Billy Pigg was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 player of Northumbrian smallpipes. He was a Vice-President and an influential member of the Northumbrian Pipers Society

Northumbrian Pipers Society

The Northumbrian Pipers' Society is a society, founded to promote both types of Northumbrian bagpipes - the Northumbrian smallpipes and the half-long pipes, now generally known as the Border pipes...

 from 1930 until his death.

Life and music

He was born at Dilston Park, near Corbridge, Northumberland, in January 1902 and died in November 1968. He learned the instrument from several pipers including Tom

Tom Clough

Tom Clough , known as 'The Prince of Pipers', was an English player of the Northumbrian pipes, or Northumbrian smallpipes. He had studied the instrument with the noted piper Thomas Todd, and from his own father Henry Clough...

 and Henry Clough

Henry Clough

Henry Clough , was a player of the Northumbrian pipes, or Northumbrian smallpipes. He was a miner, living in Newsham, in south-eastern Northumberland. He was the father of Tom Clough, 'The Prince of Pipers'. Several previous generations of the family had also been pipers, Henry's father, 'Old Tom'...

 as well as Richard Mowat

Richard Mowat

Richard Mowat or Mowatt was a renowned and award-winning player of the Northumbrian smallpipes.-Biography:A miner, born in Backworth in 1865, Mowat won the Northumbrian Smallpipes Society's piping competitions for three successive years 1894-6, and was subsequently barred from competitions. That...

, but, according to Tommy Breckons

Tommy Breckons

Tommy Breckons lived all his life on the family farm at Bellingham, in central Northumberland. He was a noted player of the Northumbrian smallpipes.- Learning :...

, Batey of Stannington was his main teacher. Tommy later quoted Billy's reminiscences of the informal sessions at the Cloughs' and others: When he lived at Blagdon, he used to bike down to Clough's. There were fourteen or fifteen pipers all living in that area, and they took turns to play at each others houses, including Billy's. Billy told him that when he first went to one of these sessions there were fourteen pipers in the house, ..., and everyone was better than me! By God..., there were some good pipers. But all I had to dee was practice and get up alongside them.

Billy won many competitions in the 1930s, certainly playing in the traditional staccato

Staccato

Staccato is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation it signifies a note of shortened duration and separated from the note that may follow by silence...

 style characteristic of the instrument. In the 1950s he was noted for playing not only Northumbrian, but also Scottish and Irish tunes on the instrument. He also wrote many fine tunes for the instrument. A. D. Schofield

Adrian Schofield

Adrian Schofield is a player of the Northumbrian smallpipes, the traditional bagpipe of Northern England, and plays and teaches in Manchester. In 1988, Schofield joined with pipers Pauline Cato and Colin Ross in forming the band Border Spirit....

 and Julia Say produced a biography and tune book, The Border Minstrel, published by the Northumbrian Pipers' Society in 1997. This includes all his known compositions. These include the slow airs The Gypsy's Lullaby and Border Spirit, marches in 6/8 and 4/4 such as Bonny Woodside and The Old Drove Road, many hornpipes, including The Carrick Hornpipe and The Biddlestone Hornpipe, jigs such as Coffee Bridge and reels such as Cote Walls and Anne of Hindhope. One of his most spectacular pieces is Bill Charlton's Fancy, a 6/8 variation set.
His version of the traditional tune, The Wild Hills of Wannies with his own variations, was entirely distinctive, and a good example of his Highland-influenced style.

During the 1950s Forster Charlton recorded his playing on many occasions; some of these can be heard on Radio FARNE. In 1958 Royce Wilson, an American working in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, acquired a tape recorder and made some recordings of him. Other recordings were made by the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 and by the School of Scottish Studies

School of Scottish Studies

The School of Scottish Studies was founded in 1951, and is affiliated to the University of Edinburgh. It holds an archive of over 9000 field recordings of traditional music, song and other lore, housed in George Square, Edinburgh...

. An album of selected recordings made by Forster Charlton was issued as Billy Pigg, the Border Minstrel on the Leader label in 1971, and re-released on CD in 2004. Through these recordings of Pigg's own compositions and his repertoire of traditional tunes, Pigg became influential throughout the world of bagpiping. Most players of the instrument will have several of Pigg's compositions in their repertoire.

Recently the Northumbrian Pipers' Society issued an expanded second edition of his music, the two volumes covering his compositions and his distinctive versions of other tunes. They also include a description of his playing style as well as transcriptions, some in great detail, of most of the surviving recordings.

Playing style

The distinguishing characteristic of Pigg's playing style is the use of complex open-fingered ornaments

Ornament (music)

In music, ornaments or embellishments are musical flourishes that are not necessary to carry the overall line of the melody , but serve instead to decorate or "ornament" that line. Many ornaments are performed as "fast notes" around a central note...

, in imitation of Irish

Uilleann pipes

The uilleann pipes or //; ) are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland, their current name, earlier known in English as "union pipes", is a part translation of the Irish-language term píobaí uilleann , from their method of inflation.The bag of the uilleann pipes is inflated by means of a...

 and Highland

Great Highland Bagpipe

The Great Highland Bagpipe is a type of bagpipe native to Scotland. It has achieved widespread recognition through its usage in the British military and in pipe bands throughout the world. It is closely related to the Great Irish Warpipes....

 piping. His father was a Highland piper, while Billy himself had great interest in Irish music. By contrast, most respected pipers before him would have stuck with an almost wholly staccato

Staccato

Staccato is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation it signifies a note of shortened duration and separated from the note that may follow by silence...

 style. Tom Clough

Tom Clough

Tom Clough , known as 'The Prince of Pipers', was an English player of the Northumbrian pipes, or Northumbrian smallpipes. He had studied the instrument with the noted piper Thomas Todd, and from his own father Henry Clough...

 considered that any departure from this, a style where the chanter was closed and silent between any two notes, would be "a grievous error in smallpipe playing".

The popular Northumbrian pipe tune Holey Ha'penny was originally Irish, known there as The Chorus Jig. Pigg recorded it,
as had Tom Clough in the 1920s. The contrast between the two styles can easily be heard between these recordings.

The more open-fingered style was very successful for Pigg's music, allowing him a greater range of expression than a more traditional style. However, his tempo

Tempo

In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...

s were ferociously fast and somewhat erratic, making his music unsuitable for dancing, and he was notoriously hard to accompany. Unfortunately, he was suffering badly from worsening ill-health throughout the 1950s and 1960s, when all the recordings were made, and it is certain his playing must have suffered. However, the best of his recordings have a wildness and passion which is both inspiring and wholly distinctive.

He has been hugely influential, and many pipers have sought to emulate his style, notably Adrian Schofield

Adrian Schofield

Adrian Schofield is a player of the Northumbrian smallpipes, the traditional bagpipe of Northern England, and plays and teaches in Manchester. In 1988, Schofield joined with pipers Pauline Cato and Colin Ross in forming the band Border Spirit....

.

External links

• Radio FARNE Recordings may be heard on the FARNE website.