Playing With Emotion

When you listen to that haunting, mournful opening melody on the “Titanic” soundtrack, you probably don’t know you’re hearing the uilleann pipes (pronounced IL-lin and also known as the Irish pipes). They are played by Eric Rigler and were recorded at Todd AO in Studio City.

“I began playing the Great Highland Bagpipe when I was 7 but became interested at 2 because I listened to my British-born father’s bagpipe records,” said Los Angeles resident Rigler, whose mother is part Irish.

He is one of Celtic music’s most requested recording-session artists because of his talent on the Great Highland Bagpipe, the uilleann pipes, the Scottish small-pipes--”used in the 1800s as an indoor instrument played around the fire,” he explained--and the low whistle, which is like a flute.

“Uilleann means elbow in Irish Gaelic,” Rigler said. “These pipes are played while seated, using a bellows.”

They produce a sound that is growing in popularity. Some of Rigler’s most recent work was done on CDs such as Barbra Streisand’s “Higher Ground,” Tracy Chapman’s “New Beginning” and on Disney’s “Winnie the Pooh.” Rigler can be seen playing the Great Highland Bagpipe on Rod Stewart’s video, “Rhythm of My Heart,” among others.

For Mel Gibson’s “Braveheart,” Rigler played the uilleann pipes and that Great Highland Bagpipe as a soloist with the London Symphony and can be heard in more than a dozen other motion pictures and television shows. His continuing association with James Horner, who wrote the music for “Titanic” and “Braveheart,” resulted in his playing the Irish pipes in the movie, “The Devil’s Own.”

“James Horner has an affinity for instruments that bring out emotion,” Rigler said.

As for his experience with “Titanic” director James Cameron, Rigler said: “He was very focused and knew what he wanted. He’d come in and know exactly if something in the music didn’t work for him. He’d have Horner rewrite, and they recorded it again.”

Rigler, who has won many awards for his skilled handling of the pipes, lived and studied in Scotland and was a member of the country’s prestigious Battlefield Band. While in Scotland he was drawn to the evocative Irish uilleann pipes.

He was the pipe major of the Los Angeles Police Pipe Band from 1994-1996 and played solo piper at police funerals. The term “pipe major” is a British Army title and refers to the leader and playing conductor of a bagpipe band.

His new band called Bad Haggis includes rock drums, electric guitar and bass, plus all the Celtic pipes he plays. When asked about the name for the band, Rigler says, “It’s tongue in cheek.” Or tongue in sheep, since haggis is a dish that includes animal offal mixed with oats, which traditionally is cooked in a sheep’s stomach.

Rigler, who has played the pipes for 27 years, summed up his feeling about the bagpipes: “I come from a Scottish background and I think the pipes are beautiful, cultural instruments that illicit emotion from listeners. They provide ancientness, happiness, melancholy. You don’t have to understand, but the sounds touch people all the time. That’s where it’s meaningful. The sounds have been validated by the interest from artists such as Streisand and Rod Stewart.”

The earliest mention of the pipes was in Greek playwright Aristophanes “Lysistrata” in 400 B.C., said Rigler. “And the man blew into the posterior of a dog and fingered on a bone,” he explained, referring to a dog-skin bag and the wood or bone for the chanter, a shepherd’s pipe instrument like an oboe with finger holes.

But the bagpipe’s limited popularity may be due, at least partially, to how difficult it is to master.

“It’s one of the hardest instruments to play,” he said. “You must tame the instrument and put it in tune and this is affected by humidity. There are four reeds in the Scottish pipes and seven in the Irish. The reed can go ‘funny’ when it is affected by rain. El Nino has been a blessing for pipers because the pipes are better in humid weather.”

Like Rigler, Los Angeles resident Aaron Shaw makes his living playing Celtic pipes. He began in 1976 at age 16 and studied in Scotland and here at home with noted musicians, including Eric Rigler.

Shaw, who is of Irish descent, also has film and recording credits including the movie “The Fugitive” and the television show “High Incident.” Among his recordings is Bonnie Raitt’s, “Luck of the Draw.” He plays locally at various locations with the band Wicked Tinkers, including Ireland’s 32 in Van Nuys and Mallory’s Irish Pub and Restaurant in Los Angeles,

According to Shaw, the pipes weigh from 8 to 12 pounds, and even young children can play. The reeds are often from Spanish cane and the bag comes from various sources such as sheepskin, elk hide or Gore-Tex, a man-made material also used for hiking and sailing gear. Die-hard traditionalists will use only natural bags.

The cost of good Scottish pipes can run to $6,000 or more, but that would be for the Stradivarius of pipes. Prices start at about $900 to $1,000. Shaw’s pipes were made in Scotland in 1910.

There are now electric bagpipes and Shaw took his with him when he was on jury duty. The battery-run instrument has a pipe extending from a control box and the melody is played using finger holes on the pipe. “I used headphones and got in a lot of practice,” Shaw said.

Glen Thompson is another Celtic piper who can be heard in such Valley venues as Bob Burns Restaurant in Woodland Hills. Thompson played with the Los Angeles Police Band and is a professional solo player and teacher.

Recently, he played the Great Highland Pipes at the Friends of Golf Tournament in Tarzana. In June, he’ll play at UCLA’s graduation.

“People either love or hate the bagpipes,” Thompson said. “It’s extremely difficult to get a good tone so you’ll often hear a wow-wow sound. If the pipes are well played you’ll hear a hum. But some people are playing in public before they’re ready, so this makes the listeners hate it.”

Which doesn’t seem to dissuade the die-hard pipe player one bit.

Former Valley resident Michael Katz began playing the bagpipes when he was a teenager and became so devoted that he has lived in Scotland for the last 10 years. He went to college there and now tours throughout the world as a member of the Battlefield Band.

Perhaps Los Angeles resident and part-time bagpiper Ed Mann sums it up best: “It’s so difficult to learn to play the pipes and takes so long, you can never afford to give it up.”

BE THERE

Glendale Pipe Band, a 13-member group, began 10 years ago as a way to promote Celtic culture. The group practices every Thursday from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at Griffith Manor Community Building in Griffith Manor Park (building on south side of driveway), 1551 Flower St., Glendale; (909) 945-3029. The public is invited to listen or take instruction.

On Memorial Day weekend, the Glendale Pipe Band joins bagpipers at the Highland Games, at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

The Irish Fair, which includes bagpipers, will be at Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia, June 20-21.

Celtic Arts Center: At the Raven Playhouse, 5233 N. Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood; (213) 462-6844. For concert series information, call Dave McNabb, (818) 727-9014. Free classes in Gaelic dancing. Monday dancing starts at 8 p.m. and music about 9:15 p.m.

Mallory’s Irish Pub and Restaurant, 3575 Cahuenga Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 876-4953. Irish music is performed during Sunday brunch starting at 11 a.m.

Bob Burns Restaurant, 21821 Oxnard St., Woodland Hills; (818) 883-2145. Scottish music the second and fourth Tuesday of the month.

Ireland’s 32, 13721 Burbank Blvd., Van Nuys; (818) 785-4031. The bar has Irish bands and bagpipes usually on special holidays.