The Bay Street Music Project: Armoury comes alive with the sound of music

By Lookout Production on Nov 09, 2024 with Comments 0

Bay Street Music Project

Paul Dagonese,
Staff Writer, Lookout Newspaper

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At noon sharp on Oct. 19, the Bay Street Armoury’s ceiling and walls skirled loud and bright to Highland bagpipes and beats of their drums. From up high in the mezzanine and down below, those attending stopped, watched, and listened as the Pipe Major marched the Pipes and Drums Regiment up and down the Armoury floor.

This scene kicked off the first ever Bay Street Music Project (BSMP) opening with the Canadian Scottish Regiment Pipes and Drums, led by Pipe Major Roger McGuire.

McGuire is not only the Regiments’ Pipe Major, but he’s also the Chairman of the Victoria Military Music Festival Society (VMMFS), the host of the BSMP. As Chairman, McGuire was one of the chief architects for envisioning the festival’s initiative.

“This event is designed to entice young people, to get them exposed to music and the variety of musical instruments that are out there, particularly the ones that are involved in military bands, both brass and reed bands and pipes and drums,” he said.

McGuire, now 66, recounted how music enticed him early in life. At five-years-old, he watched the Changing of the Guard Ceremony on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. “I used to watch the pipe band of the Canadian Guards, and one day I just told my mother, ‘I’m going to do that. I’m going to be a piper’.”

But things have changed since McGuire’s generation. Musicians in Victoria are increasingly worried, noting that fewer young people today are showing interest in learning music and picking up instruments.

This has created a pressing issue that military and civilian musicians can no longer ignore: uncertainty about whether a new generation will emerge to keep their long-standing, historically significant bands alive.

But McGuire and likeminded musicians in the community believe they’ve found an answer.

Make music experiential.

Get the ceiling and walls skirling again with music so young people take notice and get interested.

And the Royal Canadian College of Organists (RCCO), Victoria Centre branch, had their own unique response to the festival’s initiative.

Their booth displayed a miniature box-like organ. On one side, a child could press a pump, and on the other, a musician pressed keys to create intriguing sounds and musical compositions. This interactive experience was designed to spark those experiential acoustic and tactile senses, particularly intriguing to young people.

If it worked, the children with their parents were directed over to the Organ & Pipes Room. In a room tucked just outside the main armoury floor, renowned organist Steven Benson waited to greet them and share his passion for the organ.

“This is like a recruiting centre for future musicians,” Benson said. As a member of the RCCO, he is serious about teaching and knows what to look for in a student.

“We’re looking particularly for teenagers. If you can infect a 14-year-old with music, there’s a chance. Fourteen is a magic number. The brain is still young enough to learn a musical instrument. After that, it becomes a bit harder.”

Benson recounts how he met an 18-year-old guitarist who one day heard the pipe organ. The young musician fell in love with its sounds. He decided to put guitar on hold for a while and learn the organ.

“So that’s it. Boom! We got another organist for the future.”

Carl McLean, Event Director for the VMMFS, shares Benson’s optimism.

“A lot of us here today come from a military background, and this, in my view, is that we are really good at planning, organizing, and executing.”

Because of tenacity like McLean’s, recruiting musicians have managed to fill a gaping one-third hole in retiring military band members with civilians.

This takes persistence. McLean made it clear that these recruiting musicians don’t get compensated for their efforts. “They do it for the love of it.”

The Naden Band of the Royal Canadian Navy, The 5th (BC) Field Regiment Royal Canadian Artillery Band, the Canadian Scottish Regiment Pipes and Drums, the Chiefs and Petty Officers Band, and the Cowichan Pipes and Drums all gave outstanding performances while organizations including the Capital City Pipe Band, The Duke of Edinburgh Awards, University of Victoria School of Music, and Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) participated in the event by hosting information booths for all the music lovers in attendance. VAC even hosted a Veterans Open Mic Night in partnership with the Bay Street Music Project.

“It’s an opportunity for veterans, as well as their supporters and families, to come on down, play a few tunes, share their stories, and have a chance to interact with their comrades and their supporters in more of a laid-back environment,” said Brent Bell, VAC Program Director.

A veteran himself, serving over 30 years in the Canadian Armed Forces, Pipe Major Roger McGuire retired as Pipe Major in 2012. But shortly before the pandemic, he was asked to return until a successor was found to fulfill his role.

“Of course, that was five years ago and I’m still here. But maybe this kind of event is a way of finding out who my replacement might be in the future.”