The Bagpipe Society

John Bartendale, 17th Centure York Piper

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The second king received Jack politely and, as he had given his word, his daughter consented to be married to Jack My Hedgehog despite his appearance. After the ceremonies were over they went up stairs to bed. Jack had a big fire made up in the grate and instructed four men to wait till he was about to lie down, when he would creep out of his hedgehog skin and they were to rush in and fling it on the fire. This they did, whereupon Jack became a handsome young man, much to his wife’s surprise and delight.

                                                       D. C.

 The illustration above is from the forthcoming Channel 4

series on European Fairy Tales (due later this year). In the series the story is called “Hans My Hedgehog”. Whether he plays the bagpipes or not remains to be seen. Knowing the way these TV people think, he’ll not be given bagpipes unless he comes from Scotland. No hum… Still, y’never know! If anyone knows any other fairy tales or legends that involve pipes or pipers, send them in and we’ll print them. (Ed.)

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BAGPIPE SOCIETY

11TH NEWSLETTER

NOV 1987

MUSINGS

   Well, it looks like it’s been a good year again for bagpipes.

Things seem to be getting better all the time with pipes in evidence at most, if not all, the major British folk festivals – not to mention those abroad. Especially good to see special piping events beginning to take off: the Edinburgh Bagpipe Festival, Stockton Bagpipe Festival, our own Chestnuts concert, Blownabella at Aldershot (okay, so it wasn’t exclusively bagpipes – but there were times when you could have been forgiven for thinking otherwise!). And of course the regulars of St Chartier and Lorient. And these are just the ones we get to hear about.

  What we need now is for some one to organise an event for next

year that will take pipers out onto the streets. Yes, we know that all you Highland pipers have been joining just that since Bonnie Prince Charlie – and keep it up I say. But what about all you others? How about a piping day at Covent Garden for instance – any takers for organisation?

  And whatever happened to the giant Hurdy-Gurdy/Bagpipe

Marching Band from the summer of last year? I thought it sounded pretty good, even if the bagpipes were a bit short in number – just what we need to take the drones onto the streets. Any carnival organisers out there among you need something a bit different?

     Yah Boo to Folk on Two! Despite an otherwise excellent

coverage of the Blownabella Aldershot Workshop Weekend, BBC Radio 1 don’t didn’t even mention the grand Bagpipe Band organised and coached by our illustrious President. Chicken, that’s what I reckon!

  And now for something completely different: congratulations to

pipers Anne and Bob Cross of Cheshire Waits on the birth of their daughter Emily – 5lb 12oz, Saturday 19th September. May her lungs be sound and her elbows always have plenty of squeeze.

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We continue to extract members from all around the world — great stuff! But why are you a tiny short letting us know about piping in your countries (or the countries of early ex-combatants in this issue’s Letters column)? Please write. Don’t worry if your English isn’t too good; we are really put it light. If you like, write in French or Spanish (for instance). We’re supposed to be an international organisation so why not give us something to print in your own language? And perhaps we might ask you to be a Continental correspondent in English — well? Doesn’t have to be a full scale article — though this would be nice. A simpler letter will do. Tell us about the state of piping in your country. What is the revival like? How healthy is the local tradition? What’s known about older forms of bagpipe in your country that have died out? What’s live weather like? The world thirsts for knowledge (well I do anyway) — so write about it.

Roy Gieam of England writes to say that on re-print Geordie languishing in Hastings he would be pleased to hear from other pipers in the area. He would also be handy to trace three thumbpipe pipes free of charge. Roy also makes pipes, but due to other pressures and the fact that he has a backlog of pipes he wants to make for himself, he can only undertake repairs at the moment.

Still losing members in the Co-section of the Membership List. In time it’s will Coleman who has, according to the Post Office, “being away” any of your letters, enquires, news stories, he’s gone? Ohmigawd, that’s happening to all you C’S? And when the Phantom Piemapper has fused with them, what letter will he start on next? Meanwhile, what time of you remain under C, loft your door and windows next time you get the cold pipes out for a practice — even New Year’s not too far away to except this clothe.

Couple of juicy records we hear off: Hamish Moore’s “Open Evening” (available on cassette) getting airtime on Folk on Two Radio on Monday 1900 — 2030. Hamish features lots of great musicians on the disc such as Nigel Eaton on hurdy-gurdy.

The Pipe Banner now used by (via Julian Goodacre of Italian couple of nifty works of Moors playing on it) will be worthy the corner’s boy, “Three of those wondering why La Pipe Rosa did not make it into this issue now aware that some may be interested in news it was because one of their number had an argument with a tree while doing a bit of lumberjacking: the tree won.

Don Smith would like it to be known that, due a ill health, he is writing up his vast music and piping business. But please don’t expect if you have an order in the pipeline, he will be fulfilling all existing orders first.

Couple of important changes for you to put in your Filofax:

Geordie Bagpipe Society notation not open — only dusty (asterisk) Your new treasurer has grabbed the money and run. all new way to order 2nd (with no and dates of any old issue.)

One letter f-shares to “Newport” Crisper who, tired, is sending off for village of “Forty” has voted for every one he is modern name of Rockefeller. Art, alter papers, now for full issue are two pages 2

dives of the country, we are pleased to report that she has at last been tracked down to her new address,

So if you have any publicity matters you want to discuss, or help to offer, get in touch with her under her new name at her new home (and she might even play you a tune on her new pipes!)

Judy would like to hear from any of you interested in attending a French bagpipe workshop which she hopes to get together with Jean-Pierre Rasle. I spoke to Jean-Pierre recently about this myself and he was very keen. Judy says not to worry if you don’t have French pages. So long as you can more or less achieve the same fingerings and situations things should be okay — after all, there is a very wide variety of pipes played in France as it is.

Now Chi has gone and deserted all us Londoners, is there anyone else who would be willing to host/organise some sort of regular London meeting? Don’t worry if you haven’t got any ideas — we’re full of ’em — all we need is a willingness.

Whatever happened to Milton Keynes? I seemed that everyone and his dog I spoke to was going to be there, yet, two weeks from the event poor old John Ross had 50 few takers he had to cancel all but the Cauld Wind course. Where did we go wrong (please note: this is not a rhetorical question)? Answers — even if they hurt — urgently required!

Flying Camel present a Day of French Dance, from Brittany to Berry on November 27th, noon — midnight at the Chesterfield Arts Centre — dance workshops, music, food and a bar till late. Music will include bagpipes and hurdy-gurdy as well as other traditional French instruments. For tickets, phone (Ian Smith).

For the first time since the Society was formed, by your old fingers have been given something of a rest from the chore of typing this News-letter. Pete Stewart (of Goodacre Brothers fame) is now shaping the load which is why the page-leady among you may detect a subtle difference in typefaces throughout this issue. But the cunning devil has taken advantage of his privileged position to write letters, commenting on stuff in this issue (see letter from Uncle Fret) — crafty sod! Seriously, many thanks to you Pete; perhaps I can now get down to some bagpipe practice.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

As announced in the last Newsletter, this will be at Moutlech on December 5th. By now you should all have had formal notice with your issue of ‘Chanter’ (you did all get ‘Chanter’ this time didn’t you?). But just to remind you, here are the details again (yes, I know I’be a bore, but we are determined to get you out to this one. If you’re one of the many thousands who have already put the date in your diary with a firm resolve to bele at all costs, please accept our apologies and skip on to the more interesting bits of the Newsletter).

Events start at 11.30 on the morn of Sat, Dec, 5th in the town

square when there will be Morris dancing around the town with Morris men Morris, Green Beast, Jenny and Simon Mon— standing will finish in the square at 1.30. Don’t worry if you arrive late—just turn out for the bells and the pipes to find where everyone is and bring your instruments, after from 12 noon onwards (says here all afternoon) there will be sessions at the Bowling Green and ‘The Talbot’. Also at noon there will be a craft fair at Nantwich Civic Hall. From 3 till 5 there will be workshops at the Methodist Church Hall (Folk Cent.) with demonstrations and discussion, on a variety of pipes and styles with Bob Worrall, Anne Cragg, Jean Pierre Rasle, Jean Sayome, Massiah Moore, Dave Shaw and Peter Stacey. This is all absolutely FREE to members (quid to non-members).

Between Somewhere in the midst of all this festivity we shall be squeezing in an AGM (bor—ring)! But the actual timing you will have to find by how that we have only allowed an hour for it so there just might be time to have a nice refreshing (and to be made more hot air than anyone last year). Having said that, there is a bit of free time declared as in case any pressingly urgent items crop up (ho-hum. Food, ale, mingling and? Oh yes, will I suppose we’ve got to make time for it somewhere. But just to ensure you don’t all go sneaking off to Nantwich’s just so the AGM is getting really exciting, we’ve allowed an hour and fifteen to be acting for you to partake of some excellent wholefood grub and sensible prices, also at the Folk Centre.

By now, in fonding anticipation, you will all have mentally t i sed your seats for the last item of the day: Tae-raah - The Grand Concert from 6 till 10 featuring (in order of appearance) Dave Shaw, Jon Sayome, Massiah Moore and Jean-Pierre Rasle & Peter Stacey. Once again this will be entirely FREE! To members (3 quid to non-members).

Bob Cragg, to whom we are indebted for organising all this, can arrange a certain amount of accommodation. But you must contact him quickly unless you want to end up sleeping under the town bridge. You can contact Bob on for accommodation, advice or advance tickets for the concert (how was that Bob? Do you think that’ll get the burgers along?).

Even if you can’t make it you mean there are some who won’t be clear???), you can still send in nominations for the Committee. All posts are up for grabs (as per our constitution) but in particular we will need a new Treasurer as Chi feels his new home is a bit remote for the job (nearest Post Office is about 5 miles away). You may nominate yourself if you wish – don’t be shy about this as that’s the way most people do it.

DIRECTORY OF MAKERS AND TEACHERS

This task is now being coordinated by our member Bob Aston (that’s the one from Conserley; we’ve got two you see) who is sending out questionnaires to all who have expressed an interest in being included. If you want to be included but think we might not be aware of that fact please contact Bob at the

Bob is also trying to gather enough information to start producing proper plates for the Society or use by amateur pipe makers. If you have any drawings, measurements etc. for non-copyright

instruments you have encountered or produced that you would like to share with other members, please let Bob know so he has got something he can let his draughting talents loose on.

BIBLIOGRAPHY & DISCOGRAPHY

Another new member raring to go is Ross Campbell (only got one of these at the moment). Ross has a pretty hefty collection of bagpipe related books and articles plus a chunky record collection, he is cataloguing these for the Society and would like to know if the existence of anything you might have that is a bit unusual i.e. anything other than the Baines and Collinson books. Recordwise he is hoping to get together with Steafan Hannigan who has already begun work on bagpipe discography. Perhaps we might see something in the not too distant future chaps?

On the subject of the great SH, Steafan would like everyone to know that he is still alive and pumping air. He’s been very busy lately with Student Union business but can be contacted at his new address (cf. Membership List update) or the London College of Furniture (Old address).

PIPES FOR HIRE

not just pipes but all sorts of Folk Music instruments. This is Steafan Hannigan’s (yes, him again) aim for ‘burly’ next year. If anyone has any instruments they would like to send out to work, to earn their keep, get in touch with Steafan. He will either handle it all on a 10% commission or will put you in touch with the punter for 5% and you do the rest.

FUNDRAISING OFFICER

It has been suggested that a new post be created of Fundraising Officer. This would involve dreaming up ideas for raising a few bots for the Society (thus keeping subs down). Is there anyone out there who’d like to take it on? You won’t necessarily have to do a lot of work just encourage others to do it. Quite a lot of you ticked the ‘willing to help’ boxes on the Membership Form, now’s your chance to help, either at a national (international?) or local level. The ‘sort of things’ we’re thinking about are organising concerts, busking, sponsorship, piping, things for sale etc. At least, these are the sort of things we have thought of so far. Even if you’re not willing to, and can’t do the job, perhaps you might have ideas as to how we could raise some money. Get in touch with any committee member.

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PIPES IN THE PRESS

The following item in the French Folk magazine “Tradition Vivante” was sent in by J. Goddard, Surrey, I’ve forgotten which one?

“Le premier numero de chanter, le journal du “Bagpipe Society” d’Angleterre est, pour Janvier, de 40 pages composees aux coronesses, c’est un amests pour les sonveurs anglo-ecossaise du Pipe. L’interview du Fluteobela, le moment reparer les cornemuses, le fletsterhshire small-pipes, partitions, copies de stroques, les cornemuses italiennes et une etude du repertoire possible pour la cornemuse du sud de l’Angleterre, instrument disparu depuis plusieurs siecles, mais qui jouit d’un regain d’interet depuis quelques annees.”

No. 11 Jan-Mars 1987

Fame at last! The particularly astute among you will notice that the above extract is not in English. This is not because I’m too lazy to translate it (well… partly) but because I see why we shouldn’t have the old article in another language. You will have noticed in my Musings ‘what You never read them?) that I have invited articles in languages other than English. The above is to prove my business! We are supposed to be an international organisation after all. The “translations” bits are their’s, not mine by the way (wouldn’t dream of it!)

The following item was noticed by Judy in the Western Daily Press (she thinks):

“A judge yesterday summoned the leader of a band of Scottish pipers to appear before him when the whistling of bagpipes drowned out proceedings. The band, who had been tuning up outside Cambridge Crown Court in preparation for their concert in the city, were told to move out of earshot.”

Oh well, at least it’s something when the press actually admit that pipers do turn up. ‘Shotter than being told to move out of court’, I suppose, which some of us can be mighty close to a few weeks back.

For further ramblings from the press, see the Lorient Festival item complete with picture (caption also in French, note). Keep your eyes on the papers and magazines folks for suitable items for us to print, bagpinist or otherwise.

The following article does not strictly speaking fall into the above category if for no other reason than it’s 12 years late! However, we thought it worth reprinting in its entirety, including barely recognisable photos. If you want to get at the original it comes from the Journal of the English Folk Song and Dance Society, Autumn 1975. I don’t know who the author is (R.A. Schofield). If you’re still around and reading this R.A., how about getting in touch with a possible update?

BILLY BOLTON, PIPER OF THE DALES by R. A. Schofield

Not many realise that the person is only recently noticed, if that, as a traditional instrument in Yorkshire and Lancashire. A recently in 1960, Julius Felling visited an old lady in Barrowford who said her father had played the bagpipe when used if he was Scottish, he replied “No, certainly not, he played the Union Pipe.” What sort of tunes did he play? “Hymes,” she replied. The union pipes have often been thought of as solely Irish, but this, and other evidence shows that not to be the case. For instance in Art of Yates Dictionary is the following entry - A “Paudrics”. A skin who plays the Union Pipes is called a tweedler." To resolve an article in this book throws how popular the pipes have been. Of all pipes, however, none have been so entrusted as Billy Bolton, often called the Dales Minister. Born in the village of Gilling (about three miles north of Richmond in Yorkshire), he was bought up at Askrigg, on the estate of Lord Dundas. He was apprenticed as a whimsical to John Alcill of Richmond, but by the age of 26 he had left that trade and became an insolent hardware annual and knife grinder based on Whaticffe Mill about a mile West of Richmond. Into travels look him all over the North and West Riding and it appears that he was very popular, not only in work, but also for the stories he told, the songs he sang, and the conjuring tricks he performed. Country parsons appear to have been his special fans, rather oddly perhaps since he was a musical Catholic, ever eager to put forward his own views.

Billy’s obituary I does not say when he learnt to play the pipes but allows other evidence is put forward is is probable that he was taught while living in the Richmond area, since by the of his own family, or by a friend during his youth. The fact mentions of his piping some in 1846 spoke Dr. J. H. Dixon wrote of a ballad called “The Garden Gate” that he collected from Billy. “We first heard it sung in Malhamdale, Yorkshire, by Willy Bolton, an old Dales Minister, who accompanied himself on the Union Pipes.”

An appreciation of Billy was written the year before he died. Two very interesting passages are given here in full. “His favourite resort,

when “in clogs,” was “up on Malhamdale and the hilly and rocky surroundings, was one day to be by the famous Gordale and another by the clear lapping source of the Aire and there sit high the immense grandeur of the Cote, with pipes and chanter playing the hill pitch, and this in the grand and romantic scenery of Cowser was spent many of the happiest days of the old Dales Minister.”

“When press of hours began to tell upon the old grinder, the machine slackened its revolutions, the fingers became less active on the pipes and the finest would pause off mechanical force unheed. It was about this time that the old minister had the misfortune to visit the little hamlet of Litton East, where, after having done certain work for the corrigens and farmers and the chief magistrate of that place, he unfortunately left his pipes with the magistrate’s servants who promised he old missed that the music of cow should be taken of them until his return on the following day. Great, however, was the old man’s grief, when, on his return, the pipes, which he valued at three pounds, were smashed, burst, and entirely spoiled. However, after a household as family council, in which the old minister for the first time in his life made threats of law, we power was paid to the old man - a third of the damage done. The poor minister tried many ways to ‘raise the wind’ and get them repaired, but failing to do so, ultimately sold his pipes for few shillings.”

I would put the above event as happening in about 1870, since Billy eventually outlived down in retirement in the village of Bessall, in Whalclade, also nearly sixty years of travelling. In some way he was lucky, since he was due for the workshop as a destitute when a London merchant whose father, the Rev. W. J. Parkinson, late Rector of Bessing, near Leyburn, had befriended him, gifted Billy a weekly allowance of six shillings.

Billy died on September 1st, 1884, and after his death a subscription was made to raise a headstone over his grave, which can be seen in Bunnsall churchyard.

What happened to Billy’s pipes? There are two sets of Union pipes in Yorkshire museums. One set, mentioned by R.D. Cannon in the 1971 edition

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REFERENCES

• Brierley B. “Ab 0t ‘Yates Dictionary’” Craven Pioneer, 17th September 1881.
• Dixon, J. H. “Ancient Forms, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England.” London: 1846.
  Also quoted in Forshaw C. F. (ed.) “Holroyd’s Collection of Yorkshire Ballads,” London, 1892.
• Craven Pioneer, 18th December, 1880.
• Cannon, R. D. “The Bagpipe in Northern England,” Folk Music Journal, London, 1971.

of The Folk Music Journal, is in The Castle Museum, York,¹ and the other is displayed at Cliffe Castle, Keighley. The York pipes were made by M. Egan of Liverpool in about 1850, but nothing - whatsoever is known of the Keighley set, except that they date from the nineteenth century and appear to be of a later manufacture than those in York. Records to where either set were acquired are also missing, but since both museums have generally collected local material, it would guess that both have been played in Yorkshire. The possibility that the players were Irish, or that they were donated by local collectors of instruments, is a great,; however, that their origin can be no more than conjecture.
Whoever else owned them, I do not think that they belonged to Billy Bolton. While minor repairs have been done there is nothing to suggest that either set has been “removed, lost and unfairly spoiled.” Also when the York pipes were made Billy was over 50 years of age, an old man for those days, Where the are Billy’s pipes today? Probably in some Whitcliffe attic or hanging on a Dales’ pub wall. Much more research (especially in Dales’ pubs) is necessary before an answer can be given to this and other intriguing questions about piping in Yorkshire during the last hundred years.

Pictures above show Billy Bolton’s grave in Burnsstall. The epitaph reads:
“In memory of William Bolton The Dales Pipers died 30th September 1881 Aged 83 years.”
“The tribute of respect was earned by some of the minstrels many friends in the dales of North, East and West Yorkshire.”
The picture at the head of this article shows the Union Pipes In Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley. No records as to the maker or where purchased by museum. Museum dates pipes as seventeen century.
The Piper Pipes shown at the top of this page were made by M. Egan of Liverpool about 1850, and are in The Castle Museum, York.

FOR SALE

Mìosa (North Italian bagpipes) by Julian Goodacre. Almost new, perfect condition. Single drone, high D pitch. Only £100. Ian Smith,

Flemish pipes in D by Jon Swayne (formerly belonging to Paul James). Overhauled by Jon only last year. £370. Jack Humphreys,

Set of Dill Headworth Northumbrian Smallpipes about 15 years old (one of his best sets) £195. Julie Bell,

Chris Daley says he has now sold most of his stock of ready-made pipes (though is still taking orders of course) but has a few secondhand sets in the process of restoration: mainly a set of Irish pipes and a set of smallpipes if anyone is interested.

Calfskin Bodhran and beater. As new, £20. Duncan Moss,

Still for Sale: Dulcibro (Pulciner/Dulcro) by Homer Ledford of Kentucky. As there are no takers yet for this superb example of Tug Dulciber maker’s art, I am forced to drop the price to a final £1000. Includes lined case, books, tutors, plectrums, roters, steel etc. all cost over £300. Julian Watson,

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY

By the time you read this we should have a new Membership Secretary as I am hanging up that particular hat to concentrate on doing the Newsletter. Your new Membership Sec. will be Val Woollott and all enquiries regarding membership, new membership applications and changes to Membership List details should be addressed to her at:

As web to be help a an in on typewitting, I am extremely grateful to Val for her help and we both join well with the job (you may still notify changes directly to the keeper of the Society’s Bit, Don Ward, if you prefer, for him to put straight onto his tame computer).

BAGPIPE SOCIETY CASSETTE

Chi has had quite a good response for his plea for material/performers for a Society cassette. He has asked me to tell everyone who has replied and to ask you all to be patient with him for a little while yet. As no tast earlier, he is in the throes of moving house.

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…rd lifestyle. As soon as he has settled in, he will be giving his every attention to the project. The other problem at the moment is funds. As always, the Society is operating from hand to mouth with leaves little or no project cash at this. Any philanthropists among you? In the meantime, he would still like to hear from anyone who would like to purchase material.

MEMBERSHIP RATES & ALL THAT JAZZ

As you’ve probably gathered from the above, we could always do with a bit more cash. We feel we have managed your money well (well would, wouldn’t we?) our main aim being to provide lots of good quality publications (recently 1 of thel always printingise). Small print runs are expensive as is postage) so “the bulk of your subscription money goes on just this. Now, hands up all those who thought I was going to announce an increase in subs? Well, you’re wrong - at least I hope so. - “Anyone, at the time of writing this, the proposal for the AGM is that the subs should remain the same for the coming year. Things would be a touch of a lot easier for us though if everyone paid up promptly! If 15 then old ones about careful. Even as I write I’m not sure we can afford to print and mail out this newsletter because so many of you haven’t answered who should have done so in the summer (with apologies to those you who paid up promptly).

I hate having to moan like this, particularly when so many of the offenders have done so much good work for the Society in other ways), but we simply don’t go on without money. So watch this spot (secting down the page) as police also rebute of the capital bills behind the thick ‘ouse roof. Keep them in your pockets **— Just like one porlure To Ontario Society.

Unfortunately, although we hope to keep going static, animal has got to go, if we just don’t anticipate our publications being so thick and heavy when we get the post and animal is damn expensive. We spend more (77s some) — that it would appear that surface mail from ever where but the Far East and Or/79 is pretty well as quick as airmail I think? It all goes by plane anyway; anyone know for sure?), so those of you in North America might like to try surface mail when you renew. You can always bring us your quilt more later to go over to Ontario!

The other big problem at the moment is the date of renewals. Like a lot of students we tried to make it so that everyone renewed at or after joining - it just didn’t that easy! Nevertheless, we got to go for a six - for every month of renewal. This means that subs will be shortchanged while others get a bit of that for nothing. Thus just doesn’t wash to be any other way. The present proposal for the date of the time of writing, thought it could change by then) is that everyone should renew in April 1993 and every April thereafter. We haven’t hammered out the details yet but it probably means that those of you who joined within the six months prior to April 93 will not be asked to renew until 1999. If we do adopt this policy and you think this is unfair or will cause you undue hardship just write when you get your renewal notice for April and we’ll see if we can’t come to some sort of agreement.

That’s about all on the boring side of bagpipe Society matters. (except to remind you that you each have a vote and can make proposals at the AGM even if you’ll be there in person. If you don’t like any of the above, make sure your voice is heard! It’s your Society remember.

MEET YOUR MAKER

People often ask me where they can get French pipes. Well this issue we feature a maker of all sorts of fine French bagpipes, Dominique Baillie of Montpellier in France. As well as French pipes Dominique also offers Uilleann pipes ranging from a practice set at 2500F to a full set at 11900F; a Bulgarian Kaba Gajda (that’s the sheep one) at 3500F in blackwood or 3700F in blackwood; Swedish pipes in fruitwood at 2500F; and southdown student pipes (14 or 16 inches) in fruitwood at 2700F.

But he is best known (for his traditional French pipes) the southdown Bourbonnais/Derrichaux pipes come in two sizes: 14 inches (La/Re) A/D and 16 inches (Sol/Do; G/C) in fruitwood or blackwood with mounts of pewter or bone with prices ranging from 4000F to 6000F depending on size and material.

It occurs to me at this point that a brief explanation of the French system of designation for pipes facts, the centre of the country would not go amiss while we’re all wildly going metric, the French also invented it all, still use the inch (16 pouce) to describe their pipes. So a 14 pouce bagpipe has a 14 inch chanter. This is obviously just convention and I’m not sure which snob they used to arrive at the inch - it probably doesn’t correspond exactly to our imperial inch anyway. I convention, the 14 pouce pipes are pitched in 3-F finger D - three finger giving the proper keynote for French pipes - but they usually quote the 6-finger note as well (strdtt.). To make matters more difficult, the usually quote the pitch using the Tonic Sol-Fa, with C being Sol. So, you can see that the smaller of Dominique’s Bourbonnais/Derrichaux pipes has a 14 inch chanter (approximately), with a 6-finger/3-finger), otherwise known as A/D. Drones are always tuned to the 6-finger note and/or small tubes. Gottit?). To continue:

In addition to the smaller southdown Bourbonnais pipes Dominique also makes the Grande Correntouse and Nivernais & Bourbonnais as with the smaller pipes from the region, they have two drones but are only available in fruitwood with mounts of pewter or horn. They come in three sizes: 20 pouces (Ro/Sol; D/A); 22 pouces, (Do/Fa; C/F); and 24 pouces (Re/Mi, B/E) - to complicate matters further, this latter …

Saxons (in French) as a S/M pitch. Prices range from £200F to 7500F depending on size.

And so on to the bellows-known. The Musette Déchonnet is well-known in lovers of French bagpipes. Unlike most French pipes, it takes its name from its inventor, not a region. Jean Pierre Déchonnet developed these pipes, towards the end of the last century and they were widely played throughout the central regions of France during and after his lifetime. A number of makers, including Dominique Dugne, continue the tradition with pipes modelled after the style of the old master. Dominique’s are in full wood or bell-tuned with bone mounts. The pipes may be ordered with the “bottom” drone beneath a tenor drone in parallel with the chanter one octave below its 6-finger note plus a bass drone one octave below that; alternatively, Pechonnet pipes can be had with its tenor and bass drones superimposed by a small treble drone, pipe in the chanter/tenor drone (tobitier), which is tuned in unison with the “fingun” note. This tiny drone gives an unexpected lift to the sound of the pipes. It is brought into play. The Déchonnet pipes are available in A mouche 5 (A/RC and 16 pouces (Sol/Do); F#7 with an range to A7 over 12,400F depending on size and material. Dominique Pechonnet offers 14 pipes (La/Re A/D) bellows-blown musettes. Prices will run drones made entirely from boxwood for 5600F, to bagpipe not very well known outside its native Brittany is the Veeuze.

The Veeuze is a larger bagpipe than the Uyttter known Breton Binioù, being more akin in style and sound to the Gaitas of northern Spain and Portugal. Dominique offers the Veeuze with one or two drones in Do (C) and La (A) or tuned by “Best or bassoon”: 3700F.

In addition to bagpipes, M. Bougé also makes excellent oboes from 1350F, musettes (a small oboe in G) from 1300F and serpents in C from 1000F.

Most of his pipes have around a 6 to 8 month waiting period which, in months to a year for a full set of Hilleann. All instruments come fully voiced and played and are available upon request. A 50% deposit is required; the balance payable before delivery.

Contacts: Denis Bougé.

BAYSPIPE FESTIVAL, PRESTON HALL MUSEUM, STOCKTON by Dave McQuade

This event, held on the August bank holiday, turned out to be surprisingly successful and approximately 7,500 visitors to the museum entertained by members of the Society and other local folk dancers and musicians. I was surprisingly as I didn’t like to trouble to say last time Society and the Museum administration did not quite get their act together. Problems with organization meant that we did not twist people’s arms or, sadly, we should have done and contacting folk during the holiday period proved exceptionally difficult. In fact, we were not sure exactly who was going to turn up until the actual weekend itself.

We won on tangible, well problems made proper advertising almost impossible and the curator decided to play safe by cutting the original programme. Apologies to those who were squeezed out at the last minute. We settled on providing a very informal concert to the visitors by playing in a greenset; rested Victorian street sitting the museum on Sunday and Monday afternoons. To add to the atmosphere, most of the performers wore provincial costume provided or traditional dress. Although this makes no difference to the music, it always surprises me how much more interest the public show when they see someone dressed up!

On Sunday evening we had a pub session at one of the local, and this to me was the highlight of the weekend. It was quite an experience to hear Malachie Moore and Jean Pierre F. Rook play some really heartwarming horn Jon Swayne led the pipers who could play together. I don’t think I’ve ever heard so many different types of bagpipe playing in tune and sounding so harmonious.

On Monday morning, Hams held a workshop for the pipers. Again, it was a pity that advertising was so sparse as a lot of local pipers would have appreciated this.

Throughout the weekend, piping was provided by Peter Starke and Jean-Pierre Raste, Hamish Moore, Jon Swayne, the Guddacre Ffolks, James Merryweather, Colin Ross, Martin Ennis, Judy Rochcliffe, Joe Harris and Mary Cannon. Folk groups featuring pipes were Northern Bairn’s Folk and Blackwater Folk.

Ray Fisher acted as compere for the occasion and managed to keep things running smoothly.

Everyone who took part seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. One certainly must have done – he sent his cheque back cancelled!

THE SOCIETY OF IRISH PIPERS – NA PÍBAIRÍ UILEANN

As promised in an earlier Newsletter, we are continuing this our feature on other piping societies with Na Píbairí Uilleann.

The society caters for Hilleann pipers and was founded in 1968 (from modest beginnings, it now boasts a worldwide membership of 400 with active clubs in London, Sheffield, Paris, Holland, Toronto, Francisco and Seattle with many members in continental Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The majority of members, as may be expected yourself live in Ireland with many in the Dublin area where tuition is given on a weekly basis at the society’s membership Street headquarters). A free to all and employees differing levels of expertise. In addition courses in reedmaking and general maintenance are run at intervals as required.

The society co-operates with the Irish Arts Council in holding regional gatherings throughout Ireland with demonstrations of pipers, classes and workshops, thus reaching members outside Dublin to also co-operate with pipers in England and further afield in running similar functions abroad. The most important event in the society’s calendar is the annual Willie Clancy Summer School held each July at Málboy, Co. Clare in July. Na Píbairí Uilleann runs the piping section of the school, providing teachers, organising the classes, well as piping concerts, daily recitals by competent players for students, and exhibition of pipes and piping.

The growth in the number of members of Uilleann piping throughout the world since the foundation of the society is quite an indication of the increased interest in this Irish piping being translated into a demand for piping related interests is due in large part to the singular work of Na Píbairí Uilleann in promoting the playing and making of pipes.

Contact: Na Píbairí Uilleann.

HURDY-GURDIES AND PUBLIC SAFETY—THE ALARMING FACTS EMERGE
by Julian Goodacre

Just how safe are hurdy-gurdies? For some time this question has worried the building and medical professions, but it appears that no research in Britain has been carried out in this field. In the light of the disaster at Aldershot, 11th September I feel it is time to press the government into settling a well-funded enquiry.

The disaster to which I refer occurred at the Blowzabella weekend on Sunday 6th in the foyer of the Aldershot West End Arts Centre at approximately 2.15pm a large portion of the bar collapsed. Fortunately the bar was closed, as 15 floor became a mass of broken glasses and bottles mixed with several gallons of spirits. It would be easy to dismiss this incident as unforeseeable—an Act of God—but I believe it was below safe. For the previous forty hours there had been a variety of sessions in front of the bar—some of them involving up to fourteen hurdy-gurdies, all playing simultaneously. Shortly before this disaster there was a session with three hurdy-gurdies.

I am of the opinion that when an even more hurdy-gurdies employ their trompettes simultaneously it can cause molecular realignment which can seriously weaken masonry and other building materials. The greater the number of trompettes, the greater the structural damage they can cause.

The French are looking this problem far more seriously than the British. Anyone who has been to the festival at St. Chartier will see evidence of this. It must be the largest gathering of hurdy-gurdies in the world and the organisers have had the wisdom to run it as an outdoor event taking place in the grounds of an old Chateau. Even though it takes place outdoors the Chateau and its surrounding buildings have suffered considerably from the annual throng of molecular bombardment they receive from the hideous buzzings of several hundred hurdy-gurdies. During the last twelve months a portion of one of the towers collapsed and some segments of a parapet became so unsafe that they had to be removed. Portions of the outbuilding are now little more than ruins.

In the village square where much music and dancing takes place from midnight to sunrise the organisers have taken sensible precautions. Two of the dance floors have no walls and thus there is no fear of collapse. The third dance floor has a roof but no solid walls. To ensure that the roof and supports are under as little stress from molecular bombardment as possible the musicians’ platform is placed outside of the covered area.

I shall be pressing my local MP to take up this worrying matter in The House. An enquiry must be begun immediately. Interim guidelines should be issued to all players. Meanwhile I would beg all hurdy-gurdy players to be very sparing in their use of the trompette and to take all sensible precautions.

Aside from the collapsing Bar Disaster the Blowzabella weekend was extremely enjoyable. Much praise must go to Paul James for programming the whole event. The only suggestion I have for next

year is that on the door of one of the rooms assigned for sleeping be placed a large sign reading ‘THANKYOU FOR NOT SNORING’.

I came across a fascinating item in an American catalogue recently. It’s called The Redual and it appears to be an expensive but valuable alternative to the Milton Keynes weekend. It all sounds too good to be true. The catalogue states ‘The Redual makes and repairs all Oboe, English Horn, Bassoon and Bagpipe reeds. Redual repairs all sizes of single reeds up to 7 forsaking. Redual cuts reeds out of blank or semifinalined reed stock. Redual duplicates a model reed in all its exact proportions and playing qualities. Redual makes a reed softer or harder as desired. (Making a reed harder is done by trimming the reed tip till it is very lively hard and then putting a heavier cut on the slightly shortened reed.)’

Does anyone in the society have ‘hands-on’ experience of the Redual?

Many readers have been staging the H from one edition of Goodacre’s Eaze Pipe since February. Actually the whole matter has been sub-judice for the past seven months pending the outcome of an enquiry. It would appear that there is a police informer among the newsletter readership who grassed to Edinburgh Police Drugs Dept. that I was manufacturing hallucinogenic substances. On a fateful evening in March I answered a loud knock on my door and 15 swatty Peace Officers burst into the kitchen and removed a large portion of its contents including half a bowl-full of Sharon’s finest Tapioca pudding. All the materials I had been using in my Eaze Pipe experiments were similarly confiscated after being placed in self-seal polythene bags.

I was fortunate that I had previously solved the mystery of the hallucinogenic side effects. It appears that the rye malt extract I had been using had been infected with ergot. This produces effects similar to Lysergic Acid. I had disposed of the entire infected batch shortly before the police raid.

I have written nine letters to the Times about this—none of which have been published. I am waiting for a police apology and the return of all Eaze Pipe ingredients, tapioca pudding, etc.

J.G

The illustration to the right
was sent in by anonymous donors (not quite anon.; they call themselves Cornamusements Inc.). Didn’t know where to put it so I thought I’d stick it here.

For those of you sick and tired of this Newsletter’s ‘in’ jokes, an examination of ‘Chaser’ and Julian’s catalogue will reveal all.

Whoever you are Cornamusements Inc., please send more! It WOULD make a great regular spot.

FESTIVAL OF EUROPEAN PIPING IN EDINBURGH by John Gardacre

Although the bagpipe i9 the national instrument of Scotland and the Edinburgh museums together contain a magnificent collection of bagpipes, it is only recently that efforts have been made to develop the Edinburgh International Folk Festival at Easter into a European Piping Festival. The work has already for oome years included a Harp Festival. Last year Hamish Moore contributed his first week of ‘could wild’ piping classes and there was a varied piping concert at the end. THis year those were repeated and the whole programme broadened to cover many aspects of piping and pipemaking.

Traditional Scottish piping was represented by two striking bands, the Skottes and Dykehead Caledonia Band and the Monktou Hill Band, and by two promising young soloists, Martyn Bennett and Stuart Reid. Anyone who thinks that such players are committing themselves to a hidebound tradition should listen to some of the more progressive music being played by both soloists and bands. Jim Sutherland, though not a pipcr himself, has contributed some smashing new-style tunes to the ‘Scottish rhythm and wing’ played by his group the Easy Club at their concert. They were not the only ones to be playing this jaunty piping reel. The Easy Club Reel. In another direction Mark Duff, who plays recorder and whistles in the young group Capercaillie, slipped in a line on the Leicestershire small pipe to effect in one song.

Another departure from the main Scottish tradition is the revival of the solo Ireland tradition of border and small pipes. In his recitals Hamish Moore has the advantage of being able to draw on his experience as a highland piper and to select techniques and music from the Highland tradition that suit his bellows pipes. He also has the gift of being able to explain to his pupils the minute details of what exactly he is aiming at, at each point in a tune and to give them precise comment even though their individual techniques may never be as fine copies of his own. For many pipers interested in this reposition the week began with the annual competition of the Lowland and border Piper’s Society, although this was not mentioned in the Festival programme. This is intentionally a relaxed event, to dispel any idea of a formal championship, and many styles of playing are welcomed, from border pipes played as if they were Highland pipes to small pipes sounding more like Northumberland pipes and with an overlapping repertoire. This year the range was extended in more ways than one by Jonathan Swann’s entry, playing his own developed half- long pipes. If Scottish pipers had difficulty in accepting these as border pipes rather than as a French chanter with common stock-drones, they might welcome them instead os a new form of the pastoral pipes of the eighteenth century.

The Northumbrian tradition was represented by Chris Miller, who is pushing his technique to the limits, especially concentrating on high speed repeated notes with the left thumb, like the Scottish doubling and treblling on the top a. Irish puls were played by Peter Smith from Dublin and Eugene Lamb from the west coast of Ireland, who is also a distinguished maker. They both can produce that sparkling trickle of tiny notes that dance on the edge of the drones without counting themselves to Plunge into harmony with them. The Glasgow group Setanta, who play Scottish and Irish music, were playing for the last time with their Irish pipes player David Munro, who is moving south.

A Hungarian group, Makring, played exciting string music and also a couple of tunes using a bagpipe. One aim seems to have been to obtain some western currency by selling the instrument before returning home. The central French tradition was represented by Andre Mercus, the virtuoso cabrette player from the Auvergne, accompanied on diatonic accordion by Jacques Lavejne. Arresting Spanish music was contributed by Los Raperios, a group from Galicia who play gaita, whistle and percussion.

An innovation this year was an exhibition or trade stand event on two days, ‘Meet the Pipemakers’, an opportunity to browse, ask questions, and even try out pipes of different kinds. It was also a chance for interchange between the various makers there; but there was never a sufficient crowd of visitors at any one time to justify the popular sequence of lectures and demonstrations by makers.

Another innovation was the series of Piping Festival lectures given on the last day. Hamish Moore sketched in some of the historical background to present day lowland piping, the transition from piazoos tuning to modern chromatic tuning, the hunt but repertoire and hopes for the future of ‘breathing down the hunters’ bungs he and Bill Lewis the construction of Irish pipes and Peter Brown spoke about their music. He pointed that while there were distinct regional styles of fiddle playing, piping styles were more personal. This might be because until recently there were so few players playing in Ireland. He prefers jigs and reels to hornpipes, which are ‘more European than Irish’ and have ’no sadness’.

Ian Silver, with Los Raperios, gave an expert introduction and demonstration of their music, starting from simple percussion instruments and, he gaita as a solo instrument and concluding with ‘composed’ music and ‘classical arrangement’, sometimes using the cga gaita in harmony.

The principal theme for the piping festival was stated by Hugh Cheape in his talk ‘The European Roots of Scottish Piping’, illustrated with a slides 1nstead of the musical examples In the other talks. He is consistent, Keeper of the Royal Scottish Museum and is actively campaigning to win for the bagpipe collections in the Edinburgh national museums the recognition of their international importance and the public display that they deserve. In sorting and cataloguing the pipes he has been struck by the variety of types represented and the fact that few of them conform to what we know as the standard Highland pipes. This is not just because piper does to museums are often cast-offs and the ‘real’ pipes remained in use. His researches into old illustrations and publications, types of music and tune names all confirm the pattern: the development of the Scottish pipes must be accounted a nineteenth century movement, part of the adoption of a Highland identity for the whole of Scotland. Before then the Scottish pipe music was responsibly part of the European song and dance tradition.

The foundations have been laid for a British piping festival of European scope, in the most appropriate venue in the world. This year it was supported by Scottish, Irish, English, French and Spanish cultural bodies and pipers’ societies. Now it is hoped that SEC support can be obtained via the EEC Cultural Co-operation Committee in Edinburgh. Much has been achieved by the Festival Administrator, Marian Ramsay, under the of the festival directorship of Robin Morton and with the Enthusiasm of Hamish Henderson. What is needed is a presiding figure to pursue energetically the ideas that have been thrown around so far. Hamish can hardly be expected to undertake this in addition to the classes and his concert commitments. The whole project is so much in line with the aim of our bagpipe society that the least we can do is to wish success to the new director, Archie Fisher. But there must also be some way in whtch we can actively show our support and help him and Marian Ramsay continue and develop such good work. Next year the festival will be from March 25th to April 3rd, and the Festival of European piping will be concentrated on the second weekend, April Ist­3rd. Write for fuller details, which should be ready around Christmas.

RECORD REVIEW
by Simon Owen

NORMA-NORTON
Edgel Bell 70007

This is the first, and only record by this young Italian group Norma, but one hopes that they make more and very soon. They are a five-piece band who compose most of their own material, which is very strongly rooted in the traditional idiom. The influence of Breton and Scottish music makes itself plain in some of their wholly instrumental items, but it is the Gallian traditional influences that shape most of the tunes. In these, days of increasing cultural homogenization it is most refreshing to find a group that respects the traditions of its own culture while still being responsive to the cultures of others. To me, this is the only way to put a cultural heritage to good use, without a continuous evolutionary process, any culture becomes fossilized and its practitioners risk becoming intolerant of differing philosophies or traditions which consequent disastrous results at either personal or national levels. End of digression.

While always retaining a keen sense of dynamics and textures, Norma are a very high-energy group which has a great fondness for playing very fast. In the hands of technically uncomplicated group this approach can result in a chaotic thrash that is infinitely more fun for the player than the listener! Listen here, however, the excellent arrangements and playing skills keep such excursions under a tight rein.

The band features two gaitas, bombarde s, recorders, bouzouki, guitar, accordion, bass, piano/synthesiser and assorted percussion. The use of piano as an upfront instrument is a salutory reminder of how effective it can be when played thoughtfully (all too rare in most folk bands). The gaita playing is deadly accurate even at high speed which is not to say that the playing is gratuitously speedy, but only where it is most effective). The bombarde playing is also excellent, and really lifts some of the tunes with its clarion tone.

Nearly every tune on this record is a strong one which leaves you whistling it for long afterwards, and the arrangements all leave room for exploration of dynamics and texture. Thankfully, a lot of folk bands are moving away from the all start, all play, all finish approach to tune playing, and Norma’s arrangements are exemplary in bringing out the most in the material. Of all the tracks, I could single out the closing one for special mention. In two parts, the first is a panderiada named after the dance named after the drum ­ the panderiero ­ used to provide the rhythm which motors along very smartly with the two gaitas taking the main part. Following this, the second part is the well-known lío o’ Silur which is taken up by the piano and whistle at a pace which makes you wonder how long they can keep it up until the bagpipe makes a reappearance at Warp Factor Nine, leaving you (me anyway) breathless by the time it’s over. The articulation used by the gaitas on this difficult tune is razor sharp, giving clarity to the melody while bundling it along in a way that makes your average jig sound like a slow air. Brilliant!

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File under essential purchases.
This record is available from Follatt’s or if not by mail order (along with all other Galician and other Spanish records) from ARPAFOLK,
S.R.

IN SEARCH OF THE 100 BAGPIPERS
by Paul Miller

Most of you will have received a circular a month or two back inviting you to join the British-Bulgarian Friendship society on their trip to the Rozen folkore festival in Bulgaria for something less than a bargain price (2386bettaxrs? must be a joke). Being a seasoned traveller of the Balkans but having made only one trip to Bulgaria, which was somewhat limited due to having acquired a plastered leg on the way, I decided to make my own way there. So armed with a cheap charter ticket to Yugoslavia, a visa for Bulgaria (£20?) must have been another joke) and against the advice of Bulgarophil friends who warned that events like this have a habit of getting cancelled at the last minute, I set off for Rozen.

Looks like I should have heeded their advice. Because when I got there all the posters had been overprinted with a new date- the festival had been postponed for a week!

So what happened? Were the promised 100 bagpipers too busy like I was, queuing for bread? Was it because long-standing party leader Todor Zhivkov was being ousted from power because he doesn’t get on with Gorbacev (The order to take his portraits down came while I was there.) Local officials were not to be found and those not in authority were as clueless as any Bulgarian is about what is happening in the country.

Anyway, your intrepid Bagpipe Society member had to miss the festival as my charter flight left from Yugoslavia while the festival was on. I wasn’t too sorry to miss the 100 bagpipers, except for the fact that they would have been playing the local instrument, the Kaba Gajda which has a beautiful deep tone distinct from most other bagpipes. The idea of playing 100 together is probably not traditional but more probably the idea of some official or committee; still, I was curious to know what they would have sounded like. In certain villages in Macedonia there is a tradition of playing large numbers of Gajdas (or Gajdi in the plural) together and in the village of Delbeni they can still manage an ensemble of 10 players and pretty amazing they sound too, but Pece Atanasovski, Macedonia’s most famous Gajda player who comes from that village tells me that it once was able to muster 100 players. So it looks like the Bulgarians stole the idea from the Macedonians!

Anyway, this was supposed to have been a report on the festival. Instead I have to ask if any members did actually make it to the festival on the presumably rescheduled BBFS trip? Or did they turn up the wrong weekend as well?

P.M.

LORIENT THROUGH THE DRINKING GLASS
by Simon Owen

For the bagpiper, the Lorient Inter-celtic festival in Brittany is like a course of aversion therapy. If nine days of continuous bagpipes can’t cure you of being involved with them, nothing will! For most people, of course, nothing will. Imagine some four thousand participants, a large percentage of whom play bagpipes (generally Highland or Gaitas), playing virtually continuously from afternoon till dawn; music of the spheres to some, souls in torment to others.

Each Celtic nation sends a delegation to the Lorient Festival, and it is easy to lose track of who is currently claiming to be Celtic. It took several years for Galicia to be accepted into the Celtic fold, and now their neighbours and fellow Gaelteros, Asturias, are claiming Celtic nationhood. Although neither has been accepted into the League of Celtic Nations, such distinctions count for very little when you have such exuberant people and wonderful music.

The Welsh contingent was a massive ten musicians (seven of PENCERDD and three of CROMLECH), although we did manage a good showing on the bagpipe front, with myself and Richard Brown from Pencerdd and Peter Davies of Cromlech using various beasts of burden. Welsh music has never had the highest of reputations in the past, being either unbearably polite and bland Elitedfad-type parlour music or chorle singing excerpts from Gilbert and Sullivan (as I heard when I was at the festival a few years previously). We were determined, therefore, to keep a high profile and continue the trend started in the last few years of the more progressive Welsh groups such as Aberjaber.

On arrival at two in the afternoon, we passed the main marquee which had a sign saying that Pencerdd would be playing at four o’clock. This left very little time for any apprehension and no time at all to gauge the standard of the other groups or the mood of the audience!! I wondered how, in such a short time, they could manage to do sound checks, but in the field of chuckling and settling up, I feel that the Lorient organization has hit on an excellent arrangement. Each group is given an hour-long slot in which to set up and perform. If they tinker with microphones for most of that hour and play for only a few minutes, that is up to them. To my mind, nothing is more frustrating than endless and often self-indulgent sound checks which can last longer than the actual performance. In addition, the sound crews were excellent and really understood what the groups were doing, following the music and mixing accordingly.

Our first performance went tolerably well, and we finished with a set of Welsh tunes played by myself and Richard on two pipes. Having hung a large Welsh flag from the drone of mine to indicate that it was a Welsh bagpipe (gaita galesa!), we were closely questioned afterwards by a newspaper reporter on why we used gaitas, and what had happened to Welsh bagpipes. The result of this conversation was the following newspaper paragraph which demonstrates that he took my answers for less than gospel truth!

Cherchez l’intrus…

Surprise pour les festivaliers rassemblés samedi après-midi, sous le chapiteau des arts : un jour de gaïta figurait au nombre des musiciens de groupe gaïtis

Pencerd, La gaïte, m’a-t-il expliqué, ressemble à la cornemuse galloise du Moyen Age. - (?)

Having settled into the routine fairly quickly, certain things became obvious. Primarily among these was the enthusiasm of the Lorient and welsh public for informal playing. Setting up in a bar inevitably resulted in many free drinks and a lot of interest. As with a lot of festivals, this was the best part of the proceedings, especially for meeting and playing with other musicians. Most nights we would play, usually in the same bar, until four or five in the morning. Fortunately, concerts did resume until the afternoon, the morning’s only activity being a parade by a different pipe band every day.

Although a group’s concert schedule is by no means arduous, we hardly got to see half of the other concerts that were on. However, there were several outstanding groups: the Galician Luar la Lubre, whose gaitero had a deeply wonderful three-drone gaitas: also from Galicia, Arnegüin, who feature more vocal music than is usually associated with bands having two gaiteros. Although Asturian music is not so immediately memorable or exciting as Galician, I enjoyed the young Asturian group Llán de Cubel, who featured an excellent gaitero. Not to everyone’s taste were the Galician rock group Brath, who integrated the gaitas very well into rock numbers with firm traditional feeling, but were less successful at rocking up actual traditional tunes, which were a bit too simple for such elaborate treatment and ended up a little over-dressed.

Although Irish music is not exactly my favourite to listen to (rather than play), I could not help but be impressed by the absurdly young and extremely talented Irish groups, especially Slíbh in and Familia. Unfortunately I missed seeing Davy Spillane, who I think was performing solo and also missed hearing Callicanto, who are an Italian band using the “bags” (the North Italian pipe resurrected by Massimo Fumagalli) and are a very theatrical and musically very exciting group.

For the bagpiper the wonder of the event was not in the variety of bagpipes on show, as would be the case in St. Chartier, but the sheer weight of numbers of sets of pipes around, usually Highland or Gaitas. A common sight at mealtimes would be a bagpipe mountain stacked up while their owners partook of the excellent food. On several occasions I was transfixed by a pile of Antonio Corral gaitas twenty or thirty deep (the Man himself runs an excellent pipe band Gaitas de Xarabal) surely they wouldn’t miss just one?

Since the Irish, Scottish and Breton pipe bands use the same pipes (more or less), it was interesting to compare the different styles and repertoires. This was made very easy on the day of the Great Parade, when seventy different outfits went in procession along a mile-long course. It took two hours for the whole parade to go by, and most of the participants played pipes. The Breton bagadou seemed to be the most interesting, since the bombardiers give them a flexibility of approach to the music which the bagpipers only bands don’t have. For the first time in its history, the parade was not led by the naval bagad of Lorient, Bagad Lann-Bihoué. Pride of place (!) this time went to the Pencran marching band of two flatalas, rauschpfeife and percussion. As the only Welsh representatives willing to process, we were put at the front to avoid upsetting the careful programing of the rest. Apart from the fact that we couldn’t be heard when the bagad turned passes behind us was playing (2 gaitas vs . 20 pipes, 20 bombarders and 8 drums) our only embarrasment was the lack of a national costume. Alex Evans’ suggestion that we went naked painted with woad was not put into practice since it was a chill morning and none of the shops sold woad.

I love the sound of a massed paita marching band, and the Galician costumes were the most elegant on display, especially those of the men. The Asturians seem less flamboyant, both in costumes and music, although not without charm of their own. They do not go to far large groups of pipers (a dozen or so at the most) and marching is made most uncomfortable due to their amazing three-pronged clogs. The Asturian pipes are outwardly the same as Galician gaitas except they only ever have one drone (as far as I could see) and have a flared end to the drone rather than the characteristic bottle-shaped ends of the Galician drones. However, they employ exclusively closed fingering as opposed to the Galician open or semi-closed and the tunes use overlapping as a matter of course, to at least the three finger note of the second octave. The Galicians very rarely stray above the break and even then only go one or two notes above.

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For us, the highlight of the festival was the night at the fishing port nearby, for which a large boulevard was blocked at each end and six stages erected at intervals on which groups performed from evening until daybreak. Fish was on the menu of nearly every bar and stall from freshly grilled sardines to fish couscous. If they could have made beer from fish, I’m sure they would have done so. By 4am or so the whole 15,000-strong audience was very drunk and very cheerful. A similar event would be impossible to stage in Britain as it would result in the stupid, ignorant and aggressive behaviour that usually seems to accompany a certain stratum of British society. At Lorient however, everyone was fully occupied in enjoying themselves and being friendly to one and all.

Hopefully, we generated a lot more members for the bagpipe society with the large number of leaflets we gave away. There is an exhibition of Lutherie in the main marquee (including, this year, a superb bagpipe maker Dominique Bougè making French and Balkan pipes) at which we might be able to set up a permanent stall next time. It seems that we were well enough received this time to be asked back next year, so I hope to be writing a similar report then. Watch this space.

S.O.

For details of Lorient ‘88 contact Simon Owen. We will be advising you through these pages in plenty of time for you to plan your hole… Ed.

LETTERS

Dear Bagpipe Society,

Re Hale the Piper

The pipes are not shown in any detail but did appear as in the illustration you have but larger in the other, now lost, part of the broadsheet.

The drones clearly have holes. This now makes sense through comparison with other types of hawk bundle drones or does it remain as an error on the part of the artist? No means of inflation is visible. ‘Old Hale’s Hornpipe’ used a rangi of notes from A below the stave to F sharp in the top line - this is worth looking at again (but not available, lost or stolen or mislaid, when asked for last at the local library) (reproduced in John Offord’s book-typist)

The bell on the hale’s pipes appears to be attached by binding or staples; or are they keys?

Was Hale also a pipe maker? There appears to be a lathe in the background with odd, partly finished pieces under it. The lathe itself looks at a glance to be very modern and anachronisms appear to abound, what with the tune. The pipes and details from the illustration. Accuracy or concentration?

And as for your blood running cold, is someone trying to tell me something? Hale isn’t such a common name and my musical unconscious has certainly not oeap developed for me by the last generation of my family. Oddly enough I do a lot of what my paternal grandfather did; he was an ‘Anglo’ concertina player, born in the Black Country, who moved (back?) to Derby. I am an English concertina player with a definite leaning towards practical, repairing, making aspects. Who knows where we both came from?? ! Grandfather died before I was born.)

Derrick Hale,

A number of other members have written to draw attention to the item by Jon Swayne on the Hale pipes in John Offord’s book of English Dance Tunes, “John of the Greeny Cheshire Way”. In it Jon casts doubt on the authenticity of the bagpipe itself and suggests that it might be an invention of the artist in an attempt to depict “an instrument current 100 years before his time”…. ed

Dear Bagpipe Society,

I would like to tell you about our Pipeband in Switzerland, the Basle Drum and the Swiss bagpipe.

In Switzerland there are two Pipebands: one in Basle and one in Zurich. There are a few little groups of about three or slightly more members. The pipband I’m a member of is ten years old now. The very beginnings of the band consisted of three members who brought along bagpipes from Scotland without any knowledge of maintenance, tuning, fingering or anything else. Slowly they began to improve their pipes after having got acquainted with a Scottish instructor, who normally still comes once a year to Basle, together with a drum instructor. During recent years the band has grown bigger and more experienced. It might be mentioned that the drum Corps is relatively good, for all the drummers are already very experienced Basle drummers.

The Basle drum is a low-pitched metal drum with snares and two cowhides which are not as strongly strained as for example the Scottish drum is nowadays. The drum is played sometimes in groups of 50 drummers who play together. Mostly you can see the Basle drum at the “Fasnacht”, witch may be known abroad, for the Basle Carnival is very famous.

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At the moment our land counts twelve pipers and seven drummers. Three years ago we were competing in Scotland in Grade four and three.

Recently I saw a Swiss bagpipe, which is the same type as the Southern German. Unfortunately I don’t know where to get them from or where to learn more about them. The only thing I know is that they are mouthblown and a comparatively similar sound to the Scottish highland pipes.

Markus Scherner, East Wishes

JUNIOR PIPER’S CORNER

Hello Juniors…… This is Uncle Peter welcoming you to a new feature. And aren’t there a lot of young pipers for you to read about in this issue? Two promising young soloists and the young group Capercaille at Edinburgh (did you know, one of them is only 26!), a young Galician group who’ve even been allowed to make a record(!), a young Austrian group at Lorient, together with two absurdly young groups (well really, what ever were their parents thinking of allowing them out so late?). But seriously though, don’t you look forward to the day when you pass forty and you can become a real member of the club? I mean, just how old do you have to be before you can be just a good musician, and not a child protege?

Agally Yours, Uncle P.

Have you heard about the amazing young Northumbrian piper Paul Higgs (hope I’ve got the name right) who has been stepping for Kathryn Tickell? How this one really is young, Peter; I believe he’s about 12 (correct me if I’m wrong Don Rendell), apparently he’s good enough to easily audition those who have come to see KT, and that’s saying something!…..Ed.

GREEK BAGPIPES — THE SAGA CONTINUES

by Paul Miller

Here is my contribution to the Greek pipes story. As far as I am concerned the gaida in its Greek variants is the mainland bagpipe. Let me justify that statement. Firstly Macedonia is just as valid an ethnic and geographic region of Greece as Spirus or the islands. The wider region of Macedonia (i.e. Including the parts of Yugoslavia and Bulgaria) is not an entity like Kurdistan, where the Kurdish people have a homeland but the territory is split between three modern states ruled by people with different ethnic and religious backgrounds. Macedonia has always been a region of mixed minorities, hence the French use of the term “macedoine” and the two largest minorities are basically either Greek or Slav speaking. Political events of the last 100 years including exchanges of population have led to the current situation of a vast Greek speaking majority in the part now under Greece. I am a bit worried that all this is too simplified to make sense but a whole library has been written on “The Macedonian Question” and the Geographic Society Newsletter is at the place to continue it. What I think I am really trying to say is that there is no such person as a “Macedonian” in the same way as there is no Kurd or a Basque. So back to the pipes.

The gaida is not just played in Greek Macedonia but it is also played further east in Thrace. The instruments appear to be much the same as those more familiar gaidas played by the Slavs and Rumanians to the north, the only notable difference being that in Greek Macedonia the higher pitched instrument is favoured, playing around 3 finger d’ (or e’ in some villages, known as the ‘mosquito’ gaida for obvious reasons).

All the authentic Greek-manufactured instruments I have come across have had cylindrical bores. There are some conical bore ones around, but these appear to be Bulgarian imports. As regards the Thracian, the lower pitched instrument with 4 finger notes around d’ flat, seems to be favoured together with a conical bore as in Bulgaria, but I am less sure about this because I have never met a player and am relying on the tapes and written information I have found. Both the Greek Thracian and Macedonian players have a playing style similar to but at the same time distinct from the corresponding Slav players in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia.

The second reason for regarding the gaida as the ‘authentic’ mainland instrument is this: Brian Wilson, who posed the original question seemed to want to disregard the gaida on the basis that it was copied or borrowed from a neighbouring group. If you follow this argument then logically there are no real Greek pipes at all because the island pipes (known as ‘Tsambouna’ in most places) are so clearly related to the Turkish ‘Tulumba’.

While on the subject of the island pipes; apparently on some islands the pipers don’t bother to play when there is a southerly wind because it brings too much moisture; Instead they wait for the dry northerlies. So if you thought it was just the British climate that was bad for pipes, you are wrong! Also on some islands they use unused bags; presumably there everybody is glad of any wind at all just to carry away the stink!

Lastly, there is a fresco on Mt.Athos painted in the 16th century and showing an instrument much like the typical medieval pipes (eg. Jon Swayne’s reconstruction), including a proper conical bore, and such pipes also have some sketchy references elsewhere in written sources. So perhaps these pipes were once widespread in mainland Greece and they are the missing link?

P.M.

The subject of Greek bagpipes is still definitely open and any more light that can be shed on the subject will be most welcome. Paul is currently spending a protracted sojourn in Macedonia and will, we hope, have lots more goodies for the newsletter on his return. His contact address can be found in the membership list supplement. Meanwhile, see next letter for details of a recording of Pontus bagpipes.. Ed

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MORE LETTERS

Dear Bagpipe Society, Yes, pipe collecting is really sheer madness! I have a large collection of pipes, not all of them in playing condition – especially out here. Keeping pipes playing in our ridiculous extremes of temperature and humidity certainly takes on a whole new and frustrating perspective. The west coast of Canada and the North Western U.S. is much preferred; the temperatures, rain and general climate are much more conducive to bagpipe players (somewhat resembling the British weather). Well – the listing of my pipes – it just keeps getting longer!. I have recently added; 1 a full Bflat set of uilleann pipes in boxwood made by Hughes and McLeod in Downpatrick, N.Ireland. Obtained from west coast of US) 2 A keyless set of Northumbrian smallpipes – extra Colin Ross chanter – no maker’s name on this set. Very nicely made in blackwood/ivory. Obtained via a friend here, who got them via Dave McCordiock (should this be Stephen?..ed?) pipe maker in the Derby area. The chanter has a plunger in the end, facilitating playing open style (plunger out) or closed style( plunger in). 3 Bflat blackwood chanter – Hughes and McLeod 4 Full blackwood/silver plated brass set of D concert pitch uilleann pipes from David Quinn – dimensionally copied from Liam O’Flynn’s 1936 Leo Rowsome set (David measured Liam’s set). Fantastically high standard of workmanship from David Quinn (USA). 5 Old Scottish smallpipe drones (19th Century probably) plus D chanter made by Denny Hall (near Seattle, Washington State). On order 1 Remi Dubois Bechonnet Bourbonneais 2 Flemish Cornemuse 3 cabrette chanter from Bernard Blanc 4 Half-longs from Jonathan Swayne No doubt I’ll have excuses for other pipes in the meantime. Keen to locate older sets now – though obviously difficult to find. Will be in the UK at Christmas time, so possibly I could try to meet some of you folks when I’m over. The North American Northumbrian pipers’ convention is looking good for this year (August) and I’m getting Gerry O’Sullivan up from New York City to play at the Sunday concert. He’s without doubt amongst the top half-dozen or so uilleann pipers here in North America. A little on the style of Paddy Keenan. (He may have a record out shortly over here.) Enthusiastically Alan Jones,

Alan has also sent a complete list of the pipes he owns. It is reproduced here as a warning to all members against excess and overindulgence! Take heed, you too could end up like Alan, sleeping in a pup tent while your house is full of bagpipes (seriously Alan, where do you keep them all?) I’m sure this can’t be the lot as Alan is a keen Northumbrian piper – somewhere between America and England there must be a stray sheet listing his Northumbrian pipes – Help! UILLEANN 1 Eugene Lamb 4 set (small drone down side of chanter 2 David Quinn (in boxwood) 3 Pat McNulty practice set 4 Pete Riley set in maple (made in Maine. USA) 5 David Quinn Bflat 4 set (Original B/Bflat) 6 Joe McKenna 4 set in C. Cobarpl chanter for his Rowsome set. needed to play in C) 7 Jim Maloney/Eugene Lamb full set in D. 8 Glendon McCarthy (London) full set in D. 9 John Addison full set in L Ligrun) 10 Jeff Slaven full set (Derby and Nottinghamshire). 11 David Quinn D chanter (5 keys + stop switch) 12 Chris Langan (Ireland/Toronto, Canada) – C chanter 13 Matt Kiernan Bflat chanter, 14 Peter Riley D chanter. 15 John Addison D chanter in blackwood. 16 Chris Bailey (London) D chanter. 17 Early Uilleann (Pastoral?) pipe, manufacturer currently unknown. Excellent workmanship. Bellows intact – piece missing off end of chanter (foot joint?) – Looks like Robert Reed standard of work. 18 Hughes and McLeod- full set in Bflat.

SCOTTISH 1 Scottish smallpipes in D Colin Ross 2 Bflat/A smallpipes (interchangeable chanter) Colin Ross 3 C Scottish smallpipes Robbie Greenslit 4 MacDonald, Edinburgh, border pipes (late 17/early 1800’s) 5 MacPhearson Highland blackwood/ivory (60 years old?) 6 Hardie Highland 7 Hardie Practice Goose. 8 Henderson(?) Practice chanter. 9 to come this summer- Old set of 19th century drones (3) + modern smallpipe chanter Denny Hall USA.

MISCELLANEOUS 2 Breton Veuze (Herievuex and Glet, Brittany) in G, two drones. Spanish Galta 2 drones, blackwood, in C (made by Veuze malers in Brittany 3 Swedish Sakpipa Leif Eriksson 4 Flemish pipes David Quinn 5 English double pipes in F with interchangeable double chanter Julian Goodacre 6 D English pipes C interchangeable chanter Julian Goodacre

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Dear Bagpipe Society
I thought you might like to publish Dr. Baino’s letter to me concerning the piping records held at Oxford University Music Faculty (note the one from Pontus, under Greece)

Has anyone been over, there, or thought of transferring selected bands onto cassette tape/ for distribution within the society?
I would agree with Duncan Moss about AIDS but I am less sure about hepatitis B and tuberculosis (rare though it is nowadays). A disposable plastic slipover for the mouth-piece would be reassuring for demonstration sets, perhaps with a one-way valve.

Yours Sincerely
Dr. Peter Cameron

Dear Dr. Cameron

In answer to your letter, I have recently been able to go through the records, old and new, which are in the Music Faculty here; many of them are mine. In case any are fresh to you, here are the bagpipe items. (LP 12” unless otherwise stated)

Albania: Topic 12V154 Lloyd), gaida, 2 bands
Bulgaria: Unesco Coll. Univerel. 78. 10" gajda, 1 band
- Argo ZRG 562. gaida, 2 bands
- Chant du Monde LD-M8138. 10". gajda trio (arranged)
Czechos: Supraphon SP 20377. 7" (“contained in V. Long’s book on Slovak instruments — in Slovak). gajdy, 3 bands

• 3122. 45. 7”, gajdy 3 bands.
• 03085/6 45. 7". gajdy 2 bands.
• 31139. 03115/6. dudly. many bands
         Rescho HV 72253. 45. 7" (contained in music book by Künzig)
         England: Northumbrian: Unesco Coll. Univ. 78 10" (no artist named)
         Topic 12T283 ‘Noley Ha’ penny’ Clough & others.
         Estonia: Unesco Coll. Univ. 78 10" (no.19 in the series) 1 band.
         France: Col. SL-207. Folk Music of France ‘musettes’. 2 bands
         Decca for EFDSS S.P.12 ‘Folk Tunes from the Auvergne’. I band
         Westminster WL 5334. (KNFC Papillon festival cabreta. 1 band
         Brittany -no old 78 not yet listed, with old biniou.
         Germany: Coloss.SM 3014. Upper Palatinatae (Eichenseer 1975 collections)
         Greece: SDNH 110. Chios tsabouna. 2 bands
         Pan Vox BIGA 133/137 10143. (Songs etc from Pontus) tulum, recorded in Greece.
         Hungary: Hung. Acad, of Sciences. Qualiton LPX 1187 (KNFC ‘64). 1 band

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Ireland: Unesco Coll Univ 78 10" union pipes. no image. 1 band.
Westminster (As above. France) R.reaban. 1 band.
HMV DLP 1143 10". Recorded in Scotland 1 band
HMV CLP 1327 (Kennedy). McPeaka. 2 bands.
HMV I.M.498 78 10" Rowzova (all)
Decca WL 4009,4046,4332 78 10" Walsh (3 records)
Italy: Col. KL-5137. Latium, Molise (unusual) 2 bands. Also Sicilian.
Col. KL-5174 zampogna. 3 bands.
Col D.Q. 426. 78 10" Zampognari
Homecord A-6366. 78 10" …………
Sicilly: Odeon GO 17874, 78 10". corsanusa.
Col. D.Q. 553
Portugal Request SRLP 0089. galteros. 2 bands
Rumania Electrecord EPD 78. 10". cimpoi
Topic 10112 10". ……..
Antalogia muz.pop.r omin, 5. 10". cimpoi
Scotland Col.DIB1515. Pipe-maj, Forsyth. 78 10"
Westminster (as France). sword dance
Spain Col. KL-216. Gallics, 1 band
Yugos. Col. KL-217. Five bands, different types
Yugoslav Ethnographia. 78 10". mih.
Vegner Verlag, Lieder der Welt VIII, diple? 1 band
Unesco coll. univ. 78 10" Macedonia, gajda
Radiotel Beograd LPV 175 ’tanset’ gajda.

Yours sincerely, Anthony Baines, Faculty of Music, _____ Oxford
Nov. 1977

What a treasure trove this little lot is! (Unfortunately, we simply can’t list selected bands, even for distribution exclusively within the society — our copyright laws, quite rightly, do not allow it. However, it would seem that the records are available for listening; just what the borrowing or auditioning arrangements are I do not know. If any members are interested, perhaps they might like to contact Dr Baines at the above address..).

Ed

NEWSLETTER 12 COPY DATE
The copy date for the next Newsletter is January 30th. This gives us a clear month to get it all written up, typeset, printed and distributed. You may think a month is a long time but, believe me, it isn’t — even if we were doing it full time. When you consider that it has to be squeezed in between other leisure activities (even Newsletter editors/typesetters like to actually play bagpipes occasionally as well as write about them), I’m sure you’ll realise that we really do need your copy in early to avoid a last minute panic. I would also like to make a plea to the 90% of members who do not contribute; it’s not that we’re short of material, just that there must be lots of wonderful fax info out there about the wonderful world of bagpipes that just isn’t being shared with other members. Tips, tunes, anecdotes, research, jokes, letters, complaints; keep it all rolling in.

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DEAR UNCLE OCTAVIUS

PIPERS’ PROBLEM PAGE

Double Trouble.
I have a strange effect in the common drone stock of my E.M.S Praetorius bagpipes. It is try to play both drones at once, the vibrating air from one seems to disturb the other. I have tried several reeds in both without improvement. Sketch below of the drone arrangement.
The other trouble is with the chanter on a set of Scottish small pipes made by Grainger and Campbell. These play in the key of D (a little flat actually) with a bassoon reed. I suspect incorrectly placed or sized finger holes. The trouble is a 5th hole and a 6th hole (numbered from the bottom), which play almost one semi-tone sharp. I’ve been playing these for nearly twenty plastic tape over the tops of the holes to flatten these two notes. Different reeds make no improvement, and I’d either like to alter the holes, or have a new chanter made, which tunes properly (6 & C no longer makes them). If any of your members would undertake these alterations, or be willing to duplicate my existing chanter with properly placed holes in African blackwood and ivory sole, I’d be anxious to hear from them.

[Sketch]

First of all, let me say that I am only glancingly familiar with the E.M.S. instrument so cannot give any advice based on direct experience of it. However there must be many members with E.M.S. who may have come up against this problem and have discovered how to sort it out, so let’s hear from them. In the meantime, I can make a few general comments. This annoying phenomenon occasionally crops up with common drone stocks, and is also known to occur with certain designs of chanter/drone stocks as used in Central France. In my experience it seems to be related to the volume of air contained in the stock. For example, stocks of life type used on Border or Ulster pipes, where the stock is hollowed out behind the sockets for the drone tenons, seem to be free of the problem. Such stocks are also sometimes constructed by long straight through for each drone, thus each drone would effectively have a separate feed from the bag; this arrangement is also not susceptible to interference. The smaller the volume in which reeds is regulated to operate, the greater will be the change above and below ambient pressure in response to the compressions/rarefaction cycle produced by the vibrating reed. Mutual coupling (interference) is therefore likely to occur where a common stock has a relatively small internal volume; a reduction in bore area, length to the stock and the bag is likely to make matters worse, since it would tend to make it more difficult for the air in the stock to stand at ambient bag pressure. Assuming that you have strictly followed the instructions on the kit as to the construction of the stock, the remaining approach is to experiment with the reeds. Intuitively I would have thought that a stiffer reed is less likely to be affected by mutual coupling. The resonant frequency of a drone reed is a function of the mass and stiffness of the tongue. The size of the reed must also be matched to the air-column it is required to excite. Since the relationship with frequency is inverse in the case of mass, and direct in the case of stiffness, any increase in stiffness must be matched by an increase in mass (usually length) in order to preserve a matching resonant frequency.

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As to the second problem, even Uncle Octavius (finds it impossible to give sensible advice without having the instrument in front of him, and without the answers to the many questions it raises. Perhaps members may be able to help, or to recommend someone who can.

A Case of Aural Harassment.
Could your “Pipers’ Problem Page” be retitled “Problem Pipers’ Page”? My landlord has recently acquired a set of “ullan 600 #ta hetestarrishra smallpipos, with the result that domestic harmony (to say nothing of the musical variety) has been somewhat disturbed of late. My main problem appears to be an insufficient supply of blu-tak for plugging up the end of the drone, couple with the fact that Mr. Goddill has rather inconsiderately made the bore too small for poking anything larger than a piece of spaghetti up it to act as a mute (which is not very satisfactory since the spaghettti goes soggy after a few days use). I never used to have this trouble with my landlord’s bassoon since almost anything can be dropped down the end of a bassoon and a pair of rugby socks made a most efficient mute. Do not misread me - I have no quarrel with the pipes, which I’m sure are a most melodious and mellifluous instrument in the right pair of hands; I am merely worried about my landlord’s health - how long can be withstand the barrage of insults (and greater items) hurled at him from across the living-room floor? Perhaps there is some medical operation which can separate a problem piper from his pipes - I hope you can give me some advice (or failing that, some consolation).
Yours worriedly,
Ann Noyd, Beeston, Notts.

This column receives a constant stream of letters and phone calls of similar substance, and I often wonder whether pipers as a type have something to learn in their choice of wife/partner/live-in lover. Or since the vast majority of pipers are male, perhaps the problem is that their female partners exhibit to a greater extent than normal, the tendency of some women to fall in love with their men’s potential rather than with his present reality. In this case the relationship seems to be that of landlord and tenant, but if it is, how do they come to share the same living-room? Astute readers will have noticed many unanswered questions here. For instance, why should Ann want to blu-tak the drone? Is it too loud, or not in tune? Why cannot the ‘landlord’ blu-tak his own drone, stick spaghetti up his own chanter, drop socks down his own bassoon? Why should she worry about her landlord’s health when the insults seem to be coming from her? Does the executioner worry about the health of the condemned men? Has Ann considered that spaghetti in a soggy state is likely to be a more efficient mute than in its raw state? In fact, why hasn’t she noticed this? Has she considered that dirty socks may be a more efficient mute than clean ones due to the increased density of air laden with smelly-sock molecules? Can a state of harmony ever be said to exist between landlord and tenant, and if it can, can such harmony properly be described as domestic? Quite frankly, I think that Ann has not been Frank (Goddill?) with us. As for surgical separation, I think this suggestion smacks not a little of pain every. You ask for advice and consolation, Ann, but I can’t help you unless you come clean. Come to think of it, have you asked yourself whether all this activity with pipes you complain of might not be what the psychologists call “displacement activity” or “sublimation”? Consider carefully before coming to any premature conclusions.

IMPORTANT NOTE to Organologists: with reference to using bagpipes for cooking spaghetti, compare the practice of rock-concert goers of ‘hard-boiling’ eggs by placing them directly in front of the speaker stacks. After a few hours of exposure to several kilowatts of acoustic energy, the eggs are nicely done in their shells, ready for eating on the way home.

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The Deeper Mysteries. At the recent-making workshop held in Milton Keynes In October 1986, I noticed that all the makers secured the 2 shaped blades of cane together with red thread of different gauges, prior to gluing them onto the staple. Is this absolutely necessary – or only a less green thread? Stanley Hoff, Shadwell

You are clearly a highly evolved being, since the capacity for such sensitive discernment of the HIGHER SECRETS of roach making Is bestowed upon few. Your experience shows how things reveal themselves to us only when we are ready and fit to receive them, doesn’t it? Your exquisitably developed intuition has shown you naturally that which THE MAKERS rarely reveal unasked, if then, namely that the higher vibrations of the coloured thread affect the molecular structure of the cane at a deeper level than is apparent to those, shall we say, woven of coarser cloth. The colour RED was used by THE MAKERS, because it carries the lowest rate of vibration in the hierarchy and is less likely to represent a danger to the unbelinted. The aspirant must purify the dense matter of his being before he can bear the intensity of the vibrations of the Higher Colours. It has also been shown to you that the thickness of the thread that binds must be matched to that which is bound. That you have already perceived the hue of the next colour in the hierarchy is truly uplifting: have patience, the CALL TO THE GREEN will come when you are ready for it. In the meantime you must be sure to continue to develop your Strength and Awareness. In the knowledge that great gifts carry with them great responsibility, the responsibility which will be required of you at the final step of TAKING ORANGE when you will be worthy to be privy to the company of the Ineffable Swah Deva himself, first among the Company of the Elders (so-called, as I am sure you know, not because of their great age, but because of their reverence for the Elder plant), in comparison with whom we are all but a broken reed and beyond whom we cannot on this plane aspire, until we go to the GREAT REED-MAKER in the sky. (Note: this last sentence is of a length of which even Bernard Levin would be proud).

THIS INSPIRING COMMUNICATION WINS THIS MONTH’S PRIZE FOR THE BEST LETTER. The Prize, consisting of the Ashes produced by the spontaneous combustion of Seven Reads used and blessed by SWAH DEVA himself will as usual be sent to the House for Indigent Gentleppers.

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY BAGPIPE – A DICTIONARY DEFINITION

BAGPIPE, a musical instrument of the wind kind, chiefly used in country places, especially in the north: it consists of two convenient parts; the first a leathern bag, which blows up like a foot-ball, by means of a port-went, or little tube, fitted to it, and stopped by a valve; the other part consists of three pipes, or flutes, the first called the great pipe, or drone; and the second, the little one; which passes the wind out only at the bottom: the third has a reed, and is played by compressing the bag under the arm, when full, and opening or stopping the holes, which are eight, with the fingers. The little pipe is ordinarily a foot long; that played on, thirteen inches; and the port-went six. From: “A new and Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, extracted from the best authors, by a Society of Gentlemen, London, 1754. I am grateful to Dr Maurice Byrne, editor of the Galpin Society Journal, for referring me to this dictionary.

JOHN GOODGORE

JACK MY HEDGEHOG (GRIMM) by Dirk Campbell

A farmer whose wife had been childless for many years wished eventually for a child of any kind at all. Even though it were a hedgehog! His wife soon gave birth to a child who was a boy from the waist down but a hedgehog from the waist up. The boy lay on a pile of straw behind the stove doing nothing except eating and sleeping until he was grown, when unexpectedly asked his father to bring him a hopper from the market. Having received this gift, he went to the smith to have the horses took shod, and, much to the relief of his long-suffering parents, rode away on it to the forest to look after his father’s pigs and asses. There he flew up to the top of a tall tree and sat there year after year, playing on his pipes. One day a king lost his way in the forest, and hearing the beautiful music of the pipes, sent his servant to see if the player could tell him who he was. Jack My Hedgehog promised to oblige on the condition that the king would give him whatever first met him on his return home. The king did so, but failed to carry out his promise, since it was his daughter that ran out to him. A second king got lost in the forest and brought Jack to show him the way home. Jack exacted the same promise from him, which he felt obliged to honour, even though he and his daughter were understandably upset at the thought. Unaware of the decisions of the two kings, Jack took his herd of pigs and asses home to his father, but the cock crowed and rode off to the first king’s castle, where the king had given orders that Jack was to be shot on sight. But Jack avoided the soldiers by flying over the walls into the palace. He confronted the king and his daughter and threatened both of them with death if he did not have his wish. Terrified, the king consented to the marriage. Jack and the princess left the town in the same carriage, but after a few miles he stopped, tears of all her fears falling, pricked her all over with his bristles and sent the poor girl home in disgrace.

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