Eleven Pipers Piping Trivia Quiz

Answer: Elbow

A uillean piper wears bellows strapped to their waist, positioned so that they can activate them by raising and lowering their elbow. This means the player does not need to blow into the bag to keep it inflated, and allows the piper to sing as well as play.

The chanter has a larger range of notes available than is the case for many types of pipe, and the regulators allow the player to produce a variety of chord effects. Because their playing is so complex, beginners often start out with a practice set (consisting only of bellows, bag and chanter); once the basic technique of producing sound has been mastered, drones are added to form a half set; finally, regulators are added to produce a full set.

Answer: Sweden

From such evidence as medieval stained glass windows, it seems that bagpipes were once common around Sweden from the 14th century on, but they gradually died out of common use because other instruments became more popular. In the 1930s, Matts Rehnberg wrote a thesis on the sackpipa (literally bagpipes in Swedish), and searched the country until he found Larsson, who knew and played for recordings several traditional tunes. Starting in the 1980s, a modern version which combined features of the dozen or so instruments to be found in museums was developed, a version which fits in more easily when played with other instruments than was the case for most earlier models (one of the reasons for their decline in popularity).

The picture shows Olle Gallmo, a leading contemporary player who in 2008 earned the title of riksspelman, or National Folk Musician, as winner of a silver Zorn badge, awarded to performers in the annual Zorn trials for folk musicians performing traditional music on traditional instruments.

Answer: Grey seal

Apparently the stomach of a grey seal was resistant to changing humidity, so performed well in both dry and wet weather. Bags were also made from stomachs of domestic animals such as an ox or a dog; more rarely, they were formed from animal skins, with the fur on the outside.

The picture shows the traditional stomach shape (although, being a modern picture, it is quite possible that the instrument is actually made from a synthetic material). The bag is inflated by blowing through the mouth-pipe; the bag is squeezed to produce air flow over the single-reed chanter, usually made from pine or juniper, which is fingered to produce the various notes; the wooden drone pipe at the bottom contains a wood bell, and can have its length adjusted to produce the desired pitch for the drone note.

Answer: France

Like the uillean pipes, the musette's bag was inflated by bellows. Its most distinctive features were the presence of two double-reed chanters (called the 'grand chalameau' and the 'petit chalameau') and a cylindrical drone containing four reeds and a number of sliders ('layettes') that moved on runners ('coulisses').

As the instrument evolved, the chanters became more complex and the drone simpler. The musette sounded something like an oboe, and was considered a suitable court instrument both because the use of 'common' instruments was intriguing, and because the bellows meant there was no need to blow into it, which was considered rather unseemly.

After the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century, the musette was seen as decadent, and simpler forms of bagpipe gained popularity.

Answer: Galician gaita

The gaita is the name for bagpipes used in the northwestern part of Spain, especially Galicia and Asturias, and in northern Portugal. Each region has its own specific variant on the theme, usually named for the region. The 'gaita galega' comes from Galicia, the 'gaita asturiana' from Asturias, the 'gaita aragonesa' from Aragon, etc.

The name 'gaita' may come from the fact that the bag of a gaita is made from the skin of a goat. The various pipes can be seen to be inserted in the holes formed at the points where the neck and legs were attached to the body.

The player's left arm controls the airflow from the bag, the bass drone lies on the left shoulder, up to two smaller drones rest on the right arm, and both hands are used to finger seven holes on the chanter.

Answer: Italy

The zampogna was a traditional instrument found through most of southern Italy, as well as Sicily. As was the case in many parts of the world, their use had dwindled before the revival of interest in traditional instruments that occurred world-wide in the second half of the 20th century.

The zampogna bag was traditionally made from the skin of a goat or sheep, carefully removed in one piece, and turned inside out with the hair left on. The rear legs were tied off, as was one of the front legs.

The other front leg held the blow pipe, and the chanters and drones were fitted into a round stock that was inserted into the neck. Chanters can be almost any size, from a few inches to the height of a person, and vary in number from region to region.

Answer: Bulgaria

The Bulgarian word is gaida, while the other spellings are used in Albania, Turkey, Serbia, Macedonia, and Slovakia, in that order. The gaida is made from a whole goat skin, turned inside out so that the hair helps control the moisture (from the player's breath) on the inside of the bag.

The instrument is put together before the skin has been cured, and the first stage of owning your own gaida is treating it to remove the dead animal smell (which can be quite overpowering). Treatment varies regionally, but involves daily application of the chosen curative, whether that be salt, flour, wood ash or milk (or a combination) for several months.

It is a very long couple of months for the other members of the household!

Answer: It has no drone

The tulum probably originated in Turkey. Unlike the gaida and other bagpipes of the region, it has no drone. The bag is made from the skin of (you have probably guessed it) a sheep or goat, from which the hair is removed in the early part of processing.

The tulum is a popular dance instrument among nomadic people in the region. Apparently it is traditional to wash the bag out with raki (homemade brandy) after use, to help prevent bacterial growth.

Answer: Cow horns

The mizwad or mezoued (from an Arabic word meaning bag) is primarily found in Tunisia. The double-barrelled chanter is attached to the wooden stock that fits into the neck hole of the animal skin from which the bag is made, with the reeds inside the bag. Each cane tube is topped with a cow horn, held in place by string tying them to the wooden stock.

The blowpipe can be a cane tube, as in this example, or it may be formed out of a bone from a bird's wing.

Answer: It only plays one note

Although you can see holes in the drone pipe (the larger one shown), they are only there so that the note to be played can be adjusted by appropriate application of wax to seal some of them. It was usually used as an accompaniment to the oboe-like mukha veena rather than as a solo performance instrument.