Letter: Yuri Lyubimov called the pipers tune

I was musical associate at the Leicester Haymarket theatre when Yuri Lyubimov directed a touring production of his Taganka theatre Hamlet.

Lyubimov had the idea that, during Hamlets soliloquy, he would have a Highland bagpiper slowly process upstage playing a lament. It was a beautiful image, marred only by the fact that Jimmy Fords bagpipes completely obliterated Daniel Webbs subtle delivery of the text. We pointed out that, unfortunately, bagpipes have no dynamic variation and cannot be played more softly, so the solution was to find a different kind of pipe (given that Jimmy had been hired for the whole tour).