AN international conference on bagpipes is being held in Glasgow this weekend – the first time the event has been held outside London.

Bagpipe musicians, academics and enthusiasts from all around the world are to gather at the National Piping Centre for the third edition of the biennial conference. “It is significant that the first time it has left London it is coming to Glasgow,” said co-organiser Vivien Williams from the University of Glasgow. “It shows Glasgow is buzzing with intellectual curiosity about the instrument.”

An opening concert on Friday will feature pipes from around the world with talks from leading experts over the next two days. Saturday evening will be dedicated to informal music exchanges and a ceilidh.

Previous conferences have featured pipes from Sweden, Croatia, Portugal, Spain, India, France, Scotland, England, Belgium and Belarus.

DID THE ENGLISH REALLY HAVE THEM FIRST?

OFTEN associated solely with Scotland, it may come as a surprise to some that bagpipes are played in so many countries across the world. Indeed it is a little known fact that they arrived in England before becoming established north of the Border.

Believed to have originated in India around 3,000 years ago, they gradually worked their way across the world, arriving in England with the Roman invasion around 43AD.

The Canterbury Tales references them in England in the 13th century but evidence of them in Scotland does not appear until the 15th century, notably in the shape of a pig gargoyle at Melrose Abbey and in the hands of an angel at Rosslyn Chapel.

“The two attitudes to bagpipes still co-exist today,” pointed out Dr Williams. “Bagpipes can be seen as humorous but also sublime.”

There is one reference by Giraldus Cambrensis dating back to the 13th century that talks about Scotland having three instruments, one of which was the chorus, a droneless bagpipe, but not everyone accepts the translation.

“It’s a bit dubious so you have to wait until the 15th century for anything specific.”

WHY DID THEY BECOME SO POPULAR HERE?

IT is from the 15th century onwards that the bagpipe appears to have really caught on in Scotland.

“They did take in England but Scotland has made of the bagpipe a lot more than any other country has done,” said Dr Williams. “It is a bit of a mysterious story but probably what happened is that the bagpipe arrived in the 15th century and closely after that period there was a break in the Gaelic bardic tradition which meant that the harp lost prominence.

“Around that time the Highlands were extensively involved in warfare both at home and abroad so the bagpipe became used for military purposes. It was handier and better than the harp for stirring soldiers into battle so the bagpipe became popular as a military instrument.”

WERE THEY BANNED?

A COMMON myth is that the bagpipes were banned after the Jacobite uprising but Dr Williams says there are no documents to testify to this.

“The disarming act banned the kilt and tartan but not the bagpipe,” she said.

The idea that they were banned may have sprung from the hanging of piper James Reid who was arrested in Carlisle in 1745.

“When the judge pronounced sentence he said that the Jacobites never go without a bagpipe, therefore they are an instrument of war. This phrase was misinterpreted as Reid was sentenced and hanged for treason, not for having played the pipes.”

Bagpipes were banned in Poland in World War II and evidence of this has been found in old footage of interviews with survivors which has been developed by the Ethnographic Museum of Warsaw in collaboration with the Museum of Musical Instruments of Poznan.

In one of them it is recounted how a man and his friend were arrested for playing the pipes in his yard. They were released on bail and were handed back their instruments but told never to play them again or they would be sent to the Gestapo.

“Part of the attempted Germanisation was the use of German music and instruments and the Polish bagpipe was seen as too strongly representative of Polish nationality,” explained Dr Williams.

WHO IS BEHIND THE CONFERENCE?

FOUNDED in 2012 by Cassandre Balosso-Bardin, a PhD student in ethnomusicology at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, the International Bagpipe Organisation has also instituted an International Bagpipe Day on March 10 as well as the biennial conferences.

Bagpipe expert Dr Williams, whose mother is Italian, became co-organiser after presenting a paper at the last conference.

“My big passion is a fairly big bagpipe from the south of Italy called a Zampogna Molisana. I became interested in the pipes when I was 16 and from then on I started picking up all references and documents I could find. I could see a narrative forming and I became passionate about it. I did my PhD at Glasgow University on the cultural history of the bagpipes in Britain so I basically changed my life for the bagpipe,” said Dr Williams who is now a research assistant on the project Editing Robert Burns for the 21st Century.

This year’s conference is organised in collaboration with the National Piping Centre, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Glasgow University with the support of the Bagpipe Society.

The Traditional Music Forum will be running a parallel session reflecting on teaching and learning Traditional Scottish Music.

For more information about the conference go to www.internationalbagpipeorganisation.com