The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1906-03-14
ORIGIN OF BAGPIPES
1T is FOUND IN THE ANCIENT REED,
OR SHEPHERDS PIPE.
In Early Times There Were Many
Different Kinds of Bngpipes In Use
In Europe-The Highland, Lowlnnd
and Irish Varieties.


According to the encyclopedia, the bag
pipe is wind instrument the fixed char
acteristic of which has always been
two or more reed pipes attached to and
sounded by wind chest, or bag, which
bag has in turn been supplied either by
the lungs of the performer or by bel
lows. The original instrument was pre-
sumably the simple reed, or shepherds
pipe, which was well known to the
Trojans, Egyptians, Greeks and Ro-
mans. But the strain of blow ng these
ancient pipes was so great that some
genius conceived the idea of having a
reserve supply of wind in bag attach
ed to the pipes, and hence the bagpipe.
The first real instrument is believed to
have been a skin of 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 We're 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-
BRIAN and the Irish bagpipe.
In the great highland bagpipe, which
originally had but one drone, Waived
tube leads from the mouth to an air
tight bag, which has four other oritices,
three large enough to contain the base
of 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 piper's
time before he begins the tune proper,
is heard with impatience by those not
accustomed to the instrument. Indeed,
it 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 smaller and
milder toned edition of the highland in
strument and the other miniature of
this and having the same relation to it
as the fife has to a German band. Its
great drawback, from the point of view
of the devotees of the highland bagpipe,
is that it is unsuited to perform what
they consider the perfection Of pipe mu-
sic-the 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 a firm hold
in England 1t lost favor and gradual
ly deteriorated until it is now practi-
cally extinct The average English
man neither appreciates nor under
stands it. A famous poet irreverently
once compared its notes to "the shrill
screech of a lame goose caught in
corn" Willie another hereto writer lik-
ems its sound to "horrible, noisy, mad
Irishman" or to the cries of the "eter-
nally tormented." To the Irish people
1t appeals more strongly. They still
possess in degree the feeling of at
tachment to the bagpipe which is so
general among Scotsmen. But it is
undoubtedly more closely associated
with Scotland both in the highlands
and lowlands, than with any other
country, the particular instrument in
use being the great highland bagpipe,
which, as already explained, consists
OF three drOnes, including the big
drone, which was added about the be-
ginning of the last century. 1t is this
type which has gradually superseded
the lowland pipe. There is no doubt
that the bagpipe was in use in Scot
land from very early period, and it
is in Scotland that it has been brought
to the highest degree Of perfection. Its
music distinctly connects it with Scot
land, as is clear in the pibroch, the
strathspey, the reel, the march and
other popular melodies. There are
proofs that the instrument was cult
waited in Scotland certainly in the
twelfth century and of its universal
popularity as early as the fifteenth cen
tury, while in the seventeenth century
nearly every town in the highlands and
aowlands boosted of its piper.-London
Globe
Trusting to Appearances.