The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-04-15
The BsEDipes,

Though now associated with Scot
land, the bagpipe is an instrument of
great antiquity, and was known long
ago to some Indian races. also to the
Italians and Bretons. 1t appears to
have reached its most popular develop
ment from the musical and utilitarian
view in the case of the Highland bag
pipe. The groundwork of the instru-
ment is, as the name implies, bag of
skins sewed together, and of course per-
pectly air tight. This condition is aided
by the use of treacle, which is poured
into the bag and allowed to soak into it.
Into the bag are fitted five wooden
stocks generally of crecus or ebony
These stocks in their turn hold the
three drones, the chanter and the
mouthpiece-the chanter being perfora-
ted by the note hole, while the mouth
piece is used for filing the bag. Each
of these drone pipes and the chanter is
fitted with reeds made of Spanish cane,
contrary to the general impression,
which imagines the chanter to be
kind of flute and the drones hollow
sticks.
Bagpipe music has fixed scale, and
the treble, or CT clef is the only one
used. The great difficulty of playing,
however, is to obtain the doubling of
the notes at once quickly and clearly.
This profusion of double or grace notes,
as they are called, makes the manu-
script of bagpipe music look something
like a document filched from the Brit
ish museum.
Most players carry the drones on
their left shoulder but the right is
sometimes used. In this case the player
has to take the drones out and fix them
so that the bass drone will rest on the
right shoulder. If not, he must place
his head between the drones and sup
port them by the connecting card rest
ing on the back of his neck, the small
drones not being large enough to find
support on the shoulder.
To the Sassenach such words ar Ia
orluath, Taorlath Mach, Crunlaath,
Crunluath, Breabach, look very onlin-
Gus, but being interpreted they are sim
ply methods of doubling and trebling
the notes 1t can hardly be denied that
the above terms. although they might
be called jaw breakers, look much more
imposing than the Italian expressions
which figure so largely in pianoforte
practices.-Chambers Journal.
Noted Tenor Singer.
Ben Davies, the Welsh tenor who was
heard at the Worlds fair, and who will
be remembered by many Salt Lakers, is
still in America and is at present in
New OK Inc CIlIlCS an SPEAK well
of him. as the following, culled from
the New York Tribune, will show:
By all means the most enjoyable mus
ical event of recent days was the sing
ing of Ben Davies, the celebrated Welsh
tenor, in Mendelssohn's ''St. Paul" He
showed that his attachments as a mu-
stefan were wholly commensurate with
the reputation he enjoys abroad, some
thing which is not always the case. He
is a tenor whom it is a positive delight
to hear His singing is thoroughly salts
flying, both because of the quality of his
voice and the supreme art with which
he uses it, He never beats, as so many
other tenors do, with that disagreeable
open white" tone, as the French put
it. He has the true. musical tempera-
ment, without which no singer is worth
hearing, in our opinion, his methods
are always artistic, his phrasing fin
ished and his power of giving express
sion TO the thought very perfect indeed.
Oratorio singing as a rule is something
very awful-all cut and dried and drib-
bled out to you bit by bit. But his is
something very different, and is char
acterized by sweetness of tone, eXqui-
site verbal discrimination and an abun-
dance of dramatic force and fire. His
singing of BE thou faithful unto death
was something altogether out of the
ordinary.