Promoting the Bagpipe Revival since 1986
The Bagpipe Society
Where did the Irish pipes come from?
This edition is from our archives, so it is presented as scanned pages rather than text.
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 Bougé 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 bolts… 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 weak tuned 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 range 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 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 been 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 Zürich. There are a few little groups of about three or slightly more members. The pipeband I’m a member of is ten years old now. The very beginning 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 piping after having got aquainted 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 in nowadays. The drum is played sometimes in groups of 50 drummers who play together. Mostly you can see the Basle drum at the “Fasnacht”, which may be known abroad, for the Basle Carnival is very famous.
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At the moment our Land country 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.
East Wiches
Markus Schermer.
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 Capercaillie 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/e?
Agitely Yours,
Uncle P.
Have you heard about the amazing young Northumbrian piper Paul Higgs (hope I’ve got the name right) who has been shopping for Kathryn Tickell? Now this one really is young, Peter; I believe he’s about 12 (correct me if I’m wrong Don Bender). Apparently he’s good enough to study musicians 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 gajda 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 nationalities, 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 ??pcvfjpa Society Newsletter is not 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 in Kurd or Basque. So back to the pipes.
The gajda 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 gajdas played by the Slavs and Romanisms 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’ gajda 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 gajda as the ‘authentic’ mainland instrument is this: Brian Wilson, who posed the original question seemed to want to disregard the gajda 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 ‘Tulumb’.
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 uncured 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. We contact address can be found in the newsletter 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 full Bflat set of Uillean 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 McCordick (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 uillean 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 Bourbonnas 2 Flemish Cornemuse 3 cabrette chanter from Bernard Blanc 4 Half-longes 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 in the Sunday concert. He’s without doubt amongst the top half-dozen or so uillean 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!
Ulliean 1 Eugene Lamb 4 set (small drone down side of chanter 2 David Quinn (not 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. Cuharp chanter for his Rowsome set- reeded 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 D (Lignum) 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 Uillean (Pastoral?) pipe, manufacturer currently unknown. Excellent workmanship. Bellows intact- piece missing off end of chanter (footjoint?) - 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 Greensit 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 (Hervieux and Glet, Brittany) in G, two drones Spanish Gaita 2 drones, blackwood, in C (made by Veuze malers in Brittany) 3 Swedish Saxpipa 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, these, or thought of transferring selected bands onto cassette tape (or 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 slipcover for the mouth-piece would be necessary 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. Univeral. 76, 10” gajda, 1 band
Argo ZRG 562, 2945, 2 bands
Chant du Monde LD-M8313a. 101, gajda trio arranged
Czecho: Supraphon SP 20377; “V” (contained in V. longó’s book on Slovak instruments - in Slovak), gajdy, 3 bands
- 03122, 45. 7”, gajdy 3 bands.
- 03085/6 45, 7”, gajdy 2 bands.
- 031139, 03115/6, dudý, many bands
Rescho HV 72253, 45. 7” (contained in music book by König)
England: Northumbrian: Unesco Coll. Univ. 78 10” (no artist named)
Topic 12t283: ‘Holey 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 ‘musette’, 2 bands
Decca for EFDSS S.P.12 ‘Folk Tunes from the Auvergne’, 1 band
Westminster WL 5334, (IKFC Pampolona festival) cabreta, 1 band
Brittany - no old 78 not yet listed, with old biniou.
Germany Colos.SM 3014. Uppere Palatinata (Eichensoer 1975 collection)
Greece SDNM 110. Chios tsabouna, 2 bands
Fan Vox BIGA 1357) 10143. (Songs etc from Pontous) tulum, recorded in Greece.
Hungary Hung. Acad of Sciences. Quallton LPX 1187 (IMFC ‘64). 1 band
Ireland: Unesco Coll Univ 78 10” union pipes; no name, 1 band.
Westminster ‘Als above, France) R.Ragh. 1 band.
HWV DLP 1143 ’K Recorded in Scotland 1 band
HWV CLP 1327 (Kennedy), McPeaks, 2 bands.
HWV L.M.498 78 10" Rowzona (all)
Decca W.4009,4046,4332 76 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”, Cormamusa.
Col.D.Q. 553
Portugal Request SRLP 0089, galateros, 2 bands
Rumania Electrecord EPD 78, 10”, cimpoi
Topic 10T12 10”, …………..
Antalogia muz.porp romin.5. 10”, cimpoi
Scotland Coll.DB115 S. Pipe-maJ, Forsyth, 78 10"
Westminster (San France). sword dance
Spain Col. KL-216. Gallicas, 1 band
Yugos. Col. KL-217. Five bands, different types
Jugotorn Ethnophilia. 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. …[redacted] Oxford
Nov. 1977
What a treasure trove this little lot is! Unfortunately, we simply can’t lift 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 usually) with a bassoon reed. I suspect incorrectly placed or sized finger holes. The trouble is 4 of 5th holes and 8 (5th hole) numbered from the bottom, which play almost one semi-tone sharp. I’ve been playing these for nearly thirty 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 (G & 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.
Al Saguto,
First of all, let me say that I am only glancingly familiar with the E.H.S. instrument, so cannot give any advice based on direct experience of it. However there must be many members with sets 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 tile type used on Border or Loth 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 compressor/compression 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, by contrast 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.
As to the second problem, even Uncle Octavius (inds 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 HoofdraHESTEeetanshirane saal l pipes, 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-tek for plugging up the end of the drone, couple with the fact that Mr. Goddill has rather inconsistently 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 spaghetti 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 consided 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 (gaddit?) with us. As for surgical separation, I think this suggestion smacks no a little of panic 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.
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 any less green thread? Stanley Wolff, Shadwell
You are clearly a highly evolved being, since the capacity for such sensitive discernment of the HIGHER SECRETS of reed-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? You exquisitely developed intuition has shown you naturally that which THE MAKERS rarely reveal unasked, in fact, 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 uninitiated. 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 Reeds used and blessed by SWAH DEVA himself will as usual be sent to the Home 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 three principal parts; the first a leathern bag, which blows up like a foot-ball, by means of a port-vent, 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 pass 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 pouting 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 portent 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
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 he unexpectedly asked his father to bring him a hogpie from the market, having received this gift, he went to the smith to have the hoops took about, 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 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 usual way, but after a few miles he stopped. Tears of all her life crowded her all over with his bristles and sent the poor girl home in disgrace.
Page 35
The Pastoral Pipes
Very little appears to have been written about the pastoral pipes. We do know that a year after Culloden a tutor appeared published in London by Geoghegan. Some suggest that this was a Scottish version of the Irish pipes but I think that in fact it is the other way around. It is possible that after the first Jacobite uprising in 1715 someone realised the effect that warpipes had on the enemy or it may have been that a pipemaker who required something more refined started work on this new set.
Geoghegan shows in his tutor fingering for ornaments already familiar to the Scottish piper, birls and grips and the like. He also gives the range of this instrument two octaves from ‘d’ in D major (A4 15) bearing out his statement that: “It is able to perform the same number of notes with the flute or hautboy”. This instrument also had a detachable foot joint usually half the length of the chanter again with two tone holes in Scottish style. One of the difficulties with the historical analysis of the instrument is the fact that many early makers did not put a name to their instrument.
A drawing by Hogarth in 1728 “The Beggars Opera Burlesqued” shows a piper standing whilst playing the pipes. He does not appear to be playing them by blowing into the bag so I presume the bellows are hidden. The bag is tucked in underneath an arm and the drones and one regulator issue from a common stock. This could well be the pastoral pipe which Geoghegan wrote his tutor for. It would be pointless to write a tutor for an unpopular instrument so they must have been common for some time previous to the tutor. According to Rod Cannon (Galpin Society Journal 1989) Hogarth must have seen one somewhere shortly before making the drawing. The instrument is also described by Gehot in his treatese on “The Theory and Practice of Music” (1784) as the pastoral or new pipes. Cocks (1954) attributes the pastoral pipes to a Scottish adaptation of the union (or Irish or Uilleann) pipes in his entry for Groves under bagpipes but I think most people would now refute this.
Few people were known as makers as few signed their work. This was possibly because if the new pipes did not gain popularity they could not be denegrated for making them! According to a popular belief Reid from Tyneside, a maker of Northumbrian and later Uilleann pipes, was a maker of pastoral pipes. He is supposed to have done a fair amount of research. There is extant in Scotland a set of these pastoral pipes without a makers name dated by an authority on pipes as about 1710. This has a detachable foot-joint and plays e^b with the foot-joint taken off and the chanter placed upon the knee. Possibly Reid and others altered the drones to d’d and D. By about 1730 they were appearing with three drones. The foot joint is supposed to provide the chanter with a length of air which when the bag is squeezed harder aids the chanter to jump up to the next register. A maker of Northumbrian half-long pipes had a bell joint which came off and when he tried using modern Irish piping fingering, found he could get nearly two octaves with the chanter placed
Chanter 19
upon the knee. Some pastoral pipes are said to be more in tune when played Irish-style. The foot joints on extant pastoral pipes seems to be half the length of the chanter without foot joint. An interesting observation to note is the morphology of the last two inches of many Irish pipe chanters. They have a noticeable bulge and a brass ferrule on the bottom.
This could well be the tenon of a new pastoral pipes preserved in the external features of the pipe known now as the Irish pipe, Uilleann pipe, organ pipe or union pipe. I prefer to call it the Irish or Uilleann pipes.
![An Irish warpiper with bagpipes]
An Irish warpiper
20 Chanter
The Irish Pipes
Bagpipes in Ireland have without doubt a long and varied history. Before what is now the Irish pipe there was an older bagpipe called the great pipe or Piob Mhor in Gaelic.
Some sources give the earliest documentary evidence of Piob Mhor as occurring in the Brehon laws of the fifth century. O’Curry mentions a reference to them in the Trinity College Library, Dublin. It contains a list of fines payable to lower grade professionals for insults or bodily injury and concludes:
“These are base, that is inferior professionals and entitled to the same level of fine as Pipairedha or pipers and Cuisleannach or pipe blowers.”
This makes the distinction between bagpipers and flute players. In the 11th century a poem about the fair of Carmen mentions the pipes in the sixty-third stanza. It was noted that the pipers were used from early times in many varied roles. They played for cattle raids, dances, weddings, fairs, battles and other social gatherings including funerals where they were used to great effect.
The Irish pipes were, much as with their cousins the Scottish pipes, a martial instrument with connotations of war for the players. Many had a brush with the clergy or the law.
One story told today talks about a chap playing on the pipes on a Sunday morning just before mass. The priest on his way to mass stops the piper and shouts at him saying “You should be ashamed of yourself playing instead of going inside to mass, don’t you know the Ten Commandments?” “I’m not sure” said the piper “Would you care to hum the first part, I’m no good at remembering the names of tunes?”.
The Statutes of Kilkenny were another time of persecution for the art of piping. A law in 1367, the work of Edward the Third, stated that there would be imprisonment for Irish pipers or minstrels or whosoever helps them.
In 1475 Irish mercenaries complete with their pipers accompanied the Kings Crown soldiers to Calais. Kerns and their pipers fought for whoever would pay them and throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth century there are many references. They fought in Belgium in 1513, Boulogne 1544, and were seen in London in 1544 and 1566. Derricks images of Ireland shows a piper playing in front of a group of kearns. The picture, while showing a piper with a bag, should not be taken too literally, but it does show the pipes in historical perspective.
Galilei in his ‘Dialogue’ published in 1581 offers a good description of the role of a piper in Ireland at the time:
“To its sound, this unconquered fierce and warlike people march their
armies and encourage one another to feats of valour with it. Also they accompany their dead to the grave, making such mourneful sounds as almost to force the bystander to weep.”
The original pipes probably had a single drone of some description and by the 16th century development two. As described in “De Rebus in Hibernia Getis” there were two drones as well as the blowpipe and chanter (cf O’Neill, Musicians and Minstrels). There are numerous mentions of this pipe in the 15th century and there must have been much cross fertilisation of ideas between Scottish and Irish pipers for the McCrimmonds to travel between the two. Flood has suggested that there is a reference to Irish pipes in Shakespeares time but we will deal with that suggestion in the next section.
Slowly but surely the pipes began to decline in use and there was quite a downturn in their use after the Williamite wars of the 1680’s and 90’s. The playing of Irish war pipes was supressed largely due to their rousing influence on the Irish. By the mid 18th century they were little in evidence. The last recorded use of the Piob Mhor is at the Battle of Fontenoy where an Irish brigade fought with the French against the English on May 11th 1745. There are no extant remains of these pipes anywhere. There used to be an old set of pipes in the Musee De Cluny in Paris which have subsequently disappeared.
The decline of the large pipes was also due no doubt to the influence of dance music which began to become very popular. There is a good account of the rise in popularity in the Breathnach book “Folk Music and Dances of Ireland”:
“Arthur Young in his account of his travels in Ireland … 1776-1779 remarked that dancing was so universal through the country from cabin to cabin, with a piper or blind fiddler, and were paid by the cottiers for teaching their children dancing.”
The pipes mentioned above were not the Piob Mhor but quite another sort altogether. As western tonality and music requiring notes outside one or two confined scales developed in Ireland, so too did the need to change the instrument. The new one was bellows-blown with two to three drones and a similar number of regulators. The chanter had a range of over two octaves. This was the Union Irish or Uilleann pipes.
The Irish, Union, Organ or Uilleann Pipes
As the above title suggests there are many names for the newer form of pipes played in Ireland. The pipes were known as union pipes in a tutor published by O’Farrell c1800 which is the earliest known tutor for the instrument. Some suggest that the name union comes from the Act of Union (1800) but this is also not the case as it appears in a poem of 1796 where the playing of a musician is recorded thus:
“For he can play the union pipes and nobly squeeze his bags.” 22 Chanter
Frontispiece from O’farrell’s National Irish Music for the Union Pipes
Another possibility is that “union” is a variation of “unison”. The tenor regulator would sound in unison with the chanter. At this stage I can reintroduce Shakespeare namely the character of Shylock who talks of a “woolen” pipe in Act iv, Scene 1 of the Merchant of Venice. Flood did suggest that this was a corruption of Uilleann. The word uill comes from the Irish word for elbow. It would be difficult as Breathnach suggests to anglicise it into union in 18th century Ireland. The term uilleann has caught on and is used today. “Woolen” as previously mentioned more than likely refers to the bag being an animal (sheep or goat) skin turned with fleece outermost. It may even be a corruption of wooden pipe the material of the chanter.
The earliest form was, I suggest the new or pastoral pipes which as in the modern instrument had a key note of D (old pitch). The octave obtained by squeezing the bag harder. Geoghegans tutor as mentioned before showed largely Scottish technique. These sets had usually two drones set one octave apart and a regulator. The idea for that probably deriving from the Sordinella.
In the early 18th two sometimes three regulators were added giving the possibility of chordal work. The drones were extended to three in number and dropped into the modern tuning of an octave above, below and unison with the chanter. Double chanter sets appeared, as did keyed chanters, in the early part of the last century and were used in non traditional music. Chanters were
Chanter 23
made in pitches from low a up as high as e^b. A drone switch was also added about then. It enabled the drones to be turned on and off at the players discretion.
O’Farrell published the first tutor for what was then known as the union pipes. He gave its range as d’-d’’’ with a fully chromatic scale. The tutor was written by a noted performer who appeared often on the London stage. He was noted for using the pipes as accompaniment to songs providing a melody on the chanter and harmonies with the regulators.
The Moloney brothers of Knockerra near Kilrush are credited with providing the pipes with the perculiar trombone-slide on the bass drone to aid with tuning in the mid-late 1800’s. But certainly the most sought after makers were the Kennas, Maurice Coyne, Michael and John Egan, and the Rowsome family. Tim Kenna was an excellent maker and made top quality sets from 1768 up until about 1794. The younger Kenna worked in the first part of the 19th century was supposed to be more secretive about the way he worked though he was a great maker. Coynes pipes are much sought after today as they provide a mellow, quiet, pure tone and are beautifully made. John Egan is supposed to have been a Dublin pipe maker but Michael Egan is considered one of the best makers of all. He was in business in the early nineteenth century making good sets from 1830-1860 and was one of the first to make in America.
The Rowsome family were and still are a noted family of Irish pipers and makers going back many generations. Pipes made by William Rowsome and later Leo Rowsome are much sought after today by the top players. The family tradition carries on in Kevin Rowsome who is a maker and player himself.
The people who had the greatest effect on pipe making undoubtedly were the Taylor Brothers - they were born in the 1830’s in Drogheda and they were sons of a player-maker. The decline of the pipes after the great famine in Ireland in the 19th century forced the Taylors to America and Philadelphia in particular. In c1873 they started manufacturing and repairing pipes but they realised that the pipes they had were too quiet for the concert and music halls which were an important venue for a piper. So the pipes were redesigned and made more compact. The bore was widened, the holes enlarged and the end result was a d-pitched instrument which was also easier for others to play along with making it a much more popular instrument and winning many new players. These sets were in demand!
The pipes manufactured in this way were known as concert sets because they could now play in concert halls without being lost. The other narrow bore sets became known as flat sets even if they were in concert pitch (a=440). Present developments have included having four, sometimes up to six regulators! Having cylindrical regulators, drones tuned to different intervals and drones capable of playing in different pitches by venting a hole further up the drone via a sliding ring as in Northumbrian pipes.
24 Chanter
The style of playing has also evolved in different ways. Seamus Ennis has suggested three main styles. Tight or stacatto playing with many triplets and ornaments, the notes separated by a stopping of the chanter, similar to Northumbrian piping. Legato or smooth open playing is just the reverse and said to be more fluid. The third is called drawing room style, a cross between the two.
The biggest bone of contention in piping is probably the use of the regulators. It seems that it is every pipers ambition to have a set of regulators but many players do not, according to the late Seamus Ennis, play them at all well:
“They are an abomination if used as monsterous percussion.”
The great man also suggested that it took seven years listening, seven years practising/learning and seven years playing before you became a player! (Maybe a nod in the direction of piping colleges!)
With the improvement in amplification techniques there is not such a need for D chanters and many players such as Robbie Hannon use old flat sets to play on in concerts. Many think that the sound is better on the flat sets now. Today there is a great revival both in pipe-playing and making with probably over 30 makers in western Europe alone. The pipes are back on an upswing helped greatly by Brendan Breathnach and ‘Na Piobari Uilleannn’ which was formed in 1968 with the aims of promoting the playing, collecting and preserving the music, and promoting their manufacture and servicing. Pipes are played by lords, ladies, students, lawyers, buskers and people from all walks of life. Long may it continue!
Conclusion
The pipes as we know them in the form of Uilleann pipes via a convoluted path could be a distant cousin of the old Piob Mhor of Ireland.
Scotland shared the same piping traditions up until the 17th century. The Jacobite and Williamite wars caused makers to experiment giving rise to bellows blown smaller pipes. The pastoral pipes being one of those. Although not so popular in Scotland (few makers names) it took off in Ireland with the new 17th century craze for jigs, reels, hornpipes and dance music of other forms. These pipes were developed and became the union pipes, were adjusted and refined to become the Uilleann pipes we know now.
Materials such as box and elder are still being used along with brass and silver but these days makers are experimenting with ebony, blackwood, cocobolo, lignum vitae as well as using nickle silver, and replacing ivory with plastic or horn. There are new developments all the time including a stop mechanism for the chanter and a spring mounted popping-pad which fits under the chanter.
Chanter 25
The time for making and playing has never been better with many good modern players such as Liam O’Flinn, Paddy Keenan, Robbie Hannon, Sean og Potts, Ronan Brown, Declan Masterson, Billy Brown, John Murphy, to name but a few. Credit must be given to two who brought piping to a more commercial music world: Finbar Furry and Dave Spillane.
Bibliography
Armstrong,-Davidson MH, Galpin Society Journal, A note on the History of the Northumbrian Smallipes, 1985
Bagpipe Society Newsletter, Summer, 1988.
Baines A, Bagpipes, 1960
Breathnach B, Folk Music and Dances of Ireland, 1981
Cannon R, The Highland Bagpipe and Its Music, 1988
Carson, Irish Traditional Music, 1986
Charlton G, The Northumbrian Bagpipes, Archaeologica Aelianna, 4th series
Chaucer G, Complete Works (Prologue to Canterbury Tales) 1932
Clarke ET, The New Approach to Uilleann Piping, 1988
Cocks WA, The Northumbrian Bagpipes; Their Development and Makers 1933
Cleary W, The Bagpipe, 1982
Collinson F, The Bagpipe, Fiddle and Harp, 1983
Collinson F, The Bagpipe - The History of a Musical Instrument, 1975
Dineen Rev. P, Irish-English Dictionary
Flood G The Story of the Bagpipe, 1911
Galelei V, Dialogo Delia Musica Antica E Moderna, 1581
Galpin Society Journals 1985-89
Garvin W, The Irish Bagpipes, Construction and Maintainance
Geoghegan J, Compleat Tutor for Pastoral or New Bagpipe, London, 1771
Groves Dictionary of Music, 1984
Hunter, Peter, Anecdotes on Pipes (unpub)
Leppert, Richard D, Acardia at Versailles, 1978
La Rouse Encyclopadea, 1971
Mersenne M, Paris, Harmonie Universalle, 1636
Munro RW, Highland Clans and Tartans, 1977
Muskett, Mr D, The Muskette & Hurdy-Gurdy, 1984
O’Neill F, Irish Musicians & Minstrels, 1987 reprint
Sachs C, The History of Musical Instruments, 1940
Sachs C, Handbuch der Musikinstrumenten-Kunde, 1930
Schlesinger K, Boumas Boekhuls nu Gronigenito, The Greek Aulos, 1934
Shakespeare W, Complete Works, The Merchant of Venice
Stacy & Wishart, Bagpipes & Hurdy Gurdies, 1984
Sky, Patrick, A Manual for the Irish Uilleann Pipes, 1980
Weber W Die Agyptisch Griechischen Terracotten, 1921
Winternitz Musical Instruments and their Symbolism in Western Art, 1970
Chanter 27
- Swedish Bagpipe (Säckpipa or Blasböck)
- French Musette
- Montguscon Bagpipe, French
- Bassoon-shaped Bass Dulcian (Dulcian-trombone) for Bass, German
Note: This page features an image of various traditional bagpipes and a bassoon-shaped dulcian. The instruments are numbered and their names are listed accordingly.
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