Alternative events in times of Corona

Dear pipers and drummers,

we are sure that this season you miss that typical buzz of our musical get-togethers as much as we do at the BAG Board and its various institutions.

As we have all more-or-less been confined to quarters, we would like to make all our pipers’ and drummers’ lives slightly more bearable by inviting you to three alternative events for this summer:

The BAG-photo challenge

The BAG-Composers Club

The BAG-Online-Solo-Competition

 

The BAG–photo challenge, in 2 categories:

Scottish Music – all over Germany

We would love to see whereabouts in Germany pipes and drums are being played. So why don’t you send us a picture of yourself playing music, marching, flourishing or otherwise related to our music, in the most beautiful and well-known places in Germany.

Drumming-Mad or Piping-Crazy

Is lock-down and isolation letting you have the craziest ideas? Have you already put a face-mask on your instrument? Be as creative and funny as you can, the weirder your picture, the better.

Please note that both challenges follow a simple rule: almost anything goes, as long as you stay within what is legal, you are not hurting or upsetting anybody in any way, and your pictures are acceptable to an under-age audience. The BAG webteam will make a first selection of pictures. Those selected will then be put online and opened to online-voting.

Carel Ooms has kindly made an upload-form available. All photos should be uploaded by 31st August 2020 here: Link to the website

By submitting your picture you implicitly and explicitly agree to it being published online on www.bagev.de and/or the pages of the BAG on Facebook and other social media. Should more than one person be visible on a picture, the person sending in that picture, through that submission, affirms that all people visible have explicitly agreed to that picture being published online.

 

The BAG-Composers-Club:

If we can’t easily play music together, let’s at least create new music.

We are looking for the BAG-March, 2- or 4-parted in 2/4 , ¾ or 4/4-time signature. Do you already have something up your sleeve, or are you keen on trying your hand at a new composition? Ideally suitable for a BAG-Massed-Band.

On top of the BAG-March we are also looking to publish a small BAG-Tune-Book with the nicest tunes you are going to send us. This tune book can be made up of tunes of any kind: marches, strathspeys, reels, hornpipes, jigs, airs or an adaption from non-Scottish music.

The tunes you submit for the BAG-March will first be screened by the BAG-Solo- and Band-Boards, who will make a first selection after which you will then get to vote who should be the winner. The BAG-Tune-Book will be compiled by the BAG Solo- and Band-Boards from all your submissions.

As soon as you have selected the BAG-March, drummers can join in and submit drum scores for it.

Carel Ooms has again kindly made an upload-form available. All piping tunes should be uploaded by 31st August 2020 by clicking this Link to the website

By submitting your tune you explicitly declare and confirm to have composed that tune yourself. By submitting your tune you implicitly and explicitly agree to it being published online in electronic format on www.bagev.de and/or the pages of the BAG on Facebook and other social media. By submitting your tune, you further agree that any revenue generated by the BAG with or through these tunes as part of the BAG-Tune-Book or when these tunes are being performed at BAG events or in BAG publications, are attributed exclusively to the BAG. All other intellectual, license or royalty rights and the rights to exploit any commercial gain through any other non-BAG channels remain with the composer.

 

The BAG-Online-Solo-Competition – Piping and Drumming:

The BAG-Online-Competition will offer all grades and categories that we usually offer in our live-competitions, including an Entry-level Practice Chanter Competition. For any particular grade and category to take place, at least two competitors need to participate in it.

Please observe:

  1. You should record your video at home or any other suitable location. Choose a quiet location that allows for a decent quality recording. Our adjudicators will try to fairly judge your performance independent of the quality of your recording. However, should the recording be so bad as not to allow a fair appraisal, you may be disqualified from the competition concerned. Tuning should NOT be part of the recording, except of course for any minimal adjustments required.
  2. Each recording should start with a verbal introduction by the player, stating his or her Competitor Number (which will be allocated to you after we have received your application and payments), your Grade, the Event (e.g. MSR), as well as the tunes you are going to perform. Should your recording miss that introduction fully or in parts, then we are afraid it cannot be taken into consideration for the prizes. You may state your name in your introduction, but we do NOT explicitly ask for this.
  3. Only unedited, uncut recordings will be considered.
  4. Dress for the recording is Highland Dress (with the exception of the Practice-Chanter-Competition and competitors in Grade 5, should you not yet own Highland Dress).
  5. You should submit your recording(s) to YouTube, stating your Competitor Number, your Grade and the Event (eg. MSR) in the file title. No need to mention the tune names here. After uploading your recording(s) to YouTube, please send the link to: solo-board@bagev.de.


YouTube allows you to flag your submissions: „not listed“ means that your submissions will not appear in searches, which in turn means that by-and-large only the adjudicators, competitors and any audience should have access your submissions. „Public“ submissions are accessible for all users of YouTube. You should not flag your submissions as „private“ as the adjudicators will then not be able to view them. Please note that all conditions, copyright, circulation and otherwise are those of YouTube. Please refer to YouTube directly for any further information on copyright, terms-of-use, data protection and all other terms for publishing in YouTube.

 

  1. The adjudicators will watch and listen to the recordings in the order they choose. From the date of the competition the recordings will be opened up to all competitors.
  2. In order to allow drummers to stay observant of any Corona-rules that may apply, drummers may accompany a piping recording rather than have a piper stand beside them. If of course you wish to make a recording together with a piper and that is admissible according to the Corona rules that apply to you, then please feel free to do so.

Your performances will be judged by accredited adjudicators who will produce judging sheets for each performance. There will of course also be prize money and trophies. We will announce the adjudicators no later than 2nd August 2020 on www.bagev.de. Prize giving will take place the weekend after the competition.

Dates for the 1. BAG-Summer-Online-Competition and Upload to YouTube are the 29th and 30th August 2020. The deadline for Registration (Click here to register) on www.bagev.de is 16th August 2020; the deadline for uploads to www.youtube.com including sending the video links to solo-board@bagev.de is 23rd August 2020.

By participating in the BAG-Summer-Online-Competition you implicitly and explicitly agree to your recordings being published online on www.bagev.de and/or the pages of the BAG on Facebook and other social media. Should more than one person be visible in a recording, the person sending in that recording, through that submission, affirms that all people visible have explicitly agreed to that recording being published online.

 

We very much look forward to you joining us “online”. Please register for a somewhat different Gathering of our local piping and drumming community!

 

Stay healthy! Your BAG-Board and institutions.