Kilted soldiers carry pipes, drums

“My men don’t come to me as training musicians. We transform infantry soldiers,” said Maj. Andrew Halliday. “We are allowed to come to perform for three months.”

	If you go WHAT: The Pipes and Drums of the Black Watch and the Band of the Scots Guard WHEN and WHERE: 3 p.m. March 10 at Popejoy Hall, UNM Center for the Arts, and 7:30 p.m. March 11 at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco, Santa Fe HOW MUCH: Tickets for the Albuquerque concerts are, $20, $49 and $59 in advance at tickets offices in the UNM Bookstore and the Pit, at www.unmtickets.com, at area Albertsons supermarkets, by calling 925-5858 or toll-free 877-664-8661 or at the door. Tickets for the Santa Fe concert are $20, $35, $55 and $75 in advance at the Lensic box office, at www.ticketssantafe.org, by calling 505-988-1234 or at the door

There are 10 pipers and five drummers on the Black Watch’s current North American tour and they’re performing with four soldiers who are Highland dancers plus 40 members of the Band of the Scots Guards.

The musicians and dancers will be in concert March 10 at Popejoy Hall and March 11 at the Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe.

The concerts’ program, Halliday said, will have anthems, military marches and traditional Highland airs and jigs.

The program also includes the famous hymn “Amazing Grace” and “Ode to Joy” from the last movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The ode celebrates the brotherhood of mankind.

“We maintain traditions of the last 300 years and maintain the spirit of Scottish musical instruments,” Halliday said of the Black Watch.

The name of the Black Watch, which was founded in 1739, derives from two sources. “Black” is from the dark color of the tartans its kilted members wear and “watch” is for its original military duty of “watching” or keeping the peace in the Scottish Highlands.

Their outfits also are distinguished by the red tackle or plume, which the regiment considers a battle honor. The plume was awarded to the regiment in 1795.

The Black Watch’s Third Battalion is a fully operational element of the British Army and is based at Fort George in Inverness, Scotland.

Halliday’s major responsibility is the command of a total of 50 men in the battalion’s Fire Support Group, which specializes in medium and heavy weapons.

“At the end of March, these men (in the pipes and drums) are to return to training,’ he said.

The wind band of the Scots Guards is part of a different unit from the pipes and drums. But when the two musical groups come together on stage, Halliday said, “that’s pretty good noise.”