Encyclopaedia Britannica Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 Part 11

Skilful pipers have been known to introduce warblers of as many as eleven notes between two beats in a bar.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The use of musical notation for the Highland pipe tunes is a recent innovation; the pipers used verbal equivalents for the notes; for instance, the piobaireachd _Coghiegh nha Shie_, "War of peace,"[8] which opens as shown here, was taken down by Capt. Niel MacLeod from the piper John McCrummen of Skye as verbally taught to apprentices as follows:--

"Hodroho, hodroho, haninin, hiechin, Hodroha, hodroho, hodroho, hachin, Hiodroho, hodroho, haninin, hiechin," &c.

The conclusion of the tune is thus expressed:

"Hiundratatateriri, hiendatatateriri, hiundratatateriri, hiundratatateriri."[9]

Written down this seems a mere unintelligible jumble, but could we hear it, as sounded by the pipers, with due regard for the rhythmical value of notes, it would be a very different matter. Alexander Campbell[10] relates that a melody had to be taken down or translated "from the syllabic jargon of illiterate pipers into musical characters, which, when correctly done, he found to his astonishment to coincide exactly with musical notation."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 1.--(1) Cornemuse. (2) Irish bag-pipe. (3) Musette. (4) Highland bag-pipe, A.D. 1409. (5) Border bag-pipe.

(From Capt. C. R. Day's _Descriptive Catalogue of Musical Instruments exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition_, by permission of Eyre & Spottiswoode.)]

A Highland bag-pipe of the 15th century, dated MCCCCIX., in the possession of Messrs J. & R. Glen of Edinburgh, was exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition in London in 1890[11] (see fig. 1 (4)). There were two drones, inserted in a single stock in the form of a wide-spread fork, and tuned to A in unison with the lowest note of the chaunter, which had seven finger-holes in front and a thumb-hole at the back.

_The old Irish Bag-pipe._--Very little is known about this instrument. It is mentioned in the ancient Brehon Laws, said to date from the 5th century (they are cited in compilations of the 10th century), in describing the order of precedence of the king's bodyguard and household in the _Crith Gabhlach_: "Poets, harpers, _pipers_, horn-blowers and jugglers have their place in the south-east part of the house."[12] The word used for (bag-) pipers is _Cuislennagh_, a word a.s.sociated with reed instruments (_cuiscrigh_ = reeds; O'Reilly's _Irish-English Dictionary_, Dublin, 1864).

The old Irish bag-pipe, of which we possess an ill.u.s.tration dated 1581,[13]

had a long conical chaunter with a bell and apparently seven holes in front and a thumb-hole behind; there were two drones of different lengths--one very long--both set in the same stock. It is exceedingly difficult to procure any accurate information concerning the development of the bag-pipe in Ireland until it a.s.sumed the present form, known as the union-pipes, which belong to Cla.s.s II.

[v.03 p.0204] The _cornemuse_ and _chalemie_ were the bag-pipes in use in France, Italy and the Netherlands before the advent of the _musette_, to which they bear the same relation as the old Irish bag-pipe does to the union-pipes, or the _cornemusa_ or _piva_ to the _sampogna_ or _surdelina_ in Italy. Two kinds of cornemuses were known in France during the 16th and 17th centuries, differing in one important structural detail, which affected the timbre of the instruments. Pere Marin Mersenne[14] has given a detailed description of these varieties and of the musette, with very clear ill.u.s.trations of the instruments and all their parts. The cornemuse or chalemie used by shepherds, and as a solo instrument (see fig. 1 (1)), was similar to the Highland bag-pipe; it consisted of a leather bag, inflated by means of a valved blow-pipe; a large drone (_gros bourdon_) 2 ft. long included the beating-reed, which measured 2 in., and was fixed in the stock; the small drone (_pet.i.t bourdon_), 1 ft. in length including a reed 2 in. long, also had a beating-reed and was fixed in the same stock as the chaunter. The two drones were tuned to C. [Notation: Gros bourdon C2. Pet.i.t bourdon C3.] The chaunter had a conical bore and a double reed like an oboe, but hidden within the stock; it could be taken out and played separately, when the compa.s.s given by the eight holes (seven in front and a thumb-hole) C to C' could be increased by a third to E, by overblowing the D and E an octave by pressure of the breath and lips on the reed, now taken directly into the mouth. [Notation: C4 C5 or E5.] The second kind of cornemuse was played only in concert with a family of instruments known as _Hautbois de Poitou_, a hautbois having the reed enclosed in an air-chamber, just as is the case with the reeds of the bag-pipe. This cornemuse had but one drone which could, like the others, be lengthened for tuning by drawing out the joint; the reed was not a beating-reed but a double reed like that of the chaunter; this const.i.tutes the main difference between the two cornemuses. The chaunter had eight holes, the lowest of which was covered by a key enclosed in a perforated box.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sackpfeife or Dudelsack. Drone G1. Chaunter G2 to G3.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bock. Drone C2. Chaunter B2-C3 to C4.]

The _Sackpfeife_ or _Dudelsack_ of Germany was an instrument of some importance made in no less than five sizes, all described and ill.u.s.trated by Michael Praetorius.[15] They consist of the _Grosser Bock_ or double-ba.s.s bag-pipe, a formidable-looking instrument with a single cylindrical drone of a great length, terminating, as did the chaunter also, in a curved ram's horn (to which the name was due). The chaunter had seven finger-holes and a vent-hole in front, and a thumb-hole at the back. The drone was tuned to G, an octave below the chaunter.

The _Bock_, of similar construction, was pitched a fourth higher in C.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Schaferpfeife. Drones B3b F4. Compa.s.s of chaunter F4 to F5.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Hummelchen. Drones F4 C5. Compa.s.s of chaunter C5 to C6]

The _Schaferpfeife_ had two drones in B flat and F. Praetorius explains that the upper notes of the chaunter of this sackpfeife had a faulty intonation which could not be corrected owing to the absence of the thumb-hole, usual in all other varieties of the instrument.

The _Hummelchen_ had two drones tuned to F and C.

The _Dudey_ or treble sackpfeife was the smallest of the family, and had three drones tuned to E flat, B flat and E flat, and a chaunter with a compa.s.s ranging from F or E flat to C or D.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Drones E4b B4b E5b. Compa.s.s of chaunter F5 to C6 or E5b to D6.]

Praetorius also mentions a different kind of sackpfeife he saw in Magdeburg (see _op. cit. Theatrum_, pl. v., No. 4), which was somewhat larger than the schaferpfeife and pitched a third lower. There were two chaunters mounted in one stock, each having three holes in front and one for the thumb at the back. The right-hand chaunter sounded the five notes D, E, F, G, A, and the left-hand chaunter, G, A, B, C, D. [Notation: Drones G3 D4.

Compa.s.s of chaunter D4 D5.] The performer was thus able to play simple two-part melodies on the Magdeburg bag-pipe. Praetorius mentions in addition the French bag-pipe (_musette_), similar in pitch to the hummelchen, but inflated by means of the bellows.

The _Calabrian bag-pipe_ has a bag of goatskin with the hair left on, and is inflated by means of a blow-pipe. There are two drones and two chaunters, all fixed in one stock. Each chaunter has three or four finger-holes and the right-hand pipe has the fourth covered by a key enclosed in a perforated box; both drones and chaunter have double reeds.

The ancient Greek bag-pipe (see ASKAULES), and the Roman _tibia utricularis_, belonged to this cla.s.s of instrument, inflated by the mouth, but it is not certain that they had drones (see below, _History_).

II. The second cla.s.s of instruments, inflated by means of a small bellows worked by the arm, has as prototype the _musette_ (see fig. 1 (3)), which is said to have been evolved during the 15th century;[16] from the end of the 15th century there were always musette players[17] at the French court, and we find the instrument fully developed at the beginning of the 17th century when Mersenne[18] gives a full description of all its parts. The chief characteristic of the musette was a certain rustic Watteau-like grace. The face of the performer was no longer distorted by inflating the bag; for the long c.u.mbersome drones was subst.i.tuted a short barrel droner, containing the necessary lengths of tubing for four or five drones, reduced to the smallest and most compact form. The bores were pierced longitudinally through the thickness of the wood in parallel channels, communicating with each other in twos or threes and providing the requisite length for each drone. The reeds were double "hautbois" reeds all set in a wooden stock or box within the bag; by means of regulators or slides, called _layettes_, moving up and down in longitudinal grooves round the circ.u.mference of the barrel, the length of the drone pipes could be so regulated that a simple harmonic ba.s.s, consisting mainly of the common chord, could be obtained. The chaunter, of narrow cylindrical bore, was also furnished with a double reed and had eleven holes, four of which had keys, giving a compa.s.s of twelve notes from F to C. [Notation: F4 to C6.]

This number of holes was not invariable. After Mersenne's time, Jean Hotteterre (d. 1678), a court musician, belonging to the band known as the _Musique de la Grande ecurie_,[19] in which he played the _dessus de hautbois_, introduced certain improvements in the drones of the musette.[20] His son Martin Hotteterre (d. 1712) added a second chaunter to the musette, shorter than the first, to which it was attached instead of being inserted into the stock. The Hotteterre chaunter, known as le _pet.i.t chalumeau_, had six keys, whereas the _grand chalumeau_ had seven, besides eight finger-holes and a vent-hole in the bell. All these keys were actuated by the little finger of the left hand and the thumb of the right hand, which were not required to stop holes on the large chaunter. The _grand_ and _pet.i.t chalumeaux_ are figured in detail with keys and holes in a rare and anonymous work by Borjon (or Bourgeon[21]), who gives much interesting information concerning one of the most popular instruments of his day. The bellows, he states, borrowed from the organ, were added to the musette about forty or fifty years before he wrote his treatise. The compa.s.s of the improved musette of Hotteterre was as shown:--

[Ill.u.s.tration: 0:F4 1:G4 2:A4 3:B4 4:C5 5:D5 6:E5 7:F5 8:G5.] the eight holes of the grand chalumeau.

[Ill.u.s.tration: G4# B4b C5# E5b F5# G5# A5.] the seven keys of the grand chalumeau.

[Ill.u.s.tration: G5# A5 A5# B5 C6 D6.] the six keys of the pet.i.t chalumeau.

The four or five drones were usually tuned thus:

[Ill.u.s.tration: C3 G3 C4 G4 C5.]

The chaunters and drones were pierced with a very narrow cylindrical bore, and double reeds were used throughout, causing them to speak as closed pipes, which accounts for the deep pitch of these relatively short pipes (see AULOS). Martin Hotteterre was hardly the first to introduce the second chaunter for the bag-pipe, since [v.03 p.0205] Praetorius in 1618 figures and describes the Magdeburg _sackpfeife_ with two chaunters, but without keys and with a conical bore.

The _surdelina_ or _sampogna_ is described and ill.u.s.trated by Mersenne[22]

as the _musette de Naples_; its construction was very complicated. Mersenne states that the instrument was invented by Jean Baptiste Riva (who was living in Paris in 1620), Dom Julio and Vincenze; but Mersenne seems to have made alterations himself in the original instrument, which are not very clearly explained. There were two chaunters with narrow cylindrical bore and having both finger-holes and keys; and two drones each having ten keys. The four pipes were fixed in the same stock, and double reeds were used throughout; the bag was inflated by means of bellows. Pa.s.senti of Venice published a collection of melodies for the zampogna in 1628, under the t.i.tle of _Canora Zampogna_.

The modern _Lowland bag-pipe_ differs from the Highland bag-pipe mainly in that it is blown by bellows instead of by the mouth.

The _Northumbrian_ or _Border bag-pipe_, also blown by means of bellows, is chiefly distinguished by having a chaunter stopped at the lower end so that when all the holes are closed, the pipe is silent. There are seven finger-holes, one for the thumb, and a varying number of keys. The four drones are fixed in one stock and are tuned by means of stoppers, so that, as in the musette, any one of them may be silenced. A fine Northumbrian bag-pipe[23] from the collection of the Rev. F. W. Galpin is ill.u.s.trated (fig. 1. (5)).

The union pipes of the 18th century, or modern _Irish bag-pipe_, blown by bellows (see fig. 1. (2)), had one chaunter with seven finger-holes, one thumb-hole and eight keys, which together gave the chromatic scale in two octaves. The drones were tuned to A in different octaves, and three regulators or drones with keys, played by the elbow, produced a kind of harmony; the regulators correspond to the sliders on the drone-barrel of the musette.

_History of the Bag-pipe_.--There is reason to believe that the origin of the bag-pipe must be sought in remote antiquity. No instrument in any degree similar to it is represented on any of the monuments of Egypt or a.s.syria known at the present day; we are, nevertheless, able to trace it in ancient Persia and by inference in Egypt, in Chaldaea and in ancient Greece. The most characteristic feature of the bag-pipe is not the obvious bag or air-reservoir from which the instrument derives its name in most languages, but the fixed harmony of the buzzing drones. The principle of the drone, _i.e._ the beating-reed sunk some three inches down the pipe, was known to the ancient Egyptians. In a pipe discovered in a mummy-case and now in the museum at Turin, was found a straw beating-reed in position.

The arghoul (_q.v._), a modern Egyptian instrument, possesses the characteristic feature of drone and chaunter without the bag. The same instrument occurs once in the hieroglyphs, being sounded _as-it_, and once on a mural painting preserved in the Musee Guimet and reproduced by Victor Loret.[24] During Jacques de Morgan's excavations in Persia some terracotta figures of musicians, dating from the 8th century B.C., were discovered in a _tell_ (mound) at Susa,[25] two of which appear to be playing bag-pipes; the chaunter, curved in the shape of a hook from the stock, is clearly visible, the bag under the arm is indicated, and the lips are pursed as if in the act of blowing, but the insufflation tube is absent; a round hole in one of the figures suggests its presence formerly.

Among the names of musical instruments in Daniel iii. 5 and 15, the sixth, generally but wrongly rendered "dulcimer," is thought by many scholars to signify a kind of bag-pipe (see commentaries on _Daniel_ and the theological encyc.). This belief is based on the supposition that the Aramaic _sump[=o]ny[=a]_ is a loan-word from the Greek, being a misp.r.o.nunciation of [Greek: sumphonia]. The argument is, however, exceedingly weak. In the first place, the date of the book of Daniel is matter of controversy, hingeing partly on precisely such questions as the true significance and derivation of _sump[=o]ny[=a]_. Second, it is possible that the word _sump[=o]ny[=a]_ is a late interpolation. Third, its exact form is uncertain; in verse 10, _sipp[=o]ny[=a]_ is used of the same instrument, suggesting a derivation from the Gr. [Greek: siphon] (tube or pipe). Fourth, even if [Greek: sumphonia] is the source of the word, there is very little evidence that it was used for any particular instrument. The original natural sense of [Greek: sumphonia] is "concord of sound," "a concordant interval," and the evidence of its use for a particular instrument is of the 2nd century B.C., and, even so, very slight. Only one pa.s.sage (Polyb. xxvi. 10. 5) really bears on the question, and there the translation of the word depends on a context the reading of which is uncertain (see SYMPHONIA). It is, however, curious that the bag-pipe was known in Italy and Spain during the middle ages, the two countries through which Eastern culture was introduced into Europe, by the name of _zampogna_ or _sampogna_, which strongly recall the Chaldaean _sump[=o]ny[=a]_; and further that in the same countries the word _sinfonia_ should be coexistent with _zampogna_ and have the original meaning attached to the cla.s.sical [Greek: sumphonia], "a concord of sound." A single pa.s.sage only in Dion Chrysostom (see ASKAULES) is enough to prove that the instrument was known in Greece in A.D. 100.[26] The Greeks had undoubtedly received some kind of bag-pipe from Egypt (in the form of the _as-it_), or from Chaldaea, but it remained a rustic instrument used only by shepherds and peasants. This conclusion is supported by allusions in Aristophanes and in Plato's _Crito_, which undoubtedly refer to the drone: "This, dear Crito, is the voice which I seem to hear murmuring in my ears like the sound of the flute (_aulos_) in the ears of the mystic; that voice, I say, is humming in my ears."[27] Aristophanes, in his play _The Acharnians_, indulges in a flight of satire at the expense of the musical Boeotians, by making a band of Theban pipers play a Boeotian merchant and his slave into town. The musicians are dubbed "b.u.mblebee pipers" ([Greek: bombaulioi], l. 866) by the exasperated inhabitants. The verb used here for "blowing" is [Greek: phusan], the very word applied to blowing or inflating the bellows ([Greek: phusa]), and not the usual verb [Greek: aulein], to play the aulos. Another instrument, mentioned by Aristophanes in _Lysistrata_ (ll. 1242 and 1245), which was probably a kind of bag-pipe, is also derived from [Greek: phusa], _i.e._ _physallis_, the "concrete,"[28] and _physateria_[29] the "collective"[28] form of the instrument. We leave the realm of inference for that of certainty when we reach the reign of Nero, who had a pa.s.sion for the _Hydraulus_ (see ORGAN: _History_) and the _tibia utricularis_.[30]

That the bag-pipe was introduced by the Romans into the British Isles is a conclusion supported by the discovery in the foundations of the praetorian camp at Richborough of a small bronze figure of a Roman soldier playing the tibia utricularis. The Rev. Stephen Weston, who made a communication on the subject to _Archaeologia_,[31] points out further the interesting fact in connexion with the instrument, that the Romans had inst.i.tuted colleges for training pipers on the bag-pipe, a practice followed in the Highlands in the 18th century and notably in Skye. Gruterus[32] mentions among the fraternities a _Corpus et Collegium Utriculariorum_, and Spon[33] also quotes the _Collegio Utricular_. The bag-pipe in question appears to have two drones in front pointing towards the right shoulder, and although no chaunter is shown in the design, both hands are held in correct positions over the spot where it ought to be; it may have been broken off. The bronze figure has been reproduced from drawings by Edward King in three positions.[34] The statement made by several writers on music that a bag-pipe is represented on a contorniate of Nero is erroneous, as a verification of certain references will show.[35] The error is due in the first place to [v.03 p.0206] Montfaucon, who misunderstood the explanation of Bianchini's drawing which he reproduced. The contorniate referred to is one containing the hydraulic organ, and the legend _Laurentinus Aug_., but no bag-pipe. Bianchini gives a drawing of a bag-pipe with two long drones, which, he says, was copied from a marble relief over the gateway of the palace of the prince of Santa Croce in Rome, near the church of San Carlo ad Catinarios. If the drawing be accurate and the sculpture of cla.s.sical Roman period, it would corroborate the details of the instrument held by the little bronze figure of the Roman soldier.

From England the bag-pipe spread to Caledonia and Ireland, where it took root, identifying itself with the life of the people, as a military instrument held in great esteem by the Celtic races. The bag-pipe was used at weddings and funerals, and at all festivals; to lighten labour, during the 18th century, as for instance in Skye, in 1786, when the inhabitants were engaged in roadmaking, and each party of labourers had its bag-piper.

It was used in old mysteries at Coventry in 1534. Readers who wish to follow closely the history of the bag-pipe in the British Isles should consult Sir John Graham Dalyell's _Musical Memoirs of Scotland_ (London, 1849, with ill.u.s.trative plates).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 2.--Ancient Persian bag-pipe.

(From Sir Robert Porter's _Travels in Georgia, Persia,_ &c., vol. ii. p.

177, pl. lxiv.)]

On the downfall of the Roman empire, the bag-pipe, sharing the fate of other instruments, probably lingered for a time among itinerant musicians, actors, jugglers, &c., reappearing later in primitive guise with the stamp of _naivete_ which characterizes the productions of the early middle ages, and with a new name, chorus (_q.v._). An ill.u.s.tration of a Persian bag-pipe dating from the 6th century A.D. (reign of Chosroes II.) is to be found on the great arch at Takht-i-Bostan (see fig. 2). This very crude representation of the bag-pipe can only be useful as evidence that during centuries which elapsed between the moulding of the figurine found in the _tell_ at Susa, mentioned above, and the carving in the rock at Takht-i-Bostan, the instrument had survived. The reign of Chosroes was noted for its high standard of musical culture. The fault probably lies with the draughtsman, who drew the sculptures on the arch for the book.

Nothing more is heard henceforth of the tibia utricularis. If the drawings of the early medieval bag-pipes, which are by no means rare in MSS. and monuments of the 9th to the 13th century, are to be trusted, it seems hard to understand the _raison d'etre_ of the instrument shorn of its drones, to see how it justified its existence except as an ill-understood reminiscence. What could be the object of laboriously inflating a bag for the purpose of making a single chaunter speak, which could be done so much more satisfactorily by taking the reed itself into the mouth, as was the practice of the Greeks and Romans? There is a fine psalter in the library of University Court, Glasgow,[36] belonging co the Hunterian collection, in which King David is represented, as usual in the 12th century, playing or rather tuning a harp, surrounded by musicians playing bells, rebec, guitar fiddle (in 'cello position), quadruple pipes or ganistrum, and a bag-pipe with long chaunter having a well-defined stock. The insufflation tube appears to have been left out, and there are no drones to be seen.

There are interesting specimens of bag-pipes in Spanish illuminated MSS.

such as the magnificent volume of the _Cantigas di Santa Maria_, in the Escurial, compiled for King Alphonso the Wise (13th century). There are fifty-one separate figures of instrumentalists forming a kind of introduction to the canticles, and among the instruments are three bag-pipes, one of which is a remarkable instrument having no less than four long drones and two chaunters which by an error of the draughtsmen are represented as being blown from the piper's mouth. The fifty-one musicians have been reproduced in black and white by Juan F. Riano[37] and also by Don F. Aznar.[38] Another fine Spanish MS. in the British Museum, Add. MS.

18,851, of the end of the 15th century, ill.u.s.trated by Flemish artists for presentation to Queen Isabella, displays a profusion of musical instruments in innumerable concert scenes; there are bag-pipes on f. 13,412^b and 419; one of these has two drones, one conical, the other cylindrical, bound together, and a curved chaunter.

The most trustworthy evidence we have of the medieval bag-pipe is the fine Highland bag-pipe dated 1409, and belonging to Messrs J. & R. Glen, described above. Edward Buhle[39] points out that from the 13th century the bag-pipe became a court instrument played by minnesingers and troubadours, as seen in literature and in the MSS. and monuments. It was about 1250 that the human or animals' heads were used as stocks and as bells for the chaunters. The opinion advanced that the bellows were first added to the bag-pipe in Ireland seems untenable and is quite unsupported by facts; the bellows were in all probability added to the union-pipes in imitation of the musette. In the _Image of Ireland and Discoverie of Woodkarne_, by John Derrick, 1581, the Irish insurgents are portrayed in pictures full of life and character, as led to rebellion and pillage by a piper armed with a bag-pipe, similar to the Highland bag-pipe. The cradle of the musette is inconceivable anywhere but in France, among the courtiers and elegant world, turning from the pomps and luxuries of court life to an artificial admiration and cult of Nature, idealized to harmonize with silks and satins. The cornemuse of shepherds and rustic swains became the fashionable instrument, but as inflating the bag by the breath distorted the performer's face, the bellows were subst.i.tuted, and the whole instrument was refined in appearance and tone-quality to fit it for its more exalted position. The Hotteterre family and that of Chedeville were past masters of the art of making the musette and of playing upon it; they counted among their pupils the highest and n.o.blest in the land. The cult of the musette continued throughout the 17th and 18th centuries until the 'seventies, when its popularity was on the wane and musettes figured largely in sales.[40]

Lully introduced the musette into his operas, and in 1758 the list of instruments forming the orchestra at the Opera includes one musette.[41]