Your next Bagpipe adventure

[billh]

How can you have a poll like this without including "Other" ?



There have got to be scores of different bagpipe families out there.

Also you didn't include "I've got troubles enough, thanks" in the list of responses

[CHasR]

Well, the Mayonnaise pipes (and pies) are really good for the mediaeval repertoire.
Theing is, no-one really knows just what went on in mediaeval times. Recently in France they excavated a 10th c. town, that was built on the shores of a lake, and due to global warming in the 10th c. it got flooded. (I'm actually not kidding) So what do they find? A what is now classified as a bagpipe chanter, it's double, with fingerholes on one bore only, in short the same (in principle as the boha of France, and also the Hungarian duda and related thingies. Also the Basque alboka and all the North African pipes)
What I'm getting at is that while since the Renaissance you can broadly divide pipes as DR chanter/SR chanter, it's a moot point whether it was always so. Swedish pipes spring to mind as well. Also one of the very oldest pipes in existance is a Czech set dated to 1527 if I remember rightly. So Czechia is E. Europe, right? Well, have a look on the map. It isn't. Just so happens that the Soviet Union occupied it during WW2, that's all. Praetorius writes about the Bock, that's the Czech duda exactly. (he doesn't actually specify the reeds for the Bock, but it just too similar to the duda to mistake.)
And then there is the Zampogna and related ones, like surdelina. They seem to have had sort of interchangeable reeds, and they are ancient, aren't they, Charlie? When I listened to a recording of the Sardinian launeddas (unbroken history of at least2700 years), I was struck by the similarity of the music to that of the Zampognia.
Then the Welsh double chanter, but I think I made my point, however hazy it is.

'Tend' is the operative word here... of the plethora of replica medi/renn pipes being made today, would you say, Yuri, that a majority tend to be DR chanter SR drones; as is so common in the western examples?

[CHasR]

How can you have a poll like this without including "Other" ?
There have got to be scores of different bagpipe families out there.

yeah, we covered that:

Why did all those E European ones get bumped? Any idea?

Not my choice...

one can only enter 9 poll options.

[AaronMalcomb]

So, the number of poll options on C&F equals the number of note options on a Scottish pipe chanter... do you hear Twilight Zone music?

[sean an piobaire]

Hello my fellow Pipers !
I have to brag about my "iz-Zaqq" from Malta, that Guzi Gatt made for me
and my "Gudasviri" from the Republic of Georgia, which should be arriving
any day now (it was posted Aug. 22nd). I'm building up to Volume 2 of
"The Bagpipes of the World". I need to get another 5 or 6 different Pipes,
and I'll be ready to go. It won't be the COMPLETE collection of Pipes ever assembled, but I can say that there won't be a Volume 3 after this one !
I think I have a few more years to go, and I never thought that I have
"made it" this far. Sean Folsom

[pancelticpiper]

Sean did you ever get yourself a Cornish double-pipe? I have a bass drone on mine now, it's amazing. Having a drone sort of ruins the coolness of the "virtual drone" effect, but it adds so much to the overall sound. The thing is about four feet long.

[sean an piobaire]

Hello Richard !
Yes The J. Goodacre Cornish "Double Pipes" do sound good,
and an extra Drone on it must give it an even greater sound.
Is the Drone playing the Keynote, or the Fifth,
(like a Zampogna Drone) ?
Well lack of $$$$ keeps me back, and I heard that the large
bores and small finger holes, make for some Stability Problems.
Have you experienced these problems, yourself ?
Last Xmas I got a the gifts of some Renaissance Instruments
from Ralph Prince, a S.F. Bay musician who was active in the
"Ren-scene" in the 1970s, they include a Bass Shawm, Bass Dulcian,
Contra Bass Rackett, and an Oboe d'Amore.
When the Bass Shawm is assembled it's over Six Feet in Height.
It was a BIG HIT at the Monterey Highland Games last July.
As another friend of mine, "Early Music" maven, Fred Palmer, calls the Zampogna the "One Man Shawm Band" I was making the connection between the Shawm and the Bass Chanter on my 5 Palmi "Gran Zampogna". Big, Low Pitched Pipes are a nice counter-balance to my
High Pitched Bagpipes. When the public hears the difference, they
are almost always pleasantly surprised. I make an exception here, for the fans of the Scots GHB, the Spanish Gaita, The Breton Biniou, etc. who are
very partisan about the exciting effects of these HIGH Pipes.
High and Lowly Yours.... Sean "the deep" Folsom

[CHasR]

I was making the connection between the Shawm and the Bass Chanter on my 5 Palmi "Gran Zampogna". Big, Low Pitched Pipes are a nice counter-balance to my
High Pitched Bagpipes.

I keep having this recurring nightmare where I'm booked to play pipes with some big 5 orchestra in a huge sellout concert hall, TV, recording crew, etc;
and the part calls for me to triple between Gran Zampogna, Biniou Kozh, and Uilleann.

[sean an piobaire]

Hi Philly Chaz !
I know this is getting "off topic" but I think it's important for
Multi-Pipers to know this stuff !
My simple recurring nightmare is where I'm set up on stage,
and I turn around and all my Pipes are stolen.
The other ending to this, is where every single set of Pipes
I pick up to play, DOESN'T WORK.
This ending comes to my unconscious directly from experiences where I have performed concerts where I was not allowed any time for preparation, so if any set of Pipes I come to in the line-up doesn't play, I simply move on to the next set, while making some comment about how that Pipe wasn't "In the Mood to Play", or some other funny expression, improvised for the occasion. This "side-stepping" means that the audience is not subjected to 5 (or more) BORING minutes of tuning and desperate fiddling to make the problems go away. Thus, you can immediately REDEEM yourself, in the eyes and ears of an audience, with a
working set. I could argue that my approach to the "World of Pipes"
show, came out of my need to "Bounce Back"from a Pipe that
failed. In the days when I only had ONE BAGPIPE, the alternate was
a PIANO ACCORDION (I gave that box away some years ago, for parts
or as the British say, "spares"). Sean "the redeemed" Folsom

[CHasR]

....This ending comes to my unconscious directly from experiences where I have performed concerts where I was not allowed any time for preparation, so if any set of Pipes I come to in the line-up doesn't play, I simply move on to the next set, ....

not fair!
that's what's called the 'Mormon Tabernacle Choir' approach to piping!

So wots on the next CD? Zakk you already mentioned... Hummelchen? Finnish Pilli? Moezelzak? Gudastiviri? Biriyani?

[sean an piobaire]

Well Charles, YOU can call it the Mormon Tabernacle Choir approach,
I would call it "the SEQUENTIAL HISTORY of the BAGPIPES".
As for what I'll have on the next CD.....of course I'll have the
Pastoral Pipes, Torupill, Gudasviri, iz-Zaqq, Asturian Gaita,
Xeremie, Cimpoi, and Podravina Dude and some other Pipes,
to numerous to mention.
Zampognaro Sean Giovanni Folsom

[CHasR]

Well Charles, YOU can call it the Mormon Tabernacle Choir approach,
I would call it "the SEQUENTIAL HISTORY of the BAGPIPES".

I'd also call it a performance that's definintely on the 'MUST SEE' list!