Henry Forsyth's pipe band (August 1911): The three WORST RECORDINGS IN HISTORY

Because a favorite singer I like uploaded a new song today, I thought I'd cash back their fandom by uploading another old record. Usually when a favorite vocal artist uploads something I would often upload something in return to "cash back", as it were, their fandom. In this case, Madilyn Bailey just released a new song, but I HATE it because it's a freakin' duet with a guy, and I've always disliked duets. In particular, the guy and the girl ALWAYS fight who can hit the highest note, and in Madilyn's case, her vibrato is completely MASKED OUT by the guy's vibrato! YUCK TO THE 100TH POWER!!!!!!!!! So because Madilyn's recording was so sickening (just because of that guy), I'm uploading an equally ear-piercing set of records to show how much I may LOVE solos by Madilyn but HATE duets with guys!
Anyway, these are three sides of two diffeerent records on two of Tony Langford's CD's, one being "Bagpipes: 1898 to 1920", and the other being "Bagpipes: 1899 to 1925". All three of these feature Henry Forsyth, the King's Piper, leading what amounts to be the Scots Guards regiment, recorded on August 18, 1911. They're playing three different sets. The first side is "Flowers of the Forest" which is a lament played at funerals, the next side is called "Scots Wha Hae", also called "Bruce's Address to his Forces at Bannockburn", or as it's titled on the actual record, "Land o' the Leal". The final side consists of a medley of small/light 2/4 marches. "Jenny's Bawbee", "My Love She's But a Lassie yet", and "Johnny's Grey Breeks".
Being from 1911 these are horn-based recordings. Despite that, the horn itself has one of the hugest amounts of bass range captured on the record itself, which truly amazes me. In addition, they're actually marching around, so that a different perspective can be heard from the various pipers and drummers throughout these recordings. But, as you'll notice, where most of the parts are quiet, when Henry Forsyth marches towards and away from the horn, the record is a lot louder. This will explain how absolutely picky the recording horns are from a directionality standpoint, and hence the reason why they often needed to have another pair of drones play alongside the featured piper (even though they were never credited), before the advent of electric microphones in 1927. But, the reason why this set of records i would consider the "ABSOLUTE WORST BAGPIPE RECORDS IN HISTORY" is because none of the pipers even tuned their pipes at all, especially the drones! It would be like if there was a pipe band with honestly all DEAF pipers keeping in time with each other by watching the other pipers' fingers! Despite the ABSOLUTELY ROCKBOTTOM piping, the drumming itself is actually pretty good for the time. Remember we're talking about 1911 here.
Thanks and don't be afraid to comment. Please remember this is history. Not every single recording was great. Similarly, not every single opera singer back in those days was the absolute best either - Florence Jenkins tried to be a soprano, but she couldn't sing at all, and she was also in the record days. Piping is no different. Keep in mind pipers never used matched chanters in bands before - it was as if every piper just used their own solo chanter and played together, that's literally how it was back then. Add some untuned drones to the equasion and that's basically this entire set of records from 1911.
#bagpipes #Highland #Scottish #78rpm #gramophone #record #phonograph #1911 #March #PipeMajor #Forsyth #ScotsGuards #PipeBand #PipesAndDrums #Jenny'sBawbee #FlowersOfTheForest #Lament #Rockbottom