The electronic bagpipes is an electronic musical instrument emulating the tone and/or playing style of the bagpipes. Most electronic bagpipe emulators feature a simulated chanter, which is used to play the melody. Some models also produce a harmonizing drone(s). Some variants employ a simulated bag, wherein the player's pressure on the bag activates a switch maintaining a constant tone. As with other electronic musical instruments, they must be plugged into an instrument amplifier and loudspeaker (or headphones) to hear the sound. Some electronic bagpipes are MIDI controllers that can be plugged into a synth module to create synthesized or sampled bagpipe sounds.
They have gone from being a rare curiosity to a widely used instrument used for practice, and even performance, by both amateur and professional players.
Electronic bagpipes have been attested as early as 1962, when The Electronic Musical Instrument Manual noted the existence of electronic bagpipes using transistors, caveating: " but there is only one commercial musical instrument on the market and it would seem reasonable to wait for the elimination of some of the less desirable features of transistors..."[2]
In the late 1970s, the late Bazzell Ray Cowan of Austin, Texas, an electronics engineer and piper, developed the first practical electronic bagpipe with an authentic pipe sound, which he called the Bazpipe. According to Mr. Cowan (in an interview in 1993), the project had originally been in response to a bet with another piper at a wedding. The original version consisted of a chanter (the melody pipe) utilizing gold-plated metal contacts, which in turn were connected to a motherboard, transistors and a speaker, powered by a 6 volt lantern battery, all housed in an extruded plastic "bag" the size and shape of a regular bagpipe bag.
Eventually, with the advance of technology, he was able to downsize it, till by the early 1990s, it consisted of a chanter topped with a 6 x 4inch plastic box which housed all the components, including a 2-inch speaker, all powered by a 9 volt battery. By his death in 1996, it had become one of a well-known devices of the genre. Many of the later electronic pipes would be modeled on the Bazpipe.[citation needed]
Another pioneer was George H. Boyd, whose system, although not as easily portable as the Bazpipe, produced an authentic "bagpipe" sound. Boyd also developed the first electronic uilleann (Irish) bagpipe, but only made one prototype.[citation needed]
A range of publications through the 1980s discussed such electronic piping developments, and in 1981 the company Keltronics advertised what they claimed to be "the world's first electronic bagpipes".[3] However, as can be seen from the dates, Cowan's device (and others) pre-dated not only Keltronics, but most other devices.
Other interesting developments included the Ross Technologies Programmable Electronic Bagpipes, which, though looking similar to the Bazpipe, was capable of playing in different keys in order to accompany different instruments. Their second generation model, could not only emulate the Scottish bagpipe and play harmonies, but could emulate other instruments as well. Later models included the MicroPipes, which are a headphones-only electronic practice chanter, and the MidiPipes featuring realistic wavetable sound and MIDI output capability.[4]
Later commercial developments included the work of Anders Fagerström, who in 1991 manufacturing a Scottish Highland practice chanter emulator, and later developed a "full" set electronic pipes emulation. Fagerstrom also produces emulators of the Galician bagpipe and Swedish säckpipa.[citation needed]
Manfred Deger of Germany developed an interesting Scottish Highland pipe emulator with MIDI, and has since expanded its capabilities.[5]
In the early 1990s a multidisciplinary team composed of Alberto Arias, Miguel Dopico and José Ángel Hevia patented the first electronic bagpipe in history. Hevia’s CD “No Man’s Land” was released in 1998 and more than two million copies were sold worldwide. Since then the electronic bagpipe has established itself as a versatile tool in the new musical discourse of European bagpipe playing.
A similar development with a pressure-sensitive bag was copied In 2005 the German Rolf Jost, and has since been produced under the brand-name redpipes, in varieties emulating various bagpipes.
Another innovation, developed by Ramón M Castro and José Antonio García, is the vPipes, an Irish uilleann pipes emulator with remarkable capabilities, including the ability to make the caoine ("cry" - a slurring, note-bending finger movement which produces a sound characteristic of Irish music). It does not use the General MIDI, instead it uses Emulation Mode, a proprietary interface developed by the vPipes team.[citation needed]
There is also an electronic bagpipe instrument called Master Gaita,[6] artisanally created under demand by José J. Presedo, which has been in development for more than a decade spawning several iterations, and currently consists of a bagpipe chanter attached to a cushioned bag which contains a USB connector (which creates a MIDI device in the computer) and, optionally, a MIDI connector which can be used to connect a wireless MIDI transmitter stored inside the bag so the instrument works completely wirelessly.
There have also been a number of software programs that have emulated bagpipes using a computer and MIDI interface, as well as computer-based bagpipe music reading and writing programs.
Other recent developments have been made by Michael Eskin, a programmer and piper in California, who has developed several virtual instrument emulator apps for the iPad and iPhone. Among these are bagpipes (including Scottish Highland and smallpipes, Irish uilleann pipes, and Swedish säckpipa), as well as a set of regulators for the iPad which can be played in concert with the uilleann pipe apps. He also produces concertina and accordion apps.
In 2016, a new kind of electronic bagpipes, based on optical fingering detection have been introduced: the 'a-pipes'.
There are also some Open Source approaches to electronic bagpipes like the eChanter[7] or the OpenPipe[8] project. Both of them take advantage of the widely spread Arduino board and facilitate people with some technical skills to build and customise their own electronic bagpipes.
Most of the modern versions incorporate MIDI capabilities, and have built-in interfaces.
The first adopter of the electronic bagpipe as a performance instrument was Hevia. Hevia’s CD “No Man’s Land” was released in 1998 and more than two million copies were sold worldwide. Since then the electronic bagpipe has established itself as a versatile tool in the new musical discourse of European bagpipe playing.
The original instruments were seen mainly as curiosities, or at most, as practice instruments. However, later they were adopted more noted players like James McColl, a senior Scottish piper. He still uses an early Boyd pipe for practice and demonstrations.
Another early adopter of the electronic bagpipe as a performance instrument was Sean Folsom (formerly of the California-based Celtic group, Shiela na Gig) who incorporated a Bazpipe in his wide-ranging exhibition of world bagpipes and other instruments in the early 1990s. Folsom introduced the Bazpipe to a fellow piper, who immediately saw the potential, and subsequently incorporated it in performances with his group and on their recording. Doubtless others were doing the same thing, as their use is now widespread.
Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, Northern Africa, Western Asia, around the Persian Gulf and northern parts of South Asia.
The uilleann pipes, sometimes called Irish Bagpipes, are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Earlier known in English as "union pipes", their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms píobaí uilleann, from their method of inflation. There is no historical record of the name or use of the term uilleann pipes before the 20th century. It was an invention of Grattan Flood and the name stuck. People mistook the term 'union' to refer to the 1800 Act of Union; this is incorrect as Breandán Breathnach points out that a poem published in 1796 uses the term 'union'.
The chanter is the part of the bagpipe upon which the player creates the melody. It consists of a number of finger-holes, and in its simpler forms looks similar to a recorder. On more elaborate bagpipes, such as the Northumbrian bagpipes or the Uilleann pipes, it also may have a number of keys, to increase the instrument's range and/or the number of keys it can play in. Like the rest of the bagpipe, they are often decorated with a variety of substances, including metal (silver/nickel/gold/brass), bone, ivory, or plastic mountings.
The great Highland bagpipe is a type of bagpipe native to Scotland, and the Scottish analogue to the great Irish warpipes. It has acquired widespread recognition through its usage in the British military and in pipe bands throughout the world.
The Scottish smallpipe is a bellows-blown bagpipe re-developed by Colin Ross and many others, adapted from an earlier design of the instrument. There are surviving bellows-blown examples of similar historical instruments as well as the mouth-blown Montgomery smallpipes, dated 1757, which are held in the National Museum of Scotland. Some instruments are being built as direct copies of historical examples, but few modern instruments are directly modelled on older examples; the modern instrument is typically larger and lower-pitched. The innovations leading to the modern instrument, in particular the design of the reeds, were largely taken from the Northumbrian smallpipes.
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 Northumbrian smallpipes are bellows-blown bagpipes from North East England, where they have been an important factor in the local musical culture for more than 250 years. The family of the Duke of Northumberland have had an official piper for over 250 years. The Northumbrian Pipers' Society was founded in 1928, to encourage the playing of the instrument and its music; Although there were so few players at times during the last century that some feared the tradition would die out, there are many players and makers of the instrument nowadays, and the Society has played a large role in this revival. In more recent times the Mayor of Gateshead and the Lord Mayor of Newcastle have both established a tradition of appointing official Northumbrian pipers.
Northwest Iberian folk music is a traditional highly distinctive folk style, located along Spain's north-west Atlantic coast, mostly Galicia and Asturias, that has some similarities with the neighbouring area of Cantabria. The music is characterized by the use of bagpipes.
José Ángel Hevia Velasco, known professionally as Hevia, is a Spanish bagpiper – specifically, an Asturian gaita player. He commonly performs with his sister, María José, on drums. In 1992 he was awarded first prize for solo bagpipes at the Festival Interceltique de Lorient, Brittany.
The Hungarian duda is the traditional bagpipe of Hungary. It is an example of a group of bagpipes called Medio-Carparthian bagpipes.
The pastoral pipe was a bellows-blown bagpipe, widely recognised as the forerunner and ancestor of the 19th-century union pipes, which became the uilleann pipes of today. Similar in design and construction, it had a foot joint in order to play a low leading note and plays a two octave chromatic scale. There is a tutor for the "Pastoral or New Bagpipe" by J. Geoghegan, published in London in 1745. It had been considered that Geoghegan had overstated the capabilities of the instrument, but a study on surviving instruments has shown that it did indeed have the range and chromatic possibilities which he claimed.
Welsh bagpipes The names in Welsh refer specifically to a bagpipe. A related instrument is one type of bagpipe chanter, which when played without the bag and drone is called a pibgorn (English:hornpipe). The generic term pibau (pipes) which covers all woodwind instruments is also used. They have been played, documented, represented and described in Wales since the fourteenth century. A piper in Welsh is called a pibydd or a pibgodwr.
This article defines a number of terms that are exclusive, or whose meaning is exclusive, to piping and pipers.
The gaita asturiana is a type of bagpipe native to the autonomous communities of Principality of Asturias and Cantabria on the northern coast of Spain.
Hugh Robertson (1730–1822) was a Scottish wood and ivory turner and a master crafter of woodwind instruments such as pastoral pipes, union pipes, and great Highland bagpipes.
The redpipe is a brand of electronic bagpipes, an electronic musical instrument made to emulate the sound and characteristics of the bagpipe. In contrast with many other electronic bagpipes which are based solely on a bagpipe chanter, redpipes feature a pressure-sensitive bag in emulation of a bagpipe's bag.
It is unclear whether Lincolnshire bagpipes refer to a specific type of pipes native to Lincolnshire, England, or to the popularity of a more general form of pipes in the region. Written records of bagpipes being associated with Lincolnshire date back to 1407, but it is difficult to find certain proof that any regional variation of the bagpipe existed which was peculiar to Lincolnshire. Despite the lack of evidence for a uniquely local instrument, it is clear that the bagpipe was enjoyed by the people of Lincolnshire.
Irish warpipes are an Irish analogue of the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe. "Warpipes" is originally an English term. The first use of the Gaelic term in Ireland was recorded in a poem by Seán Ó Neachtain, in which the bagpipes are referred to as píb mhór.
The mashak is a type of bagpipe found in Northern India, Uttarakhand, Sudurpaschim Province of Nepal and parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The pipe was associated with weddings and festive occasions. In India it is historically found in Kumaon and Garhwal in Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. This bagpipe uses single reeds, and can be played either as a drone or as a melody instrument.
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