Scottish smallpipes

The Scottish smallpipe, in its modern form, is a bellows-blown bagpipe re-developed by Colin Ross and others. There are many surviving bellows blown examples of similar historical instruments as well as the mouth-blown Montgomery smallpipes in E, dated 1757, which are now in the National Museum of Scotland. There is some discussion of the historical Scottish smallpipes in Collinson's history of the bagpipes. But more reliable research and information can be obtained in Hugh Cheape's "Bagpipes: A National Collection." Some instruments are being built as direct copies of historical examples, but few modern instruments are directly modelled from older examples; the modern instrument is typically larger and lower pitched. The innovations leading to the modern instrument, in particular the design of the reeds, were largely taken from the Northumbrian smallpipes.

Although there is evidence of small pipes dating back to 15th century, in its current form it is perhaps the youngest bagpipe with any popularity, having only existed in this form since the early 1980s. The playing tradition copies that of the Border Pipes, which use few if any gracenotes.

Scottish Smallpipes are distinguished from the Northumbrian smallpipes by having an open end to the chanter, and usually by the lack of keys. This means that the sound of the chanter is continuous, rather than staccato, and that its range is only nine notes, rather than the nearly two octaves of the later 18th/19th century style Northumbrian pipes. A further distinction from the Northumbrian smallpipes is that the Scottish Smallpipes lack an unbroken line of traditional playing.

The instrument has a cylindrically bored chanter, most commonly pitched in A, although any key is feasible; D, C, and B flat are also common keys. Being cylindrically bored, the chanter sounds an octave lower than a conical-bored chanter of the same size, such as that of the Border pipes.

Scottish Smallpipes are normally bellows-blown like the Northumbrian pipes and Border pipes. Mouth-blown versions are also available, but they are less common because the moist air tends to injure the cane reeds.

It is most commonly unkeyed, but occasionally high B, G sharp, F natural, and C natural keys are added. Though it would in principle be possible to add as many keys as to the modern Northumbrian smallpipes, not many pipers use a set with more than 9 keys. Most music written for the instrument uses only the nine notes of its unkeyed range.

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Wikipedia