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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000080.txt from 2007/11
From: gbur@-----.edu
Subj: Re: [DR-L] Bagpipes
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:17:46 -0500
Ed, and all Interested,
First off, remember (or learn for the first time), that *every* country
on the European continent an great Britain has (or has had) some form
of bagpipe . . . Poland, Bohemia, France, Spain, et al.
Second, all bagpipes are classified as "wet" or "dry" depending on if
they are mouth-blown or bellows-blown. *In general* wet pipes are
louder and more suited for outdoor performance, dry pipes are softer
and have a more "pretty" sound, usually played indoors. There are
exceptions to both of the generalizations.
All bagpipes are "capped reed" instruments in which the reed are housed
inside the actual pipes.
The chanter (the pipe on which the melody is played) uses a "normal"
double reed, often made on a staple. It gets scraped. whittled, etc. to
produce the proper sound, pitch, and response.
The drone reeds originally were made of a joint of young bamboo or river
cane. One end is sealed with wax the other inserted into the pipe. A
"tongue" is cut into the reed to provide the vibrating source. In many
instruments today people are using manufactured plastic reeds that are
far less tempermental and less subject to fluctuations of humidity and
temperature.
BTW, Scotch is something one drinks . . . the adjective you want is
Scottish or Scots.
As ever,
Bruce Gbur, Scottish Highland Bagpiper, aspiring Northumbrian
Smallpiper, Uillean piper.
Quoting "Edward B. Flowers" <flowerse@-----.net>:
> Dan,
>
> I understand that the bagpipes, both Ullian and Scotch, employ reeds
> which are inside the instrument. A Scotch bagpiper told me that the
> Ullian bagpipes, which feeds air to the reeds via a bellows, protects
> these reeds from the moisture that the oboe and bassoon subject their
> reeds to--so they last longer.
>
> My questions are these: (1) are these reeds double (like the oboe) or
> single (like the clarinet) and (2) could a double-reeder take apart a
> bagpipes and voice the reeds with his reed knife?
>
> Edward B. Flowers
>
>
>
> Dan Duncan wrote:
> > I believe that there ARE things called "chamber pipes" that sound
> > very well inside.
> >
> > A "lovely" pipe organ can sound horrible if it is voiced
> incorrectly
> > or if the pipes are played at the incorrect wind pressure. The
> shawm
> > is usually considered a 'loud' (the old term was 'high') instrument
> > but even that rather loud instrument can be played indoors to good
> > effect.
> >
> > I get it that some folks don't care for bagpipes. OK, enough
> said.
> > I believe you. Now something else to discuss perhaps?
> >
> > Dan
> >
> > On Nov 28, 2007, at 11:36 PM, Judith and James Preston wrote:
> >
> >> <Call me a tonality or aural snob if you like, but I'll take a
> lovely
> >> choir
> >> with organ over ciarmella and drums almost any day.>
> >>
> >> A wise man once defined a "gentleman" as a man who can play the
> >> bagpipes,
> >> and doesn't.
> >>
> >> I do enjoy the sound of bagpipes on occasion, but only outside and
> at a
> >> distance. They have no "indoor voice."
> >>
> >> -Jim
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> For personal help: email doublereed-owner@-----.org
> >> Doublereed is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc.
> http://www.woodwind.org
> >
> > Dan Duncan
> > 9012 S Normandy Ln
> > Dayton, OH 45458
> > 937-350-7133
> > 937-672-3662, cell
> > danjduncan@-----.com
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
>
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> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> For personal help: email doublereed-owner@-----.org
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>
>
Bruce Gbur, D.M.A.
Assistant Professor
Double Reeds and Music History
Director of the Collegium Musicum
Music Department
Kansas State University
223 McCain Auditorium
Manhattan, KS 66506
785/532-3821
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~gbur/
"The older I get, the less gladly I suffer fools." Bruce Gbur
"First God invented idiots; that was for practice. Then He invented
School Boards." Mark Twain
"This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more
beautifully, more devotedly than before." Leonard Bernstein
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that
we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only
unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American
public." Predident Theodore Roosevelt, 1918.
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