Bagpipe
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a wind instrument much beloved in the Highlands of Scotland. It consists of a leathern wind bag, three reed drones, a reed chanter, and a valved mouth tube. The drones are tubes of unequal length. Two of them are short and are intended to be an octave higher than the other. The chanter is constructed like a German flute with openings to be played by the fingers. The performer carries the bag under his arm, forces out air through the chanter with his elbow and at the same time keeps up a supply of air by forcing his breath in through the mouth tube. In range the instrument comprises but nine notes, or the natural scale, and an additional note an octave lower. The player, however, introduces an infinite variety of rapid quavers, resulting in a skirling and droning that must be heard to be appreciated. It was believed currently at one time that the bagpipe was invented in Scotland. This was an error. We learn from inscriptions that a similar instrument was in common use among the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans. Chaucer speaks of his Miller as skilled in playing the bagpipe. Shakespeare alludes to the "drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe." In fact, the bagpipe was once common throughout Europe. It has lingered in the Highlands of Scotland after it has disappeared every-where else, unless we except the Tyrol and certain districts of Ireland. The bagpipe is the national instrument of Scotland. It is played at marriages, feasts, and funerals. The piper celebrates the birth of an heir; and he marches proudly in front of his clan on all state occasions. The Highland regiments in His Majesty's service are always accompanied by native pipers. Many a gallant charge has been made, and many a fortress taken, to the thrilling notes of the bagpipe. Whittier compares skillfully the notes of the bagpipe in their Highland home with those heard at the head of a Highland regiment in India: Pipes of the misty moorlands, Voice of the glens and hills; The droning of the torrents, The treble of the rills!. . . Dear to the Lowland reaper, And plaided mountaineer,-- To the cottage and the castle The Scottish pipes are dear;-- Sweet sounds the ancient pibroch O'er mountain, loch, and glade; But the sweetest of all music The pipes at Lucknow played.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The instrument Aiton's described in 1910 is still built to the same plan — bag, three drones, chanter, nine notes — but its geography has been turned upside down. Where Aiton's said the pipes had "disappeared everywhere else" in Europe save the Tyrol and parts of Ireland, folk revivals since the 1960s have restored the Irish uilleann pipes, the Northumbrian smallpipes, the Galician gaita, the Breton biniou (now massed in bagad bands), the Italian zampogna and the Bulgarian gaida to healthy playing traditions. Meanwhile the Highland pipes went global through the army Aiton's praised: pipe bands are now standard in Pakistan, India, Oman, Jordan and much of the Commonwealth, and competitive piping has its own worldwide contest circuit. Modern sets often use synthetic hides, moisture-control systems and plastic reeds, and electronic practice pipes let a learner drone in silence — an option no Edwardian household enjoyed.
Written for this edition, 2026.