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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000081.txt from 2007/11
From: bssn2@-----.net
Subj: Re: [DR-L] Bagpipes
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:42:19 -0500
Thanks, Bruce, for the clear answer to some of the folks' questions about bagpipes-- couldn't have done better myself! My wife is a professional piper and instructor (Great Highland and "fairy-lore" pipes) and I can vouch for the fact that the Great Highland pipes are not an indoor instrument! As a bassoonists I showed her how I adjust my reeds-- wires first, then scraping-- and she has had great success in adjusting her chanter reeds by both manipulating the diameter of the staple and whittling the blades... A shameless plug for my wife: you can find her website www.marshabell.com.
David Bell
Alexandria, VA
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: gbur@-----.edu
> 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
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> >
> doublereed-unsubscribe@-----.org
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> > http://www.woodwind.org
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> > For personal help: email doublereed-owner@-----.org
> > Doublereed is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org
> >
> >
>
>
> 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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> Doublereed is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org
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