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Why Do They Play Bagpipes at Soldiers' Funerals?It's mood music.

By Brian PalmerPosted Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009, at 6:34 PM ET

A military bagpiperBagpipes were playing as President Obama arrived at the memorial service for victims of the Fort Hood shooting Tuesday. The instruments were also heard at Veterans Day celebrations around the country Wednesday. What's the deal with all these funerary bagpipes?

They sound right for the occasion. Bagpipes seem to have become associated with U.S. military, police, and firefighter memorial services on account of their connection with Scottish martial history. As early as the 14^th century, Scottish warriors used musical instruments—mostly horns—to intimidate their English adversaries. (Indeed, contemporary accounts suggest that every Scottish knight carried a horn around his neck.) But it's not clear why this Scottish tradition in particular might have caught on among the U.S. armed forces while others have not. (You rarely see tartan-clad Army rangers, for example.) Perhaps the popularity of bagpipes at funerals is simply a matter of aesthetics.

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In any case, the instrument most commonly used at American funerals—called the great highland bagpipes (or piob mhor)—may not be the one used for hundreds of years by Scottish warriors. According to the standard account, the great highland bagpipes had replaced earlier, quieter instruments by the end of the 1500s and played a central role in the 1746 Battle of Culloden. The Highlanders supposedly prepared for battle by serenading Bonnie Prince Charlie—who himself was reportedly a bagpiper—with a variety of local tunes.

But the whole proud tale may be a fabrication. Recent evidence suggests that the pipes allegedly recovered from the Battle of Culloden and the 1513 Battle of Flodden Fields are frauds and that the great highland bagpipe was actually invented in the late 18^th or early 19^th century by Scottish expats living in London. The pipes played at Culloden were more likely the same folk pipes that other Europeans had been playing for centuries.

In any case, George Washington's Continental Army is thought to have consisted of between one-third and one-half ethnic Scots, although there is no record of bagpiping during Revolutionary War battles or funerals.

Related in Slate

John Dickinson reviewed President Obama's speech at the Fort Hood memorial service. Juliet Lapidos asked whether the Fort Hood shooter is a terrorist. Daniel Engber investigated crime rates on military bases.

The pipes did make an appearance during the Civil War, about 50 years after the instrument had been adopted as a symbol of Scottish nationalism. The 79^th New York State Militia, whose members dubbed themselves the "Cameron Highlanders" after the British regiment of the same name, flamboyantly celebrated their Scottish heritage. They sported kilts in parades and tartan trousers in battle—and played the screeching bagpipes to frighten the enemy.

There's little evidence that the bagpipe was a traditional element of military funerals in the United States until the mid-20^th century. The use of the instrument at President Kennedy's burial may have spurred modern interest, but even to this day, bagpipes tend to be reserved for large military memorial services. Few individual soldiers are put to rest to the sound of pipes. Of the approximately 150 families who request assistance from West Point each year for burial ceremonies, only three or four want bagpipers. (They almost always request "Amazing Grace.") Because the instrument is not part of the official military funeral honors—which include the presentation of a folded flag and the playing of taps, usually by a bugler—families must pay for the bagpipers themselves.

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Explainer thanks Colonel Gian Gentile of the U.S. Military Academy and Benjamin L. Carp of Tufts University. Thanks also to reader Toni Salazar Loftin for asking the question.

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Brian Palmer is a freelance writer living in New York City. He can be reached at .

Photograph of bagpipers by Kevin Moloney/Getty Images.

COMMENTS

I was idly watching the Obama appearance at Ft. Hood the other day on television when I heard The Lament played on the pipes played exceptionally poorly by someone who obviously had never heard it played properly. This pipe tune is played at the ramp ceremony for every Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan as his/her body is put on the plane for home. Possibly this has been heard and seen in this context by American servicemen, I don't know. But it is the tune to be played on such somber occasions. This is an old tradition which dates for us back at least to WWI although then bodies were not transported, nor were they in WWII or Korea. PIbroch tunes for the pipes are really ancient. They were handed down through families of pipers through the generations. While the great Highland pipes may be a relatively recent invention, the smaller Irish pipes have been around forever and we are all Gaels after all. The piping is simply part of Highland Regiment drill which the US never really had a part in. The full-scale Canadian armed forces funereal is carried out by three drummers in full Highland garb unaccompanied: the drum head ceremony. It is unnervingly effective as theatre.

-- kartoon
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The Explainer ought to have added that the use of bagpipes is virtually obligatory at funerals of cops and firemen who died in the line of duty, the practice is probably a lot more common in these than in military funerals. Yes, they almost always play "Amazing Grace" (and not much more). This custom received a huge boost back in the 1960's or 1970's a recording of Amazing Grace by the pipers of some British (not Scots) armored regiment inexplicably became a hit record and made it onto the pop charts.

-- dfs
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Bagpipes, especially playing Amazing Grace, have become such a cliché at public funerals that I cringe every time I hear them. Certainly there are times when they are appropriate, like at a funeral for a Scot or Gael; otherwise, they're just pretentious. And bagpipes screech. Who needs screeching at a funeral? As another poster mentioned, there was a pop hit years ago, with a big bagpipe corps doing Amazing Grace, and it seems to have become a fixture. By the way, the piper at Fort Hood might have been doing what the bugler at JFK's funeral did. Some mistook it for bad playing, when it's actually a French device called, I think called "crier," used for mourning.

-- jack.us.dk
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Pipes don't screech, unless someone is playing them incorrectly. They are an immensely complex instrument and very susceptible to temperature and humidity changes. The piper at the Fort Hood ceremonies (I really feel for the man) was actually playing a tune common to funerals. It's called 'Flowers of the Forest' and was composed as a lament for those lost at Culloden (there were plenty). The screeching or keening you refer to might be the reason pipes are played at funerals--it puts people in touch with that part of the release of grief.

-- blupiper
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