N.C . State’s Pipes and Drums ensemble picked up their bagpipes and donned their caps and kilts to perform at their spring concert: “Music from the British Isles.” The concert featured popular folk and patriotic music from Scotland and Ireland. Historic references to the two regions and tales about North Carolina’s ties to both British regions were woven in between songs and providing the audience with education as well as entertainment.
The University’s Pipes and Drums ensemble combines the snare drums, bass drums and bagpipes to compete in Highland Games and piping competitions across the eastern United States, including South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia. The ensemble recently went to a piping competition in Cary where member Ken Hanson won an award for solo bagpiping . The ensemble has eight more competitions this year, including a competition in late April at the Loch Norman Highland Games in Huntersville , N.C .
The ensemble’s grade IV band took the stage first at the concert, and began their portion with a 6/8 march called “John D. Burgess.” They also played a medley of several Scottish songs, and ended with another march, “At Long Last.”
Scotland was only one of the British Isles featured in the concert–bringing in the Irish side was the University ‘s own Irish Music Session–a gathering of local musicians who meet once a week to play jigs, polkas and other styles of Irish music.
The Session is led by Alison Arnold, a teaching assistant professor at the University, and one of two flute players in the twelve-piece band. Arnold founded the band in 2005 after talking to a University student about other Irish Session bands. The student wondered why N.C . State didn’t have one of its own, which got Arnold thinking.
According to Arnold, the only question after their conversation was, “Well, why not?” Thus, the University’s very own Irish Music Session was born. The Session players regularly play in pubs and homes around the Raleigh area. According to Arnold, the Session is open for any student, faculty member or local who wants to have a good time playing traditional Irish music. The Session meets Wednesdays at the craft center and welcome any and all to join them.
The Session combined a piano, flutes, fiddles, guitars and other instruments and played five lively Irish tunes including, “I Buried My Wife and Danced on Her Grave.” “Kitty’s Wedding,” and “Otters Holt.” Most of the songs the Session played were intended to be danced to–and there was no shortage of dancing at the concert. Three members of the Inis Cairde School in Raleigh accompanied the Irish Music Session players’ music with a taste of Irish dance. The three young women, sporting colorful dresses and bright smiles, danced and tap-danced to several of the Irish Session’s songs.
“I just loved their little outfits. They were amazing!” Kimberly Brooks, a Raleigh resident, said.
The concert’s finale saw the combination of the grade III and IV Pipes and Drums ensembles playing an arrangement of “Amazing Grace.” The concert ended with a spirited rendition of “Scotland the Brave.”
