Border pipes
Encyclopedia
The border pipes are a type of bagpipe related to the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe
. It is perhaps confusable with the Scottish smallpipe, although it is a quite different and much older instrument. Although most modern Border pipes are closely modelled on similar historic instruments, the modern Scottish smallpipes are a modern reinvention, inspired by historic instruments but largely based on Northumbrian smallpipes
in their construction.
The name, which is modern, comes from Scotland's border country
, where the instrument was once common, so much so that many towns there used to maintain a piper. The instrument was found much more widely than this, however; it was noted as far north as Aberdeenshire
, south of the Border in Northumberland
and elsewhere in the north of England. Other names have been used for the instrument: Lowland pipes and reel pipes
in Scotland, and in Northumberland. However, the term reel pipes historically refers to instruments similar to Highland pipes, but primarily intended for indoor use. The term half-long pipes is now used to refer particularly to surviving examples from the 1920s when there was a partially successful attempt to revive the instrument in Northumberland.
-bored chanter, in contrast to the cylindrically-bored Scottish smallpipe. The modern instruments are louder than the Scottish smallpipe, though not as loud or raucous as the Great Highland Bagpipe
; they blend well with string instruments.
The chanter has a thumb hole and seven finger-holes. The compass of the chanter is nine notes, from G to a, though a few higher notes are obtainable on some chanters by 'pinching' and overblowing. As with the Highland pipes, the basic scale is a mixolydian scale on A. Some chanters can play chromatic notes however, and some old tunes, for instance Bold Wilkinson or Wat ye what I got late yestreen, suggest a dorian
scale may also sometimes have been used, requiring minor third instead of the major third of the mixolydian scale. This could be achieved by cross-fingering or half-holing.
Some instruments are made in other pitches, typically B flat or G, rather than A.
has each drone in a separate stock. The drone tuning A, e, a was used in half-long pipes in the early 20th century, and though still rare, sets are now beginning to be made with this drone tuning again.
The book contains forty tunes, almost all with extensive variation sets. Some of these are limited to a single octave, and many of this group correspond closely to tunes for Northumbrian smallpipes
known from early 19th century sources - Apprentice Lads of Alnwick is one of these; others are melodically and harmonically richer - using the full nine-note compass and the G major subtonic chord - a fine example of this group is Dorrington. Another very early, though limited, source is George Skene's manuscript fiddle book of 1715, from Aberdeenshire. Besides settings for fiddle, some playable on the pipes, it contains four pieces explicitly stated to be in bagpipe style, all variation sets on Lowland tunes.
Another early 18th century source, though limited, is Thomas Marsden's 1705 collection of Lancashire Hornpipes, for fiddle; one clear example of a pipe tune here is Mr Preston's Hornpipe, with a characteristic nine-note compass. Significantly, this tune is in the Dorian mode on A, with C natural throughout, rather than the Mixolydian mode of the Dixon tunes.
Several Border pipe tunes, including The English Black and the Grey, Bold Wilkinson and Galloping over the Cowhill, were copied in the 19th century by John Stokoe from the mid-18th century John Smith MS, now lost, from Northumberland. Contemporary with this, some tunes in James Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion ostensibly for flute or violin, are identifiable as Border Pipe tunes. Another important source is the Vickers fiddle manuscript
from Northumberland - many tunes in this have the characteristic nine-note compass of pipe tunes.
A later Scottish source, from the early 19th century, is Robert Riddell's Collection of Scotch, Galwegian and Border Tunes - besides some tunes for fiddle and some for smallpipes, others, such as Torphichen's Rant, clearly have the range and the idiom of Border pipe tunes. The smallpipe manuscript of Robert Bewick of Gateshead, besides many smallpipe tunes and transcribed fiddle tunes, contains several 9-note tunes, now identified as Border pipe music. Some of the smallpipe tunes in Peacock's book, from the early 19th century, are in the Lydian mode, with a tonic of c, but with one sharp in the key signature; these - 'Bobby Shaftoe' is one - make more musical sense in the major mode with an f natural, viewed as adaptations from originals for Border pipes. The Peacock, John Smith and some of the Bewick tunes are reproduced in the FARNE archive.
Further, an important difference between the music of the Border pipes and of the Great Highland Bagpipe
is that many melodic figures in older Border pipe music typically move stepwise or in thirds rather than by wide intervals, and lack the multiple repeated notes found in many Highland pipe tunes. This suggests that in contrast to the Highland pipes, Border pipe music neither needed, nor greatly used, the complex graces which are so characteristic of Highland pipe music. Modern attempts to reconstruct a musically valid playing style for Border music such as the Dixon tunes have been very successful, and several respected pipers play in such styles.
These are characterised by simple gracings, used sparingly, mostly either for rhythmic emphasis or to separate repeated notes. The pipe tunes from Skene's manuscript contain complex written-out gracings, and many more repeated notes than the Dixon tunes, so it is reasonable to conclude that playing styles in the 18th century varied from place to place.
In Northumberland, the Northumbrian Pipers' Society has played a similar role for both Border pipes and Northumbrian smallpipes.
The instrument is now once again widely played, and the original Border repertoire for the instrument, particularly the Dixon
tunes, is becoming better known.
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....
. It is perhaps confusable with the Scottish smallpipe, although it is a quite different and much older instrument. Although most modern Border pipes are closely modelled on similar historic instruments, the modern Scottish smallpipes are a modern reinvention, inspired by historic instruments but largely based on Northumbrian smallpipes
Northumbrian smallpipes
The Northumbrian smallpipes are bellows-blown bagpipes from the North East of England.In a survey of the bagpipes in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford University, the organologist Anthony Baines wrote: It is perhaps the most civilized of the bagpipes, making no attempt to go farther than the...
in their construction.
The name, which is modern, comes from Scotland's border country
Border Country
Border Country is a novel by Raymond Williams. The book was re-published in December 2005 as one of the first group of titles in the Library of Wales series, having been out of print for several years. Written in English, the novel was first published in 1960.It is set in rural South Wales, close...
, where the instrument was once common, so much so that many towns there used to maintain a piper. The instrument was found much more widely than this, however; it was noted as far north as Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area.The present day Aberdeenshire council area does not include the City of Aberdeen, now a separate council area, from which its name derives. Together, the modern council area and the city formed historic...
, south of the Border in Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
and elsewhere in the north of England. Other names have been used for the instrument: Lowland pipes and reel pipes
Reel pipes
Reel pipes are a type of bagpipe originating in Scotland. These pipes are generally a scaled-down version of the large Great Highland pipes...
in Scotland, and in Northumberland. However, the term reel pipes historically refers to instruments similar to Highland pipes, but primarily intended for indoor use. The term half-long pipes is now used to refer particularly to surviving examples from the 1920s when there was a partially successful attempt to revive the instrument in Northumberland.
Description
The instrument consists of a chanter which plays the melody, drones which play a constant unchanging harmony, a bag which holds the air to blow drones and chanter, and a set of bellows to supply air to the bag.Chanter
The instrument has a conicalCone (geometry)
A cone is an n-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a base to a point called the apex or vertex. Formally, it is the solid figure formed by the locus of all straight line segments that join the apex to the base...
-bored chanter, in contrast to the cylindrically-bored Scottish smallpipe. The modern instruments are louder than the Scottish smallpipe, though not as loud or raucous as the Great Highland Bagpipe
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....
; they blend well with string instruments.
The chanter has a thumb hole and seven finger-holes. The compass of the chanter is nine notes, from G to a, though a few higher notes are obtainable on some chanters by 'pinching' and overblowing. As with the Highland pipes, the basic scale is a mixolydian scale on A. Some chanters can play chromatic notes however, and some old tunes, for instance Bold Wilkinson or Wat ye what I got late yestreen, suggest a dorian
Dorian mode
Due to historical confusion, Dorian mode or Doric mode can refer to three very different musical modes or diatonic scales, the Greek, the medieval, and the modern.- Greek Dorian mode :...
scale may also sometimes have been used, requiring minor third instead of the major third of the mixolydian scale. This could be achieved by cross-fingering or half-holing.
Some instruments are made in other pitches, typically B flat or G, rather than A.
Drones
The instrument has three cylindrically bored drones inserted into the pipebag by a common stock, typically tuned A, a, e', or A, a, a. In contrast, the Great Highland BagpipeGreat 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....
has each drone in a separate stock. The drone tuning A, e, a was used in half-long pipes in the early 20th century, and though still rare, sets are now beginning to be made with this drone tuning again.
Bag and bellows
The bag is not filled with breath from the player's mouth, but instead is supplied with dry air, from a set of bellows strapped under the player's right arm. This keeps the reeds drier, which helps keep the instrument in tune.Border pipe repertoire
There is a distinct body of music for the instrument - many of these tunes survived in the fiddle and Northumbrian smallpipe repertoire after the playing of Border pipes died out in the mid-19th century. Others survive in manuscript sources from the 18th and 19th century.Sources
Most notably, the William Dixon manuscript, dated 1733, from Stamfordham in Northumberland, was identified as Border pipe music by Matt Seattle in 1995, and published by him with extensive notes.The book contains forty tunes, almost all with extensive variation sets. Some of these are limited to a single octave, and many of this group correspond closely to tunes for Northumbrian smallpipes
Northumbrian smallpipes
The Northumbrian smallpipes are bellows-blown bagpipes from the North East of England.In a survey of the bagpipes in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford University, the organologist Anthony Baines wrote: It is perhaps the most civilized of the bagpipes, making no attempt to go farther than the...
known from early 19th century sources - Apprentice Lads of Alnwick is one of these; others are melodically and harmonically richer - using the full nine-note compass and the G major subtonic chord - a fine example of this group is Dorrington. Another very early, though limited, source is George Skene's manuscript fiddle book of 1715, from Aberdeenshire. Besides settings for fiddle, some playable on the pipes, it contains four pieces explicitly stated to be in bagpipe style, all variation sets on Lowland tunes.
Another early 18th century source, though limited, is Thomas Marsden's 1705 collection of Lancashire Hornpipes, for fiddle; one clear example of a pipe tune here is Mr Preston's Hornpipe, with a characteristic nine-note compass. Significantly, this tune is in the Dorian mode on A, with C natural throughout, rather than the Mixolydian mode of the Dixon tunes.
Several Border pipe tunes, including The English Black and the Grey, Bold Wilkinson and Galloping over the Cowhill, were copied in the 19th century by John Stokoe from the mid-18th century John Smith MS, now lost, from Northumberland. Contemporary with this, some tunes in James Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion ostensibly for flute or violin, are identifiable as Border Pipe tunes. Another important source is the Vickers fiddle manuscript
William Vickers manuscript
From 1770-2 a man called William Vickers made a manuscript collection of dance tunes, of which some 580 survive, including both pipe and fiddle tunes. The manuscript is incomplete - 31 pages have not survived, though their contents are listed at the beginning of the book...
from Northumberland - many tunes in this have the characteristic nine-note compass of pipe tunes.
A later Scottish source, from the early 19th century, is Robert Riddell's Collection of Scotch, Galwegian and Border Tunes - besides some tunes for fiddle and some for smallpipes, others, such as Torphichen's Rant, clearly have the range and the idiom of Border pipe tunes. The smallpipe manuscript of Robert Bewick of Gateshead, besides many smallpipe tunes and transcribed fiddle tunes, contains several 9-note tunes, now identified as Border pipe music. Some of the smallpipe tunes in Peacock's book, from the early 19th century, are in the Lydian mode, with a tonic of c, but with one sharp in the key signature; these - 'Bobby Shaftoe' is one - make more musical sense in the major mode with an f natural, viewed as adaptations from originals for Border pipes. The Peacock, John Smith and some of the Bewick tunes are reproduced in the FARNE archive.
Stylistic features
These tunes display several features distinguishing them from music for fiddle, Northumbrian pipes and Highland pipes. The nine-note modal scale, usually mixolydian, with a compass from the subtonic up to the high tonic, separates them clearly from most fiddle and smallpipe tunes. In particular, the interval of an augmented fourth, difficult on the fiddle, is much commoner in these tunes. The compass of fiddle tunes is generally wider, while the older smallpipe tunes have an 8-note range from the tonic up to an octave higher. One complication is the long tradition in Scotland of writing tunes to be played on the fiddle, but 'in bagpipe style', often with the strings retuned to imitate drones; 18th century examples of these can fit well on Border pipes, and may well have been intended as imitations of this instrument.Further, an important difference between the music of the Border pipes and of the Great Highland Bagpipe
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....
is that many melodic figures in older Border pipe music typically move stepwise or in thirds rather than by wide intervals, and lack the multiple repeated notes found in many Highland pipe tunes. This suggests that in contrast to the Highland pipes, Border pipe music neither needed, nor greatly used, the complex graces which are so characteristic of Highland pipe music. Modern attempts to reconstruct a musically valid playing style for Border music such as the Dixon tunes have been very successful, and several respected pipers play in such styles.
These are characterised by simple gracings, used sparingly, mostly either for rhythmic emphasis or to separate repeated notes. The pipe tunes from Skene's manuscript contain complex written-out gracings, and many more repeated notes than the Dixon tunes, so it is reasonable to conclude that playing styles in the 18th century varied from place to place.
Border pipes outside of Border music
The Border Pipes have been taken up by many groups of pipers who were looking for a suitable instrument with which to play their music. This has not just been by musicians who play the music of the Scottish borders. For example, in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, highland pipers have, for generations, longed to play with their fiddling family and neighbors. With the increased availability of Border pipes, Highland pipers have found a new way to integrate themselves into their own musical culture. As the modern instrument is still fairly newly revived, ideas on playing styles are still evolving, and naturally depend on the kind of music being played.Musical societies
The Lowland and Border Pipers' Society was formed in 1982 and has played a large part in the revival of the instrument and its music.In Northumberland, the Northumbrian Pipers' Society has played a similar role for both Border pipes and Northumbrian smallpipes.
The instrument is now once again widely played, and the original Border repertoire for the instrument, particularly the Dixon
William Dixon (piper)
The William Dixon manuscript, written down between 1733 and 1738 in Northumberland, is the oldest known manuscript of pipe music from the British Isles, and the most important source of music for the Border Pipes. It is currently located in the A.K. Bell Library, Perth, Scotland...
tunes, is becoming better known.
Notable players
- Gillian Chalmers of BodegaBodega (band)Bodega is a Scottish band based in Glasgow, formed in March 2005. Its members met while they were studying together at the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music in Plockton, Scotland, from which they all graduated...
- Paul DunmallPaul DunmallPaul Dunmall is a British jazz saxophonist who plays tenor and soprano saxophone as well as the baritone and the more exotic Saxello and the Northumbrian pipes.He has a long discography on the Duns Limited Edition label....
- Hamish Moore
- Grant Cornwallis
- Matt Seattle
- Chris Ormston
- Dave FaulknerDave Faulkner (musician)Dave Faulkner is an Australian rock musician who also performed as Dave Flick. Faulkner is a singer-songwriter, guitarist and keyboardist; he has performed with several bands, but is best known as a member of Hoodoo Gurus...
- Paul MartinPaul MartinPaul Edgar Philippe Martin, PC , also known as Paul Martin, Jr. is a Canadian politician who was the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, as well as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....
- Finlay MacDonaldFinlay MacDonald (musician)Finlay MacDonald is a keyboardist, singer-songwriter, and former member of Scottish alternative rock bands Teenage Fanclub and BMX Bandits.He has been employed as a music industry lecturer at Reid Kerr College in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland. He is currently lead singer and guitarist for Lenzie...
- Fred MorrisonFred MorrisonFred Morrison is one of the world's leading pipers and is a globally renowned composer of music for the bagpipes.Morrison is known for his unique, powerfully exuberant, virtuosic and highly improvisational style which combines the Gaelic piping tradition of South Uist with contemporary and eclectic...