Pastoral pipes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The pastoral pipe is the ancestor of the modern uilleann bagpipe. Similar in design and construction, it had a footjoint in order to play a low leading note and played (in theory) a two octave chromatic scale. There is a tutor for the "Pastoral or New Bagpipe" by J. Geoghan, published in London in 1745.

This now long-forgotten bagpipe was played commonly played in the Lowlands of Scotland and the Northeast of England and throughout Britain and Ireland from the 1800s/1900s. It has had the following names: Scottish Pastoral pipes, Hybrid Union pipes, Pastoral pipes and Union pipe. The pipe was a type of bellows-blown bagpipe. It is almost certain that they were a less developed form of what are now known as Uilleann pipes, and there were several well-known makers over a large geographic area, including Dubin, Edinburgh and Newcastle. They are widely recognised as the forerunner and ancestor of the Uilleann Pipes. <ref> Brian. E. McCandless. “The Pastoral Bagpipe” Iris na bPiobairi (The pipers review) 17 (Spring 1998), 2: p. 19-28.</ref>

The pastoral pipes are bellows blown and played in a seated position had a chanter similar to the later Uilleann pipes, but it had an added foot joint that gave it a range that extended one step lower than that of the Uilleann pipes. This added foot joint had holes in its sides in addition to the hole at the bottom of the bore. Unlike the Uileann pipes the player of the Pastoral pipes could not create momentary interruptions of the flow of air through the chanter, due to the side hole in the foot joint, there was no way to completely stop the flow of air through the chanter even when the bore was close to the leg. Thus the melody was a constant, unbroken stream of sound. All articulation, by necessity, was created solely by movements of the fingers. The surviving instruments indicate that the Pastoral pipes had three drones and one or more regulators.

The Uilleann Pipes may have developed with ideas on the instrument being traded back-and-forth between Ireland and Scotland roughly, around the 18th and early 19th century. It is now thought that the existence of regulators, a characteristic keyed stopped ended system, was the inspiration for the keyed Northumbrian smallpipes, probably first produced by John Dunn, who made both Pastoral and Northumbrian pipes.

Historical examples of various designs have turned up over a wide geographical area, and there have been several attempts at reconstruction, with varying degrees of success. They are not widely played, though research and interest in them is currently increasing.