Honoring tradition: Trio create a unique sound with bagpipes

There is no other music quite like the sound of bagpipes, and for one group of bagpipers in Cape Girardeau, performing with them is as much a chance to socialize as it is to honor tradition.

Terry Madsen, Laurel McClelland and Capt. Shawn Morris with the Cape Girardeau Fire Department have been playing the pipes together for about eight years, but individually have been playing for much longer, they said.

Morris said this really started with McClelland, who learned to play the bagpipes as a student at Mineral Area College in Park Hills, Missouri.

McClelland met Morris at a funeral, she said, where she was playing bagpipes and Morris was in the honor guard, in about 2006.

McClelland said she first took bagpipe lessons from Dr. William Christmas, a Scotsman who taught bagpipe lessons in the evening at Mineral Area College. They practiced in one of the law-enforcement rooms, she said, and while they were a small group, they learned a lot.

Laurel McClelland helps tune Terry Madsen's bagpipes Monday, June 5, at the Cape Girardeau Fire Department Station 1.Laura Simon

Madsen, who in 2004 moved to Binghamton, New York, for his job with State Farm Insurance, got drafted to play the bagpipes completely by accident, by his own account.

Having just moved to town, Madsen didn't know anyone, and was invited out by the father of his daughter's friend. "Out" wound up being bagpipe practice, at a Catholic grade school, and Madsen said after that initial practice, he decided to keep with it.

Then, in 2009, when he and his family were again relocated, this time to Cape Girardeau, Madsen's wife, Angie, was dropping off her glass recycling at the fire station, and heard bagpipes. Turns out, it was Morris and McClelland practicing.

"She asked if they had room for another and I joined," Madsen said.

All three said although the bagpipe has a reputation for being a hated instrument, they don't really get many complaints, except from their young children.

McClelland said her young daughter cries when she plays, and Morris said his children do the same.

Madsen said his neighbors don't complain, but, he said, laughing, he's not sure they know it's coming from his house.

A bagpipe is a woodwind instrument made up of several parts, Morris said, including the squeeze bag, which is inflated using a blowstick before any music can be made.

Drones, the tall pipes pointed directly upward, are usually in groups of three, with one bass and two tenor. The drones each have a reed inside as well, but the music is played on a chanter, which is similar to a recorder.

"Doubles as a duck call," Morris said, and the chanter is what bagpipers typically practice on.

Morris said a good set of bagpipes generally costs upwards of $2,000. His set was handmade by a Scotsman in North Carolina, he said, and each metal cap on each drone has a special design imprinted. One has a ladder, symbolizing the fire department, he said.

"Every color used has significance," Morris said, pointing out the different colors woven into the plaid bag.

Typically, bagpipers perform in a circle, because when more than one bagpipe is going, "it's almost impossible to hear yourself," Morris said. In a circle, bagpipers can watch each other's fingers and keep time that way.

Bagpipers will often play with a drummer, but the group doesn't have one right now, McClelland said.

Tuning the bagpipes can be a production, McClelland said. "Even going from a cool indoor area to a humid outdoor area can pull them out of tune," she said.

Morris said there's a "wave" in the sound of an out-of-tune set of bagpipes, and minimizing that wave is key.

McClelland helped tune Morris' and Madsen's bagpipes in turn, tapping the top of each drone to silence it. "You have to tune the first drone, then tune the other two drones to it," she said.

They warmed up by running scales, then a quick rendition of "Scotland the Brave."

That's a traditional song for funerals, Morris said.

He started playing bagpipes after meeting McClelland, he said, largely because the fire department didn't have a bagpiper.

The group members have played some festivals and parades, including Cape Girardeau's Christmas parade and Memorial Day celebrations, even some weddings, but, Morris said, most of what they do is perform at funerals.

"It's about paying respect to retired and fallen firefighters," Morris said. "It all goes back to Irish immigrants who came to New York City in the 1800s, who couldn't find jobs except as police officers and firefighters."

There was a lot of loss of life in the early days, Morris said, and at the funerals, bagpipes would be played to honor the fallen firefighters' heritage.

It became a tradition, he said, and one he's proud to continue.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

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