The Wonderful, Lovable, Quite Good, Very Loud … Highland Bagpipe
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Ok, so when most people talk about bagpipes, at least 99 times out of 100, it’s the Scottish Highland bagpipe they’re thinking about. Quite simply, many folks just assume these are the only bagpipe around.
Well, this is certainly not the case. In fact, there are well more than a hundred different kinds of bagpipes one might find out there (get a look at this Wikipedia page for an extensive list).
One thing’s for sure though, Highland pipes are pretty much as loud as bagpipes will get.
Photo by Skyler Hart
So as far as bagpipes go, Highland pipes are the “big man on campus.” They became so popular when the British saw fit to incorporate the instrument into their military. This saw the instrument becoming highly standardized and structured, and it led to their becoming fairly widespread, while the many other sorts of bagpipes suffered a severe decline, and in some cases, near extinction.
It’s quite ironic that things happened this way. Things got really bad for Highland culture following the famous Battle of Culloden in 1776. But by the end of that same century, the British military began to organize Highland Regiments, and the Highland pipes went along for the ride. By the early 19th century, the pipes were frequently played on battlefields.
Gettin’ conical
So what makes them so darned loud? Similar to the Irish uilleann pipes and borderpipes, the Highland bagpipe chanter has a conical design. This means that if you were to slice the chanter in half, the long way, you’ll see that the bore gets wider toward the bottom—in a cone shape.
Quieter types of bagpipes don’t have this conical bore in the chanter. Instead, the bore is more like that of a straight cylinder. That handy-dandy practice chanter that’s so much more friendly toward your neighbors’ nerves? … Yes, that has a cylindrical bore, as does the chanter from a smallpipe.
Still, the Highland pipes are significantly louder than other conical pipes, such as uilleann pipes. Why? I’m not entire sure … maybe to herd the goats?
Anyway, the conical bore is a big part of what makes a Highland pipe’s chanter so loud. But it also allows you to do more “stuff” with your fingers. Altering your fingerwork on a conical-bore chanter can yield some extra notes, such as a minor third (c-natural) and a minor sixth (f-natural). To achieve the same thing on a smallpipe chanter, extra notes need to be drilled (which often means also installing keys).
The two tenors
Image: liveabout.com
The Highland pipes are also among the very few to feature two tenors along with a bass. One tenor and one bass together is quite common as bagpipes go, but having a second tenor seems to be relatively unique to the Highland pipe.
It didn’t used to be that way though. Some of the oldest examples of Highland pipes in museums feature only one tenor with the bass. I’ve heard plenty of speculation as to why/how Highland pipes ended up with a redundant tenor. To me, the most reasonable explanation is it was eventually decided that the additional tenor adds the needed volume to avoid the tenor sound being drowned out … or droned out??? {{ slapping knee }}
The music
Alright, that’s enough on the physical characteristics of the Highland pipes. Now let’s talk about the music they produce.
Repertoire
First up, the tunes. And notice, I say “tunes” and not “songs.” True, pipers are essentially singing through their instrument as they play, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are not singing (well, not usually). So when there’s an absence of singing, the pieces being played are referred to as “tunes.”
Much of the Highland repertoire today lends itself to the British regimental tradition. Tune types most often played include:
- Marches
Just what it sounds like, tunes that folks can easily march along to. There are several different types, mainly distinguished by time signature.
– - Slow airs / slow marches
Slower, more drawn out tunes, often played for more somber affairs, such as funerals/memorials.
– - Strathspeys / Reels / Hornpipes / Jigs
Quicker, lively tunes often played for dances and happy occasions.
– - Piobaireachd
Long and complex tunes, and is essentially a whole genre of music unto itself. Many compare piobaireachd to classical music, in that the tunes are often an initial theme/ground melody with several variations.
Modern pipe bands have slowly been pushing the boundaries of the instrument, so there are now many new sorts of tunes played which don’t strictly adhere to the classifications outlined above. Younger generations of players seem quite eager to shake things up a bit. As time goes on, more and more folks are becoming receptive to changes in the realm of Highland piping, which makes this a very exciting time in the history of the instrument. Medley sets of tunes are becoming much more varied, and there’ve also been contemporary suites (such as with the video below), which are seemingly more like a classical symphony piece than what you used to hear with traditional pipe corps.
Pitch? What pitch?
Another point of interest with Highland pipes in comparison to other instruments, it generally does not have a standard, set pitch.
Many of today’s instruments tend to agree that if they were to play an “A” into an automatic tuner, the reading stated by the device would say that note is equal to 440 hz. Such is not the case with today’s highland bagpipe.
Pitches vary greatly from one piper or pipe band to another, with practically all of them set with their “A” being far sharper than the standard 440 hz. Most pipers I run across today tend to have their “A” pitch set anywhere between 471 and 485 hz. Long ago, the pitch was most likely around concert Bb (which is ~466 hz). Over time, the trend has gotten higher and higher. Today, if it’s really hot out, many modern pipe bands’ pitch can reach as high as about 489 hz. Concert B is only a tad sharper than that (~494 hz).
Here’s a comparison of two pipe bands … one from 1980 (Dysart & Dundonald Pipe Band), and one from June 2019 (St. Laurence O’Toole Pipe Band). Dysart’s pitch in 1980 was right around concert Bb, whereas St. Laurence O’Toole’s is right around A=484. Incredible how different the sound is between the two.
To make things even weirder (but more simple for us), pipers will generally refer to their tonic note as ‘A.’ Regardless of the pitch that note actually appears to be on a standard tuner (most likely a very sharp Bb), we still call it ‘A.’
Why? It’s just easier. =) It only causes confusion when we try to play with other instruments such as guitars, pianos, organs, etc. When we do, it’s usually easiest for the piper to use a chanter that’s specifically designed to play at a standard pitch, such as Bb (466) or A (440). I’ve done both, and with Highland pipes, Bb is by far the easiest to manage.
(Too many notes) > 9
Another fact that surprises many people about Highland pipes in particular … with relatively few exceptions, there are only nine notes at our disposal. We have one octave (that’s eight notes, folks) going from ‘low A’ to ‘high A,’ and one ‘low G’ below that first ‘A.’
Also, our scale is set in what is called “mixolydian mode.” For you music-saavy folks out there, that means that it’s a major scale, except the seventh note (which for us, is ‘G’) is a half step lower than normal. Here’s a diagram showing what that looks like on a piano:
For most intents and purposes, that’s it. Depending on the reed and chanter being used, sometimes a piper can alter their scale with tape or fingering. The two most common “alternate notes” that can be attained with fingering changes are C-natural and F-natural (natural, as opposed to a sharp or flat note, which are the white keys on the piano).
As mentioned earlier, fingering changes for C and F wouldn’t be possible if the chanter on Highland pipes wasn’t conical. For pipes with a cylindrical bore, like smallpipes, fingering alterations bring about nearly no change. Instead, smallpipe chanters need additional holes (and then usually keys) installed to achieve such alternate notes.
I can’t count the amount of times I’ve been asked to play tunes on the bagpipe that are completely unsuitable for it in terms of either key or scale range. Most other instruments can usually span a good two octaves or more, so I guess it’s easy to understand how many people will simply assume that Highland bagpipes are no different. Sadly, such faith is quite unfounded.
With some tunes, a thoughtful piper can attempt to transpose and reset a score to fit the pipe scale—success with this often depends on how severe the changes will need to be. A few notes here and there will probably go alright. Much more than that though, and chances are high that the tune will no longer be recognizable (or even musical).
Here’s a good example of an often-requested tune on pipes where transposition is quite doable—Auld Lang Syne. There’s only a note or two in the melody that goes outside of the bagpipe’s limited note range. If you listen closely to these two clips … one from a very talented violinist, and the other from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, you might notice that the pipe setting jumps up to F(#) and E on the top hand at a few points … in the violin version, the intended, lower F(#) and E notes are played, which the pipers can’t play because those notes are below our lowest note (low G).
No rest for the wicked
So here’s another musical term: “rest.” A rest is pause in the melody line. It has many uses in the execution of a tune, not least of which is emphasis. By having some breaks in there, any time the instrument plays a note will automatically gain some auditory prominence.
Quite simply, a rest is silence—and Highland bagpipes can’t do it (not by design anyways).
That’s right … Highland pipes are permanently stuck in legato, which means a constant flowing melody with no breaks. The opposite of this is called staccato, where there’s a slight pause separating every note.
It is what it is, but it’s just one other thing that surprises folks from time to time. It can make things tricky on occasion because some melodies just don’t sound right unless they’re played with their intended rests. A great example is Itsy-Bitsy Spider. Try humming that without pausing at all after “It” or “sy” or “bit” or the other “sy” …
… weird, right? Well there you have it … that nursery rhyme is really meant to be sung or played with rests between the syllables.
As with the scale constraints, there can be ways for pipers to make things work. In fact, I play Itsy-Bitsy for kids all the time on pipes. The melody is still recognizable, I just have to throw in some fingerwork movements in order to simulate the emphasis that gets lost from the lack of rests. More on that in a moment.
Here’s one more example to illustrate the difference. Low Rider is a fun little tune to play on the pipes—but without a doubt, the main melody riff is absolutely one of those intended to be staccato …
Bum … bum … bum … bum … bum … bum … BUMM …………………..
bum … bum … bum … bum … bummmmmmmmm.
But with some inventive placement of finger movements, the tune can still come across in a convincing manner. Compare these clips, and see if you can hear the difference between the pipers in the video of the Red Hot Chilli Pipers and the original from War:
Gracenotes, embellishments, and dynamics
So without ability to have rests in their music, pipers need to do something that enables them to create emphasis in their melody. Also, bagpipe volume doesn’t change. Basically, it’s the same degree of loud … all the time.
So volume is an issue as well. Being able to play an instrument louder and softer on purpose helps to create dynamic quality in the music—the Highland pipes can’t do that.
That’s alright though, as pipers have their own ways of effectively creating emphasis and mimicking dynamism in their playing: gracenotes and/or embellishments.
I’ll be writing plenty more on this subject as time goes on here, so stay tuned. But in short, “gracenotes” are quick notes that are thrown in to divide notes and to provide emphasis. Larger combinations of gracenotes are called “embellishments.”
When it comes to dynamics, there are a few things at play with Highland piping. First of all, pipers can hold notes in a strategic fashion to create the illusion of dynamics. That’s not to say that it doesn’t work, but the fact remains that pipers don’t have the ability to increase or decrease their volume at will.
However, there’s also the nature of the chanter’s design. Earlier in this article I mentioned that the bore of a Highland pipe’s chanter is conical, which makes it significantly louder, and allows for altering fingering for notes like C and F natural. Well, another characteristic of a conical bore is that the higher notes are softer than the lower ones. Low-G is the loudest note on the chanter, and high-A is the softest.
Much of Highland pipe music is composed with this dynamic in mind, and it’s also why many of the heavy embellishments involve lots of low-As and low-Gs … it dramatically increases the emphasis those movements are intended to create. Also, with high-A being the softest note in volume, quick jumps up to high-A between other notes will somewhat mimic the effect of having rests in the music.
Some point soon, I’d like to add in a video where I demonstrate most of the frequently used gracings and embellishments in Highland pipe music.
Lots of stuff here, am I right?
Image: Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson
So there’s lots of information here—I hope some of you have found it helpful. Believe it or not, I tried my best to be brief in trying to offer a glimpse of what’s going on with Highland bagpipes, but I also wanted to be thorough.
One thing should be clear though, there’s a lot to this—and there’s much, much more. In time, I’d like to elaborate on a few individual subjects, and publish separate pages devoted to them.
If you’d like to know more, please don’t hesitate to Get In Touch with me. And if your curiosity has been piqued, maybe you’d like to think about Taking Lessons to investigate things still further.
Either way, I’d be happy to hear from you.