Everything's Louder with Bagpipes: Difference between revisions

{{quote| ''A gentleman is someone who knows how to play the bagpipes but doesn't.''}}

{{quote|''Why do bagpipers always walk when they play? To get away from the noise.''|Traditional Jokes}}

Bagpipes are fantastic instruments, if you know how to play them. Hearing somebody unskilled learning to play bagpipes, though, is just as painful as media makes it out to be. Also, a lot less painful outdoors than inside, as they are also ''quite'' loud. How loud? Well, if the wind is in the right direction and you listen a bit, you can hear the buskers on Edinburgh's Royal Mile from a couple of miles away. Since the original bagpipes, as well as the modern Great Highland Bagpipe originally were signaling instruments, meant to be heard over the sounds of a couple thousand dudes banging at each other with bits of metal, one can argue that this is the point. Other types of bagpipes have different, less screechy sounds.

Though there are many kinds of bagpipes used in traditional music throughout Europe, North Africa and the Caucasus, in fiction you almost never see anything but the Great Highland Bagpipe; just take a look at [[The Other Wiki]] [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bagpipes:List of bagpipes|on the subject.]] They have a nifty list of [http[wikipedia://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nontraditional_bagpipe_usageList of nontraditional bagpipe usage|songs with bagpipes as well.]]

== Anime &and Manga ==

* The [[Crowning Music of Awesome]] from ''[[Heat Guy J (Anime)|Heat Guy J]]'' is [[Epic Rocking]] on the pipes. Kind of appropriate given J's signature cooling pipes.

** [[Word of God]] has it that the bagpipes were chosen because Kazuki Akane thought it was a [[Rated "M" for Manly]] instrument, and J is always bringing up what it means to be a man. ("A man should ______.")

* Little Wing, the [[JAM Project]]-produced opening to ''[[Scrapped Princess (Literature)|Scrapped Princess]]'', opens with bagpipes and has a short interlude with them in the full version of the song. The result is [[Crowning Music of Awesome|predictable]].

* The second season opening of the ''[[Ah My Goddess (Manga)|Ah! My Goddess]]'' TV series. Yes, the goddesses are nominally Norse, not Celtic. Nobody cares, it sounds awesome.

** What does Celtic has to do with it? Read [[The Other Wiki]]'s article again-- — There are types of bagpipes from Scandinavia as well (though none from Norway, but that's splitting hairs on the definition of "Norse").

* "Colosseum", from ''[[Noir (Animeanime)|Noir]]''.

* ''[[Claymore (Anime)|Claymore]]'' has a bagpipe motif for Clare. Because Clare is so [[Badass]] that only bagpipes are good enough for her motif. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGrpxpi7UgQ Like here].

* The first ending theme of ''[[Pokémon (Animeanime)|Pokémon]] Best Wishes'' uses bagpipes, though you might not notice because of the adorable sight of Pokabu blowing into them.

* Aramaki's Theme in ''[[Ghost in The Shell Stand Alone Complex (Anime)|Ghost in Thethe Shell: Stand Alone Complex]]'' features bagpipes in its second half.

* Bagpipes are used quite a bit in the soundtrack to ''[[Spice and Wolf (Literature)|Spice and Wolf]]''.

* [[Axis Powers Hetalia (Manga)|England/The UK's]] versions of [[Image Song|Marukaite Chikyuu and Hattafutte Parade]] contain surprisingly good bagpipes. Technically, they're Scottish, but Iggy apparently represents the whole UK at World Meetings, and Scotland has only ever been alluded to.

* In ''[[Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan (Film)|Star Trek II theThe Wrath of Khan]]'', Scotty plays "[[Amazing Freaking Grace|Amazing Grace]]" on the bagpipes at Spock's funeral.

* ''[[LAL.A. Story]]''. A freeway sign electronically plays "Amazing Grace" on the bagpipes.

* ''[[Braveheart]]'' of course, set in Scotland. They use Irish pipes, though.WordOfGod [[Word of God]] on the DVD commentary says they tried Scottish pipes at first but decided the Irish pipes sounded better.

* The score for ''[[How to Train Your Dragon (Filmanimation)|How to Train Your Dragon]]'' heavily features bagpipes, especially in "[[Crowning Music of Awesome|Test Drive]]"

* In ''[[The World Is Not Enough (Film)|The World Is Not Enough]]'' Q Labs is shown testing some bagpipes with [[More Dakka|a machine gun]] [[Instrument of Murder|concealed in one of the drones]].

* ''[[Casino Royale 1967]]'' also has Ursula Andress' character using a bagpipe/machine gun on a corps of pipers attacking Peter Sellers, {{spoiler|and then on him.}}. Early in the movie, agents playing M's widow and daughters try to corrupt Bond (David Niven) at a funeral fling with piping, drinking, and dancing, but he ends up the last person standing.

** It's just as awesome as it sounds. Clip here...: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e1dYIWu2ME

* Seriously? No mention of ''[[Dead Poets Society]]''?: Half of Keating's Triumph is bagpipes!

* ''[[The Rundown]]'' has Beck's bush pilot sidekick, Declan (who appears to be from [[Stroke Country|Northern Ireland]], though he is played by a Scottish actor) [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|play Highland Pipes on the outskirts of Hatcher's town]], then deliver a [[Kirk Summation|bizarre sermon]] warning Hatcher of [[Laser -Guided Karma|the coming judgment]]. He then resumes playing, until {{spoiler|a herd of cattle stampede through the town}}.

* ''[[Austin Powers]]: The Spy Who Shagged Me'' -: Fat Bastard, an infiltrator in the Scots Guards, plays a bagpipe that emits knockout gas, and contains tools used to extract the frozen Austin's mojo.

* ''[[Help (Film)|Help!]]'' - [[The Beatles (Musicband)|The Beatles]] once again run afoul of the pursuing Eastern thug cult at the London riverfront, disguised as a Highland band, with a bagpipe that spews sacrificial red paint.

* In [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s ''[[Vorkosigan Saga (Literature)|Vorkosigan Saga]]'', there's Count Vorvolynkin (derived from Russian volynka = bagpipe). This count is famous for his looong trial for his territories. Note that the word ''volynka'' has another meaning in Russian: something long and boring.

* The Nac Mac Feegle on ''[[Discworld (Literature)|Discworld]]'' play the mousepipes, which are pitched too high for humans to hear, but are apparently beautiful (and slightly painful, with a sense your earwax is about to melt). There's also occasional mentions of Lancre bagpipes, although they've never actually been played in a novel.

* The rock band mentioned in ''[[Harry Potter (Literaturenovel)|Harry Potter]]'', "The Weird Sisters" has a bagpiper in the band. The music video for the song "Do the Hippogriff" from the film version of ''Goblet of Fire'' even has a bagpipe solo.

* In ''[[Childe Cycle|Lost Dorsai]]'', by [[Gordon R. Dickson]], there is a "gaita gallega", a Bagpipe from Galicia, in the Northwest corner of Spain. The instrument is described and demonstrated, and then later used in a battle (of sorts). To hear one try a record by Susana Seivane, Christna Pato, or almost any of the Galician folk groups. There are similar instruments in Asturias, also worth hearing.

* The ''[[GauntsGaunt's Ghosts (Literature)|Gaunts Ghosts]]'' series includes, as part of a general "space Scots" feel for the Tanith, Space Bagpipes. They're noted to both encourage the Ghosts and scare everyone else, Imperial or Chaos (and scaring a chaos cultist takes some effort...). Trooper Milo's first job, before enlisting as a proper soldier, is to play the pipes as they march into combat.

* Invoked and played for slight laughs in [[The Witcher]] Saga short story ''A Question of Price'', where a large bagpipe is used to stop a possessed girl's rampage--byrampage—by the sheer loudness of the noise it produces.

* [[George Macdonald Fraser]]'s ''[[McAuslan (Literature)|McAuslan]]'' short stories recount his days in the Highland regiments, particularly ''Johnny Cope in the Morning'', which deals with the shenanigans of the regimental pipe band. They developed the habit of assembling outside the newbie officers' quarters every Friday at six AM and blasting them all awake with ''Johnny Cope''; {{spoiler|the subalterns eventually get revenge by inviting the colonel to stay overnight one fine Thursday and conveniently forgetting to tell the pipe band.}}

== Live -Action TV ==

* ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined (2004 TV series)|The 2004 ''Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'']]:

** [[Bear McCreary]] likes uilleann pipes. They also show up in some of the action sequence music, such as "Storming New Caprica" which is pretty much an orgy in taiko drums and uilleann pipes. The song also uses Highland pipes, although they aren't as audible on the soundtrack album as the show itself.

{{quote| "WHY''Why'' is your family Scottish?"<br />

"Why is YOUR''your'' family ROSS''Ross''?" }}

* In the ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' serial ''[[Doctor Who (TV)/Recap/S13 E1/E01 Terror of the Zygons|Terror of the Zygons]]'', Angus the landlord plays "Flowers of the Forest" on the bagpipes. It turns out to be an omen (of sorts). Well, he does have [[Seers|second sight]].

* In ''[[NCIS (TV)|NCIS]]'' Ducky's cellphone ring-tone is ''Scotland the Brave'' (mentioned below).

* [[Meat Loaf (Music)|Meat Loaf]]'s ''Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell'' features bagpipes at the end of "Everything Louder Than Everything Else", because [[EverythingsEverything's Louder Withwith Bagpipes]]!

* [[Xera (Music)|Xera]], an Asturian folk-techno band, has a gaita<ref>a Spanish variety of bagpipes</ref> player. They are indeed epic.

* [[Korn (Music)|Korn]] uses bagpipes on most of their albums.

* ''The Most Unwanted Music'' makes liberal use of bagpipes in an attempt to produce the most unlistenable piece of pop music ever composed. The result is [[So Bad ItsIt's Good|so bad it's AWESOME]].

* The [[Red Hot Chilli Pipers]] play a mixture of traditional pipe tunes, pop and rock tunes like "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbY8eNkaW4k We Will Rock You]", and original stuff like "Celtic Bolero". [[Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly|They call it "Bagrock"]]... and ''[[Mundane Made Awesome|it is awesome]].''

* "It's a Long Way to the Top" by [[ACDC (Music)|AC/DC]]. Played by Bon Scott, no less!

* [[Grave Digger (Music)|Grave Digger]]'s album ''Tunes of War'', which is based on wars between Scotland and England have bagpipes played by the band Subway To Sally. The album even opens with metal rendition of [[Crowning Music of Awesome|Scotland the Brave]].

* [[Running Wild (Musicband)|Running Wild]]'s [[Epic Rocking|epic]] "Battle of Waterloo" opens with bagpipes.

* [[Blind Guardian (Music)|Blind Guardian]] has used bagpipes now and then, most obviously on the title track from ''Somewhere Far Beyond'' and its intro track, aptly titled ''The Piper's Calling''.

* "Mull of Kintyre" by Wings. A paean to [[Paul McCartney (Music)|Paul McCartney]]'s longtime residence (a home and recording studio in Argyll and Bute, Scotland), the 1977 recording features bagpipes from Kintyre's local Campbeltown Pipe Band.

* The germanGerman Medieval Rock band In Extremo make use of the Marktsackpfeife, a german bagpipe about as loud as the traditional scottish one.

* The group MacUmba plays music that's a fusion of bagpipes and Brazilian Samba drums. Listen [https://web.archive.org/web/20150701023343/http://www.macumba.com/mac1/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20&Itemid=2 here]

* The song "Gimme the Prize" by [[Queen (Music)|Queen]] has a brief instrumental section that's clearly meant to be evocative of bagpipes; not surprising, since the song originates in the first ''[[Highlander (Film)|Highlander]]'' film.

* Composer/humorist Peter Schikele utilizes bagpipes to comic effect in some of his [[PDQ Bach|P.D.Q. Bach]] works; most notably in the ''Pervertimento for Bicycle, Bagpipes, and Balloons'' (which subverts the "louder" aspect in one movement by using the wheezy practice chanter), but also in a ''Sinfonia Concertante'' in which the bagpipes player executes florid, highly embellished mock-Baroque passages, while completely drowning out the other much softer solo instruments, such as a lute. (As Schickele is fond of saying when he introduces the piece, "It's a lovely lute.....think of it while you're listening to the bagpipes.")

* The "Scallion Song" of [[Vocaloid (Music)|Hatsune Miku]] was originally a scottishScottish marching tune during the reign of James I.

* The liner notes for [[Great Big Sea]]'s album ''Fortune's Favour'' contains this gem: "There are no bagpipes in the studio, but there are some on ''Heart of Stone''. We suspect Bob is responsible."

* [[Neutral Milk Hotel (Music)|Neutral Milk Hotel]]'s "Ghost" and "Untitled" both make superb use of bagpipes, plus trumpet, trombone, theremin, zanzithophone...

* "Come Talk To Me," the opening track off Peter Gabriel's album ''Us,'' features bagpipes -- asbagpipes—as well as an Armenian doudouk, a Russian women's choir, and Sinead O'Connor on backing vocals, and manages to make it all work together.

* "Bagpipes (That's My Bag)" by [[Ray Stevens (Music)|Ray Stevens]]. He uses his voice to imitate one.

* One strip of ''[[Drabble]]'' shows the dad reacting in horror to someone just off-panel, as if the unseen man had a weapon. ("I don't think he sees us. Just back away very slowly...") The final panel reveals the source of the threat to be a bagpipes player; dad breaks into a run as the man begins playing.

* In ''[[Warhammer (TabletopFantasy Game)|WarhammerBattle]] Fantasy Battle'', a night goblin hero can use a set of enchanted 'squigpipes'. Their music is so horrible it panics enemy horses.

* In ''[[Diana: Warrior Princess]]'', bagpipes are weapons only usable by druids.

* An item in ''[[Munchkin (Tabletop Gamegame)|Munchkin]] Cthulhu''. It gives a hefty +4 bonus (on the level of some pretty fatal weaponry, like a combine harvester or a ''flamethrower''), but with an unfortunate caveat that monsters may mistake its audio and appearance and think it's ''[[Cargo Ship|something they can mate with]]''.

* "Relm's Theme" from ''[[Final Fantasy VI (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VI]]''.

** "Different Word Ivalice" from ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (Video Game)|Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]''.

* The town theme for San d'Oria in ''[[Final Fantasy XI (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XI]]'' features loud bagpipes that usually frighten and scare off people entering the town for the first time.

* In ''[[Wizardry (Video Game)|Wizardry]] 7'' one of musical instruments is bagpipes that produce Terror spell. ''[[Wizardry (Video Game)|Wizardry]] 8'' adds three more -- withmore—with [[Musical Assassin|Shrill Sound]] (damage), Hex (bad luck), and Pandemonium (fear and possible insanity).

* ''[[Worms (Video Game)|Worms]] World Party'' had the intro theme played partly on bagpipes.

* The Demoman's theme, ''Drunken Pipe Bomb'', uses the bagpipes. Also, the end of the Meet The Demoman has the ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'' ending riff played on bagpipes.

* The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrrBEXbhRLQ credits theme] for ''[[Touhou (Video Game)|Touhou]] Hisoutensoku'' features bagpipes.

* [[Mount and& Blade (Video Game)|Mount & Blade: Warband]] mod [[Napoleonic Wars|Mount & Musket: Batallion]] features the Piper as an actual class for the United Kingdom. They don't get a weapon, just their pipes. [[Awesome Music|And they still win battles.]]

* The "Warpipes" theme from ''[[The Lord of the Rings Online (Video Game)|The Lord of the Rings Online]]'', used for skirmish battles in The Shire. It's a quite suitably awesome battle theme.

* Bagpipes pop up every now and then in ''[[Rocko's Modern Life (Animation)|Rocko's Modern Life]]''.

* On ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]'', when little baby Ike's [[Faking the Dead]], a piper shows up at his funeral to play ''Hava Nagila'' - apparently, the only Jewish music he knows. Everyone plugs their ears right before he starts.

* ''[[Dave the Barbarian]]'' had the Gargle Pipes, which Dave played non-stop to get back at Princess Candy, who was being a total slave-driver towards her brother. She comments that they're loud enough to wake the dead, but Dave disagrees. It turns out she's kind of right about that, because [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|Quasmir]] awakens due to the Gargle Pipes.

* ''[[DuckDuckTales Tales(1987)]]:'' Scrooge McDuck plays the bagpipes. Poorly, judging by how other characters react. Also, used by Burger Beagle in one episode to "torture" some hostages.

* In the ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]'' episode "The Sting", Scruffy plays "Walking on Sunshine" on bagpipes for Fry's funeral, as a parody of Spock's funeral from the aforementioned ''Wrath of Khan''.

* In ''[[Earthworm Jim (Animationanimation)|Earthworm Jim]]'', when Bob the Killer Goldfish fails to awaken the Antifish by pounding on his eyelid with a [[Hyperspace Mallet]], a marching band bass drum/trumpet comb, and detonating dynamite sticks jammed in the monster's mouth, he declares that they need a noise so horrible it can wake the dead. His next line? "#4! Fetch... ''the bagpipes''!" And then it has absolutely no effect on the Antifish, either.

* ''[[Samurai Jack]]:'' The only recurrent character besides the titular samurai and Aku is the behemoth Scotsman who has a penchant for the pipes. They're heard long before he and Jack actually meet face to face. Actually becomes a [[Chekhov's Skill|plot critical ability]] during a later episode, where the [[Loud of War|pipes manage to drown out the mind controlling song]] of some [[Enthralling Siren|Enthralling Sirens]]s.

* A few years ago,{{when}} a burglary in Scotland was foiled because the householder had stowed his bagpipes under the window the luckless criminal chose as his point of entry.