Musical Performance

Look at this painting of people noisily enjoying themselves. It was painted 400 years ago by a Flemish artist named Pieter Breughel. A man and woman are running to join in the dancing at a village festival. Around a table sit three men arguing. Children play. And what is the instrument that is playing music to accompany the lively dancing? It’s an instrument called the bagpipes.

This instrument originated in the Middle East, but many parts of Europe and Asia now have their own particular form of bagpipes. The most famous type are the highland pipes, which originally came from Scotland. These impressive instruments, with their loud, forceful sound, are now played by musicians in many different countries around the world.

How to play the bagpipes

Bagpipes are very difficult instruments to play well. There are so many different things for the musician to do. The player has to blow hard into the bag and then squeeze it to push the air back out. At the same time, he fingers the holes in the pipe, or chanter, to play the tune. And then there are the drones, those long pipes that rest on the musician’s shoulder. The drones make a continuous note which accompanies the tune played on the chanter.

Hidden reeds

Bagpipes are reed instruments, but you can’t see the reeds. They are fixed in the ends of the pipes inside the bag. Usually a chanter has a double reed, like a shawm oran oboe. The drones generally have a single reed, like a clarinet. The bag acts as a reservoir for air. It is nearly always made of sheep’s or goat’s skin. You can clearly see the skin of the folk bagpipes in the picture above, although it is often covered with cloth. Because the air in the bag makes the reeds vibrate, the player can breathe and still produce a continuous sound.

Not all bagpipes produce loud sounds. The Northumbrian ’small-pipes’, shown in the picture below, play enchanting music with a much gentler sound. They are not blown by mouth, but by bellows, which the player pumps by moving the arm up and down.

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