If Tellico Village residents or passersby hear some haunting melodies echoing over the hills around Toqua Golf Course, it’s probably just Mark Warren.
Warren, who has played the bagpipes for five years after unsuccessfully trying his hand at the challenging instrument three decades ago, can often be seen blowing out some tunes on his lawn just outside his home. It is, perhaps, a fitting backdrop to practice an instrument many people consider one of the most inspirational additions to Memorial Day services, funerals, weddings and other events.
“I was so intrigued with the sound,” Warren said on his first significant encounter with the instrument while serving in the U.S. Army in the late 1970s. “... I was just blown away by the sound. It was so resonating. It just really touched me in more ways than I can really describe.”
While stationed in Mainz in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Warren became exposed to a multitude of bagpipes during a military tattoo in the city of Frankfurt. During the event, he heard a Scottish regiment of bagpipers and other pipers who were part of an ensemble.
A few years later in 1984, he decided to try to learn the instrument but stopped after only a couple lessons from a fellow Army officer at Fort Bragg, N.C.
“I got my music book. I still have that music book,” Warren said. “I took two lessons from him, and I just said, ‘You know what? It’s not meant to be’.”
His goal of learning the bagpipes “laid dormant” for three decades as he focused on his career. In addition to serving in the Army, he worked for 16 years in the oil and gas industry in Saudi Arabia before moving to Tellico Village. He and his wife, Peggy, have lived in the golf community for three years.
Before retirement, Warren spent time last year training at the Pipers’ Corner Winter School in Bruggen, Germany, with students from around the world. While there, he took and passed a first level test as part of the Scottish Qualifications Authority National Progression Awards. He was one of six students honored during the event.
Warren was also recognized as the student who traveled the farthest to attend the course, according to a written account from Peggy Warren.
His flight to Dusseldorf, Germany, which is near Bruggen, was canceled, so he had to make arrangements to travel to Bosenheim, located more than 145 miles away to the south of Cologne. When he arrived at a train station in Bosenheim, he couldn’t find a taxi to complete his trip.
“Seeing a sign pointing the way to Bruggen, Warren set out, walking along the highway in a frigid winter storm,” Peggy wrote in the account. “Hauling his two suitcases and his bagpipes a total of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), Warren eventually made it to his destination.”
Local press latched onto the story of Warren’s harrowing trek, with bagpipes in tow, across western Germany to the bagpipe event, and Bruggen’s mayor said in a speech near the end of the bagpipe course that Warren was an example of “inspirational dedication and perseverance,” Peggy wrote.
Warren said he began practicing the bagpipes five years ago after the long hiatus because he did not want to regret having never made a serious attempt at learning the instrument.
“The thought of or the regret of not ever having successfully had a go at the bagpipes” compelled him to learn the instrument, he said. “So I was more determined than ever then at that moment to pick up the bagpipes.”
He said that in the first year, he practiced one to two hours every day of the week. Beginning bagpipe players typically work with what is called a practice chanter before moving to the full set, which includes the bag, blowpipe, and bass and tenor drones.
“When you make a commitment, it’s a lifetime commitment,” Warren said. “If you’re truly vested in bagpipe music for learning how to play the instrument, the proper fingering techniques, it takes a lot of practice.”
Although Warren claims to be Tellico Village’s only bagpiper, East Tennessee contains a number of his fellow enthusiasts, including Kelly Shipe, choir director at Jefferson County High School, independent player Kay Irwin and members of the Knoxville Pipes and Drums bagpipe band. Bagpipe bands are also located in Chattanooga, Nashville and Memphis.
Shipe, who is also a harpist and a graduate of the University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, said she learned the bagpipes by practicing two hours per day every day.
“I didn’t miss any practice,” Shipe said. “I was committed to learning. It’s a hard instrument to be a beginner because it’s not very beautiful.”
She said students do not initially produce sonically pleasing music because they have to start on a practice chanter, which is loud and high-pitched.
“It takes a lot of air,” Shipe said. “That’s one thing that I think deters people. … If you struggle through the beginning part, you can get to where you can finally do it, but it’s really tough.”
Irwin said students typically only practice with two or three pieces and work on the practice chanter for seven to eight months before advancing.
“This is not an instrument that you can pick up or that you can teach yourself,” Irwin said. “If it’s done like the Scottish did it, you have to have the decorative notes or the embellishments as they’re called.”
Irwin, who has played for funerals, weddings, graduations and other events since the mid-1990s, described playing the bagpipes as a “therapeutic” experience.
“A lot of people they refer to it as a haunting sound, a very surreal sound,” Irwin said.
Warren, who is currently being tutored via Skype by a bagpiper in Scotland, will play during an Armed Forces Day ceremony May 21 at the Community Church at Tellico Village. He is will also play May 30 during a Memorial Day service at Loudon County Courthouse.
He performs at funeral services and at other events in the county. He also works with the Loudon County Veterans Honor Guard and East Tennessee Veterans Honor Guard to send fallen soldiers off with a rendition of “Amazing Grace.”
“Typically, I’ll fade over the hilltop and not to be seen,” Warren said. “It’s better that you hear the music and the piper is not necessarily seen but heard.”
He called bagpipe music “soul-stirring.”
“I mean, really. It makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up,” he said. “I find they’re very moving.”
