Border pipes facts for kids

The border pipes are a type of bagpipe. They are similar to the Great Highland Bagpipe from Scotland. Sometimes, people confuse them with the Scottish smallpipe, but border pipes are much older. Modern border pipes are based on old instruments. However, modern Scottish smallpipes are a new invention, inspired by old instruments but built more like Northumbrian smallpipes.

The name "border pipes" is new. It refers to the Anglo-Scottish Border area, where this instrument was once very common. Many towns there even had their own piper. But the instrument was played in many other places too. It was found as far north as Aberdeenshire in Scotland. South of the border, it was played in Northumberland and other parts of Northern England. Some old paintings from the late 1600s, like one by Egbert van Heemskerck, show musicians playing these pipes in places like south-eastern England.

Other names for the instrument were used in the past. In Scotland, they were called Lowland pipes or reel pipes. In Northumberland and Durham, they were known as half-long pipes. However, the term reel pipes usually meant instruments like Highland pipes, but used indoors.

Border pipes were popular in the 1700s. But by the late 1800s, people stopped playing them. There was an attempt to bring them back in north-east England in the 1920s. New instruments were made for schools and scout groups. Today, "half-long pipes" often refers to the Northumbrian pipes from this time. These were partly based on an 18th-century set owned by Muckle Jock Milburn, which is now in the Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum.

What Are Border Pipes Like?

The border pipes have several main parts:

• A chanter (say: CHAN-ter) plays the melody.
• Drones play a steady, unchanging harmony sound.
• A bag holds the air for the chanter and drones.
• A set of bellows (say: BELL-ohs) pumps air into the bag.

An old photo from Northumberland around 1859 shows what the instrument looked like.

The Chanter

The chanter on border pipes has a conical shape inside. This is different from the Scottish smallpipe, which has a straight, cylinder-shaped bore. Modern border pipes are louder than Scottish smallpipes. But they are not as loud as the Great Highland Bagpipe. They sound good when played with string instruments like violins.

The chanter has one hole for your thumb and seven holes for your fingers. It can play nine notes, from G to a. Some chanters can play a few higher notes too, like b, c', and c#'. You can get these notes by 'pinching' and blowing harder. Like the Highland pipes, the main scale is a mixolydian scale on A.

Some chanters can play different notes called chromatic notes. Some old tunes, like Bold Wilkinson, suggest that a dorian scale was sometimes used. This scale needs a minor third note instead of the major third of the mixolydian scale. Players could get this note by cross-fingering or half-holing. Some experts think that some G major tunes suggest border pipes used to play a C natural note, not a C sharp.

Some border pipes are made to play in different musical keys, like B flat or G, instead of A.

The Drones

Border pipes usually have three drones. They have a cylinder shape inside. All three drones connect to the pipebag through one shared part called a "stock." They are often tuned to A, a, and e', or A, a, and a. This is different from the Great Highland Bagpipe, which has each drone in its own separate stock. The drone tuning A, e, a was used in half-long pipes in the early 1900s. Now, some new sets are starting to use this tuning again.

The Bag and Bellows

The player does not blow into the bag with their mouth. Instead, dry air is pumped into the bag using a set of bellows. These bellows are strapped under the player's right arm. Using bellows keeps the reeds inside the instrument drier. This helps the pipes stay in tune better. It also makes the reeds last much longer.

Border Pipe Music

There is a special collection of music for the border pipes. Many of these tunes were kept alive in fiddle and Northumbrian smallpipes music after border pipe playing stopped in the mid-1800s. Other tunes can be found in old handwritten music books from the 1700s and 1800s.

Old Music Books

One very important source is the William Dixon manuscript, from 1733. It was found in Stamfordham, Northumberland. Matt Seattle discovered in 1995 that this was music for border pipes. He later published it with many notes.

The book has forty tunes. Almost all of them have many different versions or "variations." Some of these tunes only use one octave. Many of them are similar to tunes for Northumbrian smallpipes from the early 1800s. "Apprentice Lads of Alnwick" is one example. Other tunes are richer and use all nine notes of the chanter. A great example of this is Dorrington.

Another very old, but small, source is George Skene's fiddle book from 1715, from Aberdeenshire. Besides fiddle tunes, it has four pieces that are clearly in a bagpipe style.

Thomas Marsden's 1705 collection of Lancashire Hornpipes for fiddle is another early source. One clear pipe tune in this book is "Mr Preston's Hornpipe." It has the typical nine-note range. This tune is in the Dorian mode on A, with C natural notes. This is different from the Mixolydian mode of the Dixon tunes.

Several border pipe tunes were copied in the 1800s by John Stokoe. He copied them from the John Smith MS, a handwritten book from Northumberland dated 1753. This book belonged to Lewis Proudlock in 1881, who showed it to Stokoe. But the book has since been lost. Some tunes in James Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion, from the mid-1700s, were meant for flute or violin. But they can be identified as border pipe tunes. The William Vickers manuscript from Northumberland is another important source. Many tunes in this fiddle book have the nine-note range typical of pipe tunes.

A later Scottish source from the early 1800s is Robert Riddell's Collection of Scotch, Galwegian and Border Tunes. Besides fiddle and smallpipe tunes, some tunes, like "Torphichen's Rant," clearly have the range and style of border pipe tunes. Robert Bewick's smallpipe manuscript from Gateshead also has several nine-note tunes now known as border pipe music. Some smallpipe tunes in Peacock's book from the early 1800s are in the Lydian mode. These tunes, like "Bobby Shaftoe," make more musical sense as adaptations from original border pipe tunes.

How the Music Sounds

Border pipe tunes have special features that make them different from fiddle, Northumbrian pipes, and Highland pipes music. The nine-note scale, usually mixolydian, sets them apart. This scale goes from the subtonic (the note below the main note) up to the high tonic (the main note). The interval of an augmented fourth, which is hard to play on a fiddle, is common in these tunes. Fiddle tunes usually have a wider range of notes. Older smallpipe tunes have an eight-note range.

Also, border pipe music often moves in small steps or in thirds. It does not use wide jumps between notes as much as Great Highland bagpipe music. It also has fewer repeated notes than many Highland pipe tunes. This suggests that border pipe music did not use the complex "graces" (small, fast notes) that are common in Highland pipe music. However, some old pipe tunes from Skene's manuscript do have complex written-out graces. This means playing styles varied in the 1700s. Today, people are successfully recreating the old playing styles for border pipe music, especially for the Dixon tunes. These styles use simple graces, only when needed, to add rhythm or separate repeated notes.

Border Pipes Today

Many pipers have started playing border pipes. They use them to play different kinds of music, not just music from the Scottish borders. For example, in Cape Breton and Nova Scotia, Highland pipers use border pipes to play along with fiddles and other quieter instruments. Since the modern border pipe is a fairly new revival, ideas on how to play them are still developing. The playing style often depends on the type of music being played.

Music Groups

The Lowland and Border Pipers' Society was started in 1982. This group has done a lot to bring back the instrument and its music. In the North East, the Northumbrian Pipers' Society has helped both border pipes and Northumbrian smallpipes.

The border pipes are now widely played again. The original music for the instrument, especially the Dixon tunes, is becoming more well-known.

Famous Players

• Gillian Chalmers of Bodega
• Paul Dunmall
• Hamish Moore
• Finlay MacDonald
• Fred Morrison
• James Duncan MacKenzie of Breabach and Skara Ceilidh Band

See also

• Bagpipes
• List of pipe makers
• List of bagpipes
• Music of Northumbria