The Bagpipe Society

The Muzelzak - Muchosa - Part 2

Part 1 (Summer 2023) looked at the history of the instrument, Part 2 investigates the players and the search for original instruments.*

Pierre-François Muselet, (1835-1915) piposá player near Boulogne

I got to know Patrice Gilbert as a hurdy-gurdy player in the early 1980s when we went dancing every month in Lille with a delegation from Bruges. A musician of the folk revival, and a loyal visitor to festivals where hurdy-gurdy and bagpipes made their timid appearance, he only found out years later that among his ancestors, he had a traditional bagpiper. His great-great-grandfather on his mother's side, Pierre François Muselet. It turned out that he worked as a shepherd in the Boulogne area around 1860 and, as befitted a shepherd of the time, he also played the bagpipes - piposá, as Patrice's great-aunt remembered it.

...

Member only article

Members have exclusive access to the most recent two years of articles, and can download PDFs of Chanter editions. To read the whole of this article, please join the Bagpipe Society or sign in.