Pass the Hat by Noise of Minstrels

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Chanter
·the·journal·of·
·the·bagpipe·society·

·volume 2·part 1·

·interview·with·
·kathryn·tickell·

·dave·shaw·on·
·northumbrian·small·pipes·
·and·shuttle·pipes·

SPRING/SUMMER ’87

ISSN 0269-7939

Contents

The Development of the Northumbrian Small-pipes:
Richard Butler 3
Fundamentals of Tuning: Michael Muskett 13
Workshop: Dave Shaw 16
Focus on Kathryn Tickell: Kathryn
Tickell talks to Alistair Anderson 21

Welsh Bagpipes: 1. The Double Chanter
in the Welsh Folk Museum: Theo Schuurmans 28
Welsh Bagpipes: 2. The Bagpipe in Wales
in Recent Centuries: D. Roy Saer 30
Welsh Bagpipes: 3. A Reconstruction: Julian Goodacre 36

RECORD REVIEWS
Kathryn Tickell — Borderlands: Peter Stacey 38
Noise of Minstrels — Pass The Hat: Peter Davies 39
Vielleux de Bourbonnais — Coup de Quatre: Brian Radford 39
The Medieval Players — Al Manere Minstrelsy: Jason Goss 40

BOOK REVIEW
Richard Butler’s Handbook for the Northumbrian
Small Pipes: R. A. Greensitt 41

Editorial Address
All contributions for Chanter, including advertising material, should be sent to:

Peter Stacey
Journal Editor
62 Seymour Street
Splott
Cardiff
CF2 2NS

Address for Membership
If you are not a member of the Bagpipe Society and would like to join please write to:

Dave Van Doorn
49 Osborne Road
Hornchurch
RM11 1EX

Advertising Rates
£6.00 quarter page
£10.00 half page
£14.00 whole page (A5)
Please make all cheques payable to: The Bagpipe Society.

Deadlines
The next issue of Chanter should appear on 30 November 1987. Articles and advertising material should arrive no later than 5 October 1987.

A Word of Thanks
We would like to thank all the contributors to this issue of Chanter and extend special thanks to André de Vries and Biddy Wells who have worked behind the scenes on typesetting and paste-up. Thanks go also to Keith Hudson for allowing us to reprint material first published in Taplas, and to Geoff Heslop of Mawson and Wareham (Music) Ltd.

Peter Stacey

The development of the music of the Northumbrian Small-pipes

Bagpipes in various shapes and forms have been played throughout the British Isles for about 800 years. In the first instance the bagpipe consisted of no more than a bag, chanter and mouthpiece. Slowly the bagpipe began to evolve and by the fourteenth century a single drone had been added. They were played at public and private functions, at dances, to accompany singers, on pilgrimage and to lead armies into battle. A piper’s repertoire at this time would have consisted of simple melodies handed down from piper to piper. Tunes from Shakespearian plays, Playford manuscripts and Morris dance tune collections would all have been played by the piper, and in many instances probably written by him.
The Civil War and the repercussions of the Puritan era of Cromwell were a turning point in the history of the bagpipes. As people were banned from the pursuits of mince-pie-eating and dancing around the maypole, what chance did the piper have as he played for the local knees-up? It meant the beginning of the demise of the English bagpipe, but in the outlying regions such as the Borders, Scotland and Ireland, the now regional variants survived and indeed flourished. With the advent of the Reformation and the introduction into the British Isles of a large number of new instruments such as the violin, lute, virginal and later the piano, the English bagpipes became less popular and were eventually lost. Fortunately, the Scottish, Irish and Border pipes survived and became more regionalised and refined.
By the 17th and 18th centuries the pipes of the border regions were being played in much the same way as the English bagpipe had probably been played for the past few hundred years; at dances, during harvesting, to signal the onset of curfew and to provide entertainment when and where required by the nobility, civic leaders and ordinary folk alike. The music of the pipes had changed little; pipers were still playing the well tried and tested favourite dance and song melodies and airs and, interestingly, if one compares the tune books originating from both sides of the border no highly characteristic style of music can be detected. The traditional tunes are now being played by the enthusiasts leading the revival of the Border or, as they are sometimes called, Cauld Wind pipes.
It was in this environment of intense bagpipe playing and complete public acceptance and involvement that the Northumbrian Small-pipes started to develop. During this period, 1600 to 1800, the pipes consisted of a keyless chanter, with a cylindrical bore and closed end, three drones, bellows and, of course, a bag. There are in existence a few sets dating from this time, and a piper playing such a set has the following notes available:

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3

Example 1 The scale of the keyless chanter

[Musical notation]

During the eighteenth century the Northumbrian Small-pipes had become recognised as an instrument quite different from the other indigenous bagpipes of the Border region. In fact, so accepted had the pipes become to the people of the north of England, that Elizabeth, Duchess of Northumberland, presented to Jimmy Allan (1734-1810) an ivory set of pipes which he then played at the royal court of King George III. He must have made quite an impression, because after he had been convicted of horse stealing and sent to the House of Correction in Durham, he was granted a royal pardon by the Prince Regent, later George IV, which sadly arrived a few days after he had died.

As Jimmy Allan, and probably a large number of his contemporaries, played not only the Small-pipes but also the fore-runners of the Northumbrian Half-long and Border pipes, it is difficult to determine exactly what type of music he actually played on the Small-pipes, and whether or not he adapted his style of playing to suit the newly developed instrument. The Life of James Allan records a number of tunes played by him, but then we are not told on which instrument he was playing,

Example 2 ‘Cuckold Come Out Of The Amrey’

[Musical notation]

By playing such a set, a piper can play in one of two keys, G major and A minor. In both cases the drone harmony consisting of the tonic, dominant and octave tonic. The key of G major was by far the most common key and there are many examples of tunes dating from this period which are written in this key. The key of A minor is not so common, mainly because the only method available to the piper of changing the drone harmony would be to adjust the reeds so that each of the drones could be tuned, within the limitations of the drone slides, up one tone to obtain the drone harmony, a e and octave A, for A Minor. Obviously it is not possible to ascertain whether or not pipers used this technique, but the writing of tunes which intimate the key of A minor, as is the case with ‘Cuckold Come Out Of The Amrey’ (Example 2), can be very effective if played with a G major drone harmony. Today, as pipers have more complex drones, it is possible to tune the drones to either harmony, and it is quite common to find one player preferring one tuning and another player the other.

4 Chanter

so we can only assume that he played the music which the pipers of the time played on the various pipes of the region. There is no evidence to suggest that he or any other piper adapted or composed specifically for the Small-pipes, but we can be sure that, in keeping with tradition, the players of the Small-pipes must have written music for the instrument. As the Small-pipe melodies did not differ in style from the other bagpipe music of the period, we cannot tell, out of all of the tunes which have been handed down to us which ones were specifically written for the instrument.

The music of the Small-pipes did not start to develop until the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century. It was also at about this time that pipers started to write down their music and in this respect the names of Peacock, Stanton, Bewick and Bruce will always hold pride of place in the minds of students of Northumbrian piping. By studying the music books of the period one can get a clear idea of a piper’s repertoire and his attitude to his music, and it soon becomes clear that for the first time a unique style of piping had developed. One of the best-known pipers of this era was John Peacock and his music book Peacock’s Tunes, which has been published in facsimile form by the Northumbrian Pipers’ Society, is frequently considered as the book which encapsulates the best of late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century piping. Within this twenty-four page book there are fifty pieces. Their most striking feature is that half are written with variations, and in some cases with more than five. At first sight the variations seem very simplistic and lacking in imagination, but when played by an experienced piper, well-practised in the art of staccato and legato playing, the intricate arrangements can be brought to life.

The actual method used by John Peacock to write variations can be grouped into a number of clearly definable techniques, namely:

Fast runs, either up or down the scale, varying in length from three or four notes to the whole scale (Example 3(a)).
The use of chord patterns or arpeggios (Example 3(b)).
The often liberal use of three specific ornaments, these being given a time duration and written into the melody (Examples 3(c), (d), (e)).
The moving bass or treble, this giving the momentary effect of two instruments being played (Examples 3(f) and (g)).

Example 3(a) Example 3 Extracts from John Peacock’s tune book

musical notation

Example 3(b)

musical notation

FROM: ‘MY AIN KIND DEARE’

FROM : ‘THE HIGHLAND LADDIE’

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Example 3(c)

FROM: ‘I SAW MY LOVE COME PASSING BY ME’

Example 3(d)

FROM: ‘JOCKEY STAYS LONG AT THE FAIR’

Example 3(e)

FROM: ‘WYLAM A WAY’

Example 3(f)

FROM: ‘I SAW MY LOVE COME PASSING BY ME’

Example 3(g)

FROM: ‘CUT AND DRY DOLLY’

Another striking feature of Peacock’s Tunes is that every variation is played twice clearly showing that the music has its roots deep in the dance music tradition. Even today, pipers religiously repeat lines because it has been bred into them to the point that it becomes second nature and they never question why every line has to be so methodically repeated. A similar observation can be made about the eight bar sequence. Indeed, in present-day piping so strong is this metre, that music which spans an odd number of bars is considered to be written incorrectly or badly composed.

John Peacock probably wrote so many pieces with variations because he only had a limited supply of music, communications were not what they are today, therefore it was an ideal way of increasing his repertoire and by writing variations of such intricacy he could demonstrate his musical and technical skills.

Apart from analysing John Peacock’s variation writing, the melodies in his book are also worth considering and a number of interesting features immediately become apparent:

Melodies do not always finish on the tonic, the supertonic ending occurs seven times, the 6th four times, whilst the dominant and mediant are each twice the last note. In many cases there is no hint throughout the piece that a note other than the tonic will be the last note, perhaps it is the piper’s last surprise. The reason that so many melodies do not finish on the tonic is probably that often they were melodies played for dancing and it was an ideal way of running one tune into another.
Many of the melodies alternate between the chord of the tonic and supertonic. This point has already been mentioned in connection with the musical keys available on the keyless chanter. One reason why so many tunes use this chordal pattern is that they are the only two root chords playable on the keyless chanter, all other chords requiring an inversion.
A number of the melodies have an accented F sharp. Bearing in mind that when an F sharp is played along with G drones a considerable discord is heard, this constitutes a significant difference from other traditional music.
A few of the pieces are definitely not melodies from the north-east of England. There are examples from Scotland, ‘My Ain Kind Dearie’, and the Borders, ‘Follow Her Ower the Border’, as well as one piece from the heart of England, ‘Lady Coventry’s Minuet’. This shows that John Peacock, not being content solely with playing melodies from the region, was looking outwards and playing melodies which he thought sounded well on the pipes, irrespective of their origin. It is interesting to note that even today, amid our ever-changing society and attitudes, there are a considerable number of pipers who will only play tunes which originate from the north-east on the Small-pipes.

Although I have only examined one book from this period, an investigation of other music books dating from the time is likely to lead to similar conclusions.

Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century keys were added to the chanter and the drones altered to produce the extra notes required for a total of five different keys, namely, G, D and A major and A and E minor, all with the tonic, dominant and octave tonic drone harmony. Pipers probably developed the instrument at this time, as they were finding themselves more and more isolated from other musicians, because of the pipes’ one octave range, and especially fiddlers, whose instrument was going through a phase of incredible popularity. With all of the extra notes suddenly available pipers started to expand their repertoire by playing or arranging other types of traditional music and, in a few cases, writing melodies specifically for the extended range, and in John Peacock’s tune book there are a few tunes which require, as he puts it, John Peacock’s ‘New Improved Pipe Chanter’. Unfortunately, the latter part of the nineteenth century saw a decline in the playing of the Small-pipes so any expected development of their music did not take place.

Chanter 7

Towards the end of the nineteenth century chanters were being made with as many as seventeen keys, giving a range of two chromatic octaves, from B below middle C to B above the Treble Clef, and five drones with a drone change to facilitate the quick changing of the drone harmony from G to D major. By having a chanter which was chromatic, one of the intentions of the pipers of the time was to produce an instrument capable of playing in any key, but this proved impossible for three reasons:

Most of the keys have to be played by the thumb of the right hand, making the instrument extremely difficult to play.
The drones, although numbering five, cannot produce all of the notes necessary for every key.
Because of the continually sounding drone the Small-pipe chanter must be tempered to its own unique scale. It cannot be tuned to Just or Even Temperament, so if the nineteenth-century pipers had tuned to all of the musical keys then they would have noticed that the pipes were appreciably out of tune with themselves. Whether or not they knew the ins and outs of the tempered scale is doubtful, but they would have been put off by the considerable discord of a number of musical keys.

Tom Clough was, for very good reasons, called the ‘The Prince of Players’, and it was he, more than anybody else, who continued the development of the music of the pipes where John Peacock and his contemporaries had left off. By studying his music books it soon becomes apparent that he was playing a considerable number of tunes dating from the early and middle nineteenth century, as well as tunes not written specifically for the pipes, and in this respect a large number of fiddle tunes are noted. He was also writing variations to traditional melodies in much the same way that John Peacock had done, by the use of fast runs, arpeggios and specific ornamentation, the only difference being that Tom Clough had the advantage of keys, and he certainly knew how to use them to great effect. His variations on ‘The Lee Rigges’ and ‘Oh Dear! What Can the Matter Be’, to mention but two, are masterpieces. The following two pieces of music taken from these two tunes will, when compared with the examples from John Peacock, show that the two pipers were using basically the same techniques. On his only record he shows that he has perfected the art of fast runs to an amazing degree (see Example 3(a)).

Example 4 Extracts from Tom Clough’s music books

8
Chanter

FROM: ‘OH DEAR! WHAT CAN THE MATTER BE?’

FROM: ‘THE LEE RIGGES’

Tom Clough was also writing melodies for the pipes and from his fingers came many well-known pieces, including ‘Nancy’ and ‘Reflections’. In addition to being a brilliant piper Tom Clough was also an accomplished pipe-maker and he saw no reason why the developments of the 19th century should not be continued. He made chanters of his own design and extended the range of the chanter by adding the extra A at the bottom of the chanter, thus facilitating the use of two octaves for the keys of A and A minor. He also extended the number of musical keys from the five previously mentioned to include the key of C major; he obtained the appropriate drone harmony, c, G and C, by means of drone slides to his two D drones.

Since the nineteenth century pipers had not produced any tune books, probably because of the decline in popularity of the pipes, but in 1936 the Northumbrian Pipers’ Society published the Northumbrian Pipers’ Tune Book. although extensively revised in 1970 it is this book that even today forms the basis of most pipers’ repertoires. Such is its popularity that it can fairly safely be said that most people taking up the instrument start off with this book.

Soon after this book was published war broke out and once again the popularity of the pipes decreased, but by the beginning of the 1950s they were making a comeback. At the forefront of this movement were two pipers, Jack Armstrong and Billy Pigg.

Chanter 9

As an enthusiastic fiddle player in his highly popular dance band, ‘The Barnstormers’, Jack Armstrong slowly acquired a vast amount of traditional music. From the poignant melodies of the Western Isles to the foot-tapping tunes of Ireland and Scotland, Jack Armstrong had the biggest collection of traditional music in the north of England. As an already accomplished player, renowned for his steady rhythm, haunting playing and writing of tunes like ‘Rothbury Hills’ and ‘Bracken Rigg’, Armstrong became one of the area’s leading players. He made available his vast collection of music to many fellow pipers and thus unwittingly motivated them to seek out and adapt other forms of music in exactly the same way that he had done.

At the same time, but in complete contrast, Billy Pigg was developing his own style of playing. As all pipers before him, he was listening to, adapting and playing many different styles of traditional music as well as writing melodies specifically for the pipes, and in this he became the master, composing tunes such as ‘The Carrick Hornpipe’ (Example 5), consisting of very fast repeated arpeggios which can also give the momentary effect of two instruments being played at the same time. John Doonan, a noted Irish piccolo player living on Tyneside, was astonished on first meeting Billy Pigg to find that he could play so many Irish melodies. Billy explained that he and his fellow musicians up Coquetdale regularly listened to Radio Erin’s folk programme and painstakingly mastered a great number of the airs which were broadcast.

Example 5 Extract from the ‘Carrick Hornpipe’ by Billy Pigg

[Musical notation not transcribed]

10
Chanter

By the 1960s and 1970s it became obvious that the music of the pipes was starting to go through a transformation. In the first of these two decades there was a drive to raise the standard of playing. This was the era when the solo piper and pieces with fast intricate runs were in vogue. At the same time there were more and more pipe makers making sets to meet the ever-increasing demand from people wanting to take up the instrument, and so the cycle repeated with the standard of piping rising higher and higher. Also the type of music being played on the pipes expanded dramatically to include a greater number of tunes from outside the region, clearly showing that the pipes were no longer being played exclusively in the north of England. In addition, pipers started to play along with other instrumentalists. At first they played merely in 3rds or 6ths but as pipers became more and more musically trained so all the subtleties of counterpoint began to be used. The reason why pipers suddenly started to play along with other pipers and musicians is not hard to understand; firstly it is a great deal more fun playing along with other pipers than playing solo, in fact the main reason why many people take up the pipes is to make friends, and secondly, whenever pipers play in public a far better musical programme can be devised if good arrangements are used, there being a limit to how much solo piping the lay person can listen to.

During the 1970s the pipes were further developed. Up until this time they had mainly been manufactured in their own unique key, their basic scale producing the scale of F sharp, or maybe slightly flat of pure F sharp. But as pipers started to play along with other musicians this key proved, to say the least, difficult. So the so-called concert-pitched instruments started to be produced. In the first instance the F sharp pipes were reduced to F; then concert G, D and C pipes were perfected to give a whole range of keys which proved far more convenient for other musicians. The D chanter was first made by James Reid in the nineteenth century, but he never made drones specifically for it, and the G chanter was developed by Forster Charlton for Billy Pigg so that he could play along with other musicians in the key of G, and the C pipes by Colin Ross. This meant that a massive expansion of the music of the pipes took place because pipers suddenly found that they could play in a wide variety of keys by simply switching the chanter and, if necessary, the drones. The pipes were now being played in folk groups and early music ensembles to accompany singers, and along with synthesisers, and even in seemingly impossible combination with the saxophone.

The contemporary composer also started to take an interest in the pipes. The now retired Professor of Music at the Royal Academy of Music, Alan Bush, wrote a piece for solo pipes called ‘Northumbrian Impressions’, and similarly, John Casken wrote a piece for the pipes and electronic tape entitled ‘Pipers Lynn’.

Apart from the greater number of sets that are now available, one reason for the dramatic increase in the repertoire of the pipes is the improvement in communications. The availability of music books has also helped — in the last ten years a large number have come on to the market. Duplicating facilities have also eliminated the need for tunes to be laboriously written out.

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At the present time the repertoire of the pipes is still expanding, new arrangements are continually being written and new avenues explored, with the result that the pipes are increasingly being played in environments which a few years previously would have been considered impossible. How many people would have thought they they could have been successfully played in a rock band? In this respect a certain degree of conflict is starting to emerge amongst pipers for there are those who consider that the pipes are a traditional instrument and that they should only be used to play traditional music, any modern arrangement being totally out of keeping. I have played both Alan Bush’s and John Casken’s pieces to a traditional audience and audiences who do not have any preconceived idea of the pipes but who take it for what it is, a musical instrument, and listen to the quality of the sound that it can produce. On the whole, the established piper finds difficulty in accepting the music while the non-piper accepts it as a musical work of art in its own right. I personally find the former attitude hard to understand, because if the music had not developed in the past we would not even be playing Peacock’s variations. Folk music is surely about change; if it ceases to develop it stagnates, becomes repetitive, and is then in danger of dying out. All of the great pipers of the past have developed the music of the pipes by drawing on all available sources and adapting or arranging them as they thought fit. It has therefore been handed down to us as a living tradition in exactly the same way that we should pass it on to our children.

I therefore look forward to an ever-increasing repertoire for the pipes, and only wish that I could be around in 200 years time to hear all of the differing styles of music that will be played on, what I consider to be, the most adaptable and versatile bagpipe in the world.

Richard Butler

12 Chanter

Fundamentals of tuning

I have from time to time heard of Northumbrian pipers tuning their drones in unorthodox ways, as for instance using an A drone when playing in G, or a G drone when playing in D or A minor. These dubious practices prompt me to define the reasons for selecting the drone notes.

The choice of drone is neither a matter of whim nor of tradition, but is fundamental to the nature and structure of music itself. The most natural note on which to drone is the key-note — G when playing in G major or minor, D when in D maj/min and A when in A maj/min. Against this drone the melody makes an ever-changing pattern of discord and concord, tension and relaxation, and the piece normally comes to rest on the key-note. The degrees of the scale which form a concord with the key-note G are the 3rd (B), 4th (C), 5th (D) and the 6th (E), while the 2nd (A) and 7th (F) are discordant. If you play G and A together you must agree that the sound is not a restful one.

Now the normal tendency is for a melody to pull towards its key-note and this note is implied the whole time even if not actually present. So to play a drone on A (2nd degree of the scale) is to imply a dissonance throughout the piece, which is not even allowed to resolve peacefully at the end. Conversely, playing in A minor while droning on G gives a similar effect. Even the wild music of Bosnia, which enjoys long-held clashing 2nds, ends with consonant harmonies, and this rule holds throughout the world of music.

Neither are the notes of a melody selected at random. They are carefully chosen for their relationship with the underlying harmonic structure of the piece. In the case of drone instruments it is the drone itself which dictates the melodic movement. Dissonances are used by composers when they wish to express heightened emotion or tension, while consonances suggest peace, restfulness, or well-being.

In a major scale all the notes are consonant with the key-note except the 2nd and 7th degrees. If when playing in G major a drone on the 5th (D) is added, it forms dissonances with the 4th (C) and the 6th (E) and this lends richness to the melody, but both notes (G and D) still have the same relationship as before with the key-note.

In Example 1 consonants are marked O and dissonances X.

Example 1 Example 2

(×) (×)

Harmonic series

G drone A drone

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Example 2 shows that when a drone on A is played the pattern of consonance and dissonance is reversed. Consequently the whole meaning of the melody is contradicted because points of rest become discordant and points of tension lose their strength. It is also obvious that the major third (B), instead of being a warm sound is now dissonant and since G and A when played together clash, it becomes impossible to resolve to the key-note at the end of a piece. The musical world is turned upside-down.

The note emitted by the drone of the bagpipe is rich in harmonics. In addition to the fundamental note (G), the 2nd harmonic, a 12th higher is heard very strongly. Thus when the fundamental is G one hears D also. This is why the second drone is very often on the fifth degree of the scale which is the same note as the 12th. But a second D drone in its turn produces a strong 12th harmonic, (A) which clashes slightly with the fundamental. This A is acceptable because it is more than two octaves above the fundamental G, and is weaker.

There are few sounds more satisfying than that of a perfectly tuned 4th (D/g) or 5th (G/d) purring away, and a sustained drone makes a fitting prelude to the piece to come. The presence of the 2nd degree of the scale dispels this inherent feeling of warmth at once. In some piping traditions the drone is on the 4th only, allowing the instrument to be played in G or in C and this is quite acceptable since C is not dissonant with G; or one may use the 5th only and play in G or D.

It is of interest to observe that the notes of the common chord, on which so much music is based, are derived from the naturally occurring harmonic series.

It is quite common for pieces in G to modulate for a few bars to the dominant (D), and this is acceptable, but a whole piece in D lies uncomfortably with G drones. Furthermore, a piece in D will (in its turn) modulate to the dominant (A), which does not fit with G drones at all.

The solution is to use D drones only. If one wishes to follow the movement of the harmony further than this, then it would be best either to shut off the drones altogether or play a different type of instrument.

Since the sixteenth century composers have been emphasising the underlying chordal structures of a tune and have therefore had to sacrifice the melodic variety and interest of the many different modes in favour of only two, major and minor. Our instrument, the bagpipe, dates from the time when musicians had six or even seven different modes to choose from (hence our word ‘moods’).

Let us not be brow-beaten by the chord-mongers into making unsuitable compromises which prevent us from fully exploiting the wonderful characteristics of our ancient and honourable instrument.

Michael Muskett

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workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop 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workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop workshop

WORKSHOP

In this, the third article in a series in which makers describe the instruments they make and discuss their philosophies of bagpipe design and construction, Dave Shaw writes about his approach to making instruments from the Northumbrian tradition.

About ten years ago, when my real interest in bagpipes began, I knew everything. I still do — but not quite so often as before.
I was living in Bangor, North Wales, playing melodeon in Irish sessions in the city — lots of good music and singing. Really I was interested in the Irish pipes and had tried my hand at reed-making, using 1" diameter bamboo out of a carpet roll. You’ve got to start somewhere. It was a total failure.
Anyway, I’d heard Small-pipes on the Billy Pigg record, and a friend had a set, which looked impossibly complicated to an unfamiliar eye, and which no one could play.
These gradually drifted away, but my chance came when another friend, venturing from South Georgia in the Antarctic, turned up with a derelict set of Small-pipes he had found in Port Stanley in the Falklands. No reeds, all the leather-work rotten. I swapped them for a concertina and so the rot set in for me.
Having obtained a copy of Cocks & Bryans Northumbrian Pipes book, I re-reeded the set using my big bamboo and some flower canes from Woolworths. The bag presented problems as I had no leather about. I was able to get some rubber latex, so doped up a piece of calico (very cheap) and glued it up into a bag. It worked beautifully, and was the origin of the bags I normally use on my bellows pipes now.
I must have begged some leather from somewhere, but having mended the bellows I was off. A working set of pipes — almost.
I decided to make a set to see if they were any better — using C & B. I made and almost finished a set of Small-pipes, but the idea of an even better set of F pipes palled. After all, the sessions were in D or G.
I wrote to Joe Crane, the then technical adviser to the Northumbrian Pipers’ Society, for advice, and eventually received a faint pencil sketch of a chanter and a recommendation not to make my first one out of ivory. No dimensions of any sort; a start though.
I made my first chanter from boxwood, seven brass keys Catalin mounted. Quite a nice piece of work. It ran a bit sharp of F#. I made my second chanter from rosewood. Seven brass keys, Catalin mounted. A nice piece of work. Overall a bit smaller. It ran a bit sharp of F# Neither could be coaxed any higher. Go smaller I said. I made my third……… F##.
They do say that the seventh wave goes furthest up the beach. In my case I needed spring tides as chanter No. 7, rosewood — 7 brass keys, still worked just short of G. What kept me at it, you ask? I had made seven chanter sticks, 49 brass keys and got nowhere. Perhaps I have never had a sense of failure.

16
Chanter

Up to now I had always used my 1" bamboo as a reed making material, as I’ve always tried to solve my problems with what was to hand rather than wait for the real thing, which you can’t usually find anyway.

Then!! I was given a bit of reed cane. After the splitting and baleful characteristics of bamboo it was a delight to handle. I made a reed, and tried it in my boxwood chanter (No. 1 if you recall). And it worked! In G! Really well! I fitted it with bag drones and bellows and in April 1979 it was finished — somewhat cut up and glued down but it worked.

I won the Beginners and Intermediate sections of the Newcastle Small-pipes competititons in October that year on that set. I was playing for up to seven hours a day. Sweet bliss of unemployment.

Being me, I had to find out why they worked. After careful measurement of my G and such F ish sets as I could get, I drew a series of long wobbly curves on graph paper. Not very informative, so I adapted the axes. The x axis became notes spread out like frets on a guitar and the y axis length in cms. The lines became straight, going through the origin and so I could derive formulae.

It all added together to show that the little finger G length is around 20.2/20.4 cm. All hole positions can be gauged by the fret formula (work it out for yourself — I did), to ideal positions and then rearranged practically by varying the hole sizes and positions to suit real fingers.

Early on I started drilling the C hole (bottom hand — top finger) at an angle to give 2 mm extra clearance from the hole below — no mean thing on so small a chanter. I do this on all the pitches of Northumbrian Small-pipes I make now. It’s just a habit but I like it.

My first G chanter, and this early work, settled the characteristics of my chanters, the slim bodies with steeply undercut holes and square-cut key-blocks. The G chanter is 11/64" bore and 3/8" diameter in the body. F is 3/16" bore and 13/32" diameter in the body. So the body is just over twice the bore diameter. It’s a bit harder to fit the double keys to this narrow body but I find the sound good on it.

Reeds can be quite a problem, mine being thinly scraped at the tip, on a flattish staple, but wide-mouthed at the end. They give a full reedy tone, useful in sessions or bands, and it is this environment that has shaped other aspects of my pipes.

I used to use a fore and aft bag, like many others, but in a crowded pub it gets in the way, and you can’t sit back into a chair. In a band, to use a microphone you have to set it a long way down. Having seen a French tear-drop type of bag I thought “that’s it” and made one for my pipes. It was just what I needed, raising the chanter to a prominent position to be heard in a session, or miked in a band, and leaving no long projection behind the elbow.

The same with the loud drones, minus the “traditional” piston valve, which to my mind spoils the sound of a drone.

So you see, all I had done so far was to build an instrument which suited the peculiarities of the conditions in which I played. I suspect that Darwin would have been proud of me. The Galapagos Pipes.

Chanter 17

The drones themselves have seen much scrutiny — graph drawing and the like, and have suffered from the smoke screens that practical and scientific work put up. I found one of these when I measured the wave length of sound, in still air, in small bore tubes — from 3/16" downwards. This was done using a sliding piston in the tube, to vary the length, with a pitch fork at the end of the tube to excite the air column. All this had to be conducted at the dead of night, to ensure the necessary sensitivity of the ears to the resonance of the air in the tube. Basically, you adjust the piston until you have maximum volume and resonance in the air column. Measure the length and there you are. Do it enough times and calculate the average. In practical terms, the results were disappointing, in that working dimensions of instruments are generally 35/36 ths shorter than the measured lengths would suggest. I don’t know why, so I’ve ignored it and stuck to the practical measurements. Is it all a waste of time? How does it affect design — say on drones?

The drone I generally use is put together as follows: if the pitch of the note required is calculated for length in free air, then you divide that by 4 to get the working length, and drop it down in keeping with the bore of the tube you are using — L cm.

The open end of the drone comes to L cm, ignoring end correction. I now use what I call a tuned bottom end, where the top of the stand is tuned to the fifth of the drone, i.e. 2L/3. The bottom of the reed socket I place at the second octave of the drone L/4, and place the free end of the reed at L/8.

The way I work out the top of the slide normally seems to be L/√2. A strange figure you may say, but √2 does seem to crop up several times, especially in bagpipe design.

There is an anomaly, in that the wide section of the slide doesn’t work in the same way as the rest of the drone and you have to calculate for that, but the essentials for setting up the small parts are:

Figure 1

(illustration of drone with measurements): L/8 L/4 2L/3 L/√2 L

18 Chanter

L/4 is the least critical of these, the others contribute to making a harmonious sound with strong harmonics. Setting it this way means that say a D drone has its sound strengthened by its fifths, A, and if tuned to E on a bead, the E is strengthened by its fourth — A.

That’s one way of doing it. The Missionary drone? Don’t do it if you don’t know what the ‘L’ I’m talking about.

The thing is that my rules work for me. I’ve avoided the normal texts on musical acoustics, because unless you take your own way in these matters, you can be led by the nose into ideas which seem valid, but because they are couched in someone else’s terms they won’t work for you. I’ve gone my own way with these things.

Shuttle pipes arrived when I wanted a tough instrument to take tree felling with me. A normal set would have quickly been broken in the van, so shuttles offered an ideal solution for a lunchtime practice instrument. The first one was in F, based on Cocks & Bryan, eventually given away and subsequently stolen. To re-align it down to D with an open chanter was not much work, and I ran my first one up to take to Newcastleton festival a few years back. It’s a nice instrument for Scottish pipers as it has a thick BASS sound.

Now I can do it with a range of keys for semi-tones and to extend the scale upwards. A kind of English Musette. I’m not a purist. If I can make an instrument to someone’s specification then I will whether it exists in a museum or picture or not. I make pipes and I make them for people. They all have different needs.

Half-longs and Bagpipes have had less detailed attention until now, but I have made some good instruments in this style, and now have reasonably formalised ways of designing them.

The problem is that I can’t sit still on an idea, and really it has cost a good deal of time, material and, by default, money to work on all this stuff.

Like Jon Swayne, I need to be in the workshop, making pipes and earning a living, but if at the end of it, I have a deeper understanding of the principles behind making pipes, in practical terms I can be a better maker and my customers can benefit. After all my instruments have their own bright and very distinctive sound. Delving into the physics behind it hasn’t taken any of it away.

Dave Shaw

Chanter 19

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FOcuS OW

FOCUS ON Kathryn Tickell

Kathryn Tickell talks to Alistair Anderson

First Steps
Alistair Anderson: When did you first hear the Northumbrian pipes?
Kathryn Tickell: I can’t remember the very first time — I’ve heard them all my life as people in my family play.
A.A. Can you remember first deciding to play them yourself?
K.T. I never actually decided to play the Northumbrian pipes: I always wanted to play the fiddle. I started learning the fiddle and the pipes at the same time, just by accident really. There were pipes available that I could play — well, that it was possible to get out the box and have a try. A lot of kids used to have a go on the pipes just for a laugh really, we used to make really screechy noises. I never used to do very well with them and everybody used to say ‘stick to the piano, you’ll never be able to play them’. So I decided that I was going to carry on and learn to play them. It was funny because I wanted to play the fiddle so much and I was never particularly bothered about the pipes. I would have thought that if I was going to be good at any particular instrument it would have been the fiddle, but as it turned out I found the fiddle very difficult, and I have never had all that much trouble with the pipes.
A.A. I remember you at our place that New Year when you were eleven, playing the fiddle while we were all dancing. You were playing strongly, making a real workmanlike job of it. I can’t remember if I’d heard you play the pipes at that stage — I suppose so, but you were playing the fiddle out before you were playing the pipes.
K.T. Actually, I’m saying that I had no real problem playing the pipes, but I recently heard a recording of myself playing at a school concert when I was eleven — and I couldn’t believe it! I can remember playing at the concert, finishing the tunes and thinking ‘I played those quite well’. But I heard this tape and it was awful.
A.A. Did you have any formal tuition when you were first playing?
K.T. No, I used to go along to an Arts centre in Wallsend on a Saturday morning. They had a folk workshop there which was run by Anthony Robb. These weren’t formal lessons — it was a lot of kids running around playing banjos, guitars, and whistles. I’d sit in the corner and play the pipes and if I was doing anything wrong Anthony would come over and tell me. Another thing about these sessions was that there was another piper going along there, and at that time there weren’t many pipers around. Chris Ormston was there; he was about three to four years older than me and he’d been playing for a little while and was very good. So, he was there playing a lot better than I could and it really made me practice. I always wanted to catch up with him.

Chanter 21

A.A. I think there was a time when there was a great mystique about this tremendously difficult instrument that hardly anyone could play, but once you started seeing a few people like Chris around just getting on and playing it, it began to break down the mystique.
K.T. It really did push me along having him to work towards.

Competitions
A.A. Were you going into any competitions at that time?
K.T. Yes, I’d been playing for about two years when I started going in for competitors, and again Chris was always in the same competitions as me, or maybe the one ahead of me — he always used to win them. But I can remember I’d been in one competition, I think it was Rothbury, and the way competitions in Northumberland are run is that you try the Novice, when you’ve won the Novice you enter the Intermediate, and after you’ve won the Intermediate you go on to the Open. In this particular competition there weren’t very many pipers and somebody suggested that I enter for the Novice and the Intermediate just to bulk the numbers out. I didn’t win the Novice, but I won the Intermediate because I was the only one in it! That meant that, if I was going by the rules, the next competition I entered would have to be the Open! Nobody sticks by the rules, everybody goes in for the Novice maybe ten times, wins it ten times and then goes on to the Open. So I went to the next competition which I think was Bellingham and happily went into the Intermediate, but there was an awkward judge who told me that, as I had won the Intermediate I must enter for the Open. The pipers who were going into the Open at that time were of a very high standard and I was nowhere near them. But I think that’s what pushed me on — having to get up to that standard fairly quickly.
A.A. So do you feel that competitions are constructive?
K.T. Yes, definitely. They used to give me somewhere to play and somewhere to hear other pipers playing good tunes that they had practised. It gave me something to practise for, and motivation to practise. I can see the bad side of it, where you get bitchiness, or where one judge thinks one thing and another judge at a different competition thinks entirely the opposite. But if people don’t want to go in for a competition they don’t have to.
A.A. Do you think there’s a problem with competitions tending to standardise playing techniques too much, in other words developing a competition style?
K.T. Yes, sometimes there is. What I found was that you tended to get certain tunes cropping up all the time and … eventually you would get to know that such-and-such is judging at Rothbury so you would play a certain type of tune in a certain style because you knew that was the way he likes people to play. You might fall into the trap of playing to the judges rather than playing what you want to play.
22
Chanter

A.A. With the number of young pipers coming through and the acceleration in the improvement of standards, I think one has to say that competitions have done a lot to help.
K.T. If you get a group of pipers together in a session they’re going to play to the standards of the least able among them and the tunes that he or she can play. However, in competitions they play tunes that are pushing them to the limit and you hear what they’re really capable of.

Instruments
A.A. How many instruments do you take with you on the road?
K.T. I take a set of pipes in F, and recently I’ve started taking a spare G chanter with me in case anything happens to the F chanter (like I sit on it or something!), and if there’s a piper there who only plays in G then I can use the G chanter.
A.A. Do you enjoy playing the pipes with other instruments?
K.T. Not in a session — I would prefer to play the fiddle.
A.A. … but in other situations, in bands…
K.T. Yes, on my records I have used guitars, piano, mando-cello, all sorts of things.
A.A. … usually with the F chanter, or the G chanter?
K.T. It’s always been the F.
A.A. … to get that particular sound that the F chanter has?
K.T. I much prefer to play in F, I prefer the sound of the chanter.
A.A. There’s a difference in timbre, it’s more than just a difference in pitch. The F chanter you play is the standard working model? How many keys and what range does it have?
K.T. The set that I play at the moment I’ve been playing for a year and a half and it doesn’t actually belong to me! My own set which I played for seven to eight years was a nine-keyed chanter made by Archie Dagg from Rothbury and when I put it in for is ten thousand mile service about a year and a half ago I got this set from Mike Nelson in Cambridge. It’s a thirteen-keyed chanter and once I started playing the extra notes I found I was writing tunes with the extra notes — with the F naturals in… So what’s happened is that, although I’ve got my own set back, I’m just carrying on playing the Mike Nelson set.
A.A. … very evenly balanced right across, Mike makes some tremendous chanters. The G chanter I play is Mike Nelson’s.
K.T. It seems a little strange that you, Joe Hutton, and myself are all getting Northumbrian pipes from a maker in Cambridge! My G chanter (which doesn’t belong to me either) was made by Dave Shaw who makes some really nice G chanters.
A.A. Have you got any other chanters?
K.T. I’ve got a C set, I think it was the first set ever to be sold. It was made by Colin Ross. Actually they are my Dad’s. He doesn’t play, but he bought them

Chanter 23

because he sings and he likes to be accompanied by the pipes. He’s got a deep voice so he bought the C set in the hope that I’d be able to accompany his songs. The only trouble is that whenever we try to rehearse we have arguments — they don’t get played often.

Oh, and I’ve got the Lord Mayor’s set as well. As the Lord Mayor of Newcastle’s official piper, I have a set that were presented to the Lord Mayor. I keep them to play on official occasions. That set was made by Dave Burleigh. It’s a real show-piece of a set made in ivory and silver with seventeen keys and five drones. In fact it’s a lovely set with a beautiful tone.

A.A. The ivory sets have a particular tone, it’s not always to everybody’s taste but it’s especially recognisable.

K.T. I didn’t think I’d like playing them, but on my last album, Borderlands, I played them on ‘Flowers of the Forest’. I used the Lord Mayor’s pipes on this piece because it had the extra notes.

A.A. Do you have much difficulty if you play one set of pipes one day and another the next? Even on two F sets the holes are never quite the same distance apart . . .

K.T. I tend to stick to the same set, although sometimes I use the G chanter and it takes the first few minutes of playing to get used to.

A.A. I know from my own experience that it can be hard to make a sudden change between pipes of different sizes, the key settings are just that bit different . . . Do you have much trouble with travelling abroad, when there’s a great temperature change?

K.T. Not really. The Archie Dagg and Mike Nelson sets have both been very stable and I haven’t had much problem. If anything ever does start going wrong I’d never attempt to do anything to the reeds myself — I send them back to the maker. I play the pipes, but I’m no expert on reeds — I send them to the experts.

Repertoire

A.A. You have a wide range of tunes, where do you get your repertoire?

K.T. Some of it is the basic piper’s repertoire that I learnt in the first two or three years of playing, from playing with other pipers, going to Northumbrian Pipers’ Society meetings, and from the Society’s tune-book. I pick tunes up all over the place . . . I’m playing some fiddle tunes from my friend Dick Mosscrop who used to play fiddle with Joe Hutton’s dad! He’s taught me some tunes that no one else plays. In the last couple of years I have started writing my own tunes . . .

A.A. Do you write them on the pipes?

K.T. Yes, usually. I write some on the piano, but mostly I find that when I am in the mood to write a tune I get the pipes out and start messing around. Eventually I hit on a few notes that sound good together and I build the rest of the tune around that.

24 Chanter

A.A. Yes, Will Taylor was saying the same thing this weekend — you just get a little theme or corner and build around that.
K.T. You don’t start at the beginning of a tune and go through to the end. You might start at the second half and work backwards, for example.
A.A. Do you have any trouble when you’re using a lot of chromatics against the drones?
K.T. No.
A.A. I have never noticed any problem listening to you play, because the tune never drifts too far from the key although you use a lot of accidentals. There are other tunes that seem to get away from the key, perhaps because they’ve been written for other instruments.
K.T. Sometimes I play with the drones off to practise fingering and check that it’s clean, but when I’m writing tunes I have the drones on all the time.
A.A. Do you tend to choose, say, fiddle tunes by hearing someone play and thinking that that tune would sound good on the pipes?
K.T. I very seldom get a fiddle tune and put it on the pipes, it’s either one thing or the other. Some accordion tunes, especially Scottish accordion tunes, with a lot of arpeggios, sound nice on the pipes. Someone once handed me a sheet of music, ‘Jean’s Reel’, and said I bet you can’t play that on the fiddle — and I couldn’t. So I played it on the pipes instead! That one is an accordion tune.
A.A. There are a lot of tunes out there and only some will work well on the pipes but there’s no quick way to tell.
K.T. I’m never worried about changing tunes — they’re going to change anyway after you’ve played them for a while. So I change and even re-write bits sometime.

Variations
A.A. There used to be, and still is, a tradition of pipers writing variations on tunes do you do much of that?
K.T. Not so much now, but in the competitions one of the rules used to be to play three contrasting tunes, or more often you’d have to play a slow air and any two of jig, reel and hornpipe, one of which must be an air with variations. This is something that you never come across in any other competitions. It is unique to the Northumbrian Piping competitions because of the tradition of playing variations. I always used to have problems finding airs with variations that nobody everybody plays, there are quite a number of them but they all tend to be pretty well worn. So I used to write variations a lot more in order to play them in the competitions. Now I tend to just write a straight tune because the variations tend to get a bit over-long and ‘notey’.
A.A. Yes, they can get rather formula.
K.T. What I like to do sometimes is to get a well-known tune, like the ‘Mason’ Apron’ or ‘De’il among the Taylors’ and add a few variations to it, not too many, and just for fun — I like doing that.

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A.A. Many of the airs with variations that are traditionally played are for the keyless chanter, or the one just immediately after that, with a very limited range. It would be interesting to see some people making variations that use the full range of the chanter.

K.T. The only tune that I have come across like that was the ‘Londonderry Hornpipe’ for which Richard Butler wrote some variations. They were absolutely amazing.

A.A. Yes, Mike has a tape of you playing that. Can you still play it?

K.T. No. It was funny because Richard wrote these variations and I think he gave up on them, he didn’t have time to get them up for performance, they take an awful lot of work. I learnt them for a competition and I got about ninety per cent of the way with them, then I let them go and I’ve never actually played them again.

A.A. Have you still got the music?

K.T. No, but Mike’s got the tape.

A.A. We could spend some time jotting them all down! Seriously though, I would like to see the music because it was certainly very impressive.

K.T. Yes, it really used the full range of the chanter, every key was used in it.

A.A. So there are interesting avenues yet to be explored.

Future Plans

A.A. Talking of interesting avenues to be explored, what sort of plans do you have for the future?

K.T. It’s hard to say—there are many things that it’s possible to do. I’ve just got to wait and see which one comes along first. My motto is wait and see and everything will work out eventually. I’d like to get a band together, but I haven’t found the right people yet. It’s not just musically, it’s personality as well. It takes an awful lot to put a good band together. In the meantime I’m ninety-five per cent solo, although when I do get a chance to play with other musicians I really do enjoy it. In fact, I’ve been playing with a—I don’t quite know how to describe them—a Cajun R and B band (?) from Newcastle called Dust on the Needle. They’re great fun and have a big line-up: full drum-kit, congas, bass guitar, lead guitar, accordion, and occasionally sax and trumpet as well. I’ve been having a great time working with them.

A.A. There are always things you can do with a band that you can’t do solo. Do you find there are things you can do solo that you can’t do with a band?

K.T. Yes, there are quite a few tunes that, due to their very simplicity, work best with a single person playing alone on stage. This is an effect that you can’t get with a band. There are many bands going around at the moment, but there are very few solo instrumentalists.

A.A. Watching you on stage—when everything’s going well—there’s a very tight focus, it’s very intense and very different from the sound and effect created by a band.

K. T. It’s not just the playing, it’s the whole performance. I do an awful lot of talking to the audience — probably too much! I find it a lot easier talking to the audience when I’m standing on the stage alone. If there’s another person on stage with you, unless you’ve worked with that person for a long time, you’re always conscious of them sitting there, looking at their watch, or cleaning their nails.

A. A. So you think that if you do get a band together you’ll still want to play solo as well?
K. T. I’ll always do solo work, yes.

Records

A. A. Can you talk a little about the records that you’ve made?
K. T. I’ve made three records so far: From Sewingshields to Glendale (Mawson and Wareham 1033), On Kielder Side (Saydisc Records: SDL 343), and the new one, Borderlands (Black Crow Records: CRO C210). Borderlands has got a variety of instruments and instrumentalists on it, including yourself on concertina, Rod Clements (the bass player from Lindisfarne) on fretless bass, and Martyn Bennett from Edinburgh playing Scottish Small Pipes in duet with my Northumbrian pipes . . . From Sewingshields to Glendale features Joe Hutton (Northumbrian Pipes), Willy Taylor (fiddle), Will Atkinson (mouth-organ), as well as yourself on Northumbrian pipes . . .
A. A. These records cover two extremes of you current musical spectrum. Sewingshields is straightforward traditional music, well-played and some very nice stuff, but even so it has some modern arrangements and evolution or development of the tradition. With Borderlands some of the tracks are very straightforward and others, with different instruments have some very exciting new ideas being developed.
K. T. I was very pleased to play on the Sewingshields to Glendale record, to play with Willy, Will and Joe, because that’s the sort of music I’ve heard all my life, the sort of music my grand-parents and family enjoy. They like traditional music, they don’t really like folk music very much. When I brought this album home they liked it very much — the Border dance bands, real traditional stuff. That’s definitely my base — that’s what I’ve been brought up with.
A. A. That’s where you’re drawing the energies from to play in many different fields . . .

(The interview was transcribed by Biddy Wells and edited by Peter Stacey.)

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Welsh Bagpipes
(1) The Double Chanter in the Welsh Folk Museum

This article first appeared in Taplas April/May 1987

The existence of ’the Welsh Bagpipes’ has posed a point of discussion to musicologists and historians for quite some time now. Although it is now generally accepted that Wales, at one time, possessed the pipes, as such, as a native instrument, many questions remain unanswered.

The first question that arises is the one on the origin of the ‘Welsh double chanter’ in the collection of the Welsh Folk Museum, St. Fagans.

I first read about this instrument some twelve years ago, at which point I immediately reacted the same way as most people remotely interested in the subject did. My conclusion was that the instrument had to be North African, probably from a Berber source. My ideas were reinforced by the few lines on the subject in Anthony Baines’ book Bagpipes (still the principal reference book on bagpipes around the world). Baines writes: “A strange instrument of broadly similar construction (he is referring to another instrument from Beirut) is in the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. Said to have come from a village in North Wales (Peate, 1947) it is inscribed with the date 1701.”

Years went by when I didn’t even think of Wales (I lived in the Netherlands at the time) until, by sheer coincidence, I enrolled for a course in musical instrument making near Caerphilly. Although the course was directed at violin making, I couldn’t help but follow my great love, the pipes, and decided to have a look at the instrument I had read about.

At first glance I was not convinced at all, rather sticking to my original thoughts; but on subsequent visits to St. Fagans I began to have doubts. Time passed and the uillean pipes seemed more important than two bits of cane with horns on the end.

In 1985, after a death in the family, I had to leave Wales and return to Holland, it seemed for good. Little did I realise that my soul had also become nationalised, just as a Dutchman abroad wears clogs, whereas before it never crossed his mind to do so. I became intrigued by the Welsh pipes. I simply went crazy about the idea and started experimenting with pibgyrn (the Welsh horn pipe — see Jonathan Shorland’s article, Taplas 17).

Last December I visited Roy Saer, an authority on Welsh culture and music, at St. Fagans and had some brief discussions with him on the subject. I also discovered that Jonathan Shorland, a maker of fine pibgyrn, had briefly referred to the Welsh double chanter in Taplas. He supported the generally accepted view, that this instrument was North African. I greatly respect Jonathan for his work and research on the much more clearly defined pibgorn, but I still have to place an enormous question mark behind his thoughts with regard to the pipes.

Over the years, I have observed a number of Bedouin and Berber pipes and, so far, have not come across an instrument that strongly resembles that in St. Fagans. One of the differences is the bevel on the yoke. I confess that the majority of yokes that I have seen were indeed of the disc type, as in the North African zukra.

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Chanter

I am not convinced that the instrument in St. Fagans is a remnant of a bagpipe, and not a pibgorn, as some suggest. I challenge those who support theories to the contrary to give me a tune on an instrument with a bevelled yoke, bearing in mind that two single reeds of considerable length would be vibrating violently in close proximity to the lips.

A point that many overlook is the clearly engraved date on the instrument. The inscription might have been made in some desert far away from Europe. It is commonly known that our modern numerals have their roots in Arabic script. There are several points of interest concerning this matter:

The actual writing styles do seem to differ, as indeed do the shapes of the numerals.

I always assumed that, since the normal Arabic sentence runs from right to left, the numerals would do so too. However, this does not appear to be so. The date does indeed read 1701 and not 1071.

This is important. It was recently brought to my attention that all Arab nations started their timescale at 0 some six hundred years after the Europeans did. Hence, the Arab nations have not yet reached the year 1701.

We might, therefore, conclude that the inscription is a later, European, addition . . . or we might even claim the instrument to be manufactured in Europe, yes even in Wales.

The inscription does, however, appear to be at least two centuries out of date, as the heyday of double-bell chanter bagpipes in Europe was during the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Again, this can be explained by assuming that we are talking about an extremely isolated area. (Even now, we find long-lost knowledge in isolated regions of Wales).

I would like to point out that there is significant evidence in drawings and sculpture to assume that western European musical evolution can be viewed as a whole. There are sixteenth-century Welsh drawings of double chanter bagpipes, and on the roof of St. Mary’s Church, Shrewsbury (just over the border) sits an angel, carved in the fifteenth century, playing the double-bell chanter pipes.

All this could lead to the conclusion that Welsh double-chantered pipes have indeed been played, and that the instrument in St. Fagans could well be a Welsh instrument, from an area that had remained isolated for at least two centuries, or kept up its tradition for this length of time.

Our tendency to exaggerate could turn the tradition of perhaps one man (most likely to be a male shepherd) into the culture of an area or, sometimes, as the chauvinists prefer it, into the culture of a country.

Some food for thought is offered by a recently published report by Genetic and Population Studies in Wales. The results of a survey of 24,000 blood donors in Wales suggest that the generally accepted view, that the Welsh have their roots deeply engrained in the Celtic cultures, is, to say the least, shaky in its foundations. It is claimed that the Welsh, or rather the North Welsh, are related to the Berbers of North Africa.

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To summarise, there is only one way to establish the facts. This is to take some microscopic samples and check for the origins of the materials used to make the instrument. Modern carbon dating methods could be applied. Not enough has been done about this instrument, perhaps for fear of it not being Welsh. I do not know. Funding and time are, of course, always a problem, but it must be realised how important this sole relic is for musicology worldwide.

Theo Schuurmans

Welsh Bagpipes
(2) The bagpipes in Wales in recent centuries

This article first appeared in Taplas April/May 1987
Unlike Theo I am not a piper but I hope that my observations will complement what he has said by providing a brief historical account of the bagpipe in Wales during the post-Tudor centuries. Some of the questions raised by Theo must remain unanswered at this stage, I am afraid, but what follows should throw additional light in a few directions and, perhaps, lead us nearer to eventual solutions.

Let’s start with the illustrations themselves. The double-chanter (Fig. 1) — currently on public display at the Welsh Folk Museum — was acquired by the National Museum of Wales in 1937, from an elderly lady in Goodwick, near Fishguard. She was then the widow of Rev. John Morris, sometime vicar of Llanybydder, near Lampeter, and it was he who had, in 1913 or a little earlier, discovered the instrument “in a cottage in North Wales” and bought it for two shillings. Sadly, nothing at all is chronicled of the specimen’s history prior to this.

The chanter, which measures 42 cm in length, comprises:

a) a circular wooden stock, bevelled or slope-cut at one end and externally grooved around the other end, extending to form a semi-circular yoke with a flat upper face,

b) Two pipes of cane, with 6:6 finger-holes and accommodating two short and narrower cane pipes that link into the stock, all four pipes being wax-bedded, and tied with thread on to the yoke, and

c) two bells of cowhorn (each treble-pierced near the outer rim) fitted and secured with thread on to the main pipes.

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Chanter

Both playing reeds, it should be confirmed, are missing.

Two features, when considered together, raise an intriguing issue. First of all, on the rounded under-side of the yoke is crudely incised the date 1701, which presumably indicates the instrument’s production or, perhaps, acquisition. Secondly, the groove around the stock has been taken by several researchers to indicate that this chanter once had a bag tied on at this point; in other words, what we have here is part of a bagpipe. But — were bagpipes actually being produced, or even used, in Wales as late as 1701? And were double-chantered bagpipes ever here anyway?

The answer to the second question might be affirmative. In the Central Library, Cardiff is housed a manuscript (formerly Havod MS 24 but today Cardiff MS 2.634) written during the period 1605–10 by Welshman John Jones of Gellilyfdy in the old Flintshire (now part of Clwyd). Along with crude drawings of harp and crwth, appear sketches of two bagpipe specimens (see Fig. 2). Both display a blowpipe, single drone and smallish bag; the most obvious difference between them is that the second example has a double, rather than single, chanter (with a surrealistic 9 left and 8 right fingerholes!).

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FIGURE 2. Bagpipes sketched by John Jones, Cardiff MS 2.634
(Reproduced by courtesy of County of South Glamorgan Libraries)

To my knowledge, these sketches — which were, two centuries later, copied by another Welshman, Hugh Maurice, into what eventually became British Museum Additional Manuscript 15036 — constitute the only iconographical evidence that might indicate the earlier existence of the double-chanter bagpipe in Wales. Having warily acknowledged this, though, we yet cannot take it for granted that John Jones of Gellilyfdy was here depicting native Welsh forms of the instrument — for one thing, although his speciality was copying Welsh-language manuscripts, most of this labour of love was actually carried out while he was in prison in distant London.

The period of the bagpipe sketches is also nearly a full century earlier than the date cut on our double-chanter, so that we must still ask whether bagpipes had, indeed, any role, active or passive, within Welsh culture as late as 1701. Well, a conclusive answer to that question occurs in a lengthy Welsh-language poem, on the thirteen counties of Wales, which was produced around 1720 by Dafydd Thomas and includes a verse which can be translated as follows:

Fair are the buildings in Carmarthen town,
From Lammas Street to King Street;
And it’s the “Back-Pipes” that most often play [there]
For the largest weddings in Wales.

Admittedly, when some three generations later, the harpist Edward Jones published his Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards (1784, 1794) he gave the impression that indigenous bagpipes belonged to much earlier centuries and were a phenomenon that he himself had never literally observed. But in the very same period, in the 1795 issue of The Cambrian Register, an unnamed commentator, who was better informed than the London-based Jones, wrote of “The Bagpipe” that:

This has been out of use in North Wales for upwards of two centuries past; but it is to be met with in many parts of the South.

This final, brow-raising claim is, in fact, borne out by several other sources. In those we find that the bagpipe invariably performed one and the same ceremonial function — in parts of southern Wales it featured centrally in so-called “horseback weddings”. And this tradition was to last into the opening decades of the nineteenth century. In 1815, the Rev. Peter Roberts, in his volume The Cambrian Popular Antiquities, outlined the crucial role of the piper on such an occasion:

On the day of the ceremony…the signal to the friends of the bridegroom was given by the piper, who was always present on these occasions, and mounted on a horse trained for the purpose; and the cavalcade, being all mounted, set off full speed, with the piper playing in the midst of them, for the house of the bride.

Roberts’s volume also provides an illustration (see Fig. 3) of a related wedding-custom which actually shows a horse-rider bearing a mouth-blown and three-droned bagpipe. However, as possible organological evidence for Wales, this copper-plate engraving by I. Havell should most likely be treated with extreme caution.

Perhaps we can set greater store by the fascinating comment offered in The Cambrian Register (vol. 3, 1818) by the unnamed author of An Historical Essay on the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Celtic Tribes, particularly their Marriage Customs:

The bagpipes used in Wales, in general, are the large Highland bagpipes, but in Pembrokeshire and some of the adjoining counties, the Irish pipes are most in repute, as they are in other places, for a private room, or for a dance.

Some additional accounts of the horseback wedding give the related bagpiping ritual a more specific regional location. This applies, for example, to William Young’s Guide to the Beauties of Glyn Neath (1835), in which the author maintained that:

Until very recently weddings were accompanied by from fifty to a hundred persons on horseback, to the parish church, the piper playing the bagpipes.

Young’s comment was much later quoted in The History of the Vale of Neath (1925) by D. Rhys Phillips, who revealingly added:

Chanter 33

Fig. 3. The “quintain” wedding custom, The Cambrian Popular Antiquities (1815)

This narration is exceedingly interesting because it is authoritative. It gives a definite record of the use and vogue of the Bagpipes till circa 1815–20, and partly confirms a statement made to the writer c. 1885, by Benjamin Hay of Lleina, near Aberpergwm — a most intelligent old Welshman of Scottish descent: ‘Y tro diwetha y clywas i’r pipa cwd yng Nghwm Nedd o’dd ym mriodas ych mamgu. Evan Gethin o Flaen Cwm Tawa o’dd yn i wara nhw.’ (‘I last heard the bagpipes in the Vale of Neath at your grandmother’s wedding. The player was Evan Gethin of Blaen Cwm Tawe.’)

Though lost to Glamorgan about the period indicated above, the bagpipes still enjoy wide popularity in other Celtic lands, such as Brittany, Ireland and especially Scotland. The pipe of Nedd probably resembled closely the small pipe of Brittany.

Phillips went on to deduce that “Presumably this wedding took place at Aberpergwm Church, c. 1818–20”.

Less than fifteen miles to the north, within the next county, the ritual of the bagpipe in matrimonial context had also survived into roughly the same period. For the Defynnog area, Theophilus Jones in The History of Brecknockshire (vol. IV, 1930) gave a vivid portrayal of the tradition’s spectacular final flourish:

What is known as the horse wedding took place in 1852. There was the usual racing and chasing, the attempts to steal away the bride, and all the mirth and jollity of bygone days. But one feature was wanting — that appealed to the ear as well as the eye — where was old Edward of Gwern-y-Pebydd, who, mounted upon his white horse, and pouring forth the wild music of the bag-pipe, had headed many a wedding party in their half frantic gallop over hill and vale? Alas! the old man had been gathered to his fathers, and even the instrument upon which he played has disappeared.

All but one of the foregoing references apply, of course, to the southern half of the country — where, it would seem, the bagpipe might well have enjoyed uninterrupted usage from mediaeval times through into the nineteenth century. This situation can hardly have been paralleled in the north, but pipes were probably still heard there occasionally, as for instance in late June 1698 at Chirk Castle, where a two-shilling payment was made to a pair of visiting pipers. (Quite possibly one of these was the ethnically labelled Pat O’Connor, whose portrait, dated around 1679, hangs today in the castle’s servant-hall.)

From the north also — and the Vale of Conway, specifically — comes one of the latest relevant references from the nineteenth century. Robert Griffith, in his volume Llyfr Cerdd Dannau (The Book of String-craft, 1913), testified that when very young (which would have been around 1855) he had at least twice seen, at Llanrwst fair, a feeble old man — a Welshman, he thought — playing “math o bibgod” (“a kind of bagpipe”), one which featured a huge wind-bag held under the player’s left arm. This Llanrwst reference is, however, baffling: by my present records it is, as a North Walian item, an isolated one-off. (For the south, one might almost say the same, though, for the contemporaneous 1851 census entries for Patrick (56) and John (17) Leydon of Pedwran Fach, Merthyr Tudful, both of whom were vocationally listed as “Musician Bagpipes”.)

These verbal references, between them, provide next to no physical or organological data for the instruments, much to our frustration. But, allowing for the fact that most of them refer to southern Wales, while the double-chanter now at St. Fagans was found in the north, they do warn us against too unthinkingly rejecting a possible Welsh provenance for the chanter. As Theo Schuurmans has judiciously noted, however, and as we must also bear in mind, there are alternative possibilities that demand to be considered.

D. Roy Saer

Chanter 35

Welsh Bagpipes
(3) A Reconstruction

At the 1986 Edinburgh Folk Festival, Peter Stacey of the Welsh group Aberjaber asked me to make him a Welsh bagpipe based on the double chanter in the Welsh Folk Museum, St. Fagans. It was something we had discussed several times since we had first met at the Pitt Rivers Museum bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy weekend in Oxford in September 1984.

Peter wanted the pipes to play in D, to be in modern pitch, to be reliable, and to retain their primitive appearance. The current revival of interest in bagpipes has encouraged the making of instruments of high quality and superior finish. This is good, but often it is forgotten that many of the pipes of the past would have been crudely made — like the unique example in St. Fagans. Its construction, however, lends itself very easily to having the chanters made to the required high standard, but leaving the yoke, the waxing and binding fairly basic in appearance.

I was sent a drawing of the chanter by Roy Saer of the museum. Two cane chanters, each with six finger holes and each terminating in a cow’s horn, are waxed and bound onto a wooden yoke which shows obvious signs of having once been tied into a bag.

To produce an instrument that meets modern requirements I have made some modifications. I have made a removable yoke which fits into a stock. This allows access to the reeds, which are double. The chanters are of yew with thumb holes for the top octave note. There are two holes for the top leading note, giving one the option of a flattened or sharpened note. The horns and reeds are on moveable slides for ease of tuning. The bores are slightly tapered, but they behave like parallel bores, sounding a low note. It is a Small-pipe, but is surprisingly loud as the horns amplify the sound.

With a double chanter one can achieve an extraordinary sound by tuning each pair of holes minutely differently to produce a slight beat. It is a surprising “whingeing” sound. One’s thumb and fingers have to get used to covering two holes each and of course there are possibilities of fingering each chanter separately . . .

One of the features Peter and I had discussed was whether a drone should be fitted. His solution has been to convert one of the chanters into a drone in D. At his request the right hand chanter has been made with no finger holes. There is a vent hole to allow one to drone in E, which would otherwise be stopped. (On a double chanter one can of course block off the holes in one chanter to use it as a drone on whatever note in the scale one desires.)

Using closed fingering and with no bottom leading note fitted, one can achieve a distinctive articulation by returning briefly to the amplified bottom D between each note of a tune.

I am aware that there is some doubt as to whether the chanter in St Fagans is of Welsh or North African origin. I have no firm opinions on this. I can however state categoircally that the Welsh Bagpipe is currently being made in Scotland.

Chanter
36

It has taken me much longer to develop this pipe than I originally anticipated, but it has been worth the wait; worth the alarming amount of reeds, yokes and chanters that have been discarded along the way. I am now very pleased with its design, appearance, and sound. It is a very useful and exciting bagpipe.

Julian Goodacre

Drawing by Pete Stewart

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RECORD REVIEWS

Borderlands, Kathryn Tickell; Black Crow Records CRO 210

Borderlands is the third album to be released featuring Kathryn Tickell on Northumbrian Small-pipes. This is surprising in itself as Kathryn is only twenty years old, but this new recording clearly shows that she has acquired a technical facility and musical maturity beyond her years. I suspect that Kathryn may be tiring of the ‘remarkably young’ epithet already and the music on this album demands a critical attention of a less sensational kind.

As well as Northumbrian Small-pipes Kathryn also plays violin on this album, although eight of the ten tracks feature Small-pipes. There is a variety of material here demonstrating three categories of musical source used by Northumbrian pipers: (1) the traditional piping repertoire (2) traditional melodies adapted from the repertoires of other instruments (3) contemporary original material written for the Northumbrian Small-pipes, or adapted for them. In the first category we find melodies drawn from the playing Billy Pigg and Tom Clough, the second includes material from the repertoire of the North Tyne fiddler ‘Kielder Jock’ and ‘The Border Fiddler Tom Hughes’, and the third category includes some excellent pieces written by Kathryn herself. There is variety in the treatment of the material also, from the traditional formula of solo presentation to imaginative accompaniments provided by Alistair Anderson (concertina), Rod Clements (fretless bass), Martin Matthews (cittern), Mick Wright and Gerry Kaley (guitars), and Anth Kaley (piano). One of the notable features of this album is the way in which attractive arrangements soften the sometimes austere image of the Northumbrian pipes, opening avenues to a broader audience for the instrument.

Also included is a pipe duet with Martyn Bennet (Scottish Small-pipes). This encapsulates the Borderland theme of the album which closes with a rendition of ‘The Flowers of the Forest’; the informative sleeve notes tell us that this is ‘a lament written after the Battle of Flodden’ and near the site of the battle stands a cross inscribed ‘To the Brave of Both Nations’.

Kathryn’s playing is crisp, clean and rhythmic throughout, but it is her own compositions that impress me the most. I particularly enjoy ‘Grey Bull Hornpipe’ and its rhythmic variant ‘Grey Bull Waltz’. In this review attention should focus primarily on the pipe melodies, but I cannot resist mentioning the violin melody ‘Roly Gentle’ written in memory of a friend from Cambridge. This is an angular and distinctive melody; I look forward to hearing more of Kathryn’s playing and composition . . .

Peter Stacey

38 Chanter

Kathryn Tickell’s records are available by mail order from:
Mawson and Wareham (Music) Ltd
Midgy Ha
Sharperton
MORPETH
Northumberland NE65 7AS

Coup de Quatre, Vielleux du Bourbonnais; Audivis AV 4516
This outstanding record comes from four leading exponents of the bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy tradition of Central France: Jean-Claude Blanc, Fréderic Paris, Patrick Bouffard, and Bernard Blanc.
Perhaps the main success of the record is that Bernard Blanc has made all the pipes used on this recording (Cornemuse du Centre, 14, 20, 26 pouces) and they all blend together perfectly. The music represented includes equal amounts of traditional and self-composed music — and it is hard to see the join between the styles.
Besides the usual bourrées there are also several more lyrical non-dance-orientated tunes which have become my favourite tracks. In particular ‘Conscription’ (F. Paris) and ‘L’Orientale’ (Mick Baudimont) deserve repeated hearing. The pipes speak beautifully in the upper register and there are some fine combinations of different styles of pipe in harmony. This is a most enjoyable recording — a must for all French traditional music enthusiasts.

(Available from Discovery Records, Broad Street, Beechingstoke, Wilts).

Brian Radford

Pass the Hat, Noise of Minstrels; Unicorn-Kanchana DKP 9060
Something of the atmosphere of medieval street bands can be imagined from the first offering on disc of Noise of Minstrels.
The group specialise in the performance of early and traditional music, both as a street band appearing at fairs and festivals and as concert/recital performers. The album features eight musicians playing an impressive range of instruments including bagpipes (English, French and Union), hurdy-gurdy, shawms, clarinet, bassoon, citole and gittern. The pipes are very much to the fore, being put through their paces to fine effect. This is a long record, with music drawn from a wide range of sources and has an overall feel reminiscent of the best of the Munrow output. Particular favourites are the opening set of French tunes, ‘Le Rossignol’, ‘Valse à Cadet’ and ‘J’ai vu le loup’, with a beautiful cascading bagpipe part and some nicely judged tempi; the French chanson ‘En Vraye Amoure’ that features some broad, powerful shawm playing, and another set of French tunes, ‘Morvandelle’, ‘Amusons nous fillettes’, ‘Mat Jeanet’ and ‘Branle du Rat’, which display some fiery hurdy-gurdy playing.

Chanter 39

Also enjoyable is a set of Playford tunes which feature a delicate recorder part and some confident pipe work.

It is interesting to hear the Union or Irish pipes used on two English tunes, one, ‘Pass the Hat Round’, composed by Robert White for the record. Robert puts in some beautiful gracing in a masterly performance. Also a favourite is a set of rhythmically exciting French polkas played with great exuberance on hurdy-gurdies. The French pipes are deftly put through their paces in an Anglo-Irish suite which includes a jig composed by hurdy-gurdy player Dave Chatterly for his former tutor Francis Baines. While some lovely harmonic textures are achieved, I felt that some of the vocal offerings did not match the instrumental standards.

The record closes with a Flemish suite which includes the gentle sound of the nineteenth-century French bassoon, and the bagpipes, which produce a sound on ‘Katten Polka’ (the Cat’s polka) reminding one of Galician super-group Milladoiro, with some dense harmonic structure.

All in all this is an impressive recording debut by a group whose blend of early and traditional melodies and songs works powerfully. I understand the group are hoping for more work on the concert/recital circuit, and certainly, if this record is anything to go by, they are a potent combination well worthy of attention.

Peter Davies

Al Manere Minstrelsy: Popular Music from 1250—1550, The Medieval Players; Plant Life Records PLR 052

In my (albeit somewhat limited) experience of Early Music recordings, most seem to consist of orchestral renditions supplemented by awfully nice tenor and soprano singers, a far cry from how the original music must have sounded.

Al Manere Minstrelsy goes a long way towards redressing this imbalance. It is produced by members of The Medieval Players, a touring theatre group, and does sound ‘medieval’, without being either amateurish or stuffy.

There are nineteen tracks altogether, of which all but four use bagpipes, one with two pipes in unison, the others in harmony. The types used are a Ginsberg English (mouth-blown, single drone) in ‘G’ and Flemish pipes by Swayne.

The instruments are ably played by Andrew Watts and Jeremy West, in various combinations with ‘C’ shawm, nakers, tabors and lute, but don’t expect too much sophistication or complexity from such very old music.

I personally found the simplicity of the tunes and their presentation refreshing, and one or two of the other tracks may well lend themselves to the bagpipes.

Some of The Medieval Players are also in the Carnival Band, and have recently made a record with Maddy Prior. There are two bagpipe tunes, of which more news around Christmas.

Jason Goss

Available from: The Medieval Players, 1 Lever Street, London EC1.

Richard Butler’s Handbook for the Northumbrian Small Pipes, Butler Publishing, Rothbury, Northumberland, 1987, 40 pp, £4.00.

Until now there has not been a sensible, comprehensive maintenance book available for the Northumbrian Small-pipes. Richard Butler, with the help and advice of various makers, players and others in the piping scene, has produced a very comprehensive book. It is well laid out with clear instructions covering the majority of problems encountered.

There are a few points which I find debatable; for example,

He suggests putting shellac glue on the stocks before tying in. I find this unnecessary; it only makes the job messier.
He suggests the use of epoxy resin for several repairs. This has disadvantages. It does not adhere satisfactorily to brass; it can make subsequent repairs more difficult; recorking the tuning-bead seats is much quicker and easier if a contact adhesive such as Evostik is used;
He suggests that a chanter reed should sound the note C when sucked. This note depends very much on how you suck the reed and can range from B to C# for different people. Once you have found the note appropriate to yourself, it is a very useful guide when selecting or making reeds. Completely removing the cork from a reed will make it flat and lifeless; I am very much against this practice. Why has the bridle suddenly changed to a girdle?
One set of drone reeds will work in all pitches of pipes according to Richard. I have found this not to be the case if you want reliable, steady drones. Also, I find short, heavy drones reeds to be louder rather than quieter than longer, lighter reeds.

The section on tuning is a very good summary, but there is a lot more to it than is implied here. If a piper does not have 100% control of bag pressure and a well-reeded and stable set of drones, tuning a chanter is virtually impossible; this point is not made. However, he does say that a top-quality chanter reed is needed.

A piper should (and a good one will) adjust to the natural working pressure of a reed rather than try to adjust a reed to what he or she thinks it should work at. A forced reed is unstable, gives poor tone and intonation, and has a shorter life.

If this is all I can find to niggle about, then there is obviously not much wrong with the book and, as Richard himself says in his introduction, there are differences between makers and more than one way to solve a problem. A useful additional feature of the book is an appendix which gives the French and German equivalents of the technical terms used. I have no reservations about recommending Richard Butler’s Handbook for the Northumbrian Small Pipes.

R. A. Greensitt

Chanter 40 Chanter 41

Disparity Music
Traditional Music Publications
Cheques/P.O’s to:
Matt Seattle, 44 Durban Street, Blyth, Northumberland NE24 1JP
Please add 10% to book value for U.K. p&p, up to a maximum of £1.50.

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BLONZABELLICA (EB) £6.50
Long awaited, the ‘official’ BB Tune & Dance Book – music, dance instructions, photos, cartoons, articles on Pipes & Hurdy-Gurdy by Jon Swayne & Nigel Eaton.

THE GREAT NORTHERN TUNE BOOK - PARTS 1 & 2 (GNT, GN2) £4.50 each, Part 3 due soon
William Vickers’ celebrated 1770 MS of ‘Country Dances’, edited in three parts, with notes, by Matt Seattle. Around 600 tunes in all, especially rich in more adventurous English tunes.

THE MASHER CENTRAL TUNE BOOK No.1 (MCT) £3.60
Compiled by Mel Stevens of ROGUES fame - 125 tunes from the exciting living tradition of Central France, music especially associated with Pipes & Hurdy-Gurdy.

BEWICK’S PIPE TUNES - 51 GMS (BT) £2.25 -
Airs, Dance tunes, Variations, from R.E. Bewick’s 19th Century MS of Northumbrian Pipe Tunes - a great addition to the standard repertoire.

THE PIPE WINGS (PW) £2.50
A collection of fiddle tunes by Matt Seattle, including ‘The Tartar Frigate’ recorded by Kathryn Tickell.

From Other Publishers -
PIPESMOK (PS) £5.40. Special report, 130 Dutch, French, Belgian, German, Mediaeval & Contemporary tunes, compiled by Mart Heijmans.
JOHN OF THE GREENY CHESHIRE WAY (JG) £4.80 John Offord’s collection of “Double” (3/2 & 9/4) Hornpipes - more esoteric than Jigs & Reels, but well worth the effort.
ALNWICK PIPERS TUNE BOOK (AP) £2.50 Mainly modern tunes, in Northumbrian idiom, including compositions of Will Atkinson, Willy Taylor & Alistair Anderson.

SINFONYE PUBLICATIONS

Bagpipes and Hurdy-gurdies by Peter Stacey and Stevie Wishart
“a delightful little book that could serve equally as a basic introduction to the two instruments or as a valuable source book for the already initiated person.” Keith Hudson in Topics
“informative, well-produced, ideal for people between the ages of ten and one hundred years old.” Paul James in Folk Roots
24 pp., 11 photos, 23 drawings £3.75 inc p+p

Fingering the Gaita Galega by Peter Stacey
A brief survey of methods of fingering the gaita galega, the bagpipe from Galicia, North-West Spain including fingering charts from master piperios Ricardo Portela, Juan Silvar and Pepe Ferreiros.
7 pp. anime, 6 charts £1.30 inc p+p

The Other Pipe Book
English melodies for bagpipes and hurdy-gurdies - currently being prepared for publication.

Also available from SINFONYE PUBLICATIONS…
Chanter: The Journal of the Bagpipe Society
Vol 1, Part 1: Interviews with four fames of Blonzabellica: Julian Goodacre on the Leicestershire Small-pipes………………………. £2.75 inc p+p
Vol. 1, Part 2: Interview with Jean-Pierre Ruski of ‘The Cuck and Bull Band’, Jonathan Swayne on Flemish Bagpipes after Breugel and ‘English’ Renaissance Reeds………………….

1 FLECETSPERSHIRE SMALL PIPE mouthblown or bellows blown
2 ENGLISH GREAT PIPE key of D or C
3 ITALIAN MOSA key of D or C
4 NEW BAGPIPES key of D,C, or C or F last

BAGPIPES made by JULIAN GOODACRE

5 SCOTTISH LOWLAND SMALL PIPES key of B or F
6 ENGLISH DOUBLE PIPES key of G or F
7 BORDER HORN loud cupped seed key of C or C

SCOTTISH HIGHLAND BAGPIPE ACCESSORIES
Drone and chanter reeds/practice chanter reeds/tempting in thread: pipe brushes: seasoning.

SAFE FOR LEAFLET
JULIAN GOODACRE
29 Bellevue Rd. Edinburgh EH7 4DL Scotland

Makers of Northumberian Small Pipes and Scottish Lowland Pipes

28 FAIRFIELD GREEN, WEST MONKSEATON, WHITLEY BAY, NE25 95D.

Telephone (091) 251 3845

heriot and Allan

JIMMY ANDERSON Maker of Scottish Small Pipes & Lowland Pipes

90 STIRLING RD. LARBERT FK5 4NF STIRLINGSHIRE SCOTLAND TEL. 0324 557091