The GreatHighland

Bagpipe Plays inWHAT Key?

Bill MuzzyGCRL Science Café

January 28, 2014

Bagpipe Construction• In it's most basic form,

the bagpipe is prettysimple.

• It consists of four parts:• bag,• blowpipe,• chanter,• and drone,

Not this drone!

These drones!

OperationSound made by blowing air into

blowpipe every few seconds.Air passes through the reeds in

the drone and chanter.Must keep pressure in the bag

constant.

Unique Features• When bag is inflated the chanter

always produces a sound.• Impossible to play the same note

twice in a row unless another note(a “grace” note) is quicklyinserted in-between.

• So the fingering is awkward anddifficult.

Scotland the Brave

Grace notesTaorluath

GHB PartsBagTwo tenor dronesBase droneBlowpipeChanter

In addition• Five stocks• Chanter reed• Two tenor drone reeds• Base drone reed• Blowpipe valve• Mouthpiece• Bag cover• Cords• Yards of linen hemp

thread

Chanter reed

Drone reeds

GHB Bagpipe Chanter• Chanter scale consists

of 8 notes• Low A through high A,

or one octave.• When chanter is closed,

an extra note (low G) issounded.

• The melodic range ofthe chanter is an octaveand 1 note.

Tenor & base drone

Bagpipe drone• Upper section of drone• Tuning chamber

approximately 3 inchesdeep

• Bell at top of drone• Bell cap with hole

History• The bag pipes - made of wood and

leather.• Instruments of the "common" people.• Were used, probably without concern,

outdoors.• Bagpipes were peasant instruments

and associated with persons of lowsocial status.

History• Reed pipes used since at least 2800-2500 BC.

A set of silver reed pipes of that period, fromUr, still exists

• Instruments producing a continuous droningsound by air squeezed from a bag may haveexisted as early as 1300 BC, and certainly bylast century BC

• The first definite historical evidence of abagpipe with a chanter appears in areference to the Roman Emperor Nero

History

From Cantigas de Santa Maria, during reign of Alfonso X "El Sabio"(1221-1284 A.D.). Therer are 420 poems with musical notation.

• Widespread use of bagpipe in Europe began intwelfth century.

Canterbury Tales

“A baggepipe wel koude he blowe and sowne,And therwithal he broghte us out of towne."

• Chaucer wrote this collection of tales aroundthe end of the 14th century

Ancient wind instruments

• Numerous wind instruments visible in very old Mediterraneanand Asian art and some of the simpler instruments depictedhave in some places survived virtually unchanged.

Illustrated book 1619 ADFast forwardabout 350 yearsto 1619, with anillustrated bookby Preatorius

Drones added• Single drone added in 14th century.• Second drone added end of the15th century or

beginning of 16th century (1514)• Illustrations show two drones on some bagpipes

produced the same pitch, whereas some bagpipesthe drones produced two pitches separated by amusical fifth.

• The third added to the highland bagpipe was the"bass" drone. Different historians give the date as1600, 1700, or 1800

Turkish Tulum Irish Uilleann Pipes

Hungarian Duda Swedish säckpipa

Estonian Tourpill Indian Sruti upanga

Bulgarian Kaba Gaida Italian Zampogna

Serbian Gaida German huemmelchen

Double chanter Double entendre

Bagpipes of the World

Bagpipes of the World

The Threat

Don’t make me get outthe bagpipes!

TuningSounds rise likenoxious fumesfrom Goofy's out-of-tune pipes,while Mickeyprotects his earswith muffs ...

TuningFew things are as obnoxious as an

out-of-tune Great HighlandBagpipe (GHB)

Bagpipes heard out-of-tune are themajor reason why many peopledislike the instrument.

Out-of-tune pipes may lead to:

• Social unrest,• Dog bites,• High gasoline prices,• Shortages of Prozac.• Divorce lawyers consider badlytuned pipes money in the bank.

ScaleBasic finger position of most simplewind instruments.The scale is a set intervalsProblem of describing chanter scalegets tied up with temperament andsemi tonesPipers think of the scale of the chanteras consisting one octave

Key vs. Pitch• The key of the instrument is not necessarily the

pitch to which it is tuned.• The low A on the are commonly tuned to above

concert B flat, which is 466.16 Hz.• With the application of some tape and a bit of

adjustment of the reeds, the GHB can beadjusted such that low A on the chanter (and thedrones) vibrate at 466.16 Hz.

• This is a concert B-flat tuning of the instrument,but it is not necessarily the key.

GHB ScaleLA

HA

Circle of 5ths• Pipe music has

two sharps - F#and C#.

• It corresponds toA Mixolydian.

Consonance & Dissonance• Around ~500 BC it was known that certain notes

sounding together are heard as a consonance (asmooth, pleasant combination of notes.)

• This occurs when the ratio of their frequencies isa fraction with small integers in the numeratorand denominator.• i.e. 3/2, 9/8, 5/4

• As such the two notes have many harmonics incommon.

Frequency - cps & Hz• The unit of frequency is the number of

cycles per second (cps) of a periodicphenomenon.

• One of the common uses is the descriptionof the sine wave,

• Replace in the 1960 with the hertz(symbol Hz).

Octave• There are 12 notes in an octave (Think piano)• Each of them are exactly 100 cents apart.• This is the 12-tone equal temperament system.• It is an artificial compromise; it is not natural and

it is not in keeping with the physics andmathematics of sound.

• This does not suit bagpipes as certain notes willclash

Twelve Tone Scale-Why?• If the interval between two notes is a ratio of

small integers, such as 2/1, 3/2, or 4/3, theysound good together — they are consonantrather than dissonant

• The twelve-tone equal-tempered scale is thesmallest equal-tempered scale that contains allseven of the basic consonant intervals to a goodapproximation — within 1 %.

Cents defined• Scientists have a standard unit for

measuring the size of perceived intervalsbetween two frequencies vibrating at agiven ratio.

• This unit is called a cent because it equals1/100th of a half-step..

• There are 12 half-steps (semitones) in anoctave, and so one octave = 1200 cents.By definition.

Cents• With keyboards and other fixed intervals the

scale is divided into equal values

• These intervals are sometimes expressed in"cents", where 1 cent is equal to the 12th root of2.

• c = 1200 × ln(fb/fa) / ln(2) or

• c = 1200 × log10(fb/fa) / log10(2) or

• c = 1200 × log2(fb/fa)

Overtones• When a resonant system such as a blown pipe

or plucked string is excited, a number ofovertones may be produced along with thefundamental tone.

• In simple cases, such as for most musicalinstruments, the frequencies of these tones arethe same as (or close to) the harmonics.

Natural Frequency• When an object is forced into resonance vibrations at

one of its natural frequencies, such as a guitar string oran air column enclosed within a drone it vibrates in amanner such that a standing wave pattern is formedwithin the object.

Overtones

Fundamental

Fundamental x 2

Fundamental x 3

Added together

Harmonics• Each natural frequency that an instrument produces has

a characteristic vibration.• These patterns are only created within the instrument at

specific frequencies.• These frequencies are known as harmonic frequencies,

or merely harmonics.• The harmonic frequencies are related to each other by

simple whole number ratios.• This is part of the reason why such instruments sound

pleasant.

Solo piping• Solo pipe music the concern is the frequency ratio is

always that between the chanter and the drones.• Since the drone notes are "A" (one or two octaves below

the chanter's low A) the frequency of each note on thechanter is defined by the ratio of its frequency to that oflow A.

• For example, low A will have a ratio of 1:1, and high Awill have a ratio of 2:1.

• C# will have a ratio of 5:4

Notes, Frequency, Ratio & Cents

• Note Hz Ratio Cents• Low G 414 8:9 -203.9• Low A 466 1:1 0.0• B 524 9:8 203.9• C(#) 583 5:4 386.3• D 629 27:20 519.6• E 699 3:2 702.0• F(#) 777 5:3 884.4• High G 828 16:9 996.1• High A 932 2:1 1200.0

Recap• All parts of the GHB defined• Bagpipes are very old• Found in many countries• Range of notes• Tuning the GHB• Gracing and embellishments• Playing techniques• Sound defined• Twelve notes in an octave• GHB scale unique because of drones• Need for tempering GHB scale

16 Chanters & 48 Drones

The GHB plays in WHAT key?

D major

sort of