Bagpiper plays the Lament, "The Flowers of the Forest", Thanksgiving Service for HRH Queen Elizabeth

[Hekate]

September 9, 2022

[Chainfire]

1. I may be a grave disappointment to my Scottish ancestors, but that is an awful racket to me.

It is an assault upon the ears. To further abandon my heritage, I wouldn't wear a kilt or eat haggis on a bet.

[Hekate]

2. I loved the bagpipes from the first time I heard them. The Irish have them, too...

In Celtic Revival music, one discovers they exist in one form or another over a range of cultures.

I will admit, though, that since 9-11 I’ve gotten awfully tired of “Amazing Grace” rendered that way.

[redwitch]

3. I love the pipes!

Amazing Grace on the pipes always reduces me to tears.

[whistler162]

7. So do the Spaniards

[Hekate]

8. I picked up a lot of CDs from Green Linnet long ago, one of which was called...

…“From Galway to Galicia” which gives you some idea of the scope of the Celtic Revival. Thanks for your addition.

[Warpy]

4. I don't have any Scottish ancestors to offend

so I can cheerfully and thoroughly dislike 99% of bagpipe "music." Not crazy about the saxophone, either.

I wore a kilt from time to time when it was a fad for teenaged girls in the early 60s.

And I've eaten goetta, something a little like haggis originating on the Franco-German border. It was odds and ends my uncle hadn't sold at his butcher shop by Saturday night, cooked up with oats and onions in clean tin cans by my grandmother, with half going to my uncle's family and half to hers. She used cans, though, because it could be eased out and sliced like sausage and fried, not bad.

I think she'd have gone a bit green at the idea of cooking it in a sheep's stomach. However, the rest of the idea aint half bad.

[Chainfire]

5. I probably identify more with my Scottish ancestors ancestors. They were from Norway.

It may be why I have a mean streak and would have no problem with raiding and burning a monetary once the crops were in. I used to worry that it may be a personality disorder, but now I know it is genetic. It was a big relief!

[Chainfire]

6. When I was a teenager, I would have appreciated teenage girls in kilts, if they wore them properly.

I was a dirty old man by age 13.

[hatrack]

9. Fascinating history of the song

Flowers of the Forest, or The Fluuers o the Forest (Roud 3812), is a Scottish folk tune and work of war poetry commemorating the defeat of the Scottish army, and the death of James IV, at the Battle of Flodden in September 1513. Although the original words are unknown, the melody was recorded c. 1615–1625 in the John Skene of Halyards Manuscript as "Flowres of the Forrest", although it might have been composed earlier.[1]

Several versions of words have been added to the tune, notably Jean Elliot's lyrics in 1756 or 1758. Others include those by Alison Cockburn below. However, many renditions are played on the great Highland bagpipe. Due to the content of the lyrics and the reverence for the tune, it is one of the few tunes that many pipers will perform in public only at funerals or memorial services, with play otherwise limited to private practice or to instruct other pipers.[citation needed]

EDIT

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_of_the_Forest