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Great Highland Bagpipe
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The Great Highland Bagpipe (Gaelic : A' Phìob Mhòr) is probably the best-known variety of bagpipe. Abbreviated GHB, and commonly referred to simply as "the pipes", they have historically taken numerous forms in Scotland.
A modern set has a bag, a chanter, a blowpipe, two tenor drones, and one bass drone.
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Encyclopedia
The Great Highland Bagpipe (Gaelic : A' Phìob Mhòr) is probably the best-known variety of bagpipe. Abbreviated GHB, and commonly referred to simply as "the pipes", they have historically taken numerous forms in Scotland.
A modern set has a bag, a chanter, a blowpipe, two tenor drones, and one bass drone. The scale on the chanter is in Mixolydian mode with a flattened 7th or leading tone. It has a range from one whole tone 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 often omitted). Although less so now, depending on the tuning of the player, certain notes are tuned slightly off of just intonation (for example, the D could be tuned slightly sharp for sound effects), but again, today the notes of the chanter are usually tuned in just intonation to the Mixolydian scale with a flattened 7th. The two tenor drones are an octave below the keynote (Low A) of the chanter) and the bass drone two octaves below.
Modern developments have included 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, mainly England, 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, Nepal (famous for their Gurkha 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). In Oman, the instrument is called habban and is used in cities such as Muscat, Salalah, and Sohar.
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.
During the First World War, some Breton pipers serving in the French Army came in contact with the pipers of Scottish regiments, and brought back home a few GHB which Breton pipe-makers started copying.
Pollig Monjarret led the introduction of the GHB to Brittany during the Celtic revival of the 1920s Breton folk music scene, inventing the bagad, a pipe band incorporating a Biniou Braz section, a Bombarde section, a drums section, and in recent years 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 has been coined the Irish Warpipes in recent times.
Royal pipers
Since 1843, the British Sovereign has retained an official piper, bearing the title "Personal Piper to the Sovereign". Queen Victoria was the first monarch to have a piper, after hearing bagpipe music on a trip to Scotland in 1842. It has since been tradition that a serving soldier and experienced army Pipe Major is taken on secondment to Buckingham Palace. The Piper is a member of the Royal Household whose principal duty is to play every weekday at 9am for about fifteen minutes under The Queen's window when she is in residence at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse or Balmoral Castle.
He is responsible for the co-ordination of the twelve Army pipers who play around the table after State Banquets.
Design
The Great Highland Bagpipe is classified as a woodwind instrument, like the bassoon, oboe or clarinet. Although it is classified as a double reed instrument, the reeds are all closed inside the wooden stocks, instead of being played directly by mouth as other woodwinds are. The GHB actually has four reeds; the chanter reed (double), two tenor drone reeds (single), and one bass drone reed (single). See Bagpipes.
Music
The Gaelic word pìobaireachd simply means "pipe music", but it has been adapted into English as "Piobaireachd" or "Pibroch". In Gaelic, this, the "Great Music" of the GHB is referred to as Ceòl Mòr, and "light music" (such as marches and dance tunes) is referred to as Ceòl Beag.
Ceòl Mòr consists of a slow ground movement (Gaelic ùrlar) which is a simple theme, then a series of increasingly complex variations on this theme, and ends with a return to the ground. 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. The Ceòl Mòr style was developed by the well-patronized dynasties of bagpipers - MacArthurs, MacGregors, Rankins, and especially the MacCrimmons - and seems to have emerged as a distinct form during the seventeenth century.
Compared to many other musical instruments, the GHB is limited by its range (nine notes), lack of dynamics, and the enforced legato style, due to the continuous airflow from the bag. 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, birls. There are also a set of ornaments usually used for pìobaireachd, for example the dare, vedare, chedare, darado, taorluath and crunluath. Some of these embellishments have found their way into light music over the course of the 20th century. 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 stretch specific notes within a phrase or measure. In particular, the main beats and off-beats of each phrase are structured, however, sub-divisions within each beat are flexible.
Related instruments
Practice Chanter
A smaller, quieter instrument, the practice chanter, with a smaller, plastic reed, and lacking a bag or drones, is used to practice in settings where a great volume of sound would be inappropriate. It is used by beginning pipers to learn basic notes and movements before adding the complication of a bag and drones. It is not uncommon for a beginner to use only the practice chanter for a year or two before progressing onto pipes. Even after a piper progresses to the pipes, they will always continue to use the practice chanter to learn new tunes, polish their skills, and practice without the volume and complication of the 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. Practice chanters are often used by bands in order to work on technique or other issues where frequent stopping and starting is required, or where written music is being used.
Smallpipes and Border pipes
The Border pipes are a related instrument with similar construction to the GHB, but powered with a bellows and with the drones in a common stock and sometimes a baritone or alto drone tuned to the fifth of the chanter. It is usually manufactured in the key of A, rather than the GHB's Bb, and the volume is approximately equal to other common folk instruments, so it is often used by pipers wishing to play with folk groups or in informal sessions.
The Scottish smallpipes, although historically extant, had essentially died out by the early 20th century in Scotland. In the early 1980s, Colin Ross and other makers developed a modern smallpipe that is internally derived from the Northumbrian smallpipe, but is played using GHB fingering. It became popular due to its attractive tone and is often a piper's second instrument.
Mouth blown versions of both of these are made by various makers, but due to the delicate nature of the reeds, they are not always successful. A common compromise is to use plastic reeds, which work effectively but do not produce the same tone quality as cane reeds.
See also
Bibliography
- Hugh Cheape, The Book of the Bagpipe (Belfast: The Appletree Press, 1999).
- Francis Collinson, The Traditional and National Music of Scotland (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1966).
- Francis Collinson, The Bagpipe (London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975).
- John Gibson, Old and New World Highland Bagpiping (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002).
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