Bagpipes in Wales

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The John Jones sketch, 1610.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the Cowbridge document, 1610

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The St. Fagans double chanter, 1701.

 

 

 

The Trawenden double pipe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Llaneilian bagpipers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mick Tems with his Goodacre Welsh pipes

 

 

 

Paddy the Pipers’ Eryri bagpipes

 

 

Members of Pibau Pencader

 

Of all the countries of Western Europe, Wales would be the last to be associated with the bagpipe, and yet there is a long though not very well documented history of the instrument in the country. Sadly, though they disappeared from Wales as late as the second half of the nineteenth century, no examples have survived to the present day.

There are many literary references to pipes and pipers, though these do not of course necessarily refer to bagpipes, though they may, but at least in the work of Iolo Goch (late 14th century) there is an incontrovertible reference to bagpipes in his poem `To Sir Hywel of the Axe, Constable of Cricieth Castle'

Did anyone ever see what I see

at night -- do I not do well?--

when I, greatest pain that ever was,

am sleeping, ageing nature?

First of all I see, in truth,

a magnificent fort yonder by the shore,

and a marvellous fine castle,

and men at table , and light,

and blue sea against a fair stone wall,

and foam about the base of a grim dark tower,

and lively music of pipes

and bag, and fine-looking men

enjoying dancing and song...

 The poem `the Saxons of Flint' by Tudur Penllyn from near Bala (15th century) also clearly mentions bagpipes, in this case describing a bagpiper at an English wedding in Flint. In this case the pipes are clearly seen as something foreign and to be disdained, but by the beginning of the 17th century they seem to have gained some credibility in that part of Wales. A sketch by John Jones of Gellilyfdy in Flintshire, dated 1610, showing the hierarchy of bards shows two sorts of bagpipes alongside the harp and crwth more normally associated with the bards. Interestingly, the pipes illustrated are of two very different types. The first is a not very well drawn example of a typical Western European bagpipe of the period, having a conical chanter, a single bass drone and blow pipe. Better examples can be seen illustrating `The Borough Ordinances of Cowbridge in Glamorgan 1610/1611'. The second shows another mouthblown bagpipe with a single bass drone, but this time with a double chanter very similar in appearance to instruments more normally associated with the Middle East and North Africa (the bagless zummara for example).

In the National Folk Museum at St. Fagans, there is a bagpipe chanter which was found in a cottage in North Wales and is inscribed with the date 1701. This is similarly of North African appearance, being a double chanter with cowhorn bells, but at the moment it is not possible to determine its origins. Another double pipe, possibly a bagpipe chanter, was found in the 1970s in the wall of a house, Trawenden in Lancashire, which is only about fifty miles or so from the Welsh border. This pipe is made of bone with five equal fingerholes per pipe and its similarity to the John Jones sketch is striking.

In Llaneilian church on Anglesey there are carvings of four musicians, two being bagpipers and two playing some sort of mouthblown pipe. The bagpipes are interesting in that one shows a droneless instrument with a single conical bore chanter while the second , again without a drone, has two divergent chanters fingered separately by each hand. Sadly this latter carving has been damaged at some time so that one chanter is broken off at the bag and the other broken off below the players hand. Of course it is not possible to say that the instruments are anything other than works of art, nor that they represent actual instruments played in Wales, though one might wonder why they would be commissioned for this remote church if bagpipes were not a familiarity.

In a poem describing the different counties of Wales, Dafydd Thomas writing circa 1720 says:

 Fair are the houses of Carmarthen town,

From Lamas Street to King Street.

And the bagpipes are most frequently played

At the biggest weddings in Wales.

 

This association of bagpipes with weddings continues into the nineteenth century with our last known references to the bagpipes. "Y tro diwetha y clywais i'r pipa cwd yng Nghwm Nedd oedd ym mriodas ych mamgu. Evan Gethin o Flaen Cwm Tawe oedd yno i wara nhw." (The last time I heard the bagpipes in the Neath valley was at the wedding of your grandmother. Evan Gethin of Blaen Cwm Tawe was there to play them.) wrote David Rhys Phillips in `The History of the Vale of Neath’ (1925) recalling a conversation he had with Benjamin Hay, Lleina in the 1880’s. And Theophilus Jones, in `The history of Brecknock' wrote "What is known as the horse wedding took place in 1852. There was all...the mirth and jollity of bygone days. But one feature was missing- that appealed to the ear as well as the eye- where old Edward of Gwern y Pebydd, who, mounted upon his white steed and pouring forth the wild music of the bagpipe, had headed many a wedding party in their half frantic gallop over hill and vale."

Modern Times

Throughout Europe and America there has been a resurgence of interest in bagpipes which has been reflected here in Wales. Although many have been content to play Welsh music on various types of imported instruments, such as the Spanish gaita and the Breton veuze (itself a reconstructed bagpipe), there has also been a movement to both create a Welsh piping repertoire and to recreate instruments we can call our own.

Peter Stacey of the group Aberjaber commissioned Julian Goodacre to produce an instrument based on the St Fagans double chanter. This was only a partial success as with only 7 notes its repertoire was very limited and it was quite difficult to play with its two chanters. Also, having plastic double reeds rather than the single cane reeds it should have had, although it was stable in tuning it somewhat lacked that reedy pibgorn tone. I think Julian no longer makes them and most people have turned to either conical bore bagpipes or ones with a pibgorn as the chanter.

On the recorded music front, most prominent was the duo of Ceri Rhys Matthews and Jonathan Shorland with their ground-breaking recordings “Cico Nyth Cacwn” and later “Pibau”, both with Fflach records. Jonathan indeed was for many years Wales’ most prominent maker of both bagpipes and pibgyrn. Other recorded pipers include Antwn Owen Hicks of Carreg Lafar and Peter Davies with Calenig.

Another pipe maker in North Wales is making a bagpipe of his own development based on an Irish Uillean pipe chanter with bass and treble drones which he calls the Eryri bagpipes. These pipes are bellows blown and, following the pibgorn theme, the chanter is fitted with a cows horn.

In 1997, Ceri started the pipe group Pibau Pencader in the North Carmarthenshire village of Pencader, drawing people from the village itself and surrounding area as well as pipers from further afield. Although no longer meeting, a development was the “Gwyl Bibau Pencader” pipes festival which brings prominent pipers from other countries with piping traditions to this annual event. Another offshoot was the pipe and drum band Pibe Bach which has played both at home in Wales and as far afield as the Drj festival in Libya, and the Khareef festival in Oman. Another offshoot was two Pibau Pencader members getting involved with pipe making. John Glenydd of Llanfihangel producing pibgyrn and John Tose of Crymych, Pembs. producing both bagpipes and pibgyrn.