It's a cat thing
The Bagpipe Festival at Cassel
22 June 2008
Earlier in the year at one of my Great War battle commemorations I had the chance to hear a couple of the musicians from the French Fleet Air Arm Pipe Band. I was intrigued at the idea of French sailors playing bagpipes so looked them up on-line.
In the course of doing so I discovered that at Mont Cassel, near the Belgian border, they hold a bagpipe festival in June every year and that the Bagad de Lann-Bihoué would be taking part. The festival was free and sounded like it could be fun - if you can put up with scraped cats as some have put it.
Forget highland pipe bands, a bagad has a mixture of pipes and bombards (which are a kind of rustic oboe). This gives a highly distinctive sound which for me has a touch of the 16th century about it.
The music is much faster and more dance like than British pipe bands with the bombards squeaking away merrily. With all thirty odd of them playing at full blast it is noisy and the feet soon start to tap to the intricate rhythms.
The old Aire gate
So, why the bizarre name ? To begin with, Lann-Bihoué is the name of the Base Aéronavale (BAN: Fleet Air Arm) at Lorient on the southern coast of Britanny. Think: Be-ware but pronounce Be-way.
A bagad (plural: bagadou) is a 20th century creation based on Scottish pipe bands but incorporating traditional Breton influences and of course the bombards. The first bagad was that of the 71st Infantry Regiment in 1947 but most of the bagadou are now local community bands. It would seem to be the case that the bagadou have been a driving force behind the revival of Breton music.
The Lann-Bihoué has however become almost synonymous with the genre and they perform at parades, festivals and concerts throughout the year, both in and outside of France.
Whilst in this case they may all be sailors they strike me as being highly accomplished musicians. In the days of conscription many a piper would have passed his service within its ranks and I get the impression that the bagad still recruits pretty directly from other bagadou - though the players still have to meet military standards.
The bagad was formed in August 1952 and became so popular that it has managed to survive an attempt by the Defence Ministry to disband it. Whether it can survive Sarko's latest defence cuts we will have to wait and see, but it would be a shame to lose the red pom-poms at our festivals.
Dancing puppets
Whilst the bagad was the reason I went, they were by no means the only pipers/musicians there and it was difficult to find a quiet corner without somebody either playing or warming up. What was nice though was the fact that most of those performing were often trios or quartets and were scattered about the village. Some played on the stages whilst others just roamed about entertaining as they went.
None made so much noise as to encroach on the air space of others.
Along the main square a mini market had been set up with lots of instruments, CDs and local produce to be had. At one of the stalls I was staggered by the price of some of the bombards: running to six or seven hundred Euros in some cases. Bagpipes were a lot cheaper !
The sky remained reasonably sunny but the wind was dreadful and sitting at a café I had to hang on to the the table as well as the glass. It did keep the rain off though.
In watching the various acts I was also taken by a folk group called Ormuz who may come from Lille but are Breton in background. Singing and playing a variety of songs from home and Québec they drew a large crowd who were soon dancing in the traditional manner of kingly courts.
Cassel itself is a very pretty village perched high on one of the Flanders Hills, offering superb views over the countryside. It is a bit of a climb and the streets are all cobbled but there are sufficient cafés to keep you watered on your way.
Because this entire area used to be part of the Spanish Netherlands if you look at some of the older houses you will see plates up describing their former use - in Flemish.
There are a couple of connections with 1914 here as this was General Foch's base during the 1st Battle of Ypres and there are a number of memorials to him throughout the town. The residence he used was later used by General Haig and King George V was received there as well.
It will come as no surprise that on arriving I managed to park outside the military cemetery without even looking !
See also