For some, the sound of bagpipes is a clarion call for sadness.
For Ocean Springs resident Bill Christmas, the sound conjures up an ancestral call.
“There’s something primal, bittersweet, and hypnotic about it that draws me in, a deep ancestral call, regardless of my actual ancestry,” Christmas said recently.
Christmas grew up in New Zealand, where, he said, “every tiny town seemed to have its own pipe band.”
Today, Christmas is a pipe sergeant and instructor with the St. John Pipers, a small group of bagpipers that meet, practice, and play at St John’s Episcopal Church in Ocean Springs.
The group members have been featured at police funerals, fire and police academy graduations, weddings, festivals, parades, and graveside performances in both individual and group ensembles. The St. John Pipers also provide free lessons for beginners and advanced pipers. The group also holds special workshops throughout the year that focus on bagpipe maintenance, reed management, and techniques.
The origin of the St. John Pipers goes back to William “Bill” Muzzy, who moved to the Mississippi Gulf Coast from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Muzzy was an administrator and instructor at the North American Academy of Piping and Drumming in North Carolina. After moving to New Orleans, Muzzy
played in bands along the Gulf Coast for many years. Muzzy formed the nucleus of area pipers, supporting students, and practicing in an annex building of St. John’s Episcopal Church. Although a local Gulf Coast pipe band never fully formed according to Muzzy’s vision, that changed when two members from the defunct Gulfport Fire Department’s Honor Guard Band began working consistently with him, Christmas said.
Christmas played the bagpipes in New Zealand when he was younger. His New Zealand Army career brought him to the U.S. in 1982, and that’s when he stopped playing altogether.
In 2003, his grandfather died back home.
“My dad represented us at the funeral which was enormous. I still have the videos of it — there were pipers from all over the world, and for a week, his old house in Paraparaumu, New Zealand, was filled with music. I missed it all. While reviewing the video, I felt the need to go to my storage cupboard and pull out my old bagpipe andafter a lot of fiddling and cursing, played a simple lament. It was awful. But that was the turning point — I began looking for an instructor, and in 2004, went to the American Academy of Piping and Drumming,” Christmas said.
The St. John Pipers have performed at the Tunnels to Towers event at the Margaritaville Resort, 9/11 events at Keesler Air Force Base, and at the Stennis Naval Detachment. They have also played at police academy graduations at the Gulf Coast Community College, the Annual Highlands and Islands Celtic Festival, and the Billfish Tournament celebrations.
“Some of us are veterans of police, fire and military services in Canada, New Zealand, and the USA, and all of us love the instrument, but the core has continued to practice and play while actively encouraging new members to join. Sadly, those new members are few and far between. Several inquiries have been received since the website went up, so hope springs eternal,” Christmas said.
Christmas said some find the sound of a bagpipe unbearable.
“To some degree it could be because they have never heard a good piper playing on a well-tuned bagpipe. They usually hear some hack player on a poorly set-up instrument and think that’s what it sounds like. Look for recordings by a master like Willie McCallum, Jack Lee, Roddy MacLeod, Bruce Gandy, or another top competitive piper and compare their performance to that of some hack on the street, and it will become very apparent. That’s the standard we strive for — mastery,” Christmas said.
Christmas finds the sound the opposite of unbearable.
“Haunting, stirring, soulful, inspiring, soothing, ethereal; bagpipe music touched me (and continues to) in an almost indescribable way. The pipes have seriously made a difference to me — and my life — in a way that can only be described as supernatural, a way unexplainable by science and the laws of nature,” Christmas said.
For more information about the St. John Pipers, visit saintjohnspipersmississippi.simdif.com/about_the_st._john’s_pipers.html
or email Billy Muzzy at bmuzz@aol.com or Bill Christmas at billthedoc@yahoo.com
