A pipe sergeant, commonly abbreviated as "P/Sgt", is the number-two person in charge of the pipers in a pipe band or pipes and drums. He is secondary only to the pipe major, who is the director of bagpipe music in the band. A pipe sergeant shares much of the pipe major's responsibilities in tune selection, compilation and arrangement. He or she is responsible for tuning-up the band before a performance.
The pipe-sergeant position can be found in many civilian and military pipe bands around the world. In the British Army, the position is an appointment, not a military rank, normally given to a highly capable piper who already holds the rank of sergeant or colour sergeant. A candidate for the position in a British Army regiment is normally expected to have obtained the Pipe Major's Certificate at the Army School of Bagpipe Music and Highland Drumming.
Famous quotes containing the words pipe and/or sergeant:
“If you love music, hear it; go to operas, concerts and pay fiddlers to play to you; but I insist on your neither piping nor fiddling yourself. It puts a gentleman in a very frivolous, contemptible light.... Few things would mortify me more than to see you bearing a part in a concert, with a fiddle under your chin, or a pipe in your mouth.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (16941773)
“So, my sweetheart back home writes to me and wants to know what this gal in Bombays got that she hasnt got. So I just write back to her and says, Nothin, honey. Only shes got it here.”
—Alvah Bessie, Ranald MacDougall, and Lester Cole. Raoul Walsh. Sergeant Tracey, Objective Burma, to a buddy (1945)