The Havre herald. [volume] (Havre, Mont.) 1904-1908, 1906-02-02
ORIGIN OF BAGPTPES
1T is FOUND IN THE ANCIENT REED.
OR SHEPHERDS PIPE.
In Early Times There Were Many
Different Kinds of Bagpipes In Use
In Europe-The Highland. u,ovIand
and Irish Varieties.

y
pipe is wind instrument tie fixed char
acteristic of which has always beer
two or more reed pipes attached to an(
sounded by wind chest, orsbag. which
bag has in turn been supplied either by
the lungs of the performer or by a bel
lows. The original instrument was pre-
sumably the simple reed, or shepherd
pipe, which was well known to the
Trojans, Egyptians, Greeks and Ro
mans. But the strain of blowing these
ancient pipes was SO great that some
genius conceived the idea of having a
reserve supply Of wind in a bag attach
ed to the pipes, and hence the bagpipe.
| The first real instrument is believed to
| have been skin Of a goat or kid, with
two pipes, through one of which the
| bag was inflated, the other emitting the
sound.
In early times the bagpipe was com
mon in Great Britain and abroad. At
one time there were five different kinds
known on the continent, some inflated
by the mouth and others by bellows
while in the British isles three kinds
were known-the great highland bag
pipe, the lowland bagpipe of Scotland
(Which closely resembled the Northum-
briaD and the Irish bagpipe.
In the great highland bagpipe, which
originally had but one drone. a Waived
tube leads from the mouth to an air
tight bag, which has four other orifices,
three large enough to contain the base
IF three fixed long tubes, termed drones,
and another smaller. to which is fitted
the chanter. The three are thrown on
the shoulder, while the latter is held In
the hands. All four pipes are filled
with reeds, but of different kinds. The
drones are tuned by means Of sliders,
or movable joints, and this tuning or
preparation for playing, which general
ly occupies few minutes Of the pipers
time before he begins the tune proper,
is heard with Impotence by those not
accustomed to the instrument Indeed,
1t gave rise to the saying, applied in
Scotland to those who waste time over
small matters, "You are longer in tun-
ing your pipes than In playing your
tune
The Scottish lowland bagpipe, like
the Northumbrian pipe, was In two
forms, one consisting of a smaller and
milder toned edition Of the highland in
strument and the other a miniature Of
this and having the same relation to 1t |
as the fife has to a German band. It's
great drawback, from the point Of view
of the devotees of the highland bagpipe
Is that 1t is unsuited to perform what
they consider the perfection Of pipe mu-
pibroch. These small pipes
were, however. gentler than the high
land. having the same tone, but less
sonorous. 1t was to the strains Of such
a bagpipe that Chaucer tells US the COM
pany Of pilgrims left London, and it is
the same instrument that Is alluded to
In Shakespeare as the Lincolnshire bag
pipe.
The Irish bagpipe is the instrument in
Its most elaborate form and Is supplied
with wind by bellows. The drones
are all fixed on one stock and have
keys which are played by the wrist of
the right hand. The reeds are soft and
the tones very sweet and melodious,
and there Is harmonious bass which
Is very effective in the hands of good
player. The Irish instrument is fast
dying out,
The bagpipe, though at one time fair
ly common, never obtained firm hold
In England. It lost favor and gradual
" deteriorated until it is now practi-
cally extinct. The average English
man neither appreciates nor under
stands it. A famous poet irreyerently
once compared its notes to 1.-THE shrill
screech of a lame goose caught in
corn," VILE another hereto writer lik-
Ems its sound to horrible, noisy, mad
[rishman" or to the cries of the "eter-
aally tormented." To the Irish people
t appeals more strongly. They still
possess in a degree the feeling Of at
tachment to the bagpipe which is so
general among Scotsmen. But it is
more closely associated
with Scotland, both in the highlands
and lowlands, than with any other
the particular instrument in
use being the great highland bagpipe,
which, as already explained, consists
If three drones, including the big
1rone, which was added about The be-
ginning Of the last century. 1t is this
ype which has gradually superseded
he lowland pipe. There is no doubt
hat the bagpipe was in use in Scot.
and from a very early period, and il
s In Scotland that 1t has been brought
% the highest degree Of perfection. It's
music distinctly connects 1t with Scot
and, as is clear in the pibroch, the
the reel. the march and
,ther popular melodies. There are
proofs that the instrument was cult
rated in Scotland certainly in the
welfth century and Of it's universal
as early as the fifteenth CEN
ury, while in the seventeenth century
nearly every town in the highlands and