Pastoral pipes
Encyclopedia
The Pastoral Pipe was a bellows-blown bagpipe, widely recognised as the forerunner and ancestor of the 19th-century Union pipes, which became the Uilleann Pipes
of today. Similar in design and construction, it had a foot joint in order to play a low leading note and plays a two octave chromatic scale. There is a tutor for the "Pastoral or New Bagpipe" by J. Geoghegan, published in London in 1745.. It had been considered that Geoghegan had overstated the capabilities of the instrument, but a study on surviving instruments has shown that it did indeed have the range and chromatic possibilities which he claimed .
, and there were several well-known makers over a large geographic area, including London
, Edinburgh
, Dublin, and Newcastle upon Tyne
. Therefore it is difficult to say which country the pastoral pipe and its later adapted Union Pipe specifically come from although the earliest known piping tunebook - "Geoghegan's Compleat Tutor" - refers to a maker in London in 1746. As the pastoral pipe was modified it developed into the Union pipe in the period 1770-1830, makers in all three countries contributed ideas and design improvements. http://www.bagpipeworld.co.uk/British%20Isles/Union.htm http://www.music.ed.ac.uk/euchmi/ubl/ublg.html#ublgu. Both pipes were played by gentlemen pipers of the period in Scotland
, England
and the Anglo-Irish protestants in Ireland
, people in society who could afford an expensive hand made set of pipes.
The term “New bagpipe” refers to the expanded compass and improvements to the instrument. Although the term Pastoral is not historically found outside Geoghegan's London context, it is evocative of a style of music played at the time. Originally the label “Pastoral” may refer to the “ancient Pastoral
airs" played on the instrument composed in a "gentle, very sweet, easy manner in the immolation of those airs which Shepard’s are supposed to play" This style would suit the sweet tone of the Pastoral pipes Union/Uilleann pipes of the late 18th century, when literature, art and music romanticized rural life. In the 19th century oboes were being marketed in London as “Pastoral” to fit the music styles of the times. The pastoral bagpipe may have been the invention of an expert instrument maker who was aiming at the Romantic market. The Pastoral pipes and later Union pipes were certainly a favourite of the upper classes in Scotland, Ireland and the North-East of England and were fashionable for a time in formal social settings, where the term Union pipes may originate.
The first reference to a Pastoral pipe comes from popular and fashionable pastoral dramas of the time with music such as the Gentle Shepherd in (1725) by the writer and poet Allan Ramsay
and the English Ballad The Beggar’s Opera in 1728, as a counter-measure against the influx of Pastoral Italian music. The Opera featured an “en masse” dance led by a Pastoral pipe and the scene was engraved by William Hogarth
(1697–1764) who clearly shows a bellows blown bagpipe http://nms.scran.ac.uk/000-000-579-622-C similar to the one later depicted in the Geoghegan tutor. The Geoghegan repertoire draws on contemporary compositions namely the London
organist John Ravenwood (1745), composer John Grey (1745) the musical collection of William Thomson
's Orpheus Caledonius in (1733) as well as operatic arrangements for the Ossian
Cycle. The pastoral pipes were regarded in a classical or neo-baroque setting, played by gentlemen pipers and spread across the upper circles of polite society as the instrument of choice. An established bellows pipes with an extended range is noted to be played across Scotland
no later than 1760 in the “Complete Theory of the Great Highland bagpipe” by Joseph MacDonald.
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The first reference to the instrument in Ireland is provided by John O'Keefe in (1760) as an instrument of polite society and the emerging 'Pastoral' and prototype Union pipe influenced the folk tradition of the 18th and 19th century in Scotland and Ireland. This can be thought of as a shared tradition which served a Neo-baroque orchestral and concert fashion but also drew strongly on the ‘native traditions’ of both Scotland and Ireland and the music styles of the times.
The pastoral pipes can be played either standing or in a seated position using a set of bellows, and the chanter is similar to the later Union pipes, but it had an added foot joint that extended its range one tone lower. This added foot joint had holes in its sides in addition to the hole at the bottom of the bore. The pastoral pipes are like the Highland pipes in that the sound is continuous; notes are articulated by finger techniques such as gracenotes. The Union pipes, which evolved from the pastoral pipes, enable the player to interrupt the flow of air by stopping the end of the chanter on his knee; this doesn't work for the Pastoral instrument because of the side tone holes. Many later Pastoral sets, though, have a dismountable foot joint; when this is removed they can be played as union pipes. The surviving instruments indicate that the Pastoral pipes had two or three drones and generally one regulator.
The Pastoral pipe had a narrow throat bore of 3.5 - 4mm and an exit bore seldom larger than 11mm. Its bore was very similar to later flat set Union pipe chanter bores made in the early 18th century. The reeds had a head width of 9.5mm to 10.5mm and staple bores of 3.6mm. The chanters were made in a variety of pitches with a quiet tone and an E flat pitch being very common among surviving instruments. http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/Papers/Sutherland-Manuscript.pdf Later examples include a slide on the foot joint to change the lower leading note from flat to sharp as required and on a further set an on/off mechanism is fitted to control the drones with the two regulators fitted neatly to the top of the common stock and the addition of key in "e" to increase the compass of the chanter in the second octave.
The fall from grace of the open chanter was slow to take effect as Pastoral pipes with removable foot joints were still being made till the 1850s and played until after the First World War. In time the instrument would be tuned for performance on the knee rather than off it, and the foot joint remnant today is the tenon cut around the foot of the modern uilleann chanter.
Some of the oldest surviving instruments date from the 1770-1790s, notably James Kenna of Mullingar
, Hugh Robertson
of Edinburgh
and later Robert Reid
of North Shields
. Pipemakers started to optimise the instrument for performance on the knee rather than off it, so that players could take advantage of the better dynamics this offered. It is possible that the performer community diverged for a while into ‘union’ pipers playing without the foot joint, and old style Pastoral pipers who retained it and could play in both styles. In any case, both "long" and "short” pastoral/union chanters were documented in both Scotland and Ireland until around World War One. The evolution of the Union and (Uilleann pipes a term originating in 1904 by Irish nationalists) was also driven by competition between makes; throughout the late 18th and early 19th century, pipemakers in Aberdeen
, Dublin, Edinburgh
and Newcastle
competed and copied each others' ideas and innovations. It is now thought that the existence of regulators, already a common feature of the Pastoral pipes, a characteristic keyed stopped ended system, was the inspiration for the keyed Northumbrian smallpipes
, probably first produced by John Dunn
, who made both Pastoral and Northumbrian pipes in Newcastle upon Tyne.http://www.nspipes.co.uk/nsp/ww11glos.htm
Uilleann pipes
The uilleann pipes or //; ) are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland, their current name, earlier known in English as "union pipes", is a part translation of the Irish-language term píobaí uilleann , from their method of inflation.The bag of the uilleann pipes is inflated by means of a...
of today. Similar in design and construction, it had a foot joint in order to play a low leading note and plays a two octave chromatic scale. There is a tutor for the "Pastoral or New Bagpipe" by J. Geoghegan, published in London in 1745.. It had been considered that Geoghegan had overstated the capabilities of the instrument, but a study on surviving instruments has shown that it did indeed have the range and chromatic possibilities which he claimed .
History
This bagpipe was commonly played in the Lowlands of Scotland, the Borders, and Ireland from the mid-18th until the early 20th century. It was a precursor of what are now known as Uilleann pipesUilleann pipes
The uilleann pipes or //; ) are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland, their current name, earlier known in English as "union pipes", is a part translation of the Irish-language term píobaí uilleann , from their method of inflation.The bag of the uilleann pipes is inflated by means of a...
, and there were several well-known makers over a large geographic area, including London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Dublin, and Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
. Therefore it is difficult to say which country the pastoral pipe and its later adapted Union Pipe specifically come from although the earliest known piping tunebook - "Geoghegan's Compleat Tutor" - refers to a maker in London in 1746. As the pastoral pipe was modified it developed into the Union pipe in the period 1770-1830, makers in all three countries contributed ideas and design improvements. http://www.bagpipeworld.co.uk/British%20Isles/Union.htm http://www.music.ed.ac.uk/euchmi/ubl/ublg.html#ublgu. Both pipes were played by gentlemen pipers of the period in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and the Anglo-Irish protestants in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, people in society who could afford an expensive hand made set of pipes.
The term “New bagpipe” refers to the expanded compass and improvements to the instrument. Although the term Pastoral is not historically found outside Geoghegan's London context, it is evocative of a style of music played at the time. Originally the label “Pastoral” may refer to the “ancient Pastoral
Pastoral
The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...
airs" played on the instrument composed in a "gentle, very sweet, easy manner in the immolation of those airs which Shepard’s are supposed to play" This style would suit the sweet tone of the Pastoral pipes Union/Uilleann pipes of the late 18th century, when literature, art and music romanticized rural life. In the 19th century oboes were being marketed in London as “Pastoral” to fit the music styles of the times. The pastoral bagpipe may have been the invention of an expert instrument maker who was aiming at the Romantic market. The Pastoral pipes and later Union pipes were certainly a favourite of the upper classes in Scotland, Ireland and the North-East of England and were fashionable for a time in formal social settings, where the term Union pipes may originate.
The first reference to a Pastoral pipe comes from popular and fashionable pastoral dramas of the time with music such as the Gentle Shepherd in (1725) by the writer and poet Allan Ramsay
Allan Ramsay (poet)
Allan Ramsay was a Scottish poet , playwright, publisher, librarian and wig-maker.-Life and career:...
and the English Ballad The Beggar’s Opera in 1728, as a counter-measure against the influx of Pastoral Italian music. The Opera featured an “en masse” dance led by a Pastoral pipe and the scene was engraved by William Hogarth
William Hogarth
William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...
(1697–1764) who clearly shows a bellows blown bagpipe http://nms.scran.ac.uk/000-000-579-622-C similar to the one later depicted in the Geoghegan tutor. The Geoghegan repertoire draws on contemporary compositions namely the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
organist John Ravenwood (1745), composer John Grey (1745) the musical collection of William Thomson
William Thomson (musicologist)
William Thomson was a Scottish folk song collector and singer.He is said to have been the son of Daniel Thomson, one of the king's trumpeters for Scotland. As a boy singer, he sang at a concert - The Feast of St. Cecillia - in 1695. Before 1722, he had settled in London, and according to Charles...
's Orpheus Caledonius in (1733) as well as operatic arrangements for the Ossian
Ossian
Ossian is the narrator and supposed author of a cycle of poems which the Scottish poet James Macpherson claimed to have translated from ancient sources in the Scots Gaelic. He is based on Oisín, son of Finn or Fionn mac Cumhaill, anglicised to Finn McCool, a character from Irish mythology...
Cycle. The pastoral pipes were regarded in a classical or neo-baroque setting, played by gentlemen pipers and spread across the upper circles of polite society as the instrument of choice. An established bellows pipes with an extended range is noted to be played across Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
no later than 1760 in the “Complete Theory of the Great Highland bagpipe” by Joseph MacDonald.
The pastoral pipes can be played either standing or in a seated position using a set of bellows, and the chanter is similar to the later Union pipes, but it had an added foot joint that extended its range one tone lower. This added foot joint had holes in its sides in addition to the hole at the bottom of the bore. The pastoral pipes are like the Highland pipes in that the sound is continuous; notes are articulated by finger techniques such as gracenotes. The Union pipes, which evolved from the pastoral pipes, enable the player to interrupt the flow of air by stopping the end of the chanter on his knee; this doesn't work for the Pastoral instrument because of the side tone holes. Many later Pastoral sets, though, have a dismountable foot joint; when this is removed they can be played as union pipes. The surviving instruments indicate that the Pastoral pipes had two or three drones and generally one regulator.
Tuning
The conventional view was that the Pastoral Pipes were difficult to shift between the lower and upper registers. Recent reconstructions and refurbishments have shown that this is not the case. In modern Uilleann pipes, the player will move from the lower to the upper register by stopping the chanter momentarily while increasing the bag pressure, causing the reed to double-tone. However, in the pastoral pipe, the same effect can be achieved by increasing the bag pressure while playing a suitable gracenote. For example, to go from first octave A to second octave A the player can use an E gracenote. Surviving Pastoral pipe manuscripts have many tunes that leap vigorously between registers. The ability to stop the chanter does help, though; it also gives the instrument much better dynamics, as the chanter can be raised and lowered from the knee to modulate the volume. This may have motivated the evolution into the Union pipe by removing the foot joint from the Pastoral pipes.The Pastoral pipe had a narrow throat bore of 3.5 - 4mm and an exit bore seldom larger than 11mm. Its bore was very similar to later flat set Union pipe chanter bores made in the early 18th century. The reeds had a head width of 9.5mm to 10.5mm and staple bores of 3.6mm. The chanters were made in a variety of pitches with a quiet tone and an E flat pitch being very common among surviving instruments. http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/Papers/Sutherland-Manuscript.pdf Later examples include a slide on the foot joint to change the lower leading note from flat to sharp as required and on a further set an on/off mechanism is fitted to control the drones with the two regulators fitted neatly to the top of the common stock and the addition of key in "e" to increase the compass of the chanter in the second octave.
Chanter
The Pastoral chanter is used to play the melody and is similar to later flat set union pipe chanters in tone. It has eight finger holes giving middle C, D, E♭, E, F♯, G, A, B, C♯, D' using open fingering in the first register. Most of the accidentals can be obtained by cross-fingering and a second register is available by increasing the bag pressure. http://nms.scran.ac.uk/000-000-579-908-C With a suitable reed, a few third-octave notes can also be played. Later sets included fully chromatic chanters using as many as seven keys. The chanter uses a complex double-bladed reed, similar to that of the oboe or bassoon. This must be crafted so that it can play two full octaves accurately, without the fine tuning allowed by the use of a player's lips; only bag pressure and fingering can be used to maintain the correct pitch of each note.Removal of the Footjoint
The Pastoral pipes gradually evolved into the Union pipes as Baroque musical tastes favoured a more expressive type of instrument. The foot joint may have fallen out of use as early as the 1746-1770's as oboists of the period, who usually played Pastoral pipes, would frequently removed or invert the foot joint in order to remove the low C# foot joint to play the chanter upon the knee,.The fall from grace of the open chanter was slow to take effect as Pastoral pipes with removable foot joints were still being made till the 1850s and played until after the First World War. In time the instrument would be tuned for performance on the knee rather than off it, and the foot joint remnant today is the tenon cut around the foot of the modern uilleann chanter.
Instrument makers of the Pastoral and Union pipes
Mullingar
Mullingar is the county town of County Westmeath in Ireland. The Counties of Meath and Westmeath Act of 1542, proclaimed Westmeath a county, separating it from Meath. Mullingar became the administrative centre for County Westmeath...
, Hugh Robertson
Hugh Robertson (instrument maker)
Hugh Robertson was a Scottish wood and ivory turner and a master crafter of woodwind instruments such as Pastoral Pipes, Union pipes, and Great Highland Bagpipes.-Biography:...
of Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
and later Robert Reid
Robert Reid (pipemaker)
Robert Reid is widely acknowledged as the creator of the modern form of the Northumbrian Smallpipes. He lived and worked at first in Newcastle upon Tyne, but moved later to the nearby town of North Shields at the mouth of the Tyne, probably in 1802. North Shields was a busy port at this time...
of North Shields
North Shields
North Shields is a town on the north bank of the River Tyne, in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside, in North East England...
. Pipemakers started to optimise the instrument for performance on the knee rather than off it, so that players could take advantage of the better dynamics this offered. It is possible that the performer community diverged for a while into ‘union’ pipers playing without the foot joint, and old style Pastoral pipers who retained it and could play in both styles. In any case, both "long" and "short” pastoral/union chanters were documented in both Scotland and Ireland until around World War One. The evolution of the Union and (Uilleann pipes a term originating in 1904 by Irish nationalists) was also driven by competition between makes; throughout the late 18th and early 19th century, pipemakers in Aberdeen
Aberdeen
Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....
, Dublin, Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
and Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
competed and copied each others' ideas and innovations. It is now thought that the existence of regulators, already a common feature of the Pastoral pipes, a characteristic keyed stopped ended system, was the inspiration for the keyed Northumbrian smallpipes
Northumbrian smallpipes
The Northumbrian smallpipes are bellows-blown bagpipes from the North East of England.In a survey of the bagpipes in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford University, the organologist Anthony Baines wrote: It is perhaps the most civilized of the bagpipes, making no attempt to go farther than the...
, probably first produced by John Dunn
John Dunn (bagpipe maker)
John Dunn was a noted pipemaker, or maker of bagpipes. Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, Dunn was a cabinet maker by profession, initially a junior partner with George Brummell . In the trade directories, he also appears in his own right as a turner and a plumb maker and turner . His address...
, who made both Pastoral and Northumbrian pipes in Newcastle upon Tyne.http://www.nspipes.co.uk/nsp/ww11glos.htm
Instrument Variations
Historical examples of various designs have turned up over a wide geographical area, and several pipemakers have offered reconstructions. They are not widely played, though research and interest in them is currently increasing.External links
- A video sample of Rémi Decker playing a set of Pastoral Pipes.
- Pastoral Pipes the forerunner of the Uilleann pipes
- Ross's Music Page
- National origin of the Union Pipes
- http://www.bagpipeworld.co.uk/British%20Isles/Pastoral.htm
- Uilleann pipe development history and design (pdf)
- Chris Bailey, one of the few modern makers of Pastoral pipes
- http://www.bemccandless.net/pdfs/PastoralUnion_McCandless.pdf