Cape Breton Pipe Band?

[Victor Maurice Faubert]

Judith Rosen wrote:
> Wow! Thank you so much for clearing up this mystery-- I am very impressed!

Well, I was curious too. Thanks to the text on the YouTube site, it 
wasn’t hard to track down.

> I confess to being dumbfounded at the idea that there is a Scottish pipe 
> band based in Italy, called "The Cape Breton Pipe Band"... which has 
> nothing to do with Cape Breton as we know it. I wonder if there really 
> is a "Cape" in Breton, that is referred to here, or if they just thought 
> it sounded good, or what.

So far as I can determine, there is no Cape Breton in Brittany. However, 
as I wrote here
	<http://homepage.mac.com/vicmf/cb/essays/18/images/2.html>:
“The origin of the name [Gabarus] is disputed; the most reasonable 
explanation I have found is that it is the Latin word ‘gabarus’ (which 
became the French ‘gave’), used to designate a mountain stream or 
torrent in the Pyrénées and also as a family name, sometimes spelled 
Cabarus or Cabarrus; it is known that a Basque fisherman of this name 
reached Cape Breton in the early 16th century and this same Gabarus is 
also believed to be responsible for naming Cape Breton Island’s 
eponymous cape (and subsequently the island itself) after the small port 
north of Bayonne in southern France from which he set sail.” This small 
port, since silted in, is in today’s département of Landes and is 
spelled as one word, Capbreton; it is now a seaside beach resort with a 
year-round population of 12,000. How it originally came by that name, I 
do not know.

As to what the Saronna Cape Breton Pipe Band’s relation to Cape Breton 
Island is, I have no idea. But for sure Cape Breton’s music is not 
unknown in continental Europe and Celtic music is, from the little I 
understand about the European music scene, quite popular. Beòlach has 
toured in Germany and was very well received there, with considerable 
interest in Ryan J.’s “dudelsack”. Carlos Núñez is popular throughout 
Europe and also features bagpipes. Breton musicians and Scottish 
musicians and Irish musicians are found in many places in continental 
Europe, so it does not surprise me that they have made their way to 
Italy.  The existence of a Celtic music society in Italy is proof of an 
abiding interest there in the music.

Also, recall that the Celts settled in northern Italy and remained there 
until they were driven out by the Romans; not all of them left and 
Celtic genes are for sure present in Italy to this day.

> On the down side, I think I'm losing my touch: I could have sworn I 
> detected some of the Gaelic College's pipe fingering, especially in the 
> younger guy on the left. Ah well, they were still very good and it's 
> nice to see how the Scots are infiltrating other places, too!
> 
> Judith
> PS: Speaking of Scots infiltrating, I just discovered Craig Ferguson, 
> who is currently the host of The Late, Late Show on CBS in the States. 
> Here's a couple samples of him for those interested... The second one 
> has Billy Connolly, my favorite comedian of all time, as a guest on the 
> show. Two Glasgow accents in one YouTube clip. (I feel a bit like Jamie 
> Lee Curtis in "A Fish Called Wanda"... Except for her it was the Italian 
> and Russian accents that set her going.) Enjoy!
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bbaRyDLMvA
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JG7Z9lxgBM0
> Web address: http://www.rosen-enterprises.com
> BioTheory: An electronic journal of general science based on the 
> Relational (Rosennean) Complexity Paradigm


-- 
                                                      Vic