Date: Thu, 21 May 1998
From: Dave Singleton <DaveSingleton_Lux@compuserve.com>
I have just read an interesting tidbit in Thorsten Stoye's web page----It is in German so please be kind with my quick translation :

The oldest written description matching a Northumbrian smallpipe was by a Mr James Talbot in 1699/1700 in London where the title was "Bagpipe, Scotch, Mr Robinson", but the secondary title was "German Sackpfeiffen". Could this be a trace to an even older closed end instrument that found its roots in Germany ?. In fact in an oil painting by Antoine Pesne of Grafen Gustav Adolf Gotter in 1735 is a closed end chanter undoubtedly of German origin

Thorsten gives a reference of the picture : Der Dudelsack In Europa mit besonderer BerFCcksichtigung Bayerns" Munchen 1996

Date: Fri, 22 May 1998
From: Dick Hensold <dick@uswest.net>
This was the source from about 1695 that I referred to earlier. W.A. Cocks wrote an article about it in the Galpin Soc. Journal, and his particulars vary somewhat from what you mention. "German Sackpfeiffen" is not mentioned by Cocks, so I assume this is a modern editorial comment!
There are some people in Northumberland who postulate that the Nsp came to Northumberland from the Low Countries in the C16 or C17. Smallpipes appear in Flemish art more frequently than anywhere else in the C17, and the earliest representation of the Nsp-style common stock is in Praetorius' Syntagma Musicum of 1618 (Southern German?).
Absolutely and plenty easy to check. But I left my copy of 'Der Dudelsack In Europa...' in London last fall. So what do you say Francis? Do you want to see if you can find this picture? Did GW ever pass this book on to you?

Date: Mon, 25 May 1998
From: Julia Say <Julia.Say@nspipes.demon.co.uk>
Barry and I have Colin's copy of this book at the moment - and I also would be very grateful for a translation of the two pages of text around the painting in question.

Well, I have stared a while at that picture in Dick's book and I can see nothing to confirm or disprove that the chanter is closed. The instrument is a smallpipe with three divergent drones in a common stock. The chanter is incredibly narrow...apparently about the length and width of the average pencil and plain ended without a mount of any kind, unlike the rest of the instrument which is richly furnished.
Speculation continues about where the NSP 'came' from. It is not uncommon for simultaneous and similar technical and cultural developments to emerge in geographically separate areas. Perhaps this is also true of the development of smallpipes in Northumberland. I sometimes wonder whether the supposed relationship between NSPs, musettes and other smallpipes is as much accidental as actual.
If we are looking for a very distant common ancestor, perhaps this is the 'oaten pipe' of antiquity often mentioned in pastoral literature. It is a simple narrow cylindrical-bore reed instrument made from an oat straw, sounding very like a soft-toned smallpipe chanter.

From: Rev John Clifford <Clifford@universalist.ednet.co.uk>
Subject: German translation of p22&23, 'Der Dudelsack In Europa...
Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998
Friends, there follows a quick translation of the text sent to me. My rough translation has been slightly corrected by a native German speaking colleague but I wouldn't want to have her blamed for any mistakes that slipped through. The passage is more concerned with drone attributes of small pipes than with closed ends but might add something to the discussion.

p 22

Further picture examples for the Netherlands are the painting "Piping Shephers" by von A Cuyp as well as "Merrymaking at Shrovetide" by Frans Hals, both in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.
However, in South Germany small bagpipes also existed. With the Instrument in Schorer's drawing (illustration 12) the basic shape clearly follows the larger previous patterns. The connecting sleeves on the drones are decorated with bumps or depressions, stylistically following the drinking glass standing on the nearby table. Even if on grounds of specific artistic conventions the instrument is in details such as the mouth pipe too decoratively illustrated, yet the cylindrical shape of the chanter is still clearly recognisable -- the chanter's even average thickness indicates that it possessed a narrow cylindrical bore.
Christopher Paudiss, the Rembrant-student and the later chief painter of Freising, captured, the small bagpipes In two paintings. With the "Dancing Farmers in the Pub" the Piper plays on an instrument with two small, equally long drones; in "Inside a Farmer's Hut" it is not clear from the Vienese picture whether there are two or three drones. The two clearly visible drones are of differing lengths. A copy of the painting is to be found in the Diocisan Museum in Freising. At the least, the "Dancing Farmers" could be a scene painted from life in the Freising area during the 1662-1666 period.

DUDEY

"Dudey however, have three small pipes for a voice" remarked Praetorius and made clear through this pronouncement that he understood by this a very small instrument as shown in the woodcutting. Also here, the Utrecht painters JA Wtewael and his son, Peter, deliver timely information.
The instrument in illustration 13, which probably belongs to effects which were found in the artist's studio,is on at least five paintings from different perspectives, as painted by father and son Wtewael. Details from these paintings show that, of the six playing holes on the front side of the chanter, the bottom three are long oval slits. These could, just as the notably short stock for the chanter, indicate a simple reed of clarinet type. The stock for the chanter is only just as long as the presumed length of the plug of the chanter. It must be assumed, then, that the (simple?) reed is located very deep in the chanter. This bagpipe is, as also the two droned small bagpipe in the paintings in Pommersfeld, decorated with very fine turning. The end of the chanter, mouthpipe, and drones are decorated with tin or silver coated ferrules.
Further examples are Hendrik Tergrugghen's painting "A man playing the bagpipes" 1624 in Oxford, "De Speellieden" by Jokob Ochtervelt of about 1669, Amsterdam, as well as the bagpipeplayer painting of Jan Tilius of 1680 in the Vienna Art History Museum.

 The only known example for Germany comes from the late 16th Century. [p23] This one is a small bagpipe with three drones which is held in the hands of one of the shepherds on the epitaph of Duke Johann Friedrichs in the Moritzkirche in Coburg. The chanter is outwardly slightly conical, the drones are unusual in their proportional length. They are nearly equally long and could point to a tone similar to the Dreibruemmchen [name of instrument meaning Three Mumbles] (see further below). There is no blowpipe. Whether there was one formerly and is merely broken off could only be established by searching the location.
Praetorius called such small, three droned bagpipes "Dudey". This designation is however problematic. This will be spoken of further, later.

Dutch bagpipes have, for unknown reasons, never made the further development of bellows -- at least it is not yet known of. In England, in contrast, particularly in north England (Norhumberland) and in the Scottish Lowlands, at the end of the 17th century such small bagpipes with three drones are described by Praetorius in his Intervallen and known with the same contruction-indicators. They are fitted with bellows. Whether this development in small bagpipes also took place in Germany could not be decided up to this point from contemporary sources. Great meaning has been contributed by a previously unknown painting by Antoine Pesne that recently came on the market.

[Illustration 14.] This shows the Count Gotter with a bellows driven three droned bagpipe, with red cloth cover, Fringe, Tassels and tin decoration. Such elaborate decoration are, as it turns out, also displayed in Dutch bagpipes from the peasant/farmers period.
Count Gotter, in service to Fredriech II, ofter had himself painted in different costumes. This desire is to be thanked for the origin of this painting. It is up to now the *only* image of such an instrument for all of Germany. How did it get here? Is it showing Northumbrian smallpipes? The biography of Count Gotter states that he was twice in England during his life. He could have brought such an insrument with him. Equally it could have been a gift of the English delegate to the court of Friedrich II.
In 1699/1700 James Talbot in London described such a bagpipe as Count Gotter plays. According to the title, it should have Scottish origins ("Bagpipe, Scotch, Mr Robinson"). Next to the title, however, is noted "Germ. Sackpfeiffen". This would be an unusual place to document his German knowledge and is perhaps a correction of the statement of origins. Talbot also describes a Fr (=French) bagpipe with tune box and bellows, i.e. a Musette. By this means could the described three drone small bagpipe have been also a further instrument of the Continent, a German bagpipe? Or is the "Germ Bagpipe" here meant as a general type, as in German flute, a cross-wind flute? So, a Scottish smallpipe becomes known as a German blueprint for construction? Even the "French" bagpipe did not necessarily have to be made in France! The instrument has a closed fingering. According to the fingering table a chanter with closed bottom end (!) must be attached. The scale played reaches from g to g', the drones are tuned to G d g.

In this context we return to the so-called "Dreibruemmchen", a three droned small bagpipe, that already in 1800 in Niederlausitz in the area of Guben and perhaps also in the border area of Poland was played only for table music at weddings. Whether this instrument had bellows or blowpipe fitted is not stated. A bellows is, however, apparently possible, analogously to both other instruments (Bockpfeifen) already in use there. This bagpipe had, at least according to its description, drones in groundtone, fourth (!) and fifth and varies thereby from the tuning given by Praetorius of groundtone, fifth, octave, which Talbot also describes. Count Gotter's bagpipe could have had (going by the length of the drones) a drone tuning like the Dreibruemmchen. Perhaps it was one of these. Without further written or illustrative material a definite decision is meantime not possible.

From: Dave Singleton <DaveSingleton_Lux@compuserve.com>
I have just received this morning by snail the photocopies from Julia, and last night I read the translation from John, thanks John , if I may make so bold as to add an interpretation or so..

the chanter's even average thickness = the chanter's small (outside) diameter

"Dudey however, have three small pipes for a voice" = "Dudey however, have have three small pipes for tuning"

deliver timely information = deliver information of the same time period

Dutch bagpipes from the peasant/farmer period = Dutch bagpipes from the farming community

I would love to find out about the fingering table mention by Talbot, does it specifically say that the chanter should have a closed end ?, or is it an assumption. If so, then closed end chanters were known about and we can then theorise a time period for stopped chanters, otherwise it has to be a false assumption as the simple musette was closed fingering but open ended.

Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998
From: Dave Singleton <DaveSingleton_Lux@compuserve.com>
Here's a bit more history but this time from France:All info from Borjon de Scellery Traite de la Musette 1672. The Musette de cour was originally simply called musette champetre (rustic(?)), sauvage (wild) or de Berger (herders), and because it was a diatonic instrument that could not play in all keys and so could not play all the 'best music (grand airs)' it was called musette, 'music' in earlier times meant the science of singing well, thus musette was a diminutive word taken from 'music'
It had up to 6 or 7 drones and one chanter with up to four keys, closed fingered all on 'F' left thumb off top 'G', the bellows (according to Borjon de Scellery ) were added around 1620-30. The second chanter was added around 1660'ish by the senior Hotteterre, a renowned flute maker and player. This addition extended the range from diatonic to almost chromatic.
Here is where the name became 'musette de cour'.
The notes include Bb,B,F,F#,G,G# but apparently no C#, the range from F to top D( no hole in the staple). I will possibly be hacking a translation over the next few weeks, so I'll let on when it's done.

Talbot's description of the pipes is reproduced in a Galpin Society Journal article (Vol 5, 1952, p44) by W.A.Cocks, who annotates it. (I found it in Durham Univ. Library, I think it is a freely available publication) Maddeningly he does not reproduce the fingering chart, but describes it as ' a G to g diatonic scale with F natural.'
There are 2 possible interpretations of this:

1. A diatonic scale as we know it (ie the normal scale of G major with sharp 7th) + a bottom F natural, - which would indicate an open chanter
2. A scale of G major with flattened 7th - which would indicate a closed chanter.

(the above instrument can be made, though the e and f holes are very close together). I have heard Colin play one he made, and hope to borrow it for a short while soon. However it would be difficult for anyone with large hands, and I cannot see that they can have been produced in quantity.

I guess the only way to resolve this is for someone to study the original Talbot MS, which is in Christ Church College Library, Oxford. (Unless Dick or Julian Goodacre already has? Dick?)

On Thu, 4 Jun 1998, Dick Hensold wrote
I still have not seen a copy of the original MS, although I would like to. John Goodacre (Julian's bro) has a copy of the MS. I asked him just how the fingering chart was laid out and what it implied. He said that it specified the right little finger down on every note except the low g, and did not give any notes below that. He said it was identical to the 8-note chanter fingering chart in Peacock (published ca 100 yrs later) and John didn't think that there was any valid musical or technical reason for keeping the right middle finger down unless the chanter was stopped. However, the MS is a set of measurements for set of pipes and while being pretty descriptive otherwise, does not mention a stopped bore. Actually, I don't think anything about the bore is mentioned. John felt that this was additional evidence of a stopped bore, because elsewhere in the MS bore dimensions are given. He thought that the bore measurement might be missing in this case bacause it was not easily accessible.

Cocks describes the chanter later as a nine-note chanter, which I suppose does seem like an assumption, since Talbot only mentions eight!
Another thing I would like to point out is that the pinkie-down fingering of the traditional Nsp, as represented by both the Talbot and Peacock charts, is different than all the charts for musette, which keep the pinkie up. I think that this is an important argument that these were two separate traditions in the C17 and C18. ( But only one of several arguments)

I wouldn't worry too much about whether the F is sharp or flat; the informant (Robinson) may have just called it F regardless, just like modern Highland pipers call their C#'s "C". Actually, Julian and I plotted the Talbot chanter hole positions on a graph and just for a laugh, laid a Montgomery chanter reproduction down on top of it. The holes lined up pretty closely. So I wouldn't swear to how it was tuned in cents, but I'm sure the Talbot smallpipe has sharp 7ths, because the Montgomery pipes do.

Date: Thu, 4 Jun 1998
From: J M Say
I have Cocks' article in front of me today! As Dick says, Talbot hardly mentions the chanter beyond saying it is single. He gives a set of measurements for finger hole placings, which the expert (s) available to me have not commented on in detail due to lack of collective time. Cocks' comment on the fingering chart reads:
Tablature shows fingering from G to g (diatonic with F natural) using straightforward closed fingering ie. with only one of the fingers raised at a time.

In the annotations Cocks says "(this)...describes an instrument with open ended plain chanter... producing 9 notes, from F to g"
But according to John Goodacre's description, reported by Dick, it doesnt. I think Cocks may have made an assumption here, based on his previous (admittedly considerable) experience.
I am going to see if I can get a copy of the chart from them (I dont disbelieve Dick/ Julian / John - its just that I'd like a copy of something that could be important).
We are of course relying on the accuracy of the original description, which (as with drawings of that age and before) would not meet modern standards, so I am wary of making too many conclusions.

It does appear however, that we have to push the date of the stopped chanter back to at least 1690 (on the principle that Talbot must have been describing something that already existed). And where there is one that survives, at least in description, there were probably others.

End of history, part 4.