|
The bagpipe has come down to us from a veritable
antiquity : the Walls of Jerico are declared to have fallen at its
last. Many attempts have been made to identify the instrument with
various pipes mentioned in Scripture and the histories of the Bible
times, but these are based on conjectures. There is a tradition that
the shepherds of the Nativity hailed the birth of the Messiah by the
strains of a primitive bagpipe.
In 1118, the historian Cambrensis mentions the
instrument as largely in use amongst the Irish and Welsh : the want
of a true diatonic scale, the inability to play them on a march, or
to render a complete chromatic scale, induced our Irish friends
Henry Starck and Wm O'Duane to give the matter careful thought
and during the past two years experiments were carried out and after
many trials and costly outlays the present Dungannon Pipe was
produced, revived from the ancient Irish War Pipe with every modern
advantage combined.
This new, yet ancient type of instrument has 3
drones in a box, a chanter of two octaves, and is therefore , a
perfect musical instrument capable of rendering any National melody
(major or minor); it can be played on the march, sitting down or
standing.
This welcome revival of so ancient and National an
instrument will be warmly embraced by all lovers of the Gaelic
movement, and should prove to be the ideal music in the hands of all
true sons of Erin.
Whilst the Scotch pipe claims an equal antiquity,
and is held in the highest esteem by Scotland, we claim for the
Irish Pipe advantages which the Scotch does not possess, being fully
chromatic and a much more perfect instrument. |