The Praetorius Schaper Pfeiff

This edition is from our archives, so it is presented as scanned pages rather than text.

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.

Drones and Modal Music

The mention of the Appalachian Dulcimer in Newsletter 18, and the way in which the drones are used against different modal tunings prompts me to write about my wanderings in this musical minefield. At least two of the modal scales should be familiar already to bagpipers, the Ionian and the Myxolydian, but the Aeolian and Dorian also deserve examination. Both are commonly used in British and other European folk music traditions.

I have read numerous articles about the modal scales and most of them are very technical and confuse rather than clarify. To put it as simply as I can for the four modes I want to describe I suggest that the reader picks up a whistle and tries them. any pitch will do. First the Ionian or Doh mode. This is the common or garden major scale. Just play straight up the scale from the all fingers down position from Doh to Doh. Next there is the Myxolidian or Soh mode, the scale which is found on many sorts of bagpipe, e.g. Scottish Piob Mhor. To play it on the whistle start from the two top holes covered and play straight up from Soh to Soh crossing over the octave Doh on the way. You will notice that it is exactly like the Ionian mode until the final two intervals. Three fingers down gives the familiar whole tone leading note below the Soh you started on.

The next two modes are sometimes described as minor because they do resemble the minor scale used in Western Europe “serious” music. It is my feeling that whereas they are moody, to call them minor suggests that they are essentially said in character. Under certain circumstances tunes in these modes show many shifts of mood as the tune progresses.

The Dorian or Ray mode can be played on a whistle by starting from five holes covered and playing straight up to the corresponding five holes covered in the second octave. Here is a tune which will be within the compass of most chanters:

[Musical notation]

The Aeolian or Lah mode can be played by starting with one hole covered and playing straight up into the second octave until the same note is reached.

Another popular way of illustrating the modes is to use the white notes of a piano, the key of C, and playing straight up using no sharps or flats. The Ionian mode (Doh) is C to c Dorian (Ray) is D to d, Myxolidian (Soh) is G to g, and Aeolian (Lah) is A to a.

A good way to investigate them on whistle or chanter which has the option of either a flattened or sharpened interval just before the octave is as follows. Ionian from Doh to Doh with the seventh or leading note sharpened, Myxolidian from Doh to Doh with the seventh flattened, Dorian Ray to Ray with sharpened seventh, Aeolian Ray to Ray with flattened seventh note.

I don’t want to worry about the other modes but for people who want to delve into them the Phrygian goes from Mi to Mi, the Lydian from Fah to Fah, and the Locrian from Ti to Ti. They don’t occur too often in our part of the world.

Without doubt the Appalachian Dulcimer or related instruments, Epinette des Vosges, Hummel etc, are excellent for finding the haunting qualities of the Dorian and Myxolidian. The system they use is to have two drone strings tuned a fifth apart and to shift the paired unison strings accordingly. For example, keeping the drones the same, you can have:

Ionian or Doh
Myxolidian or Soh
Dorian or Ray
Aeolian or Lah

AA - A - D
DD - A - D
GG - A - D
CC - A - D

The arrangement of the frets makes it possible to play each of the seven common modes merely by starting on the appropriate fret. There are many variations in tuning but the thing that should interest the piper is that the starting note of each mode is an octave above the bass drone. The relationship with the other drone remains at a fourth below the melody starting note and a fifth above the bass drone.

Clearly most sorts of bagpipes can cope with the Ionian and Myxolidian. In fact the Myxolidian scale is the feature which attracts so many of us, and to be fair, is what some other musicians find strange. The problems start to arise when attempting to play a tune in the Dorian or Aeolian. In a conversation with a Chabrette player a long time ago I formed the impression that he was able to cope with other modes by swapping chanters and keeping the drones the same. However, my French was not up to deep technical musical discussions and my notions of the modes were pretty hazy at the time. Perhaps a Chabrette player could take up this point and enlighten me. Some how for most of us the “home” note of the mode has to be brought in tune with the drones. The range of the chanter may be capable of playing the scale but unless you have the sort of drone arrangement found on the Northumbrian pipes you are unlikely to be able to try out these modes against the drones.

One way to try the effect is to find a friend who has an instrument with drones in D and play along on a whistle in C using the scales described above,

The Bagpipe Society

The Praetorius Schaper Pfeiff

Frontispiece from O’farrell’s National Irish Music for the Union Pipes

Conclusion

Bibliography