THE GREAT HIGHLAND BAGPIPES

 History, Music and Pipers through 1746

(Original 03/93   Updated 11/06)

PURPOSE

                 This paper is intended to provide a basic introduction to the history of the Great Highland Bagpipe and the styles of classical Highland music through the year 1746.  Where historical information could be provided, I have listed some of the pipe tunes that predate 1746.  I fully expect this list to grow as more information is found.  My hope is that the reader enjoys the material and perhaps develops an increased interest in the history and music of this magnificent instrument.

PRE- HISTORY

             The earliest reference to the bagpipe is from Aristophanes, a poet from Athens in the year 425BC.  He describes the traditional enemies of Athens as blowing on a pipe with a bag of dog skin and a chanter made from bone.

Another definitive reference to mention the bagpipes is from Dio Chrysostom, a Greek writer, in the year 100AD.  The following is his passage that is presumed to refer to Nero (8AD): “They say that he can write, carve statues, play the aulos both with his mouth, and also with the armpit, a bag being thrown under it.”  The “aulos” appears to be a type of early bagpipe.

            Early in the 6^th Century Procpius, a Greek historian, mentions that the bagpipe was the instrument of the Roman Infantry while the trumpet was used primarily in the Cavalry.  To support this statement we look to a sculptured bronze found in Richborough Castle, Kent.  The image is described as a Roman soldier in full marching order with bagpipes.

            The bagpipes have existed in many forms and were found in Scotland, Ireland, Russia, Finland, Germany, France, Spain, and in many other places around the world.  In each country the basic instrument was the same, a bag with a chanter and possibly one or more drones.  Some of these pipes were mouth blown while others used a bellows attachment to supply the air.  

ORIGINS IN SCOTLAND

            Controversy surrounds the origins of the pipes in Scotland.  Some assign it as a Roman importation, brought into Britain by the invading Roman Legions and then carried northward to Scotland.  Others believe that the instrument came from Ireland as the result of colonization, the first in 120AD under Cairbre Riada, the second in 506AD under Fergus Lorne, and Angus, the sons of Erc.  Either or both explanations may be correct, or the pipes may have been invented independently but speculation must be largely futile as the instrument is so ancient as to be beyond the means of establishing whether it was indigenous or not.

 Early written history in Britain is scarce but both Chaucer and Shakespeare made reference to the pipes in their works.  From Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales”  “A baggepipe well coude he blowe and sowne, And therwith he brought us out of town.”   

There are also several indirect references to the use of the pipes in Britain during the 14^th Century, a carved stone on the Melrose Abbey of a pig playing the bagpipe is probably from the rebuilding of the abbey in 1385.  There are also indications that the bagpipe and fiddle were in use on board ships of the English Navy. 

            Four centuries ago, when the bagpipe was played almost everywhere in Europe as well as in the courts of the most powerful monarchs, no one could have foreseen that the Highland Clan’s PIOB MHOR or “great pipe” was destined to become known world wide as the symbol of Scotland.  The origins of the pipes in Scotland are clouded in time, but it is sufficient to say that the Highlanders were the ones to develop the instrument to its full extent and make it, both in peace and war, their national instrument.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE PIPES IN SCOTLAND

            Early records indicate that the pipes were in Scotland about the end of the twelfth century.  These original pipes in Scotland probably had no drones, or at the most, a single drone.  Some records and drawings exist indicating that a single drone was used prior to the 1500’s and an entry from Scotland’s Exchequer Rolls states that a payment was made to “English piper with the drone”.

            The second drone was added to the pipes in mid to late 1500’s.  A set of pipes do exist that have two drones and they are marked with the Roman date of MCCCCIX (1409), but most experts believe that these are Victorian Era fakes or at least the date is in error and should be 1709.

            Another important development in the Highlands was the use of the small pipes.  Again from Joseph MacDonald we find “through the reels and jigs peculiar to the pipes are in large companies as at weddings, etc. played to good effect on the Great Pipes.  Yet, they have besides, through the Highlands in general a smaller bagpipe, complete, the same in form and apparatus with the greater, differing only in size and used for dancing music alone, although all other music peculiar to the instrument may also be played on it truly, though not so grandly as on the large pipes.”  Also the name “Great Highland Bagpipe” does in itself imply that there existed smaller pipes in the Highlands.

             As for the materials used in the construction of the pipes we find that most of the early pipes were boxwood, but some were also made from holly, apple, plum and laburnum.  Mounts were often pewter, horn or even lead.  The Speckled Pipe at Dunvegan Castle, legend to have been played by Patrick Mor MacCrimmon, are ornate with carving and bands of horn in the wood in addition to the ferrules and rings. (The upper parts of each drone is supposed to be original)   Most of these early pipes were produced on hand lathes but some may have been hand carved.  The reeds were made from local canes.  The use of blackwood, ebony, ivory and silver probably did not come into use until the 1780’s.   

 The primary advantage of the Great Highland Bagpipe is producing a much more martial effect than horns, trumpets or harps.  Some of this can be attributed to the design of the Piob Mhor.  A load chanter balanced with drones that harmonize and help to increase the sound while at the same time help to reduce the sharpness of the chanter.