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"Bagpipe [F. musette; G. Dudelsack, Sackpfeife; It. pira, sampogna].
Generic name for a number of instruments which have one or (usually) several reed-pipes attached to a windbag, from which air is blown into the pipes; also, specific name for the Irish and Scottish varieties of this family. One or two of the pipes, called chanter (chaunter), are provided with sound holes and are used for melodies, while the other, larger ones, called drones, produce one tone each and are used for the accompaniment." Harvard Dictionary of Music
The Highland bagpipe consists of an airtight bag, carried under the player's elbow. From this bag come five pipes: one is the blow-pipe, into which the player blows to fill the bag; this pipe has a valve at the farther end to prevent the air from flowing directly back out of the bag into the piper¹s mouth. Three of the other pipes are drones, of lengths proportional to their tones. The longest is about three feet long. Each drone is fitted with a single reed similar to that of a clarinet or organ. They each produce a single unchanging note, which can be tuned with a slider located on the pipe itself which varies the length of the air column. The fifth pipe is the chanter (also called a chaunter), which is about fourteen inches long and has seven finger-holes and a thumb hole, as well as two holes drilled lower down that regulate the pitch and are never covered. The chanter has a double reed like that of an oboe. The chanter¹s range is only nine notes, from G to A (above the staff), inclusive. The drones are tuned to E; low e on the chanter is what the two tenor drones are tuned to, and the bass drone is an octave below that e. This is according to my father, who has no idea what tone that would be on a piano. The average Highland Bagpipe is in the approximate key of B flat, but they do exist in other keys.
There are two kinds of music for the Highland bagpipes. There is music intended for performance by a solo piper, which is governed by complex traditions and is played by highly standardized techniques in competitions. This is known as piobaireach (pibroch), and usually consists of a series of intricate variations on a melody, played at its own tempo by a lone piper. This is the sort of thing you hear in movies played through the mist by a lone piper out on the moors. The other kind is the music played by pipe bands, which consists of marches, airs, and various other very Western-sounding kinds of music. A pipe band usually consists of a number of pipers accompanied by three kinds of drums (snare, tenor, and bass) and is often led by a pipe major, with sometimes a separate drum major to conduct the drummers. The most often heard tunes of this genre are Amazing Grace and Scotland the Brave, and similar tunes in that vein of either patriotism or sentiment. The two styles are as distinct in origin as in character. The Highland pipes, along with the clan system and kilts, were outlawed in 1745 as punishment for the Highland clans' support for Charles Stuart's attempt to recapture the throne of the United Kingdom. The piobaireachd today are generally laments for Bonnie Prince Charlie, practiced in secret. Much of the music played by pipe bands comes from the time of Queen Victoria; she had a royal pipe band, and her master piper made a project of recording music from old pipers and other sources, which he published in a bound volume. The piobaireach music retains the character of traditional Celtic music, which in its most ancient preserved forms resembles the traditional music of the Indian subcontinent, while the music for the massed pipes is distinctly Western in style.
This reflects the strange frozen-in-time quality of the instrument. It has been noted that its intonation closely resembles certain "Arabic and Persian scales"; according to a study quoted in Grove's Dictionary of Music & Musicians, "the intervals between b' and d", and between e" and f" are equally divided so that the c' and the f" are each about a quarter of a tone sharp, and this particular tuning has been traditionally maintained by the pipers." This is not a usual Western scale, either major or minor, and yet the music most often heard from bagpipes is as Western as any music in existence.



Er zitten nogal wat iers/schotse invloeden in. En waarschijnlijk gaa ik hier de deodelzak ook nog onder gooien.
dat is dus duidelijk.