The
Great Highland Bagpipes (AN
PIOB MHOR)
The
History of the Bagpipes
Text courtesy of CyberClan
Kilpatrick
by Robert
Worrall
Scotland's
national instrument, the Bagpipe or in Gaelic "piob-mhor" (the great pipe)
is not, contrary to popular belief, an instrument which has its origins
in and has diffused from Scotland. The bagpipe is an instrument of great
antiquity, an instrument which has its origins in the Middle East and
traveled through and evolved in Europe alongside the diffusion of early
civilization.
The "Oxford
History of Music" makes mention of the first documented bagpipe being
found on a Hittite slab at Eyuk. This sculptured bagpipe has been dated
to 1,000 B.C. Biblical mention is made of the bagpipe in Genesis and in
the third Chapter of Daniel where the "symphonia" in Nebuchadnezzar's
band is believed to have been a bagpipe. These early pipes or "Pan" pipes,
without the bag or reservoir, were probably the second musical instrument
to evolve. Musical history dictates that pipers have to take a back seat
to percussion instruments in this case. These early pipes used materials
with a natural bore (hollow reeds, corn stalks, bamboos, etc.)
The Roman
bagpipes or "tibia utricularis" represented a major innovation, the addition
of the reservoir. Historians have noted that Roman coins depict Nero playing
the bagpipe, not the fiddle.
The early
"Dudel-Sack" gave rise to a number of European, Asian and African folk
bagpipes, namely, the Volynka (U.S.S.R.), the Bock (German), the Zukra
(North Africa), the Gaita (Portugal and Spain), the Zampogna (Italy),
the Cornemuse (France), the Moshug (India), the Zumarah (Egypt), and Flemish,
Polish, Greek and Hungarian examples. An extensive and thoroughly documented
collection of these instruments can be found in the Musical Instrument
section of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. In addition,
examples of early folk bagpipes can be found in the paintings of Breughel,
Teniers, Jordaens and Durer.
The French
Musette - An Early Bagpipe (Van Dyck)
The
French Musette can be seen as a logical explanation for the evolution
or refinement of the instrument into a number of examples of chamber pipes
(i.e. those that operate via the use of bellows rather than the tradition
bags as a reservoir). Examples of different forms of such chamber pipes
can be found throughout Ireland, France and England.
The Northumbrian
region of England has been a "hotbed" for bagpipe evolution. It has not
only witnessed the emergence of its indigenous shuttle pipes, but also
its own small pipes, half longs and great war-gathering pipes. Likewise,
Ireland has experience the evolution of its own Uillean (chamber/bellows
pipe) and war pipe (Brian Boru). The evidence exists to substantiate the
belief that pipes may have been common throughout the remainder of Britain
prior to their to emergence upon the Scottish landscape. Nevertheless,
there is no question that the Bagpipe was very popular throughout England.
Middle Ages Pre-Reformation churches reveal carvings of bagpipes. Chaucer
refers to the Miller playing pipes in "The Miller's Tale", Documents from
the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland (1498 and 1506) refers to payments
to the English piper. Shakespeare's "Henry IV" refers to the "Drone of
a Lincolnshire Bagpipe". The Irish are believed to have played pipes for
Edward I at Calais in 1297 and at the Battle of Falkirk in 1298. In fact,
both Henry VII and Henry VIII are believed to have enjoyed pipers.
Questions
remain as to when and where the first, second and third drones were added
to the "piob-mhor" along with the questions as to when and where the bagpipe
entered Scotland. However, the fact remains that this is an instrument
whose growth and movement parallel civilizations and early history. It
is a musical instrument which not only reflects our early history, but
also the evolution of culture through history.
Robert Worrall,
a piping adjudicator throughout North America, resides in Burlington,
Ontario. He was a seven time winner of the North American Open Professional
Championships. In 1977 he won the March, Strathspey and Reel competition
at Inverness, Scotland. He recorded his first solo album, "The Classic
Bagpipe" in 1982. He presently spends much of his time pipe tutoring,
teaching workshops and judging. He is a member of the R.S.P.B.A. Panel.
Bagpipe
History
by John White
In all of
the times I have told people that I play the bagpipes, I have never been
asked what kind of bagpipes I play. This might have something to do the
with the fear that most people have of getting into conversations with
others about their hobbies, but is also suggests that people don't know
what a wide variety of bagpipes there are, and what an expansive history
pipes have. The truth is that the first piper had no idea where Scotland
was, and that he was probably playing something that looked more like
a stuffed dog than a Scottish bagpipe.
Modern
Scottish Highland Bagpipes
The
pipes, which most Americans are familiar with, are the Scottish Highland
Bagpipes. These pipes have three drones that come out the top of the bag
which produce a constant sound, a single chanter with the nine notes of
the pipe scale are played one, and a bag made of sheep or elk skin which
the piper presses with his arm when he wants to take a breath. This is
what makes pipe music free from pauses.
The Highland
Pipes are only one of the over thirty different kinds of bagpipes that
have appeared throughout the world. The Spanish, French, Italians, Germans,
Hungarians, Czechoslovakians, Tunisians, Indians, Greeks, and a myriad
of other cultures have developed bagpipes of their own. These bagpipes
have any number of drones, up to eight coming out the top, bottom, or
side of the bag. Among the more famous bagpipes outside the British Isles
are the Spanish Galicia which is like the Scottish bagpipe as far as the
bag and air supply, but only have one drone. The French Musette which
has keys on the chanter and a billow to keep the bag full. And the Zampongno
from Italy which has two chanters.
Although
the existence of the bagpipes before the first century is thought to be
documented by the Greek playwright Aristophanes in his work The Acharnians
where he wrote, "You pipers who are here from Thebes, with bone pipes
blow the posterior of a dog," there is no solid indications until the
first century when a very famous piper came to rule Rome. Nero considered
himself a good piper as well as many other things. He even had the bagpipes
put on a coin. "They say he can...play the aulos both with his mouth and
also with his armpit, a big bag being thrown under it, in order that he
might escape the disfigurement of Athens," Dio Chrysostom wrote in 115
AD. This was one of the first positive references to the bagpipes. Nero
also used bagpipes to inspire his troops before battle, though at that
time they were generally recognized as peasant entertainment.
Soon after
the first century we can find traditions of bagpipes stretching all the
way from India to Spain and from France to Egypt. We can surmise bagpipes
were present in England in the 14th century when Chaucer wrote his Canterbury
tales, for Chaucer's miller, "A bagpipe well couth he blowe and sown."
When they
arrived to Scotland, they quickly became a part of Scottish life. Every
town would hire a bagpiper, usually out of special taxes from the wealthy
families in the area, who would pipe for townspeople on all occasions.
In some places the piper would play in churches in place of an organ.
As time went on, the bagpipes in the British Isles evolved and various
types of pipes and piping were developed. Marches, strathsplays, hornpipes,
and reels were perfected and played on the Highland Bagpipes, the Lowland
Bagpipes, the Northumbria pipes, and the Irish Union pipes.
The Scottish
people have made the bagpipes one of the outstanding parts of their culture.
In some many songs, stories, and poems, the Scots have celebrated their
pipes, and unlike many other cultures they have kept the pipes alive as
part of their musical tradition. But still, if you don't have a great
Uncle Fergus from Ayr who played the Lowland pipes, you might have an
Uncle Garcia from Madrid who played the Gaita.
The
Great Highland Bagpipe (AN PIOB MHOR)
Photographs & Text courtesy of Oliver
Seeler,
Copyright
1999, Nova Albion Research
Components:
- conical
bore chanter with double-blade reed;
- 3 cylindrical
bore drones with single-blade reeds
General
Comments:
The Great Higland Bagpipe, while far from the oldest surviving bagpipe
and while originally not at all widespread geographically, is without
question the best-known instrument of the bagpipe family. Even otherwise
musically informed people often express surprise when they learn that
there are other sorts of bagpipes. This is in part due to the vibrant
culture that has always surrounded this instrument in its Scottish home,
and in part to its enthusiastic export by Scottish (not to mention English
and Irish) emmigrants throughout the world. It is also due to its extensive
use as a military instrument, a chore not performed to any signficant
extent by any other bagpipe. Today there are large numbers of Highland
pipers in all parts of the world, even Asia. There exists a tremendous
amount of easily available information about the instrument, in print,
film, recordings and lately on the World Wide Web.
Musical
Notes:
The Higland pipe has a very distinct musical character, and the instrument
is perhaps the loudest of all bagpipes; contributing to this are the pair
of tenor drones, duplicates of one another - a feature not found on any
other bagpipe and one that seems to have as its only function an increase
in volume. The pipe in this collection is in the key of A (at 440hz) rather
than the more modern and ubiquitous B-flat (more on this below).
The scales
and key signatures given may be regarded as approximations; bagpipes may
deviate from conventional standards in absolute and relative pitch.
Visually,
the difference between the modern chanter in B-flat , top, and the classic
lower-pitched chanter in A, bottom, is minimal. Some pipers feel that
the upward shift in pitch of the Great Highland Bagpipe, which took place
in relatively recent times primarily to adapt the instrument to playing
along with military brass bands, is detrimental to its sound. At the least
it points to the fact that after all
is said and done, bagpipes are fundamentally solo instruments and that
to alter a bagpipe to acommodate other instruments can result in controversy.
The reed
configuration of the GHB (as the pipe is sometimes and somewhat awkwardly
referred to) are completely conventional in relation to a large number
of its continental predecessors.
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