Swedish bagpipes

The Swedish bagpipes (Swedish bagpipes ), säckpipa in Swedish, PosU ( PASE ), bälgpipa, drommpipa or called pipsäck is the kind bagpipe, which one traditionally among other place in Sweden in military music and is today mainly used in folk music. The Swedish bagpipe is small compared with the Scottish Highland bagpipe, and blown with the mouth. The Swedish bagpipes tradition was almost extinct, as some old instruments were found in a museum in the 1930s, and the last Swedish tradition carrier has been located in Westdalarna. During the last decades advanced variants were prepared for the Swedish bagpipe, with more pipes and more possible keys than traditional.

History

Few Swedes know that their country has a tradition of bagpipes game, because most associate the word " bagpipe " with Scotland. Medieval church paintings, however, indicate that the bagpipe in Sweden was widespread and occurred in different models, with both cylindrical as well as conical shaped pipes. The historian and geographer Olaus Magnus reported early 16th century by the bagpipe as a tool for pastors and dance music. Other direct evidence for the use of the instrument are rare - only a few fonts from the 16 - and 18 - century mention the bagpipe casually. Hence, the researchers that the instrument is not an exotic appearance, but was commonplace and thus widespread at that time.

The bagpipe tradition in Westdalarna was virtually unknown in the rest of Sweden, to the ethnologist Mats Rehn mountain in 1937 came across a reference to such an instrument by a word in a dialect of the region. The theory was confirmed when in 1939 during the evacuation of part of the collections of the Nordic Museum in Stockholm some bagpipes have become unusable appeared. As part of his research on the subject succeeded Rehn mountain, the last surviving bagpipe player, Gudmunds Nils Larsson to locate in Dala -Järna. After he had this been investigated together with the music teacher Ture Gudmundsson and interviewed Gudmundsson was able to build a functioning bagpipe. With this he recorded two songs for the Swedish radio. During the following decades, only a few instruments were built.

The Swedish bagpipe was only available in larger quantities than the sawmill workers and carpenters Leif Eriksson in the early 1980s began on the initiative of the Museum of Dalarna out to develop its own model and to mass. Leif Eriksson constructed his bagpipe as a compromise between the design of a dozen historic specimens that were to be found in museums, and the modern requirements, as a way to tune the instrument to make it well with other instruments, especially the violin, harmonizes. A great reputation acquired the instrument but only when the popular violinist Per Gudmundsson began to use the bagpipes in his performances. Gudmundsson even brought out a whole album of songs played on the bagpipe.

Construction

Leif Eriksson's traditional bagpipe

The traditional Swedish bagpipe has a crook, called mundocka through which the player blows air into the bag. The mundocka is provided with a check valve so that the air can not escape through the mouthpiece when the player ceases to blow. The chanter has finger holes and on the musician can play melodies, is cylindrical drilled with a diameter of six millimeters. The pipe is provided with a single reed made ​​from local reeds ( phragmites australis) and has been carved recesses for the fingers that make it easier to simultaneously cover the finger holes and to hold the instrument. The bagpipe has a drone pipe tuned to the lowest note on the chanter - ing middle e '. The wooden parts of the instrument - chanter, drone, Mundocka and sticks, with which the same becomes connected to the bag - are made from birch wood. The bag is usually made of calf leather, vegetable tanned, so the bag is tight enough. To play, keeps the bagpipe under the left arm. The drone is sitting right. When the bag is filled with air, showing the drone at his side straight out.

The range extends to the Swedish bagpipe from e ' to the two-lined e. " This instrument is tuned minor melodic in A, and the root a is in the middle of the scale. The sixth and seventh degree of the scale are increased ( fis or gis).

Extensions

During the last decades the Swedish bagpipe has been modernized. The gamut of traditional bagpipe is extremely limited, and on modern instruments, there are more tones so that you can play more scales. The most common extension of the scale is a cis. " The finger hole for this lies in the same indentation as the finger hole for the c", just like double holes in modern recorders. By obscured or releases the cis " hole, you can switch between the keys of A minor and A major. Usually one defines the key before playing, using either wax, or a rubber ring that slides over the tone hole will. , it is possible in the game between c "and cis " to change, however, a special ( and uncommon ) finger technique, this consumes. another common additive is a g '. the hole for this tone is placed at the back of the chanter and is operated with the right thumb. too, the tone d (d ' ​​and d " ) is a common extension, sometimes a dis. Skillful players can achieve with the right tools even set the f ", by increasing the pressure in the bag, a technique similar to overblowing with other wind instruments.

There are even instruments, for which the manufacturer has added additional chanters. The most common are here chanters in G, and sometimes F. The G- whistle sometimes has a flap which causes the player can play the sound f ", without having to increase the blowing pressure. It is also not uncommon bagpipes with be equipped several drones that sometimes can also turn it off. through moisture on the reed, the pitch of the instrument changes rapidly. 's why a bagpipe with natural reed leaves, blown by mouth and several drones has, in practice, difficult to agree. to work around this problem, Säckpipas today enjoyed playing with a blower instead of Anblasrohrs, which is strapped with a belt under the right arm. this technique is very old and is traditionally mainly in the smaller European bagpipes types (eg the Irish uilleann pipes, the Northumbrian Smallpipe northern England, the French musette de cour, and many others) use.

Reed and votes

The reed which is used in the Swedish bagpipe for tone, is a simple reed with a tongue that vibrates when the air pressure in the bag has become strong enough. The tuning of the instrument is very time consuming and relatively difficult because many parameters can be adjusted on the reed that affect the sound characteristic. The tongue of the tube sheet is broken by a razor blade, which stands vertically down into the pipe material. In order to make sounds, the tongue must be bent, using either heat or a wire that is stabbed under the tongue. How strong the tongue is bent determines the scale length of the instrument, ie the distance between the highest and the lowest tone. A strong bent- tongue has a narrower bore, sounds stronger and is also harder to toot. The strength of the tongue mainly influenced the sound. A thin tongue is a softer sound and an easier to blowing instrument. The weight of the tip of the tongue affects the pitch of the scale quite linearly. This is exploited to up the whole scale or down vote. To increase it is filed off some of the tongue; it must be lowered to use beeswax as weight. The tongue length also influences the scale length; a short tongue has a narrower bore, but blocked more easily than a long tongue. To all these different variables to this is that the instrument all the time is negatively affected by the moisture in the air. In order to make the instrument more easily tunable, today often Mediterranean reed ( Arundo donax ) is used instead of the native reeds.

Game art

Breathing and melody are not synchronized with a bagpipe, which distinguishes them from other wind instruments. This means that the sound of the bagpipe not weaken, the air pressure through the pipe must be constant. As the air flows directly from the bag into the pipe, it means that the air pressure in the bag must be constant. This causes the player by pressing with the left arm on the bag. New air he blows into it only when the pressure in the bag decreases considerably. The player is then usually blows a full breath into the bag. This must be coordinated with a reduced pressure of the left arm, to maintain a constant pressure in the bag.

The design of the Swedish bagpipes with cylindrical bore and single-reed requires that the top open finger hole ( both the pitch after and after the height above the bell- piece of the chanter ) decide on the tone. With a recorder, for example, there is a tone difference between the fingering combinations to - open -to -open and open, but this is at the Swedish bagpipe different. This makes it possible to play with open fingering ( no holes under the highest open finger hole covered ). By the player a covered (all finger holes except one are constantly covered ) or a semi- covered (a mixture of the other two ) fingering used, some effects can be achieved. Since the bagpipe sounds constantly, it can be difficult to highlight individual notes. The player can simulate taking a break by quickly covering all holes as it sounds, the chanter as the drone.

Music for the Swedish bagpipe

The music that suits the Swedish bagpipes, the traditional Swedish folk music. Due to the limited tonal range only certain tunes can play. Some pieces fit perfectly if the player they are transposed to a different key. A large part of the Swedish minstrel music has a smaller ambitus, mostly pieces in a D- key, which will be played only in the first position on the A or E string of the violin. These fit well with the Swedish bagpipe when they are transposed down a fourth.

Manufacturers of bagpipes

Today there are a small number of professional or semi-professional bagpipes designers. This of course include Leif Eriksson and Bors Anders Öhman and Bengt Sundberg, representing the traditionalists, while especially Alban Faust driving development to more modern instruments. Besides them, there are of course a large number of amateur designers.

Known bagpipes player

• Erik Ask- Upmark - State player on the bagpipe and a member of the groups Svanevit, DRAM and Falsobordone (Sweden)
• Anna Rynefors - State player on the bagpipe and a member of the groups Svanevit, DRAM and Falsobordone (Sweden)
• Alban Faust - bagpipe maker and member of the group Faust (Sweden)
• Per Gudmundson - pioneer of Swedish bagpipe (Sweden)
• Olle Gällmo - (Sweden)
• Göran Hall brands - also a member of the group board Raw Kstan (Sweden)
• Unlike Norudde - member of the group Hedningarna (Sweden)
• Jan Winterfeld - bagpipes expert and member of the group The Dancing Masters
• Leif Eriksson ( instrument maker ) - a great pioneer of the Swedish bagpipe, is one of the few in Sweden producing Säckpipas traditional way. (Sweden)
• Ralf Gehler - among other members of the group Malbrook ( Germany )
• Matthias Branschke - member of the group Bilwesz ( Germany )