France: Cabrette
The Cornemuse of the Auvergne region which was transformed by makers and players living the Auvergnat community in Paris last century into a sophisticated instrument both in appearance and styles of playing. Bellows were used on these improved instruments in place of the older mouth blown style and sections of the pipes were elaborately carved giving a very pleasing and ascetic look to the pipes and several virtuoso styles of playing emerged.
The Cabrette consists of a Chanter and Drone set in a double stock and this unit known as a "Pied" plugs into a further stock connected to the bag and therefore once the basic instrument has been purchased it is possible to just buy further "Pieds" in different pitches to fit directly into the existing system.
The characteristic sound is due to the wide conical bore and small tone holes, the resulting volume of sound blending well with other instruments, especially Mellodeons and Hurdy Gurdies. The modal note of the chanter is the three finger note and this together with the length is used to denote the instruments pitch e.g. 39 Do - (chanter 390mm long in c11). The chanter cross fingers to play a chromatic scale and has a compass of an octave and two notes although some of these notes can be slightly flat. The drone can be of two types, either sounding an octave below the chanter's six finger note or in unison with it although in reality it is seldom used partly due to interaction between the chanter and drone reeds setting up a vibration which increases in intensity with the lower pitched instruments. This is a characteristic of the Cabrette and one style of playing where the chanter is shut down to the lowest note between melody notes to simulate a drone is one way this difficulty is overcome. It is available in most pitches and all have a fully bored and reeded drone with an on/off switch. A mouth blown version, which is the original form and is known as the Cabrette a Bouche is also available upon request.
Should a drone be essential then alternatives are the "Musette Jousse" & "Chabra".
Materials:
Box, fruit or exotic hardwoods with ivory, bone, horn, sterling silver or nickel silver mountings. The bellows have a centre board to counteract the "ballooning" of the leather improving efficiency.