Complete Encyclopaedia of Music/B/Bagpipe

Bagpipe. This instrument has so long been the favorite with the natives of Scotland, that it may be considered as their national instrument. It is probable that the Norwegians and Danes first introduced it into the Hebrides, which islands they long possessed. Among the many who have the honor of its invention, are reckoned Pan, Mercury, Faunus, Marsyas, and Daphnis, the young Sicilian shepherd. The ancient bagpipes of the Greeks, and the tibia utricularis of the Romans, is a well-known musical instrument which has erroneously been supposed peculiar to Scotland and Ireland. The ancients, both Greeks and Romans, however, were acquainted with it ; and in many countries it is a favorite and popular instrument at this day. The bagpipe, as constructed at the present period, consists of a large leather bag, inflated by the mouth, or by means of bellows. Connected to it is a flute part, or chanter, as it is called, into' which is inserted a reed, and the action of the air from the bag on this reed produces the music. The chanter is perforated with holes like a common flute, for the different notes. The other parts are three drones, also consisting of reeds and tubes, two of which are in unison with D, on the chanter, or the first note of the German flute, and the third, or long drone, is an octave lower. The bagpipe is an extremely defective and imperfect instrument in all its different kinds, of which there are four. First, the Irish, or soft pipe, in which the chanter takes a range of ten or twelve notes with tolerable precision, and which is always played with bellows ; the reeds are softer, and the tubes longer ; whence the Irish pipe is more suitable for performance in an apartment. An improvement has been at-tempted, by adapting three or four keys, like flute keys, on one of the drones ; by pressing I one of them with the arm, a third or fifth to the note of the chanter is produced, which forms an intermediate chord with the drone, and has a pleasing effect. The second kind of this instrument is the Scottish or Highland bagpipe, which is played either with the mouth or with bellows, like the Irish pipe ; and, excepting that, as far as we know, keys have never been adapted to it, is almost the same in every respect. The principal difference consists in the reeds being constructed to produce a louder sound, and the drones are shorter. Third, the small or Northumbrian bag-pipe, which is the Scottish bagpipe in miniature. Properly speaking, the Scottish bagpipe has but eight or nine good notes ; one or two more may be gained by what pipers call pinching; that is, half covering the thumb hole, which sometimes is attended with the most disagreeable tones. Nothing is so well adapted for the bagpipe as tunes consisting of few notes, and all set on the same key ; for its compass is really very limited, and by no means of that extent of which most performers endeavor to persuade themselves. From the limited compass of the instrument, and its imperfections, we find but little music written for it ; to which may be added another reason - that those in general who can play cannot write. The favorite and peculiar music is the Highland pibrach, which we confess has always appeared to us utterly unintelligible. It is supposed to be a battle piece, a march, a lamentation, or the like ; and sometimes occupies a complete half hour or more in performance. Of the progressive history and improvement of the bagpipe to its present state, we know but very little. It is supposed that there are allusions to an instrument of similar construction in sacred writ ; and there is no doubt that it is the origin of the organ. Perhaps it first consisted of an inflated bag alone, with the pipe and reed ; and in such a form it seems to have been used by the Greeks, and, also at a later period by less civilized nations. By the Romans it was called tibia utricularia, and as certain authors have conceived, chorus, or chorautus, and it was probably played in the same way as the modern ,Highlanders play it. Suetonius speaks of the bagpipe ; and it appears that Nero, the Roman emperor, played on it. On one of his coins a bagpipe appears, and we are told of a piece of sculpture, not long ago, in Rome, of this instrument, greatly resembling its present form. The sculpture was supposed to be Grecian. St. Jerome, in his epistle to Dardanus, alludes to the bagpipe in its more simple shape. In France it appears likewise in its simple state, in the Danse des Aveugles, in the fifteenth century ; and it is among the instruments represented in the dance of death, at Basle, in Switzerland. The bagpipe is said to be of great antiquity in Ireland, and to have been early known in Britain. In the twelfth or thirteenth century, we sec it represented with

out drones, or with only one, having a flag, bearing a coat armorial, such as was recently used in the Highlands of Scotland. King Edward III. had pipers; and Chaucer, speaking of the minstrels, a vagrant tribe, describes the bagpipe under the name of cornmuse, which is the appellation at present given to it in France : -

" Cornmuse and shalmes, many a floyte and lytlynge horne."

Among the musicians of Queen Elizabeth's house-hold are named pipers. With regard to the introduction of the bagpipe into Scotland, we are altogether uncertain. Eminent authors have affirmed that it was not known at the battle of Bannockburn, in 1314. But a bagpipe of one drone appears among the sculptures on Melrose Abbey, which, we are told, is a very old edifice. James I. of Scotland, who was murdered in 143(i, is said to have been a performer on this instrument. We only know of its being in general use during the last or perhaps the preceding century. At present it enters on the list of military instruments, for every Highland regiment has a piper ; and as a national instrument, we have heard of institutions for teaching it in the Isles of' Mull and Skye. Neither pupil nor preceptor, however, being able to read, musical notes were represented by pins driven into the ground. To encourage the cultivation of this instrument, annual premiums were distributed by the Highland Society to the most eminent performers. A competition, generally in the end of July, takes place before a committee of that society, at Edinburgh, who decide on the merits of the candidates. The competition lasts several hours ; and Highland dances, introduced by way of interlude, are per-formed with uncommon skill and agility. We doubt if this kind of music can be brought to great perfection, on account of the defects inseparable from the instrument. But the passionate attachment which the Highlanders display for it, and the use of which it has actually been in gaining victories, in the day of battle, render it a fit subject for encouragement.