Great Highland bagpipe

Pipe Major

Probably the most well known variety of bagpipes are the Great Highland Bagpipes (abbreviated GHBs, and commonly referred to simply as "pipes"), which were developed in Scotland and Ireland. The picture at right shows a set of Great Highland Bagpipes. The pipes seem to have been played in Scotland by the Romans although were also played by invading Dalradian Gaels upon their exodus from County Antrim in 470 A.D., when Prince Fergus MacErc lead his clan in the invasion of the lands of the Picts at present Argyle.

A modern set has a bag, a chanter, a blowpipe, two tenor drones, and one bass drone. The scale on the chanter is approximately in mixolydian with a range from one degree lower than the tonic to one octave above it (in piper's parlance: Low G, Low A, B, C, D, E, F, High G, and High A; the C and F could or should be called sharp but this is always omitted). The two tenor drones are an octave below the keynote (Low A) of the chanter) and the bass drone two octaves below. This "A" of the GHB is actually slightly sharper than B-flat, around 480 Hz, and within the realm of competitive pipe bands, seems to get sharper each year. In the 1990s, there were a few new developments, namely, reliable synthetic drone reeds, and synthetic bags that deal with moisture arguably better than hide or older synthetic bags.

Regional usage

The GHB is widely used by both soloists and pipe bands (civilian and military), and is now played in countries around the world, particularly those with large Scottish and Irish emigrant populations, namely Canada, United States of America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. It has also been adopted by many countries that were formerly part of the British Empire, such as India (where it replaced the local bagpipes, called moshak and shruti), Pakistan (which is today a site of extensive GHB manufacture), Nepal (famous for their Gurka soldiers), Arabic countries such as Egypt and Oman, and Uganda (where Idi Amin forbade the export of African Blackwood, so as to encourage local bagpipe construction, during the 1970s).

The GHB was also adopted in Thailand; around 1921, King Rama VI ordered a set to accompany the marching exercises of the Sua Pa, or Wild Tiger Corps (a royal guard unit which had previously practiced to the sounds of an oboe called pi chawa). Although the bagpipes arrived from the British Isles with a user's manual, no one was able to figure out how to play them, so the bassoon player Khun Saman Siang-prajak went to the British Embassy and learned how to play the instrument with the British soldiers, until he was satisfied. He then returned to teach the Thai pipe band, until they could perform properly. The band, which plays Thai as well as Scottish tunes, still practices at Vachiravuth High School in Bangkok, which is named for Rama VI.

Pollig Monjarret introduced the GHB to Brittany during the Celtic revival of the 1920s Breton folk music scene, inventing the bagad, a pipe band incorporating the GHB, the Scottish pipe band drum section, the bombarde and recently, almost any added grouping of wind instruments, e.g. saxophones, brass instruments, such as the trumpet and trombone, etc. Well known bagads include Bagad Brieg, Bagad Kemper, and Bagad Cap Caval. In Brittany, the GHB is known as the biniou braz, in contrast to the biniou kozh, the small traditional Breton bagpipe.

In Ireland, a presumably related instrument is seen in a woodcut by Derrick (an Elizabethan Englishman), in his book, entitled, "Derrick's Image of Ireland", circa 1580, showing a piper leading a group of soldiers and playing a two drone instrument with a long chanter. This instrument apparently died out in Ireland during the 1700s. In the late 1800s a number of Irish pipers attempted a romantic revival with the Brian Boru pipe (see below). Another version of a revived "Irish" bagpipe was essentially a GHB with a bass drone and a single tenor. This was often termed the Irish Warpipes. This configuration, with two drones (either a bass and tenor, or two tenors), has some historical basis, having been depicted in stone carvings at Clonmacnoise c.700 AD, and in paintings, and other art in Scotland in the 1700s. In all, the two-drone pipe is now a rarity in Ireland, having been replaced by the GHB.

Music

Compared to many other musical instruments, the GHB is limited by its range (nine notes), lack of dynamics (ability to change the volume of the notes), and lack of rests. The latter due to the fact that the airflow to the reeds is continuous until the player stops playing completely. The GHB is a closed reed instrument, which means that the four reeds are completely encased within the instrument and the player cannot change the sound of the instrument via mouth position or tonguing. As a result, notes cannot be separated by simply stopping blowing or tonguing so gracenotes and combinations of gracenotes, called embellishments, are used for this purpose. These more complicated ornaments using two or more gracenotes include doublings, taorluaths, throws, grips, birl, and darado. These embellishments are also used for note emphasis, for example to emphasize the beat note or other phrasing patterns. These three single gracenotes (G, D, and E) are the most commonly used and are often played in succession. All gracenotes are performed rapidly, by quick finger movements, giving an effect similar to tonguing or articulation on modern wind instruments. Due to the lack of rests and dynamics, all expression in GHB music comes from the use of embellishments and to a larger degree by varying the duration of notes. Despite the fact that most GHB music is highly rhythmically regimented and structured, proper phrasing of all types of GHB music relies heavily on rubato, the ability of the player to streatch specific notes within a phrase or measure. In particular, the main beats of each bar and phrase are played in strict time, but the off-beats of sub-divisions within each beat are flexible.

Beginning in the late Middle Ages we have the first evidence of piobaireachd (also written pibroch). This form of music is often called the "big music" of the GHB (in Gaelic Ceòl Mòr), and has something of a scholarly circle devoted to it. It consists of a slow ground movement (Gaelic ùrlar) which is a simple theme, then a series of somewhat minimalist variations on this theme, and ends with a return to the ground. The other music for the GHB, sometimes called "light music" (Gaelic Ceòl Beag), includes marches (2/4, 4/4, 6/8, 3/4, etc), dance tunes (particularly strathspeys, reels, hornpipes, and jigs), slow airs, and more. It dates largely from the last two centuries, being either Scottish or Irish folk music played on the pipes, tunes written by pipers in the British Army during this time, or, increasingly, tunes composed by pipers in civilian pipe bands.

Related instruments

A smaller, quieter instrument, the practice chanter, with a smaller reed than the GHB chanter reed, and lacking a bag or drones, is suitable for practice in settings where a great volume of sound would be inappropriate or unappreciated by neighbors or family members. It is also used by beginning pipers to learn basic notes and movements before adding the complication of blowing, squeezing, and fingering. It is not uncommon for a beginner to use only the practice chanter for a year or two before learning tunes and progressing onto pipes. Another practice instrument, called a goose, has a bag, with the practice chanter or sometimes a regular pipe chanter, but lacks drones, and allows a student to practice "winding" the pipe with the proper mix of breath and bag pressure. The drones are removed and corks are placed in the stocks to lessen the air taken up by drones, thus achieveing a loud chanter sound with no drones.

See also

• Bagpipes
• Pipe band
• Pipe Major
• Pipes and drums
• Canntaireachd
• Piobaireachd

External links

• Information on how to learn the bagpipes.
• Introduction to Bagpipe Music (Great Highland Bagpipe)
• Bagpipe Web Directory - Exhaustive link directory.
• Andrew Lenz's Bagpipe Journey - Reference information.
• The 78th Fraser Highlanders Pipe Band (first non-Scottish pipe band to win the World Pipe Band Championships)
• The Southern Cross Pipe Band of Montevideo, Uruguay
• A video of a piper.