The bagpipes

Highland and Lowland pipes

Two main kinds of bagpipe are played in Scotland, Highland and Lowland. You will probably be much more familiar with the Great Highland Bagpipe. It is frequently played at open-air ceremonies such as Highland games and weddings. Bagpipes have become popular all over the world - even the Sultan of Oman has his own pipe band, and in Brittany they have created their own regional kind of pipe band - bagad - which combines the Scottish pipes with their own instruments, the oboe-like bombarde.

The drones and the chanter

The piper blows into a pipe to keep a bag full of a reserve of air, then the air escapes through four other pipes. Three of these are 'drones'. The other pipe, called a chanter, is fingered by the piper to play the tune, and plays in the key of B♭. Two tenor drones play B♭ one octave below the chanter, and the bass drone plays B♭an octave lower still.

The chanter of all the different kinds of Scottish bagpipes has a nine note diatonic scale. The Great Highland Bagpipe covers a range written as G below Middle C to A above, although the actual sound of the pitches is a semitone higher.

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Stuart Liddell is a very successful competition and pipe band player from Argyll. Here Stuart plays the Great Highland Bagpipe in a set of marches.

'The Centenary Jewel' performed by Stuart Liddell '71st Highlanders'

From Inveraoran, SKECD43, Track 1, Macmeanmna

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Other forms of bagpipes sound in different keys, and all the music is written using a stylised form of staff notation. Pipers also traditionally had a vocal method of passing on tunes from one to another, using combinations of sounds to indicate pitch and ornamentation. This was known by the Gaelic name, 'canntaireachd', which means 'chanting'.

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Rona Lightfoot from South Uist sings canntaireachd accompanied by Iain MacDonald on a set of pipes known as smallpipes.

'Canntaireachd' - performed by Rona Lightfoot

From Eadarainn, SKYECD28, Track 6, Macmeanmna Records

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Lowland pipes

The Lowland pipes are different. Instead of blowing into a pipe to fill the bag, pipers use their arm to squeeze bellows that blow air into the bag. Also, Lowland pipers usually sit down, while Highland pipers stand and will often march up and down as they play. Lowland pipes are often called the 'cauld wind' pipes, as they receive cold air from the bellows rather than warm air from the mouth. They have a quieter sound than the Highland pipes and are more suited to playing indoors. The most popular form of Lowland pipes are the Border pipes, and there are also other bellows-blown pipes known as the Scottish Smallpipes, which are a modern recreation of an extinct instrument, and which are quieter and sweeter-sounding than the Border pipes. 

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Gordon Mooney comes from the Borders of Scotland and was at the forefront of the revival of the Lowland pipes in the early 80s. Gordon plays a well-known tune, 'High Road to Linton', on the Borders pipes.

'High Road to Linton/Cuddy's Wedding/The Douglas Tragedy/The Flower o' Yarrow' performed by Gordon Mooney

From Oe'r the Border, COMDCD2031, Track 7, Temple Records

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Musical styles

Both Lowland and Highland pipes can play all kinds of tunes including strathspeys, reels, jigs, marches, and slow airs. This kind of light music is known as 'Ceòl Beag' in Gaelic - it means ‘little music’.

The 'classical music' of the Highland bagpipes is called 'ceòl mór' (great music) or 'pìobaireachd’ (piping). This word is also written in English as ‘pibroch’. This music includes:

• salutes, tunes addressed to someone of importance
• gatherings, tunes used to gather members of a clan
• laments and elegies, tunes expressing sadness at someone’s death
• tunes connected with historical events.

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John D Burgess, one of the great pipers of the 20th century, plays a pìobaireachd written in celebration of the birth of an heir to a clan chief.

'Salute on the Birth of Rory Mòr MacLeod' performed by John D Burgess

From King of the Highland Pipers, TSCD499, Track 3, Topic Records

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Famous pipers - Habbie Simpson

Lowland towns once had their own town pipers, the most famous being Habbie Simpson, town piper of the weavers’ village of Kilbarchan, near Paisley. Residents of Kilbarchan are known to this day as ‘Habbies’ after the piper. In 1661, the poet Robert Sempill wrote ‘The Life and Death of Habbie Simpson'. As you can read in the opening verses, this tells the story of Habbie's role as town piper and some of the tunes he played, such as ‘Trixie’ and ‘Maidin Trace’.

Kilbarchan now may say, alas!
For she hath lost her Game and Grace,
Both Trixie, and the Maiden Trace:
but what remead?
For no man can supply his place,
Hab Simson’s dead.

Now who shall play, the day it daws? 
Or hunt up, when the Cock he craws?
Or who can for our Kirk-town-cause, 
stand us in stead? 
On Bagpipes now no Body blaws, 
sen Habbie’s dead.

This poem is also famous as it gave its name to the six-line structure of the verses which became very popular in Scottish poetry, most notably in the poems of Robert Burns. It became known as the ‘Standard Habbie’.

'High Road to Linton/Cuddy's Wedding/The Douglas Tragedy/The Flower o' Yarrow' performed by Gordon Mooney

From Oe'r the Border, COMDCD2031, Track 7, Temple Records

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'Salute on the Birth of Rory Mòr MacLeod' performed by John D Burgess

From King of the Highland Pipers, TSCD499, Track 3, Topic Records

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