A Repertoire for the English Bagpipe?

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Bourrée Michelle Fromenteau © Peter Stacey 8.9.1985

A Repertoire for the English Bagpipe?

Introduction
In the British Isles and Ireland there are three distinct and well-established surviving bagpipe traditions. The best known of these is that of the Scottish Highland bagpipe whose heroic style has been carried to far-flung parts of the world thanks to its military associations at a time of British Imperialism. The recent vogue for all things Irish (at least in the folk world) has left few unaware of the distinctive sound of the Irish uillean pipe - one of the most sophisticated of bagpipes, and very much an indoor instrument. The Northumbrian small-pipe, like the Irish uillean pipe, is a cold-air instrument with its own distinct style and repertoire.
But a wealth of evidence in literary and visual sources points to the existence of various forms of bagpipes and proto-bagpipes in parts of England from as early as the tenth century to as late as the eighteenth century. Convincing research carried out by Francis Collinson attests the wide dissemination and varied forms of the instrument in England in this extensive historical period.¹ Another leading researcher in this field, Roderick Cannon, throws himself behind argument claiming that bagpipes ‘were popular throughout England and Wales.’ ‘Not until the sixteenth century was there any substantial decline’, he argues. ‘For a considerable time after that, bagpipes remained fairly familiar to English ears, and yet were not associated with Scotland so much as with Northern England, especially the hills and dales of Derbyshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire.’ ² He draws these conclusions from a review of literary and historical evidence relating to the English bagpipe ‘from the time when it first began to be regarded as a regional “folk” instrument, down to its final extinction in the early nineteenth century.’ ³ In a later piece of research, Roderick Cannon examined the visual evidence for the English bagpipe: paintings, engravings, and ceramic figures from c.1550 to 1800.⁴ From this examination he concludes that the illustrations of the instrument are largely spurious, being copied from older works or foreign sources. He regrets that he has to conclude that there is ’no picture that we can confidently accept’⁵ as a good illustration of the English bagpipe in this period. He emphasizes, however, that because the illustrations and figures that he has examined appear to be spurious, this does not mean that there were no ’loud-sounding mouth-blown bagpipes’ to be heard in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The fact that there are no extant instruments, or any authoritative visual sources for the English bagpipe has not deterred modern makers of historical instruments from attempting to reconstruct the instrument. Indeed, it may be
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argued that the mystery that surrounds the subject has helped to fire the imagination. Bill O’Toole and Alan Ginsberg created single-drone instruments. Andrew Heywood constructed a two-drone instrument which I believe is loosely based on an illustration from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Jon Swayne’s ‘Early English Bagpipe’ has an exterior design which intends to ‘convey the flavour of the pipes illustrated in manuscripts and pictures of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries.’ 6 More recently Julian Goodacre has constructed an instrument that he describes as the ‘Leicestershire Small-pipe’ - a single drone instrument which may be mouth- or bellows-blown. The instruments made and marketed by Julian Goodacre and Jon Swayne are popular and quite widely distributed. Apart from these instruments from the more well-known professional makers, other instruments have been constructed by players and amateur makers. Francis Baines, for example, has built a convincing copy of the double-chanter small-pipe described in the Talbot MS. 7 Clive Palmer has constructed an instrument inspired by the Cornish source at Altarnun Church. 8 No doubt many other instruments have been made . . .

As well as the instruments that have been constructed as copies of early English bagpipes, several players have used instruments from other traditions, or instruments reconstructed after non-English models, for the performance of early English music. The gaita gallega, for example, is commonly regarded as a typologically more or less unchanged version of the western European bagpipe, and as such it may be used for English medieval music as well as any other single-drone reconstruction. At least it has the advantage that, like many other instruments from surviving folk traditions, it works extremely well and does not have the difficulties that so often beset reconstructed instruments. Other players use reconstructions of Flemish pipes. This is an instrument that is very accurately depicted in sixteenth and seventeenth century sources, and one that has been successfully built by makers in Belgium and England for a comparatively long period now. 9 Moreover, the two-drone Flemish bagpipe may be regarded as a fairly close relative of its English counterpart.

Several important points emerge from this exciting and diverse picture. The fact that there is no single instrument that represents the English bagpipe reflects the varied nature of the sources. Probably there was no single instrument that achieved the status of a standard national instrument in the way that the instruments of the living British and Irish traditions have. Possibly there were several types of instrument associated with different regions in the country. In attempting to create a repertoire of early English bagpipe music we must be aware that we are not looking for music to fit a single standardized instrument with a distinct sonority, technique, and chanter range. Instead we are looking for types of music that may fit on a variety

of instruments constructed after the various sources of inspiration. In short, we are not looking for one repertoire, but several. And if one is aiming at historical authenticity it is not only necessary to consider the regional variants of the instrument, but also the form of the instrument that would have been played at the point of time in question. However, until material comes to light that will enable us to reconstruct the instruments and associated repertoire of early bagpiping traditions in the various English regions in specific historical periods, we are bound to use one of the several reconstructed or surrogate instruments as a generalized representative of the early English bagpipe.

Having created an early English bagpipe, or adopted an instrument as a surrogate, one faces the problem of repertoire. Quite simply, now we have an instrument what are we going to play on it? It seems to me that there are three main possibilities.

To seek out the melodies that formed the authentic bagpipe repertoire of the early English bagpipe, and of course here we are looking at a wide historical spectrum.
To examine contemporary collections which, though they may not contain authentic bagpipe repertoire, have melodies that work on bagpipes, or may be successfully adapted for bagpipes.
To borrow repertoire from other established bagpipe traditions. Here a wide spectrum of possibilities presents itself, from the traditions of the Celtic countries (Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, and Galicia) to those of Central France, and Eastern Europe.

Looking at the third option first, the great advantage of borrowing from other established bagpipe traditions is that the repertoire that comes from these sources contains melodic forms that are adapted to the drone aesthetic. It is very satisfying to play French bourrees, for example, because they fit so beautifully on the drone. And it is important to play music that fits well — simply to develop an awareness of what good drone music is, and how it works. However, ultimately do we want to become honorary Frenchmen or women?

The first option is much more problematical: it is my belief that it is virtually impossible to re-discover the original repertoire of the early English bagpipe, although Roderick Cannon has made a bold effort in this direction. As he suggests, the ideal source for this enquiry would be:

A collection of tunes set down by some old piper in his own hand, or failing that, a transcription from the live performance made by a competent folklorist. Such documents exist in plenty for the three surviving bagpipe traditions of Ireland, Scotland, and Northumberland, but we have nothing comparable from other areas.‘0

Unfortunately we have no such source and the effort to discover the authentic repertoire is a piece of detective work that seems doomed to failure due to the severe paucity of material and evidence.

This leaves us with the second option: to create a repertoire for early English bagpipes using similar proportions of science and imagination as have the makers of the instruments themselves. Perhaps this is something of a compromise, but, in contrast with the first option, it is a possible solution; and, unlike the third option, it does involve working with early English sources. While this introductory article has been devoted to theoretical problems and background issues, later articles to be published in this journal will examine particular English sources from medieval times to the eighteenth century, and discuss techniques of selection and adaptation of the melodies.

Peter Stacey

NOTES

See Francis Collinson, The Bagpipe: The History of a Musical Instrument (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1975), pp.65-114. In this interesting chapter Collinson suggests that all sorts of bagpipe and proto-bagpipe were played in England from the mouth-blown divergent pipes (or tibia) and the droneless chorus, to the single-drone and two-drone instruments.
Roderick Cannon, ‘The Bagpipe in Northern England’, Folk Music Journal II, No.2 (1971), p.127.
Ibid.
Roderick Cannon, ‘Bagpipes in English Works of Art’, Galpin Society Journal (forthcoming).
Ibid.
See Jon Swayne’s recent publicity leaflet, available from Jon Swayne, 1 Gilbert’s Corner, Baltonsborough, Glastonbury, Somerset, England BA6RB.
The Talbot MS is discussed in some detail by William Cocks in an article entitled ‘James Talbot’s Manuscript. III Bagpipes’, Galpin Society Journal V (1952).
For an illustration of this source see Anthony Baines, Bagpipes (Oxford, Pitt Rivers Museum, 1960), p.102.
The renaissance of the Flemish bagpipe is now well-established and there are several makers in Belgium and England. Notable makers in Belgium include Herman Dewit, who performs with the group ’t Kleiskse, and Remy Dubois. Makers in England include Andrew Heywood and Jon Swayne.
Roderick Cannon, ‘English Bagpipe Music’, Folk Music Journal II, no.3 (1972), p.176.

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A Repertoire for the English Bagpipe?

A Repertoire for the English Bagpipe?