PROMOTING THE MUSIC, HISTORY & STUDY OF THE BAGPIPES Triple Pipes Retrieving Gaeldom’s forerunner of the pipes The Lowland Scots Bagpipe The Day it Daws Mike Cole National Piping Centre’s Taking the big drum to grade one Summer Outreach Ian Dall MacKay’s chanter Prague...California...Virginia Eary chanter a challenge to copy Arab origins of the bagpipe Auckland Pipe Band College Finding the Mizwid of Tunisia April/May 06 NYPBoS newsletter No.18 ISSUE NUMBER 21 • 2006 PRICE - UK £2.95 • EUROPE 5 • USA $5 • CANADA $9.25 ORIGINS ORIGINS Early chanter a challenge to copy IAIN DALL MacKAY’s CHANTER RESENTATIONS in March at The National Piping Centre in Glasgow, PEdinburgh University’s Celtic and Scottish Studies Department and the 2006 Piobaireachd Society Conference at Birn- ham introduced Scottish Highland piping enthusiasts to the long lost chanter-sound of 250 years ago. The instrument played at these presenta- tions — by Barnaby Brown, Allan MacDonald and Robert Wallace — was a painstakingly created replica of a chanter that once belonged to the great ‘Blind Piper of Gairloch’, Iain Dall MacKay, piper to Sir Kenneth Mackenzie and to his successor, Sir Alexander Mackenzie. Iain Dall (c.1656-c.1754), a student of Patrick Og MacCrimmon, was a gifted poet as well as the composer of some of the finest piobaireachd in the repertoire, including La- ment for Patrick Og MacCrimmon, The Unjust PEEBLES-based pipe-maker Julian Incarceration, The Blind Piper’s Obstinacy, La- Goodacre (left) tenderly displays the carefully preserved chanter ment for the Laird of Anapool (Arnaboll), The that belonged to Iain Dall MacKay Prince’s Salute and Lament for Donald Duaghal (c.1656-c.1754), while piping scholar Barnaby Brown holds the MacKay. recently completed replica. In 1805, his grandson, Iain Roy MacKay, migrated to Nova Scotia, taking his family with him to settle in what became New Glas- gow. With them went Iain Dall’s chanter, to be carefully preserved as a treasured family heir- Julian measured and reproduced a lovely set of Iain Dall’s ancient, now unplayable chanter. loom. In March 2006, Rory Sinclair, a friend of 18th century drones, now in the National Over the years, the wood had gradually but of Iain Dall descendant Michael Sinclair, took Piping Centre Museum — and I have been surely contracted, pulling the bore into an oval the chanter back to Scotland to mark the long- playing these since 1998. But chanters — the cross section. Several cracks have been filled awaited completion of its replica. good ones at least — are prone to damage and and reinforced with early hemp bindings. Creating the replica was not as straightfor- deterioration.” Woodwind specialists reproducing early ward as its makers, Peebles-based pipe maker “Many of the old chanters in museums look instruments had already calculated formu- Julian Goodacre and piper and piping scholar as if they were never played, and I would be lae to extrapolate original dimensions from Barnaby Brown, had initially hoped. cautious about reproducing them. Iain Dall´s time-distorted recorders. “Following their For one thing, the original chanter was not chanter, however, was clearly the instrument methodology, we measured both the major quite its original shape. of a working professional. The finger holes and minor axes all of the way up this oval “We went out to Nova Scotia to measure are very well worn, and a snap across the G bore then calculated the original circular bore the chanter in December 2000,” said Barnaby holes has been beautifully repaired with a dimensions,” said Barnaby Brown. Brown. “It was Dr Peter Cook who originally metal collar, we guess before 1805. The heavy Within three months, they had a proto- suggested to Julian Goodacre that this would wear and this careful repair suggest that it was type replica turned from pressure-treated be a good chanter to reproduce, back in the much loved, not as a wall decoration, but for applewood. Reeded up, however, the chanter early 1990s when he was director of the School its sound. displayed what Barnaby Brown at the time of Scottish Studies at Edinburgh University. In Halifax, Julian Goodacre and Barnaby considered a “slight” problem: a tendency to “In 1994, on the advice of Hugh Cheape, Brown made careful, thorough measurements double-tone on F and an unstable low A. PIPING TODAY • 16 THE chanter that belonged to the famous 17-18th century bard THIS reproduction of Iain Dall’s late-17th century chanter was made by Julian Goodacre of Peebles, in and piper Iain Dall MacKay of Gairloch… and the replica of it collaboration with piper and piping scholar Barnaby Brown. It rests on documents relating to the original that was completed this year by pipe-maker Julian Goodacre measurements and the extrapolations that were made to correct distortions wrought by time on the original of Peebles and piping scholar Barnaby Brown. chanter, which was carefully preserved by Iain Dall’s descendants in Nova Scotia, Canada. Photo: Mike Paterson The quest for a more suitable reed root wide enough for a chanter reed, and began. Dugald MacNeill informs me that Thomas “The chanter has a huge reed seat and Pearston (co-founder of the College of that was the only evidence we had about Piping) searched too, and never found it the original type of reed: the space it used without worm holes.” to occupy,” said Barnaby Brown. When the difficulties of reeding the “No chanter reeds of the 1690s survive, first prototype reproduction began look- and getting the reed right was a challenge ing insurmountable, Barnaby Brown took that has taken years of trial and error. I another long, critical look at the original suspect that in Iain Dall’s day, players made measurements and the extrapolations he their own chanter reeds entirely by hand. and Julian Goodacre had used to make “The size of the reed seat suggests that the replica. the original reed had a much bulkier bind- “Normally, the throat end of a chanter ing and staple. I do wonder what material is more prone to shrinkage, as that is where the professional players of the 17th century moisture from warm breath condenses and used for their reeds. I don’t think we can the fluctuations in humidity are greatest. I rule out Arundo donax, given the shiploads suspected that we’d over-compensated for of red wine imported to the isles from shrinkage in the throat and upper bore France and Spain. But I don’t think we region. I went back to the original data and can rule out local materials either: poorer took a second look, open to the possibility pipers possibly depended on them. that perhaps the original chanter hadn’t “I’m sure Hebridean cane (cuilc) and shrunk quite as much as we’d thought. elder would have made satisfactory drone “Julian and I spent a couple of days in reeds. For the chanter, I’m not so sure. Peebles in January 2006, experimenting Hamish Moore has suggested that elder with the dimensions of the upper end of might make good chanter reeds. He may the bore, filling the top of the chanter with be right, but we won´t know until it has beeswax and re-drilling the throat to 5/32 been tried out by several gifted reedmakers, of an inch, then gradually bringing the prepared to devote time to experimenta- reamer back up bit by bit and, at each stage, tion. There is an old belief that heather testing it with three different reeds to see root was used, but I’ve never found heather where the optimum reaming depth was. PIPING TODAY • 17 ORIGINS “All of this experimentation lay in the margin longer played. square with what we play today, characterising between our measured bore and our extrapo- “The early sources of piobaireachd show the authors of the manuscripts as amateurs lated ‘original’ bore — tiny differences, but with quite clearly that a lot of music has fallen out of struggling to express themselves on paper, and a huge impact on the behaviour of the critical the tradition not, I’d suggest, because it was bad they refuse to accept that what’s there on paper notes F, piobaireachd high G, open high G, music, but because it simply wasn’t appropriate represents what they were playing. So they feel and high A.” for the new function the great Highland bag- justified in ignoring people like Peter Reid and And they found that, with a slightly narrower pipe found from the late 18th century onwards: John MacGregor — people who took pains to throat and upper bore, the instability problems competition. These lighter tunes simply weren’t describe to a high level of accuracy what they disappeared. appropriate for that arena. Many of them are in actually played. “With hindsight, we spent too long trying the Campbell Canntaireachd manuscript. “It’s an insult to our tradition and our fore- to solve the problem by adjusting the reed “Now, I believe there is a place for these small bears to write these manuscripts off as inept or design alone,” said Barnaby Brown: “In fact, works. It would be pointless to play them in the inferior to what we do today… it’s a shame,” it was our estimation of the original throat kind of competition we have today — but there he said. “In the same way as playing Bach on that was the problem. The original throat is are good reasons to play them in recitals and period instruments has brought a deeper un- slightly wider than that of a modern chanter, for pleasure: they are easier for unaccustomed derstanding and reinvigoration of his music, an and it was a mistake to make it wider still on ears to appreciate, a gentler introduction to historically-informed approach to early Gaelic the reproduction.” piobaireachd than the long, heavy tunes.