachia, but of course the banjo had no trouble fi nding its way uphill. PIPING TODAY • 21 OLD-TIME MUSIC ‘I also had an unstoppable drive to get back in touch with my inner Tennessean. Bit by bit we began to further reconnect the pipes with Appalachia. Since then, a small collection of tunes has been returned to the pipes, including marches, breakdowns, and even some haunting ballad melodies and shape-note hymns’ northern England in those days; at least not enough to be a significant cultural force. Even if a few pipers managed to bring their instru- ments with them, it would likely have been too few players to keep a tradition pulsing, almost 4000 miles away from its heart. Second, we should take note that unlike Cape Breton, the majority of Scottish emigrants to Appalachia were from the Lowlands, via Ireland, and so we can already start to rule out a significant number immigrants playing High- land pipes in the Smoky Mountains. (Uilleann, Border, and Scottish smallpipes were only just beginning to inflate during that century.) Also possibly significant to this case might be that annoying Act of Proscription of 1746. I think you all know about that one. Though maybe Photo: Timothy Cummings we should re-mind it just long enough to recall A summertime view of the Green Mountains of Vermont, as seen from Mt. Philo. While too far north to be considered part of Appalachia proper, these hills are part of the greater Appalachian Mountain chain, and still foster the music of their that a few traditions were ‘discouraged’ among Southern brethren the Scots, and we might conclude that for any Old-time fiddling developed into its own century. Shape-note singing nearly died out immigrants coming directly from Scotland, unique style, characterised by less aggressive, altogether at one point, but those isolated hill their pipes had an even smaller chance of less flashy playing than what we hear in the people held on tight, and now, to the delight getting on the boat. more popular bluegrass circles. There is a lively, and intrigue of many, this style of singing is Having offered the above theories, I should lightly-bounced ‘shuffle’ present in breakdowns, making a pronounced comeback all over the mention that there have been a couple of docu- largely created by an emphasis on the “back- US (and beyond). mented instances where Highland pipes were beat”. There are also plenty of bended notes This is all very interesting, you might say, but played down South — though not technically and a great deal of double-stop manoeuvres that now you should be wondering again why the in Appalachia — as early as the 1770s. Elias drone out stark open-fifth harmonies.

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