Piper Zieler
In 1936, Zieler was happily whittling away at a block
print, when all of a sudden a strange, wailing sound reached his ear through the
radio from England, where king George V was being buried.
It turned out that
the sound was produced by the pipes and drums of the Gordon Highlanders. Zieler
knew then that he had to play the bagpipes.
He got hold of a set, and started
collecting pipe music books. Whenever the Gordons or other pipe bands happened
to visit Copenhagen, he would get in touch and secure some private
tuition.
Unlike many
non-Scots falling in love with the bagpipes, Zieler avoided the common pit-fall
of trying to *become* a scot, like by wearing kilts and guzzling whisky - well,
at least, he didn't wear kilts.
Among others, the famous John Burgess taught Zieler, in the
traditional way: Whenever the unfortunate Dane played a wrong note, the Scot
would swat the offending finger with a ruler.
In this instance, the whisky
served a dual purpose, as an inspirational agent, and an anaesthetic.
Some 25
years later, Zieler felt sufficiently confident with his playing and
understanding of the instrument to try his hand at arranging Danish folk tunes
for the bagpipes. His first selection was published in 1966.
And on the back:
Especially appropriate: A
traditional song, celebrating the quietness of the evening forest.
All through his career as
a piper, Zieler eagerly studied the classical Scottish pipe music, the
Piobaireachd.
This
beautiful fraction of a much longer piece he played with great success, among
others, in a radio program featuring his own writings. Not to blast the
sensitive microphones to smithereens, he elected to perform the tunes on the
more modest-sounding practice chanter.
Avidly studying Scottish folk lore,
Zieler enthusiasticly drew on this source for his art work. Here two pictures
involving ravens, and the text of a famous old Scotch folk song in Zieler's own
hand in between.
In 1969, Zieler used the bagpipes as a theme,
along with his traditional mice, foxes, and other creatures of the land, in a
short, very imaginative cartoon movie.
The music was composed by his friend,
the composer Vagn Holmboe, and Zieler played the practice chanter along with
more conventional instruments.
In this frame the mouse is playing/dancing a
defiant jig in the fox's face.
Zieler became increasingly worried about the growing number of
Danish pipers forming pipe bands, and going over the edge, as he saw it, with
costumes and imported traditions.
He often wondered, how many Scottish
tourists were trying to obtain Danish Royal Guard uniforms and fifes, to parade
around the Scottish Highlands in?
He then quoted Aesop's fable about
"borrowed feathers"...
Zieler held the distinguished position as honorary piper to the
St. Andrew Society of Denmark, and was the official village wait in the the
hamlet of Fulden, Jutland. Here is one of Zieler's own compositions.
Mogens Zieler is rightly considered the father of
bagpipe playing in Denmark, and a lot of pipers owe their initial interest in
the instrument to his inspiration.
Here follows Mogens Zieler's preface, in
his own hand, to the 2cond edition of the Danish tunes:
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