Bagpipe club sets out to rock Utah State
“Show me the Scotsman who doesn’t love the thistle,” is sung every game here at Utah State. But for many, a Scotsman is an unknown presence on campus. A new club, The Scotsman, has plans to show Aggies a real Scotsman – kilt, bagpipe and all.
The idea for the club came from Craig Jessop, dean of the Caine College of the Arts. Jessop has always liked bagpipes and spent four years in Germany as part of the Air Force Band.
Working with many European bands, he encountered several English pipe bands, and even worked with Black Watch, an internationally recognized pipe band. Jessop also has Scottish ancestry, which he said gives him an affinity for the bagpipes.
“Last spring I was judging for State Sterling Scholar … and in walked a bagpipe,” Jessop said. The piper was Matthew Earl, now a USU freshman in law and constitutional studies.
Jessop called Earl about a month after the Sterling Scholars auditions, and offered him a scholarship to come play the bagpipes for the Caine College of the Arts, and to start a pipe band.
“You put that all together and combine it with the tradition of agriculture and the Scotsman … it is time, it’s our time, to have our own aggie pipe band in the highlands of Utah,” Jessop said.
Matt Earl, who is the pipe major and president of The Scotsman, has been playing for nine years. He too has Scottish blood, and is involved with the bagpipes as a family tradition.
He is related to the Barclay family, who started the Utah Pipe Band, and his family is involved with highland music. His mother teaches highland dance and all of this brothers also play the pipes.
“It’s a different kind of instrument … a war-time instrument. Fierce. Will definitely add to the spirit of the Aggies,” Earl said. The pipes also were traditionally played at a birth or a wedding, all of the major events and celebrations of life.
“The associating culture of the highland bagpipes is the farming community, regular people who play for recreation and in war … we sing the Scotsman as our call to war … having a pipe band will really add something to the community,” said Christian Orr, a sophomore in landscape architecture.
Orr is serving as the vice president of the club this year. He has been playing the pipes for eight years.
“When I first heard the bagpipes, there is just this chill in the blood; I attribute it that to resonating with my ancestry,” he said. Orr played in the Wasatch and District Pipe Band before coming to USU.
Though the club is starting small, they have big plans for the future.
“Eventually we hope to have about 12 pipers and four drummers,” Earl said. They also plan to design and register an official university tartan for the band.
The club is working on getting a teacher to further aid the club’s development as a pipe band. The eventual aim is to be able to compete as a band.
The club is also working on their repertoire. In the first official meeting on Monday, they discussed their musical goals.
In addition to a performance selection, they also will have a variety of parade tunes, as well as an official version of “the Scotsman”.
“‘The Scotsman’ goes back to the ‘20s,” Jessop said. “(It is) one of the oldest fight songs.”
The band is eager to become part of campus life, either from backing up the Aggies as fierce Scotsmen, or performing at different venues and events. The band also hopes to get involved with the Highland Games, held here in Cache Valley in the summer.
“We will perform as much as we can, as often as asked,” Earl said.
Earl has already performed some with the Caine College of the Arts, but he has also connected with fellow pipers at USU simply by practicing outside.
“I was practicing near the cemetery and these other two pipers heard bagpipes and swung by,” he said.
Without an official club, pipers on campus didn’t have any connections with each other. Earl has now made contact with five pipers and one drummer.
The club meets on Saturdays at noon, and will be holding the first club practice Oct. 30. They will be practicing outside the dean’s office for the Caine College of the Arts.
All pipers on campus at all levels are encouraged to bring their chanters and participate. Earl can be contacted at 801-694-3997.
– genevieve.draper@aggiemail.usu.edu