by James Busbee
uick. What do you know
about Scotland? Guys in kilts? Home of the first golf course?
Inspiration for cheesy television characters and bad Saturday
Night Live skits? Then come to Calvary Episcopal Church this
Wednesday, November 19th, at 12:05 p.m. for a rousing dose of
reality, as members of Lyon College's Pipes, Drums and Dancers
program present an evening of traditional Scottish dance and
music.
The Pipes, Drums and Dancers of Lyon College are the centerpiece of the college's Scottish Heritage Program. The band has won first place in Scottish games and piping competitions throughout the region, including Houston; Tulsa; Murfreesboro, Tennessee; Jackson, Mississippi; and Montgomery, Alabama. The band has won international renown as well, placing 18th in a field of 62 pipe bands at the World Pipe Band Championships, held in Glasgow, Scotland, this past August.
"That was a very
good showing for a band making its first appearance in the World
Championships," says Will Muirhead, director of the Scottish
Heritage Program and pipe major for the band. "We were up
against the best pipe bands in the world, and now they know
there's an American band they need to keep their eyes on."
The contingent traveling to Memphis will be small (it's during the school week, after all), but will feature Chrissy Taft, the U.S. national champion in Highland dancing. The program will include pipe music and Highland dance, and Muirhead will explain how Scottish music evolved from simple marches into more technically complex pieces.
Muirhead also will be playing samples of "piobaireachd" (roughly pronounced pea-brock), the Gaelic term for Scottish classical music. Included in the evening will be samples of bagpipe and hornpipe playing and traditional jigs.
Lyon College's Scottish Heritage Program was created to honor the Scottish roots of the Presbyterian Church and the Scotch-Irish heritage of the early settlers of Arkansas' Ozark Mountains. Lyon College is located in Batesville, Arkansas, about a hundred miles west of Memphis.
Muirhead took over the program six years ago. "I came down from Delaware and found the program has a lot to offer," Muirhead says. "It always confused me that there's so little [organized] Scottish culture in the Mid-South. It's well-established on the East and West Coasts, and in the Chicago area, but not around here." Muirhead believes that in this area, the Scottish strains of music evolved into bluegrass and other similar idioms, whereas in other parts of the country the music has remained relatively traditional.
Lyon College also features an active outreach program designed to teach surrounding communities about Scottish musical traditions. By all accounts, it's been quite successful, drawing interest from as far away as Texas and Missouri. "Some of the people who showed up had never seen a bagpipe before," Muirhead says. They learned quickly, though -- at least a third of the full band includes players who joined up through the outreach program.
A genuine Scottish pedigree isn't necessary for the program, Muirhead says. "The outreach program is not so much a cultural as a musical thing," Muirhead says. "We have people [who come to the university] asking, `Where's my family from?' and things like that. But the band program is about the music."
The band makes several stops in Memphis each year. "We love to come to Memphis," Muirhead says. "Memphis has got quite a large Scottish contingent." In January, the full band will perform at the Memphis Scottish Society's Burns Nicht, dedicated to the poet Robert Burns. "That's more of a cultural program," Muirhead says. "It's on a Saturday night, and we'll stay overnight in Memphis. The students tend to like that."
The Scottish Heritage Program also sponsors two annual Scottish festivals. Kirkin' o' the Tartans, which celebrates the relationship between Lyon College and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was held last month. Next April, the Ozark Scottish Festival will take place on the campus of Lyon College, and will feature piping and dancing competitions, Scottish athletic events, and a gathering of area Scottish clans.
To learn more about Lyon College's Scottish Heritage Program, contact Lyon College at 870-793-9813.
For more information on the Calvary performance, call 525-6602.