h a l f b a k e r y
A dish best served not.
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This bagpipe uses an oboe/flute/woodwind
attatchment instead of the familiar blaring
honk we're used to. The extraneous tubes
out the back aren't here, as the only sound
you hear is the constant humming melody of
your favorite wind/woodwind instrument.
Ahhhh!
Annotation:
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How could a bagpipe *possibly* sound better? |
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With a flue attatched? C'mon now, you
think it would sound anything like it used
to??? |
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The best sounding bagpipe is that one which is not played. |
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Maybe with a flue, the sound could be ducted away. |
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I was at a wedding recently, with the reception room being quite 'cosy' and a dancefloor with space enough for 10 couples maximum. Ok, there were loads more- but it was more shuffling than dancing. Anyway, the band stop and I could see a piper standing at the door. Here we go I thought - I like the bagpipes, but indoors? In this room? That's nuts! |
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I was not prepared for the Monty Python-esque scene that followed:
Band-master:"Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd like to invite...
The Royal Northern Constabulary Pipe Band!" |
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1... 2... 3... 17 pipers, 1 base drum and a band leader later...
[[[WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA]]] |
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There are many different forms of the bagpipe, and they all sound different. The familiar Scottish pipes (my least favourite) which tend to provoke such disdain do so not so much because of the timbre of the note but because they're not capable of playing absolutely in tune (for reasons far too complex to go into); the piper in the Battlefield Band (whose name escapes me) developed a system which enabled them to do so, and incurred the wrath of pipers the world over. The Northumbrian small-pipes have a much sweeter tone, as do the Irish uillean pipes (uillean means 'elbow'); both of these are bellows-blown, unlike the mouth-blown Scottish, Cornish and (some) Breton pipes. Most European bagpipes are also mouth-blown.
The principal influence on the timbre of a pipe is the shape of the pipe itself - I know of no bagpipe having other than a cylindrical or a conical bore - but a common reason for disliking the pipes is that they're just so damn' loud! There's no way for the player to control the volume because he needs the bag to blow hard enough to make the reed speak; an oboist can control volume by lip pressure on the reed, but a piper obviously cannot. The bombard is an instrument with a similar shortcoming in that the reed is placed in a box (called a reed-cap) and is inaccessible to the player. What you're describing here is simply a bagpipe with no drones (the uillean pipes can be played with the drones not speaking) and with the chanter (the melody pipe) resembling an oboe or clarinet; such pipes already exist, but they'll still be louder than you want.
Also, Alan Stivell, the Breton harper and piper, has a set of pipes which trigger a MIDI synthesizer, so he can make them sound like pretty much anything. They're still loud though. |
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//Better sounding bagpipe// is one of those oxymoronic nonsensical phrases, like "tastier cow-pat" or "more attractive SUV".
Unless "sounding" is used in the sense of "tied to a string and used to gauge the depth of water below a ship". |
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// How could a bagpipe *possibly* sound better? //
when the gaels are charging over the hills to finish off the anglos and its blaring the mournful whine of their demise. |
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//There's no way for the player to control the volume // |
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Can't they make a mute for it? (I envision a large hair-dryer like cone that fits completely around the instrument and the player.) |
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Well said. I still think that the concept of
"babpipe" can be applied to any wind
instrument, resulting in a sound I've never
heard. |
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[Murdoch] Just because I'm of >50% Scottish ancestry and married (in Scotland) to a Scot, doesn't mean I actually have to like the bloody things. They wouldn't scare the pants off me, but they would give me a better idea which way to aim my MAC-10 in the mist and gloom (or should that be "gloaming"?) |
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//when the gaels are charging over the hills to finish off the anglos// |
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And as an oboe player, [ophello] I can confidently say that attaching one to a set of bagpipies would not in any way whatsoever improve the sound of the instrument. |
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I like them in parades, and at funerals. |
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I like bagpipes. esp. moving at funerals |
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OmG Bliss, you read my mind, or I yours! |
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Well, I like them most of the time; Scottish, Irish, Cornish, Breton, Northumbrian, whatever. You very rarely hear pipes played badly because they're so damn' difficult to play at all that if the player's not much good, no sound comes out. |
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//WTF?//
wtf? this is politically correct now that the ira's disarmed. |
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