Bagpipes

Lore & Background

A set of bagpipes minimally consists of an air supply, a bag, a chanter, and usually at least one drone. Many bagpipes have more than one drone in various combinations, held in place in stocks—sockets that fasten the various pipes to the bag. The most common method of supplying air to the bag is through blowing into a blowpipe or blowstick, though the use of a bellows to supply air is an innovation dating from the 16th or 17th century. The bag is an airtight reservoir that holds air and regulates its flow via arm pressure, allowing the player to maintain continuous, even sound. Materials used for bags vary widely, but the most common are the skins of local animals such as goats, dogs, sheep, and cows; more recently, synthetic materials including Gore-Tex have become much more common.

Reader's Guide

The chanter is the melody pipe, played with two hands. All bagpipes have at least one chanter; some pipes have two chanters, particularly those in North Africa, in the Balkans, and in Southwest Asia. The chanter is usually open-ended, so most bagpipes share a constant legato sound with no rests in the music. Because of this inability to stop playing, technical movements are made to break up notes and to create the illusion of articulation and accents. Most bagpipes have at least one drone, a pipe that generally is not fingered but rather produces a constant harmonizing note throughout play. The evidence for bagpipes prior to the 13th century is still uncertain, but several textual and visual clues have been suggested, including a possible Hittite slab from circa 1000 BCE and references by ancient Greek and Roman authors. Modern scholarship suggests that such instruments were understood as variants on mouth-blown instruments that used a bag as an alternative blowing aid, and that it was not until drones were added in the European Medieval era that bagpipes were seen as a distinct class.

Did You Know?

• The term 'chanter' is derived from the Latin cantare, or 'to sing'.
• Some bagpipes have a 'flea-hole' (also known as a mumbler or voicer) that raises any note played by a half step.
• Bellows-driven bagpipes are sometimes called 'cauld wind pipes' because the air is not heated or moistened by the player's breathing.
• A practice chanter is a chanter without bag or drones and has a much quieter reed.

Common Misconceptions (Editorial)

A common misconception is that bagpipes are exclusively Scottish. In fact, bagpipes have been played for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, North Africa, West Asia, around the Persian Gulf, and northern parts of South Asia. Another misconception is that all bagpipes are blown by mouth; however, the use of bellows to supply air is an innovation dating from the 16th or 17th century.

Why It Matters (Editorial)

Bagpipes endure because their distinctive, drone-driven sound creates an immediate emotional connection, whether in celebration or mourning. They also represent a remarkable example of human ingenuity in instrument design, using a simple airtight bag to produce a continuous, steady tone that no other wind instrument can replicate.