# Piper's lament at ramp ceremonies - what's it called?



## steen15 (17 Oct 2006)

Hey all,

I spent a good hour searching old posts for this info and can't find it.  I am looking for the name of the song the pipers play at the ramp cerimonies.
My sister is going crazzy from time to time until her husband and the rest of the 2VP A coy guys come home and simple things make her at ease.  So if anyone could help me out here I would really appreciate it.

Cheers

(Edited by Moderator to clarify thread title.)


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## George Wallace (17 Oct 2006)

I will take a guess, but I think that there are several Scottish 'dirges' that are played, depending on the Piper and Unit.


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## steen15 (17 Oct 2006)

Thanks, I had emailed a friend of mine from my 3's whos over there right now, but haven't heard back from him.  I really appreciate the help.


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## RHFC_piper (17 Oct 2006)

Flowers of the forest.

Its the CF standard lament.

Here's the Midi of it.

Heres a link to the music


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## steen15 (17 Oct 2006)

Well i don't think im gonna get a more strait answer than that of a piper so thanks a lot.


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## RHFC_piper (17 Oct 2006)

Sorry.. I edited my last to include the music and a midi... cheers


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## davidk (17 Oct 2006)

I've heard Mist Covered Mountain used for ramp ceremonies, as well as a few others, where circumstances dictate that the piper has to play more than once.


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## RHFC_piper (17 Oct 2006)

Pte D. Krystal said:
			
		

> I've heard Mist Covered Mountain used for ramp ceremonies, as well as a few others, where circumstances dictate that the piper has to play more than once.



I was asked to play a slow version of the Black bear march for WO. Mellish (by the members of the platoon). 

I was going to play the flowers of the forest to the ramp and break slowly into the first two lines of black bear once they were loaded (sorry if this seems morbid to discuss)... But I was wounded the day after they were killed and I couldn't play, or even attend the ramp ceremony.

Other soldiers in the platoon had requested specific music if something were to happen to them.  Some of the tunes included various slow marches (Mist covered mountains, The day thou gavest, Amazing grace, etc.) and some were quick marches (Caber Feidh, Scotland the Brave, etc.)  I said I'd play what ever they asked, and I commited their requests to memory.  

It is entirely up to the individual or their friends / family.  Flowers of the Forest just happens to be the CF standard lament, and is usually the lament play at all acts of remembrance (which include pipes, that is.)

I told the troops that if I was killed, I wanted no pipes to be played at my ramp ceremony, I just wanted my pipes layed on my casket.


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## niner domestic (17 Oct 2006)

Another Lament played is Sleep, Dearie, Sleep.  Midi at: http://www.kisswebsites.org/scotia/


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## Danjanou (18 Oct 2006)

Not mordid at all Pipey. It is after all how we honour one another. 

To me the Black Bear and/or maybe Johnny Cope after a more traditional lament such as the Flowers of the Forest would be highly appropriate to say farewell to a warrior.

When the time comes (and hopefully it’s a long way off) I’ve let it be known what I’d like to be played as I’m laid to rest.


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## medaid (19 Oct 2006)

RHFC_piper said:
			
		

> I was asked to play a slow version of the Black bear march for WO. Mellish (by the members of the platoon).
> 
> I was going to play the flowers of the forest to the ramp and break slowly into the first two lines of black bear once they were loaded (sorry if this seems morbid to discuss)... But I was wounded the day after they were killed and I couldn't play, or even attend the ramp ceremony.
> 
> ...




This maybe a bit to ask Piper...but could you possibly play the songs that some of the members in your platoon requested? And the Flowers of The Forest and the switch into Black Bear March and record these onto a CD or MP3 files so we can make them into CDs.

I think this will be a great way to both foundraise and bring awareness. Sometimes music is a powerful tool. If we could incorporate images too on like the cover of the CD... it would make it that much more powerful. Just a thought. I would like a copy of the files or the CD if you decide to go with this suggestion.

No...not morbid at all. I would request a song to a piper I know when I'm over there...


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## Chewie (23 Oct 2006)

as an ex RCR we often had the same request from members who passed away...
the playing of thr Black Bear it has always been a song that has carried allot of wieght with it



Andy


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## COBRA-6 (23 Oct 2006)

At Cpl Warren's internment the piper played "Highland Laddie", which was uplifting and very appropriate.


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## davidk (23 Oct 2006)

COBRA-6 said:
			
		

> At Cpl Warren's internment the piper played "Highland Laddie", which was uplifting and very appropriate.



The Pipe Major played Highland Laddie because it's our regimental march-past (well, part of it). I doubt it's something you'd hear often at such an event.


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## COBRA-6 (23 Oct 2006)

Pte D. Krystal said:
			
		

> The Pipe Major played Highland Laddie because it's our regimental march-past  (well, part of it). I doubt it's something you'd hear often at such an event.



Hence the appropriateness of it.


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## the 48th regulator (23 Oct 2006)

Pte D. Krystal said:
			
		

> The Pipe Major played Highland Laddie because it's our regimental march-past (well, part of it). I doubt it's something you'd hear often at such an event.



Highland Laddie is also our Regimental, and we play it when we visit Ainsworth Dyer, with the rest of the lads on November 11th, as we did on the day of his funeral.

dileas

tess


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## RHFC_piper (23 Oct 2006)

Highland laddie is the regimental march of just about every Highland regiment...  It's one of ours too.  Highland laddie and Seann Triubhas.

When a member of the Argyles was killed in a car accident, and most of our brigade was in Kentucky on an exercise, the CSM of our joint Argyle / Fusilier (Argylier) company, who was from the Argyles, asked me to play their regimental march (Campbells are coming) at a sunset parade to mourn their fallen soldier.  

Playing regimental marches as part of the act of remembrance is not uncommon.


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## captjtq (23 Oct 2006)

_Highland Cathedral_ is my personal favourite. I don't know how it would sound with a single pipe, nor is it all that appropriate a march, I suppose. I was wondering what _Flowers of the Forest_ was. It sounded familiar during the ramp ceremonies, but I could put my finger on it; thanks Piper for letting us know. I've downloaded it - it gives me goosebumps when I listen to it.


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## the 48th regulator (23 Oct 2006)

When my Buddy and I were having a few, OK getting liquored, we made a pack that if either of us made it to the great pub above on our tour, that at our funeral this song would be played.....Almost was the one who won that pact...I would love to know who he would have got to sing it...John Mcdermott and Drop Kick Murphy both do a perfect rendition;

_
The Green Fields of France

Well, how do you do, young Willie McBride,
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside,
And rest for a while 'neath the warm summer sun,
I've been walkin' all day and I'm nearly done.

I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen,
When you joined the great fallen in nineteen sixteen,
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean,
Or young Willie McBride was it slow and unseen.

CHORUS:
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down?
And did the band play The Last Post and Chorus?
Did the pipes play The Flowers Of The Forest?

Did you leave 'ere a wife or a sweetheart behind, 
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined. 
Although you died back in nineteen sixteen, 
In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen. 

Or are you a stranger without even a name, 
Enclosed in forever behind the glass pane,
In an old photograph, torn, battered and stained, 
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame. 

CHORUS

The sun now it shines on the green fields of France
There's a warm summer breeze, makes the red poppies dance. 
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds
There's no gas, no barbed wire, there's no guns firing now. 

But here in this graveyard it's still no-man's-land. 
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand, 
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man, 
To a whole generation that were butchered and damned. 

CHORUS

Ah, young Willie McBride, I can't help wonder why, 
Do those that lie here know why did they die
And did they believe when they answered the call 
Did they really believe that this war would end war. 

For the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain, 
The killing, and the dying was all done in vain...
For, young Willie McBride, it all happened again, 
and again, and again, and again, and again.

CHORUS _  

dileas

tess


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## brihard (25 Oct 2006)

captjtq said:
			
		

> _Highland Cathedral_ is my personal favourite. I don't know how it would sound with a single pipe, nor is it all that appropriate a march, I suppose. I was wondering what _Flowers of the Forest_ was. It sounded familiar during the ramp ceremonies, but I could put my finger on it; thanks Piper for letting us know. I've downloaded it - it gives me goosebumps when I listen to it.



Thanks for mentioning Cathedral- I fell in love with it at CG this summer, but never did find a good version of the song. I just found and downloaded an excellent recording of it. Beautiful piece of music.


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## niner domestic (25 Oct 2006)

Brihard: The best version of HC I've ever heard is the massed pipes and drums playing alongside HM Royal Marines massed bands, the USMC, and Stadacona at the Toronto Tattoo in 1993.   Bar none.


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## MP 811 (26 Oct 2006)

I've played a tune called the Vaal River Tragedy slowed down a bit.  The tune is very fitting for these times.  RHFC_Piper, have you ever heard the tune before?


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## 3rd Herd (26 Oct 2006)

Do not know where I got it from but "Danny Boy"?


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## RHFC_piper (26 Oct 2006)

MP 811 said:
			
		

> I've played a tune called the Vaal River Tragedy slowed down a bit.  The tune is very fitting for these times.  RHFC_Piper, have you ever heard the tune before?



Can't say that I have, but I'll look it up when I get a chance.


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## MP 811 (26 Oct 2006)

I can send you the .bww file if you have the software, just say the word.


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## RHFC_piper (27 Oct 2006)

MP 811 said:
			
		

> I can send you the .bww file if you have the software, just say the word.



I'm still waiting for my computer to come back from over there (its in Petawawa right now), and this loaner (from my sister) doesn't have any Music software on it, but you can send it anyway.  

Cheers,

piper


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## MP 811 (27 Oct 2006)

no problem bro. I'll fire it off to you when I get home from work.


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## jimb (27 Oct 2006)

I had thought that " The Black Bear " should be the  quick march that was played after the grave- side ceremony was over, on the way out of the cemetary? To me it is a " victory " march, and a celebration of the highlanders spirt and bravery , hence the "cheer " at the last part of the chorus.. 

While we are at it, does it bug any one else that our national anthem is rendered as a SLOW march, by so many civillian singers and bands?  I have allways thought that it should be perfrormed at a normal march pace, not as a funeral  derge. Any muscians care to comment on this ?

Jim B Toronto.


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