The bagpipe is a woodwind instrument that uses covered reeds connected to a bag that holds air. The Scottish Great Highland bagpipe is very famous, but people have played bagpipes for many centuries in many parts of Europe, North Africa, West Asia, near the Persian Gulf, and in northern areas of South Asia.

The word "bagpipes" is often used, but musicians typically call them "the pipes," "a set of pipes," or "a stand of pipes."

Bagpipes are part of the aerophone group because air must be blown into the instrument to create sound.

Construction

Bagpipes have several parts, including an air supply, a bag, a chanter, and usually at least one drone. Many bagpipes have more than one drone (and sometimes more than one chanter) in different combinations. These parts are held in place using stocks, which are sockets that connect the pipes to the bag.

The most common way to supply air to the bag is by blowing into a blowpipe or blowstick. In some bagpipes, the player must cover the tip of the blowpipe with their tongue while inhaling to stop air from escaping. However, most blowpipes have a special valve that prevents this. Today, some instruments help provide clean air to the pipes and collect moisture.

Using a bellows to supply air is a newer method that began in the 16th or 17th century. These pipes, sometimes called "cauld wind pipes," do not use the player’s breath to warm or moisten the air. This allows the use of more delicate reeds. Examples of these pipes include the Irish uilleann pipes, Scottish smallpipes, French musette de cour, and Polish Dudy, among others.

The bag is an airtight container that holds air and controls its flow through pressure from the player’s arm. The player keeps the bag full by blowing air into it through a blowpipe or using a bellows. Bags are often made from animal skins like goats, sheep, or cows, but synthetic materials like Gore-Tex are now more common. Some synthetic bags have zippers for adding moisture traps. However, synthetic bags can still grow mold if not cleaned properly.

Bags made from large pieces of material are usually sewn with extra stitching to prevent leaks. Holes are then cut to fit the stocks. For bags made from whole animal skins, the stocks are often tied at the points where the limbs and head connected to the body, a technique used in Central Europe. Different regions use various methods to treat the hide, such as using salt, milk, or flour, and the fur is usually turned inside out to reduce moisture buildup.

The chanter is the melody pipe, played with both hands. All bagpipes have at least one chanter, and some have two, especially in North Africa, the Balkans, and Southwest Asia. A chanter can be shaped with straight or cone-like walls. Common materials for chanters include boxwood, cornel, or fruit wood.

The chanter is usually open at the end, so the player cannot easily stop the sound. This means most bagpipes produce a continuous, smooth sound with no pauses. Because the player cannot stop the sound, special techniques are used to create the illusion of pauses or accents. These techniques, called embellishments, are often unique to each type of bagpipe and take years to master. Some bagpipes, like the uilleann pipes or Northumbrian smallpipes, have closed ends or are covered by the player’s leg, allowing the chanter to be silenced when all holes are covered.

A practice chanter is a smaller version of the chanter without a bag or drones. It has a quieter reed, making it easier to practice without disturbing others.

The word "chanter" comes from the Latin word "cantare," which means "to sing," similar to the French word "chanter."

A unique feature of the gaida’s chanter, shared by some Eastern European bagpipes, is the "flea-hole," a small hole covered by the player’s left index finger. This hole, made of metal or a feather, raises notes by a half step and helps create the distinct sounds in Balkan music.

Some gaida types, like the Serbian three-voiced gajde, have chanters with two sets of holes. These chanters have eight fingerholes, covered by the player’s hands.

The sound from the chanter comes from a reed at the top. This reed can be a single piece or two pieces that vibrate together. Double reeds are used in Western European pipes, while single reeds are more common in other regions. Modern reeds may combine materials like cotton phenolic and clarinet reeds for louder, more stable sound.

Most bagpipes have at least one drone, a pipe that plays a constant note to harmonize with the melody. Drones are usually cylindrical tubes with a single reed, though some have double reeds. They are made in sections with sliding joints to adjust pitch.

Drones can be positioned over the shoulder, across the arm, or parallel to the chanter. Some have tuning screws that change the pitch or turn the drone off. In most bagpipes with one drone, it plays a note two octaves below the chanter’s tonic. Additional drones often add notes an octave below and a fifth above the tonic.

History

There is still uncertainty about the evidence for bagpipes before the 13th century. However, some textual and visual clues have been suggested. The Oxford History of Music suggests that a sculpture of bagpipes was found on a Hittite slab at Euyuk in Anatolia, dated to 1000 BCE. Another interpretation of this sculpture suggests it may instead show a pan flute played with a friction drum.

Several authors connect the ancient Greek askaulos (wine-skin and reed pipe) to the bagpipe. Dio Chrysostom wrote in the 1st century CE about a contemporary ruler (possibly the Roman emperor Nero) who could play a pipe (tibia, a Roman reed instrument) with his mouth and by holding a bladder under his arm.

In the 2nd century CE, Suetonius also described Nero as a player of the tibia utricularis. Modern scholars believe these instruments were seen as different types of mouth-blown instruments that used a bag as an alternative blowing aid. It was not until drones were added in the European Medieval era that bagpipes were seen as a distinct class.

In the early part of the second millennium, representations of bagpipes began to appear more often in Western European art and iconography. The Cantigas de Santa Maria, written in Galician-Portuguese and compiled in Castile in the mid-13th century, shows several types of bagpipes.

Several illustrations of bagpipes also appear in the Chronique dite de Baudoin d’Avesnes, a 13th-century manuscript from northern France. Although evidence of bagpipes in the British Isles before the 14th century is debated, they are explicitly mentioned in The Canterbury Tales (written around 1380).

Bagpipes were also often carved into wooden choir stalls in the late 15th and early 16th centuries across Europe, sometimes with animal musicians. Actual examples of bagpipes from before the 18th century are very rare. However, many paintings, carvings, engravings, and manuscript illuminations remain. These artifacts show that bagpipes varied widely across Europe and even within regions. Early folk bagpipes in continental Europe can be found in the paintings of Brueghel, Teniers, Jordaens, and Durer.

The earliest known piece identified as part of a bagpipe is a chanter found in 1985 at Rostock, Germany, dated to the late 14th century or early 15th century. The first clear reference to the use of the Scottish Highland bagpipe comes from a French history mentioning their use at the Battle of Pinkie in 1547. George Buchanan claimed the bagpipe replaced the trumpet on the battlefield. This period saw the creation of ceòl mór (great music), which included battle tunes, marches, and laments. The Highlands of the early 17th century saw the development of piping families, such as the MacCrimmonds, MacArthurs, MacGregors, and the Mackays of Gairloch.

The earliest Irish mention of the bagpipe is from 1206, about thirty years after the Anglo-Norman invasion. Another mention links their use to Irish troops in Henry VIII’s siege of Boulogne. Illustrations in the 1581 book The Image of Irelande by John Derricke clearly show a bagpiper. Derricke’s illustrations are considered accurate depictions of 16th-century English and Irish attire and equipment.

The "Battell" sequence from My Ladye Nevells Booke (1591) by William Byrd, likely referring to the Irish wars of 1578, includes a piece called "The bagpipe: & the drone." In 1760, Joseph MacDonald’s Compleat Theory was the first serious study of the Scottish Highland bagpipe and its music. A manuscript from the 1730s by William Dixon of Northumberland contains music that fits the border pipe, a nine-note bellows-blown bagpipe with a chanter similar to the modern Great Highland bagpipe. However, the music in Dixon’s manuscript differs greatly from modern Highland bagpipe tunes, consisting mostly of extended variation sets of common dance tunes. Some tunes in the Dixon manuscript match those in early 19th-century Northumbrian smallpipe sources, such as John Peacock’s rare book of 50 tunes.

As Western classical music developed, bagpipes in many regions fell out of favor due to their limited range and function. This led to a slow decline that continued into the 20th century.

Extensive and documented collections of traditional bagpipes can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the International Bagpipe Museum in Gijón, Spain, the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, England, the Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum in Northumberland, and the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona.

The International Bagpipe Festival is held every two years in Strakonice, Czech Republic.

Modern usage

Many types of bagpipes are found in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of the former British Empire. The name "bagpipe" is often linked to the Great Highland bagpipe, which is the most well-known type. However, there are many other traditional forms of bagpipes that have been used for a long time. Although some of these types were not used as much in the past, they are now being played again by musicians. For example, the Irish piping tradition, which had very few players by the middle of the 20th century, is now thriving again. Similar situations are happening with other types of bagpipes, such as the Asturian gaita, the Galician gaita, the Portuguese gaita transmontana, the Aragonese gaita de boto, the Northumbrian smallpipe, the Breton biniou, the Balkan gaida, the Romanian cimpoi, the Black Sea tulum, the Scottish smallpipes and pastoral pipe, and many others.

In Bulgaria, there is a large bagpipe called the Kaba gaida, which has a hexagonal and rounded drone and is known for its deep sound. Another type is the Dzhura gaida, which has a straight conical drone and a higher pitch. The Macedonian gaida is between these two types and has a medium pitch.

In Southeastern and Eastern Europe, bagpipes known as gaida are called by different names in various countries, such as gajde in Albania, gaidã in Aromanian, gaida in Bulgaria, gáida in Greece, gajda in Macedonian, and gayda in Turkish and Ukrainian.

In Tunisia, the bagpipe is called "mezwed" and is used in a type of pop music with the same name.

Bagpipes are played in many places around the world, including Jordan, Bulgaria, Canada, Italy, Turkey, Ireland, North Macedonia, France, Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania, Germany, Iran, Greece, Syria, and many other countries. Examples include a piper in Jerash, Jordan; a Kaba gaida player from Bulgaria; the Scottish Great Highland bagpipe at a Canadian military event; a musician playing a Northern Italian Baghèt; a Central and southern Italian zampogna; a Laz man from Turkey playing a tulum; Cillian Vallely playing Irish Uilleann pipes; Kathryn Tickell playing Northumbrian smallpipes; a man from Skopje, North Macedonia, playing the Gaida; a Galician gaita; a Southern Indian bagpipe called Sruti upanga; a Hungarian duda; a Serbian piper; Polish pipers; a bagad from the French Navy; a Swedish säckpipa; pastoral pipes with removable parts; an Estonian torupill player; a Lithuanian piper; a modern German huemmelchen; a bagad in Brest, France; a Gaita asturiana; Welsh bagpipes; a Cantabrian pipe band; a Syrian piper in Damascus, Syria; various forms of the Tsampouna in Greek islands; a Belarusian piper; a Maltese Żaqq; a piper near the Royal Palace of Amsterdam; a Romanian cimpoi player; Ľubomír Párička playing bagpipes in Slovakia; bagpipes made in Ab Pakhsh, Iran; a bagpipe chanter from Ab Pakhsh; a Sac de gemecs from Catalonia; a Xeremies from Mallorca; a Greek shepherd playing gaida; a Bulgarian gaida player from before 1945; a reconstruction of an "askaulos" in Greece; and others.

Since the 1960s, bagpipes have also been used in other types of music, such as rock, metal, jazz, hip-hop, punk, and classical music. Examples include Paul McCartney's song "Mull of Kintyre," AC/DC's song "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)," and a classical piece by Peter Maxwell Davies called "An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise."

Publications

The article discusses periodicals related to different types of bagpipes. These publications are listed below with their associated organizations:

• An Píobaire (Dublin): Na Píobairí Uilleann.
• Chanter (The Bagpipe Society).
• The Piping Times (Glasgow): The College of Piping.
• Piping Today (Glasgow): The National Piping Centre.
• Utriculus (Italy): Circolo della Zampogna.
• The Voice (Newark, DL): The Eastern United States Pipe Band Association.

Books about bagpipes and their history include:

• Baines, Anthony (Nov 1991), Woodwind Instruments and Their History, Dover Pub, ISBN 0-486-26885-3.
• Baines, Anthony (1995), Bagpipes (3rd ed.), Pitt Rivers Museum, Univ. of Oxford, ISBN 0-902793-10-1, 147 pages with plates.
• Cheape, Hugh, The Book of the Bagpipe.
• Collinson, Francis (1975), The Bagpipe, The History of a Musical Instrument.
• Vereno, Michael Peter (2021), The Voice of the Wind: A Linguistic History of Bagpipes, International Bagpipe Organisation, ISBN 978-1838369804.