Books › A dictionary of musical terms, 1889 › scan 50
Scan 50
A dictionary of musical terms, 1889
32 lines. Read by computer on 12 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1pipes, three of which united are called the drone, and are capable of producing only one note each, subject to tuning. These notes are heard throughout the performance. The fourth pipe, the chanter, furnished with a reed, is bored with six or eight holes which are stopped by the ends of the fingers of the performer. The scale of some of the Scotch bagpipes, with eight ventages, is in the minor mode with the seventh flat:
3in others with six holes, the fourth and seventh are omitted:
5that of the Calabrian bagpipe is the diatonic scale:
7The bagpipe was known to the Anglo-Saxons, and that it was at one time in England a popular instrument, may be inferred from the frequent mention made of it in mediæval times. Strutt quotes a MS. recording many payments made to bagpipers in the reign of Edward III., about 1335, both for their personal performance and as an allowance to enable them to visit the foreign minstrel schools. The same authority also records a payment to another bagpiper in 1494. The manner in which the instrument is mentioned by Chaucer, and other poets, shows it to have been exceedingly popular and of frequent use in England in their days; and a large number of tunes quoted or alluded to in William Chappell's "Popular Music" bear evidence of having been of bagpipe character. There is no proof that the bagpipe is a national Scottish instrument, for its introduction into Scotland only dates from the time it began to be disused in England.
9There is a tradition that bagpipes were used at the Battle of Bannockburn, and there is a tune, "Hey taitti, taittie," said to be the identical march played by them. Ritson, in his preface to a collection of Scottish songs, doubts whether the Scots had any martial music, and quotes Froissart's account of each soldier in the army wearing a little horn, on which, at the onset they would make such a horrible noise "as if all the devils in hell had been let loose." He further notes that as these horns are the only instruments mentioned by Barbour the Scottish chronicler, it must remain a moot point whether Bruce's army was ever cheered by the sound of a bagpipe.
11The earliest mention of the bagpipe as forming part of the military music of the Scotch was at the Battle of Balrinnes (1594), though the oldest known pibroch is called the "Battle of Harlaw," but it could not be contemporary with the event (1411). There is mention of trumpets and drums in the old ballad relating to the battle, but none of the bagpipe:
13"The armies met, the trumpet sounds,
14The dandring drums alloud did touk."
16The Irish or Union pipes are furnished with a pair of bellows (worked with the elbow) with which to inflate the bag. There are three drones, two tuned in unison, and one an octave below; most pipes have a valve by means of which the drone can be silenced, and there is also a contrivance for sounding at will the common chord of the key note in which the pipes are set. The quality of the chanter is more like that of the clarinet than the oboe, and the general tone of the Irish pipes is softer and less piercing than the Scottish bagpipe. The native Irish pipers call the instrument "ullan piobe," the pipes of the elbow. Shakespeare's mention of "woollen pipes" in the "Merchant of Venice," Act. iv. sc. i:
18"Why he, a harmless necessary cat
19Why he, a woollen bagpipe,"
21refers probably to the "ullan pipes;" and the word "union," as applied at the present day, may be only a modern substitute for the right word, for it is difficult to see the force of the application of the term "union" to bagpipes, unless the word be a corruption of a proper term.
23It is supposed that the bagpipe came originally from the East; it is still to be met with in use among many Eastern nations. In India, China, Persia, and Egypt, it is the subject of frequent mention by many travellers.
25Baguettes (Fr.) Drumsticks.
26Baisser (Fr.) To lower.
27Balafo. A musical instrument popular among the negroes of Senegambia. It is made of a series of graduated pieces of wood, placed over gourds, which act as resonance-boxes, is struck with hammers, and has a scale of two octaves, sometimes tuned in accordance with the white notes of a pianoforte.
29Balalaika (Russ.) A Russian instrument, in form like a guitar, but narrower and of less depth; it has two strings. With it the Russian Moujiks accompany their popular songs.
30Balancement (Fr.) Tremolo.
31Balcken or Balken (Ger.) The bar under the belly of a violin.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.