For David D. Barclay, an employee of the Bountiful Post Office and a long-time Bountiful resident, the bagpipe is the most wonderful instrument ever invented and a constant source of enjoyment.
Barclay, 59, has been playing the bagpipe since he was 6 years old. When his father, Robert S. Barclay and others organized the Utah Pipe Band in 1937 in Salt Lake City, Barclay and his two sisters and a brother played in it. He became director of the band in 1952.Several bagpipe bands in Utah have been offshoots of the Utah Pipe Band. The Salt Lake Scots, the Payson High School Pipe Band and even the Southern Utah State College Pipe Band in Cedar City were started by former Utah Pipe Band members.
Barclay, who has been a postal employee 30 years, is a retail window clerk at the Bountiful Post Office and often entertains his fellow employees with a bagpipe serenade during his lunch breaks.
A bagpipe teacher since he was 17, Barclay has had several hundred students. In addition to teaching, he plays at weddings, receptions and funerals and practices about twice weekly with his band.
Barclay is among the 14 competition pipers in his 50-member band and performs in parades and competes in bagpipe contests throughout the Western United States.
His home is a treasure-trove of trophies, attesting to his skill and artistry with the ancient instrument.
Barclay, who knows hundreds of songs and is continually learning new ones, has played for all the governors of Utah and all the presidents of the LDS Church since 1940.
When Orson Welles came to Utah more than 30 years ago to produce "Macbeth" at the University of Utah, Barclay played the bagpipe during the play.
He's played the instrument in the rain, in snow and freezing cold and in 110-degree heat.
"Weather and temperature can play havoc with the pipes. The reeds are very delicate and sensitive to climate. You can play well in a warm room and then go into a cold room and sound completely different, so you have to keep tuning the pipes."
Along with the bagpipe, Barclay - who traces his Scottish lineage back to before the year 1000 A.D. - is well acquainted with a variety of Scottish dances, including the Highland fling and the sword dance and often dances during a performance.
The bagpipe consists of a leather, or, in this modern day, a plastic coated cloth bag and five wooden pipes. Barclay said he blows air into the bag through the blowpipe. Another pipe, called the chanter, has a double reed and nine open holes on which the melody is played.
"There are three drone pipes also fitted with double reeds. Two of these sound one octave below the lowest note of the chanter and the third sounds two octaves lower.
"The player holds the bag under one arm and blows air into it. His arm pressure then forces the air out again through the four sounding pipes."
Barclay said Scottish armies used their dances, to the accompaniment of the pipes, for physical exercise. The pipes have accompanied marching armies into battle for centuries and through this century, especially during World War II.
Someday, Barclay said, he would like his band to make some records and tape recordings. "And if I can find about $45,000, I'd like to take the Utah Pipe Band to Scotland for a tour and some competition."