Session Pipe Binioù INSTRUMENTSAmber Eyes (Devilstew)
E. McDentinger Celtic Musician
musiqueceltique@ericdentinger.com
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Border pipes were played on both sides of the border, in the Borders and in the Northumberland, with the same repertoire. The instrument had almost disappeared in the late twentieth century, when musicians and pipe makers choosed to play it again. The pipe is tuned historically in A, with drones in A for the bass, A for one tenor and E for the second (sometimes two tenors in A). The chanter has also chromatic abilities.
The Border pipe comes from Scotland, Scottish Borders exactly (part of the Lowlands, Southern Uplands, south of Scotland between Edinburgh and England). Known since at least the sixteenth century, it has three drones set on the same stock, a bellows to inflate the bag and a conical bore chanter, which allows the border pipe to be more powerful than the other small bagpipe from Scotland, the small pipe, but definitely sweeter than the great Highland bagpipe. It also plays an octave above the small pipe. I play a border pipe with a blowpipe, introducing air by mouth : this technique is not usual but historically attested.
The Border Pipe : the other scottish bagpipe