I wish I could have been there to hear. Via NPR, we hear that a new world record has been set–the greatest number of bagpipers to play together at once. More, after the jump:
The show was held at the National Palace of Culture–it is a beautiful theatre; I saw a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream there, in Russian, with a staging unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Anyway, if I’ve done this right, the video should start just before the curtain opens…
The first song they play is one that was included on NASA’s golden record sent into space with Voyager. I just love the audience reaction when they hear Delyu Haidutin begin.
I can’t tell from the video whether the most famous of Sofia’s pipers was there; he often plays in the park (I’ve written about him before), and beautifully, but this show was clearly not about individuals.
I can’t imagine Scotland will allow this to stand for long.
I didn’t know you were a gaida fan. Kostadin Varimezov FTW, for my money.
But I suspect that here in Scotland most people probably don’t consider those things to be proper bagpipes at all, so we may be waiting a while for another record.
Heh–I even took lessons on Highland pipes for a while, before someone stole my practice chanter (probably for the greater good of humankind). Nearly bought a gaida in Sofia, and I still check them out on ebay on occasion. I’m one of those weirdos who apparently likes all types of pipes, without choosing a favorite.
Wow. I didn’t even know about that style of pipes. Is it the recording, or do they always sound like a children’s choir? I heard a lot of ‘ash dee agh dee aah dee ooh.’ in a children’s choir voice. Very cool, thanks for sharing that.
You do know it only takes 4 highland pipers to get the same volume, right? ;-)<
(that's a winking smilie in a kilt)
MikeG–
Bulgarian pipes are the ones that sound like a children’s choir; Highland pipes sound like cat vivisection. Relative volume is in the ear of the beholder.
And also, Mike G, these are the ‘kaba’ (low-pitched) Bulgarian bagpipes popular in the southern part of the country. The ‘djura’ (high-pitched) ones will tend to be a bit shriller – they just don’t seem to have such a strong tradition of playing them en masse.