Glenn’s Trumpet Notes

Herald trumpeters open The 2014 Royal Edinburgh Tattoo with a fanfare

When you’re producing one of the best entertainment shows on earth, you need trumpets and a fanfare to get the show started! And so my wife and I noticed as we sat in the stands among thousands in the audience at The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, 2014, in Scotland on 11 August. Our whole three-week trip to the UK was organized around our tickets to this event. We simply love bagpipes!

The Tattoo is staged on the Esplanade (parade ground) of the Edinburgh Castle. This year it occurred during Scotland’s “Year of Homecoming, 2014.” The Commonwealth Games and the World Pipe Band Championships were held in Glasgow, and The Ryder Cup (golf) will be held on 26-28 September at the PGA Centenary Course at Gleneagles in Perthshire.  According to the wee bit of Scottish history that I have recently learned, there was a massive diaspora of Scots from the homeland during the mid-18th to late-19th centuries. More Scottish descendants now live abroad than currently live in Scotland itself (population ~5 million). Scots spread throughout the globe, and this year they were invited back home to celebrate their heritage.

The 2014 Tattoo reflects this history of emigration. The program was divided into three major segments: “The Departure,” “The Journey,” and “The Return Home.” Groups from Trinidad and Tabago, Malta, southern Africa, India, Singapore, and New Zealand performed. During “The Journey” segment, the performance by the New Zealanders effectively depicted the intermingling of the two different cultures.

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