The Colloquium will present recent research on topics related to the history, making and performance of bagpipes in Britain (all periods) and related aspects of repertoire and the social milieu of bagpipe playing in Scotland, England and Ireland.

See Full details of the Colloquium and booking information

The Colloquium will be followed by the concert Ceòl na Pìoba is Ceòl na Gàidhealtachd - an evening of traditional Highland music organised in association with the National Piping Centre, Glasgow and Piping Live! 2013

Noting The Tradition James Beaton, The National Piping Centre, Glasgow

This paper will describe Noting the Tradition, an oral history project run by the National Piping Centre and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The paper will also describe some of the themes emerging from the interviews undertaken. These include the importance of organisations such as the Boys' Brigade and the Boy Scouts in teaching piping in the Centre Belt of Scotland, and how this contrasts with the approach in more rural Highland parts of Scotland. The paper will also focus on the evidence for a strong oral tradition surviving in the light music of the Highland bagpipe well into the 20th century, this coming from statements made by various interviewees about well known figures within the tradition who had what are described as different or unusual settings of tunes. Finally the paper will describe how this project may be developed in the future in terms of providing pointers to how the interviews gathered by the project can provide fruitful bases for further more focused research on specific subjects within the sphere of the culture and music of the Highland bagpipe.

Before the bag: piping in Britain and Ireland, 700-1300 Barnaby Brown, University of Cambridge, Faculty of Music

The focus of this paper is the cultural context of the triplepipe in the British and Irish Isles, specifically, the performance situations and social status of its players. Since the 1990s, philologists and historical linguists have shed considerable light on this mouth-blown reed pipe, a medieval relative of the Sardinian launeddas. Probably known in Old Irish as cuisle or cuislenn, the triplepipe was displaced by the bagpipe and disappears from the historical record in the 1300s. Iconographic evidence consists of five stone monuments and five illuminated manuscripts produced between the eighth and fourteenth centuries in religious centres including Clonmacnoise, Iona and Westminster Abbey.

In November 2012, Jacopo Bisagni made significant advances in an interdisciplinary paper, 'The Terminology of Woodwind Instruments in Old and Middle Irish'. He was inclined to concur with the interpretation suggested by Ann Buckley and others that, in the Last Judgement scene on Muiredeach's Cross, the triplepipe possesses a negative, even demonic symbolism. In this paper, evidence for ecclesiastical dancing and non-mainstream varieties of Christian performance are assessed in the light of historical evidence from Sardinia concerning liturgical usage of the launeddas: playing for hymns, processions and for the singing of Mass. It is suggested that attitudes to piping in pre-Norman Ireland were ambiguous, possibly as wide-ranging as today, and that piping could have been part of the fabric of the golden age of Celtic Christian culture.

This presentation will include a live performance on revival instruments and excerpts of recordings of recent experiments with the Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

"Bundle and go": contradictions in the record of piping in Scotland Hugh Cheape, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, University of the Highlands & Islands

Contradiction would seem to be the least likely or last response from the national instrument, so sure are we of its success and role. The curious and unequivocal claim by Donald MacDonald in the early nineteenth century that the Highland bagpipe was 'the only national instrument in Europe' enshrined a national ownership that need not now be challenged or overturned while it is so informative. A deceptively full documentation since his day tends to uphold the claim of national identity but scrutiny of context and organology has thrown up contradictions or inconsistencies. This paper glances at these to suggest that an unequivocal record was required to sustain modern perceptions of the bagpipe and conveniently to ignore aspects such as the Baroque engagement with Scottish music, the organology of the 'Pastoral' and 'Union' pipes, the wealth of published Scottish fiddle music and the rise of the 'Scotch song'. Bundle and go is a traditional tune with credentials such as early versions and a Gaelic title, but may, symbolically, be represented as a good example of the Neo-baroque Scotch song.

"A handsome pipe of superior tone and workmanship" - A Collector's Approach to the Study of Early Scottish Bagpipes Andreas Hartmann-Virnich, Université d'Aix-Marseille, Laboratoire d'Archéologie Médiévale et Moderne en Méditerranée LA3M UMR 7298

The author owes his interest in the study and collection of early Scottish bagpipes and artifacts related to pipers and piping to his visits to the shop of J & R Glen, 497 Lawnmarket, Edinburgh, in the 1970s, when its owners were the last descendants of the then oldest active dynasty of Highland bagpipe makers. The presentation is focused on morphological studies of drones, pipe and practice chanters based upon specimens in the author's keeping, which aim at a more thorough knowledge of the variety and characteristics of pre- and proto-classic Scottish bagpipes and the styles of some makers, the early members of the Glen and MacDougall families in particular. Furthermore, an attempt is made to define a list of relevant measurements of stamped or otherwise securely attributed instruments in order to discriminate distinctive concepts which may, or may not, be particular to a maker, or reveal the influence of earlier makers such as Hugh Robertson, Donald MacDonald and Malcolm MacGregor.

The Bagpipe in the Nineteenth Century English "Soundscape" and Imagination Clive Matthews, University of East Anglia, School of Language and Communication Studies

Although England rarely appears in the history of 19th century bagpiping, recent research has begun to indicate that the instrument was a more familiar part of the English "soundscape" and imagination than has previously been realised. This paper will present evidence to support both sides of this claim. Regarding the "soundscape", references from a variety of textual sources clearly indicate a significant piping presence, mainly by players of Scottish, Irish and (more surprisingly) Italian origin, throughout the country. Their impact on the imagination will be illustrated through a previously underexplored resource: Staffordshire pottery bagpiping figurines. Since these quotidian objects were "made by Englishmen for Englishmen" and depicted subjects that "amused, concerned and interested the 'common people'", it is argued that their very manufacture could only have been economically viable if pipers were familiar to the buying public and represented something which they wanted reminding of in their homes.

Bellows Bagpipes in 17th century England and the Origins of the Border Pipe Paul Roberts

The story of modern bellows bagpipes begins in 16th century Europe, with a variety of smallpipes catering to an upper-class pastoral cult. This paper will present new evidence to show such smallpipes were well known in England by the early 17th century, and began to influence the design of the British "great pipe", with images from throughout the century showing its evolution towards a typical smallpipe configuration of three horizontal drones, common stock, bellows power - ultimately producing the instrument now known as the "Lowland" or "Border" bagpipe. The paper will present newly discovered images from 1680-1710 (much earlier than any previously known) showing this instrument being played by local musicians in south-east England, calling into question the validity of the "Lowland/Border" names, the invention of late 18th/19th century antiquarians. It will also cast some incidental and surprising light on the mysterious "Lincolnshire" "Lancashire" and "Scotch" bagpipes of period literature.

Fact and Fiction: The 'Bannochburn' or MacIntyre Pipes and their owners Keith Sanger

The 'Bannockburn' pipes currently languish at the West Highland Museum in Fort William having been placed on deposit there by their owners the Robertson MacDonald family of Kinlochmoidart. Possibly because of the mythical claim to have been played at Bannochburn and the fact that they were 'restored' in the late 19th century by Duncan MacDougal of Aberfeldy, they do not seem to have received the attention of modern scholarship which they deserve. Through an exploration of the history of the MacIntyre Pipers of Rannoch and Breadalbane in whose family they originally survived; it is possible to suggest that the older parts of that instrument, the chanter, drone top and blowpipe are parts of the oldest surviving Scottish instrument dating to 1674. Furthermore, the 'Bannochburn' story can be explained when set against the background to the MacGregor and MacIntyre pipers exchanging patrons.

Digging the Dird - the dance music of the Lowland piper Pete Stewart, The Lowland and Border Pipers' Society

'You need three things to play for dancing - time, volume and dird' [Danny Rose, Orkney fiddler, 1928].

Scottish music, particularly its pipe and fiddle dance music, underwent a dramatic change around the mid-18th century. In this paper, by considering music from the extensive repertoire of dance music which survives in various sources from the 16th century onwards, I will explore what can be gleaned of the nature of the dance, and trace the development of the characteristics [the 'dird'] of the music that accompanied it.

The blossoming of the Northumberland small-pipes in late 18th/early 19th centuries Graham Wells

The first heyday of the Northumberland small-pipes coincides with the working periods of its two major makers, John Dunn and Robert Reid. Within the space of approximately fifty years the instrument was to develop from a simple version with a small keyless chanter and three drone to one with a fully chromatic chanter with seventeen keys and five or even six drones. After this burst of development the interest in the small-pipes plummeted but fortunately they never quite died out.

This paper will look at how Dunn, and more importantly Reid, gradually increased the complexity of the small-pipes and possibly in so doing contributed to their near demise.

E-mail euchmi@ed.ac.uk

Write to: Arnold Myers
Collection of Historic Musical Instruments,
University of Edinburgh,
Reid Concert Hall,
Bristo Square,
EDINBURGH EH8 9AG, U.K.

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This page updated: 9.8.13