Bagpipes

Gaiteros playing Asturias, dear homelandOviedo.

The bagpipe is a wind instrument. To obtain the sound, the interpreter stores air in a skin or sack by blowing through a tube or by operating bellows with one arm, to later press the skin causing the air to come out through another tube equipped with holes where it is played with the fingers. the melody.

Its origin is remote since it is believed that it was used by the Babylonian, Hebrew, Phoenician, Roman and Celtic peoples. There are possible literary references in Latin texts, but the first European representations of the bagpipe date back to the Late Middle Ages. At the end of the 15th century it lost popularity, except in the Spanish regions of Galicia, Asturias and Mallorca, as well as in countries such as Scotland, England, France and Lower Britain.

It is a popular instrument that throughout history has been introduced into all social spheres, both civil (festivities, celebrations) and religious (masses, funerals) and even military (parades, etc.). As a traditional instrument, the bagpipe is distributed throughout many countries, including Scandinavia, the British Isles, the Netherlands, France, the Iberian Peninsula, the Italian Peninsula, the Balkans, North Africa, Turkey, and the Middle East.

The regions of Spain with the longest tradition and spread of this instrument are Galicia, Cantabria, Zamora and Asturias. In the Basque Country, a bagpipe is a wind musical instrument that consists of a perforated wooden cylinder with a flared shape at its end and provided with a double reed reed, from the same family as the dulzaina and the oboe, but devoid of keys.. In the province of Salamanca, Extremadura and Huelva, the local variants of the three-hole flute (gaita charra, gaita extremeña and gaita rociera or gaita) are called gaita. There are also instruments called bagpipes throughout the peninsular geography that would belong to the family of albogues, such as the Madrid serrana bagpipe or the gastoreña bagpipe, in Gastor, in the Sierra de Cádiz.

Etymology

According to Joan Corominas, the word "gaita" It comes from the Gothic (specifically Swabian) gaits, a term also used by the languages of Eastern Europe (gida in Hungary, gainda in Crete or gayda in Serbo-Croatian and Macedonian), which means "goat", since its bellows are made from the skin of this animal. On the other hand, other authors maintain that it comes from the name of an African oboe, a kind of dulzaina, called al-ghaita, ghaita or gheita.^{[citation needed]} It is also known by the Latin term cornamusa, specifically among Aragonese, Mallorcan, Italian and French (in French "cornamuse").

Description and operation

In its simplest form it consists of a perforated tube (pointer), fitted with a sonorous reed and inserted into a skin that contains a reserve of air. The sound is obtained by introducing air into the bag or skin (bellows or fol) through a second tube (wind or blowtorch), through which it has generally been insufflated from the lungs of the player himself (bagpiper). This one compresses the bellows with his arm to force the air out through the chanter and the other accessory tubes to the fol (strings), if there are any, and thus keep the tempero stable, it is that is, the tension of the outgoing air flow, so as to obtain a constantly tuned sound. In most of the bagpipes, the torch is closed by a valve that prevents the air from escaping back to the source from which it comes, although not in all of them: the chiboni Georgian, for example, lacks it, having to be blocked by the tongue of the piper himself. There are also bagpipes mechanically inflated by means of another accessory bellows instead of using the bagpiper directly his lungs; All this will be dealt with later in this article.

History

It is not known exactly when the bagpipe appeared, although there are paintings and engravings from Ancient Egypt that depict musicians playing an instrument very similar to the modern bagpipe. The ancient Greeks knew the bagpipe (askaulos) and among the ancient Romans the bagpipe (tibia utricularis) was the instrument of the Roman infantry, which was also played by the emperor Nero.

In Europe there are no references to the bagpipe again until the 9th and 10th centuries AD. C., and it was in the Late Middle Ages when the bagpipe gained great popularity throughout the continent, falling into decline from the XVIIIth century, although it survives in the field of popular music and in such dispersed areas as Asturias, Galicia, León, Aragón, Scotland, Ireland, Britain, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Iran, Pakistan, India, etc.

Antiquity

It appears that the double-reed pointer bagpipe was developed from and coexisted with an instrument similar to the shawm. In fact, there are several musical traditions that combined and combine the bagpipe with shawms and similar instruments in Brittany, Galicia, Ribagorza, Italy and Istria. The exact time when the bellows and roncón were added to the shawm is unknown. According to some authors, cleats with a double reed pointer (oboe type) probably appeared for the first time in the Provençal regions during the Early Middle Ages. Its spread to the rest of the continent and the British Isles was apparently very fast, fostered by Occitan minstrels and musicians. The iconography of this type of instrument appears for the first time in different areas of Western Europe almost simultaneously around the s. XIII. Its introduction into the north of the peninsula probably occurred through the Camino de Santiago, towards the west, and through the north of Aragon and Catalonia, and from here to Mallorca and Valencia. The first Galician bagpiper on whom there is written documentation was Gómes Mouro from Orense who, according to the record, was hired in December 1458 by the Orense City Council to entertain various events.

Bagpipes with single reed pointers (clarinet type and albogue type, especially the latter) are undoubtedly older. There is an Aramaic term sum·pon·yah´ (סומפניה), which appears in the Bible in Daniel 3:5, 10 and 15, and although it was translated as "sweet me (an instrument string) and "symphony", in modern translations it also appears as "gaita" (according to Koehler and Baumgartner's Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros gives the latter meaning; Leiden 1958, p. 1103).

Apart from various ancient drawings and reliefs, engraved in the pharaonic palace of Amarna in Egypt, the earliest written reference to an instrument considered a bagpipe possibly occurs around 400 BCE. C. when Aristophanes, an Athenian poet, mentions the pipers of Thebes, an enemy city of Athens at that time, and points out that they played bagpipes (askaulos) made of dog skin and bone chanters.

Several centuries later, Suetonius in his "Life of the Twelve Caesars" describes Emperor Nero touching the tibia utricularis in public as a self-imposed punishment for failing to win a poetry contest. Dio Chrysostom, a Roman poet of the I century d. C., described in his & # 34; Prayers & # 34; that the ruler of his time, possibly also Nero, could play the bagpipe (& # 34; aulein & # 34;) with his mouth and with his armpit. From these testimonies it has been deduced that Nero could play the bellows bagpipe. There is also a coin from the time of Nero that shows a bagpipe according to the 1927 edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

In the Iberian Peninsula, representations of bagpipes have been documented, such as in the Hispano-Roman city of Bracara Augusta (Braga, Portugal).

Expansion and development

Details of the central table of the triptych Wizard worship of Hieronymus Bosch that shows two gaiteros.

Only a few Pictish, Irish, and Celtic engravings survive before the 12th century, showing that bagpipes continued to be used as musical instruments throughout the High Middle Ages.

There is some debate as to when bagpipes first appeared among the Celtic peoples of Atlantic cultures, although figurines of pipers at various Roman-era archaeological sites suggest they may have been introduced by the Romans. In Ireland, no written references appear until well into the Middle Ages and the mentioned engravings date back to the 8th century.

The popularity of bagpipes and shawms started from the 12th century, possibly in relation to the splendor and musical development from various parts of Europe. Many bagpipe models began to be developed during this time. Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland, is said to have set out for the Battle of Bannockburn (1314) accompanied by pipers.

Medieval Gaitero in the monastery of Santas Cruces.

Existing models of bagpipes from before the 18th century are extremely rare. However, numerous paintings, drawings, engravings and handwritten illustrations have survived. The divergences between the models are usually enormous, but it seems that the bagpipe makers of the time were mostly mercenaries or woodworkers with very rudimentary musical and craft knowledge.

The role of the bagpipes in music varied widely from place to place, but in Bulgaria it is said that "A wedding without a bagpipe is like a funeral" and in Brittany it is a very popular element in religious festivals. In Britain and the British Isles, too, pipers became part of the itinerant minstrels, acting as messengers and spreading news and music wherever they traveled. The pipers began around the 16th century to displace the harpists in Scotland, the main Celtic musicians since Roman times. In 1760, Joseph MacDonald wrote in Scotland Compleat Theory, the first serious study of bagpipes and bagpipe music. In England, William Dixon had already written a manuscript in the 1730s regarding the music of the 'border pipes', very similar to modern Scottish bagpipes, but a different model. Dixon collected many popular melodies that would later be reprinted in other similar works. At the turn of the XIX century, John Peacok collected many of Dixon's melodies in his selection of bagpipe music.

However, as Western classical music developed, both in terms of musical sophistication and instrumental technology, the bagpipes in many countries lost popularity in orchestras, generally disappearing until the XX.

Scottish Gaitero acting in Edinburgh.

Recent history

Kiteros in the medieval market of Alcalá de Henares.

With the expansion of the British Empire, the "Great Highland Bagpipe" also spread through soldiers and emigrants of Scottish origin. However, the resurgence of the Scottish bagpipe and other specific models was exceptional and it can be said that until after the Second World War, many traditions of popular bagpipe music declined and began to be displaced by instruments of a more classical tradition. like the violin and later by the gramophone and the radio. The bagpipe survived in traditional music and in some closed groups, such as the police forces of Scotland, Canada, Australia and the United States (although not very widespread), as well as folk and popular bands. Progressively it was recovering other areas, such as military and civil funerals, weddings, dances, parties and pilgrimages.

The bagpipe experienced something of a renaissance since World War II, fostered by the popularity of folk music and dances, which saved from extinction many types of bagpipes that in previous centuries had been especially popular. In Great Britain the concept of pipe band arose and in Britain of bagad. In Spain the term "banda de gaitas" is used.

In Anglo-Saxon countries, the bagpipe player is known as bagpiper or piper, and in fact the surname Piper exists in these countries. Other European terms are pfeiffer (German), gaiteiro (Galician/Portuguese), gaiteru (Asturian, mountaineer), gaitero i> (Spanish), dudák or gajdar (Czech), dudás, sipos or gajdos (Hungarian), gaitatzís (Greek), gaidar (Bulgarian/Russian: Гайдар), cimpoi (Romanian) and dudziak (Polish).

At the end of the XX century, various models of electronic bagpipes were invented. The first MIDI bagpipe was developed by the Asturian bagpiper José Ángel Hevia.

Some electronic models allow the player to select the pitch of several different bagpipes, as well as the keys. Although they are not widely used yet due to technical limitations, their use is spreading as practice instruments, since their sound can be muted and connected to headphones.

The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxfordshire, UK, contains a collection of bagpipes from around the world. A similar museum is the Museo de la Gaita in Gijón, Asturias, where several international models are also displayed.

Basic typology

Asturian gaita, split: 1 soplete. 2 pointteru (pointer). 3 sroncon (lower fern). 4 bellows.

Despite their enormous regional diversity, the bagpipes are usually divided into two large groups, according to the basic morphology of the melodic pointer, cylindrical or conical, and the type of reed or vibrating reed that produces the sound, which can be simple or double. These differences are really important because they represent two very different ways of producing and modulating sound.

Cylindrical pointer and simple shank

Also called the "clarinet type," the sound they produce is less powerful than the next type, although sweeter. It is the type that appears in the bagpipes of Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Macedonia, Croatia, Hungary, Estonia, etc.), in Sweden and in Gascony (France). Some Balkan bagpipes have really complex, double and even triple pointers of this type, that is, with two or three sounding reeds. The so-called primitive bagpipes (Crete, Turkey, Tunisia, Malta, Georgia, etc.) also have cylindrical pointers, which are usually made of cane. In this case we speak of "albogue type" pointers. They are usually double.

Bagpipes of these types often have a rural or pastoral provenance.

Tapered pointer and double reed

Called "oboe type". The sound is produced by a double reed or "palleta", this being much more powerful and stable. Oboe-type pointers are much more difficult to build than cylindrical ones, having a tapered bore. Its construction must be carried out by specialized craftsmen, luthiers. For this reason, it is believed that they appear more recently, in an urban and courtly environment. To this group belong the bagpipes of Western Europe, from the British Isles to the Iberian Peninsula, France, Germany, etc.

Bagpipes from the Iberian Peninsula

In the Iberian Peninsula up to six different types of bagpipes can be found, organologically speaking, although they belong to different families according to their construction technique and morphology. Of course, this does not mean that all of them have the same vitality or the same number of practitioners. They would be the following:

Galicia, Zamora, León and Portugal

Typical Galician girl, with tenor or ronquet and without Chin.

Gaita gallega with chion (the one she calls Screw.), showing his main pieces.

Detail of the sound mechanism of the Galician gaita.

The Galician bagpipe has a melodic tube (punteiro) and one or more snares (ronco or roncón, ronquilla or ronqueta, and shriller or pieiro). Although in the past it was built and played according to a semi-closed fingering, between the end of the XIX century and the beginning of the XX it began to be modified, so that today it works with an open fingering similar to that of the recorder. Accidentals are obtained by means of crossed fingering or "forks", although it is still possible to find old specimens with closed fingering ("de toque pechado") and others with open fingering but diatonic. The chanter's reed, called a palette, is double, mounted on a metal tube called a tudel, and its hole is conical, as in all other Iberian bagpipes. The extension is usually an octave plus one note below the root, although some builders have succeeded in raising it several more notes in the second octave in recent times. The earliest collected traditional repertoire makes no use of such second octave notes, showing that it was not possible to produce them.

The roncón and, in its case, the ronqueta are cylindrical tubes with an increasing diameter in successive pieces, and they work with a simple reed called a pallon. The roncón is tuned two octaves below the tonic of the punteiro, while the ronqueta is in the middle octave. It is used in Galicia, and its use has been extended in the last century to some parts of León –fundamentally to El Bierzo–, although in the West of Bierzo it was traditionally common, and to a lesser extent in the Maragatería area, (Omaña, Astorga, Órbigo, Cabreira and La Valdería region) and in general to the entire province of León, displacing in all these areas its archaic and traditional companion called the Leonese type (Sanabresa in Zamora), Cabreiresa in the area of Sierra Cabrera (between the provinces of Zamora and León) due to its tuning, and can be used for modern bagpipe bands. In Cabreira we can still find some ancient dances played with the Leon bagpipe, Moisés Liébana, the group "Son del cordel" uses it, and Francisco Pozuelo plays and builds in traditional and modern tuning. In Zamora, in the northwest area of the province, in Sanabria the Galician bagpipe is not used, but only the Sanabresa (of the Leonese type), as well as in the region of Aliste in the same province of Zamora the alistana (also of leonese type). The use of the Leonese-type bagpipe remains more valid in Sanabria, Aliste and La Cabrera together with the province of Trás-os-Montes in the northeastern part of Portugal, and it is built by Leovigildo Santamaría.

In almost all of central and northern western Portugal –from the Miño river to Setúbal– their presence is also very old, with many medieval records of the existence of bagpipers. Five large regions with Galician bagpipe traditions in Portugal are evident: between Douro and Minho, Beira Litoral, Ribatejo, Estremadura and Alentejo Litoral. In the area of Trás-os-Montes, the Leonese type continues to be used, as we have explained before.

The instruments have various names in Galician and Portuguese: bagpipe, Galician bagpipe, bagpiper, bagpipe of fol and bagpipe of foles.

A completely different bagpipe that also exists in Galicia, specifically in Bajo Miño, is the bagpipe. It was recently described by the ethno-musicologist Pablo Carpintero who also confirmed that it is still being built. It is a very simple, rustic bagpipe, without a snore and whose cylindrical pointer sounds with a simple reed. The pointer is topped with a calf horn that acts as a sound amplifier.

Galician League of Bagpipe Bands

Every year a national championship of bagpipe bands is held, where bands from all over Spain compete. There are different categories called grades going through first grade, second grade, third grade and fourth grade. The required level increases as the bands go up in category, with first grade being considered the highest level. Bagpipe bands participate in this competition, types of non-traditional groups, which nevertheless use technical themes and traditional instruments.

It is scored out of 100 and is divided into four premises, each with 25 points:

• Aesthetic
• Affinity
• Set
• Percussion

Valuing himself at all times, for example: the tuning of the ensemble, the uniform aesthetics, the difficulty of the arrangements and the quality of the percussion. Instruments not typical of this type of grouping (which include bagpipes, snare drums or high-voltage drums, misnamed Scottish, of American origin, tenor timpani and bass drum), inclusion of foreign themes or type of bagpipe or percussion used are not valued, being champions on occasions Bands of traditional equipment.

Depending on the category they are in, a minimum and maximum duration of the performance will be required, as well as different types of songs to be interpreted (xota, muñeira, alborada, alalá...) In several editions of this competition, the interpretation of non-Galician songs has not been allowed, as in the XX edition held in 2009-2010. In each grade, the four bands with the highest score move up to the top level and the four with the lowest score drop down.

The types of bagpipes used are usually the Galician and Asturian bagpipes, and modern bagpipes with payones and synthetic bellows predominate, three roncones (a bass, a tenor and a baritone, unlike Scottish bagpipes) placed vertically. Due to having the roncones placed vertically and uniformity in these bands being valued, there is a debate initiated by traditionalist groups such as the CDG that accuse these bands and championships of damaging and misrepresenting their tradition and of following the model of the pipe band Scottish, alleging the uniform aesthetic ("martial"), and the use of "martial" bagpipes, the bagpipes with three snores placed vertically. The defenders of the bands affirm that the bagpipes with three roncones, although they are not the most common in Galicia, are traditional, except for the placement of the roncones, which in the traditional Galician bagpipe is usually horizontal (not so in the Asturian bagpipe, always upright). They also explain that the similarities that there may be with the Scottish bands are fundamentally aesthetic and that the chanters and roncones, as well as all the sound elements are traditional Galician or Asturian except for slight changes in placement.

Traditionalists accuse the bagpipe bands of offering a false image of Galician and Asturian traditions and feeling complex about their own culture, imposing Scottish aesthetics. For their part, these bands argue that in reality they are not strictly traditional groups, although they use modified traditional instruments to improve qualities such as tuning and stability and harmonized traditional themes. For their part, they accuse the traditionalists of fearing them for no reason, since according to them both aspects, bands and tradition, although they are different, are not at odds.

Asturias-Cantabria and León

In Asturias, this instrument enjoys a great tradition to the point that since 2011 it has been invited to be a permanent member in the famous Saint Patrick's Day parade in New York with its bagpipe band. The Asturian bagpipe is larger than the Galician for the same tonality, that is, its tubes are larger. It also has a melodic tube called punteru, which works with a double reed, called payuela or straw, but smaller than the Galician palleta. With respect to the Galician, as its starting frequency is higher, together with the different distribution of the finger holes in the punteru, the extension easily goes up to the fourth of the second octave just with increasing air pressure, which is executed by the bagpiper squeezing the bag with his arm more strongly (requintar). Traditionally it only consists of two sound tubes, the punteru and the snare, called the roncón. However, nowadays it is common to see them with a tenor roncón, called ronquín, tuned in the intermediate octave, like the Galician ronqueta, especially in bagpipe bands.

Band of gaitas in Cantabria.

At least since the end of the XIX century, the Asturian bagpipe has been present throughout the western half of Cantabria through of the figure of the piper alone or accompanied by drum. Despite not having been as important as in Asturias, as the "pitu montañés" enjoyed greater prestige and acceptance in the mountain pilgrimages than in the 19th century XIX displaced the bagpipe and other traditional instruments of the region, the bagpipe known as Asturian is included in the musical identity of the autonomous community of Cantabria. At present, Cantabrian folklore schools include learning the bagpipe, which has led to the formation of a large number of bands. Thus, the presence of this instrument has spread at the end of the XX century and beginning of the XXI from the western half to the rest of the Cantabrian territory.

In the western part of the Principality, the Asturian bagpipe (Cangas del Narcea, Degaña, etc) and the Galician bagpipe (Los Oscos, Ibias, Taramundi, Vegadeo) coexist. The Galician influence gave rise to groups of bagpipes, unlike the bagpipe and drum pairing of central and eastern Asturias. These groups used both Asturian bagpipes (Son d'Arriba, Aires de Valdés) and Galician bagpipes (Aires de Suarón, Os Quirotelvos). Normally both formations included clarinet, snare drum and bass drum.

Aragon

Aragonese boot kit.

In Aragon there is a type of bagpipe called gaita de boto. The boto bagpipe consists of a skin to store air (boto), a blower or bufador to fill the boto with air, and three sound tubes: the bugle (equivalent to the pointer), the bordón (equivalent to the roncón) and the bordoneta (similar in constitution to the snare, but producing a note one octave higher). The boot is traditionally made of goatskin and generally of great volume. Particular to this bagpipe are the placement of the snares (the snare parallel to and next to the bugle and the snare under the bagpiper's arm), the bagpipe clothing (similar to a girl's dress), the tin or horn reinforcements on the snares and the use on occasions of snake skin to cover any of its sound tubes. The clarion admits open and semi-closed fingering. The usual thing is to play it in the key of Do (both major and minor), since the range of notes produced by the bugle goes from a Si to a Do one octave higher.

Despite their near disappearance in the 1970s, there is currently a growing number of Aragonese pipers.

Tras-os-Montes, León and Zamora; Leonese, Sanabresa, Cabreiresa and Alistana bagpipes

A third type of bagpipe is common to the north-northeast of Portugal and some adjacent areas of the provinces of León and Zamora (regions of Cabreira, Bierzo, Maragatería, almost until Órbigo was common in León; Sanabria, Carballeda, Aliste, Tábara and Tierra del Alba in Zamora where it is most maintained, although its extension could be greater). Not so long ago, in the middle of the XX century, it was also played in Las Arribes de Salamanca and the Fermoselle area, west of Sayago, province of Zamora.

Its fingering is open, traditional tuning, its shape and sound power make it resemble the Asturian, although it does not play pechada. It has a wide tongue that is more reminiscent of an Asturian but on a larger scale. Its bill is bigger and with more wood. It has a wider internal perforation than its counterparts from Galicia and Asturias, it does not produce alterations (nor do they exist in their traditional repertoire), and the main differentiating characteristic is its modal scale, with microtones halfway between flat and becuadro, especially in 3rd and 7th grades, and sometimes 6th as well. In Portugal it is currently called the Trasmontana or Mirandesa bagpipe, while on the other side of the border it is usually called the Sanabresa, Alistana, Cabreiresa bagpipe, but due to its cultural and regional area of expansion it could be called the Leonese bagpipe. In general, it is referred to in both countries as gaita de fole (from fuolhe or bellows) or simply fole. It is mistakenly confused with the gaita zamorana, which is nothing more than the name that some want to pass off as popular for the hurdy-gurdy in Zamora. In the Portuguese band we can find pointers with major and minor scales, a general rule around the tunings of Si, Bb, Bbm, La and Do.

Salamanca and Extremadura

In Salamanca, the existence of the bellows bagpipe was confirmed until the sixties of the last century as a popular instrument. The last workshop died in 2000 (Francisco Muñoz, from Vitigudino). (Not to be confused with the high-impulse charro bagpipe from the 19th century, which is a three-hole flute.)

In the south of Salamanca, the use of the waterskin bagpipe is documented in the parish books of La Alberca, at least in the 15th and 16th centuries.

In Extremadura, and specifically in the municipality of San Martín de Trevejo, documentary sources from the 18th century show the municipal payment of the Gaiteiro services, to face the purchase of a "Barquiño" (skin) to replace in the municipal bagpipe. Medieval documents place the bellows bagpipe throughout the current border line of Spain and Portugal up to the Algarve itself.

It is probable that this bagpipe from San Martín, as is the one from Salamanca, are relatives of the Mirandesa-Zamorana bagpipe (tuned in C, wide reeds, larger diameter internal perforations, etc.), although with the particularity to have the snore lying down and not on the shoulder.

Catalonia

In Catalonia there is the "sac de gemecs", a cleat that also receives many other names in the Catalan territory ("cabreta", "museta", &# 34;coixinera", etc.). It consists of "grall" (player), "bufador" (torch), "skin"/"sac" (fol) and three "bordons" (grunts) united in the same piece that hangs by dalente, the "braguer". It is in the key of C, covering a diatonic scale from Si2 to C4, although current models develop an octave and a half chromatic with "forcades" positions, that is, without resorting to the partial occlusion of holes. Therefore, its current full extension is from B2 to Fa4. The grunts are in C2 (bass), G2 (baritone), C3 (tenor). The conical grall uses double reeds, while the bordons use single reed reeds.

In the Aran Valley, the Aranese Bot has recently been recovered. It is a simple bagpipe, without a snore and with a cylindrical pointer that sounds with a simple reed. Along with the Galician bagpipe, it is one of the only two bagpipes with cylindrical pointers and a single reed in the Iberian Peninsula. The sound is very low but sweet. Its reconstruction was commissioned by the Aranese government to the luthier Cesc Sans and numerous performers, such as Es Corbilhuèrs, have returned to the valley the sound of an instrument that until now has been extinct.

Majorca

On the island of Mallorca there is a type of bagpipe called "Xeremies" (in plural). It is a cleat that still maintains a somewhat old morphology.

In one arm is the "bufador", which is used to blow air into the bellows. In the other arm is placed the "grall" (pointer). The "trunk" and the "fillols"; the "horn" is the roncón and the "fillols" They are called like this when they are covered and cannot produce sounds – in case they produce any sound they are called "bordons"–. The other half of the skin is tied to prevent it from losing air, thus achieving a "sac" (sack) or bellows.

As with other cleats, the performer must blow air into the bellows so that the instrument has enough pressure to blow the "horn" and the "grall". He constantly helps himself by pressing his arm against the bellows to prevent the air from losing pressure.

The "grall", like the pointer, sounds due to the "canya", a double reed (palleta) that, when vibrated by the passage of air, produces sound. Basically it can sound an octave, from Si2 to C4, being able to octave up to Sol4 by increasing the pressure on the "sac" (the eighth notes sound forced, they are hardly used). Altered notes are not usually used, only the Bb and the F#, these not being very common. The other altered notes sound quite forced, so they are hardly used. The "horn" is the longest of the three "bordons", it sounds thanks to a "mist" (reed) which, like the roncón, makes the air vibrate and produces sound. It is usually tuned in Do or Do#, a "bordó" in Sol or Sol# and the other octave the Do or Do#.

A few years ago, the "Xeremies" or the "Xeremia" (interchangeably, it can be said in the plural or in the singular) were tuned in C#, currently they coexist with those tuned in C natural (every day more frequent).

Other instruments called "gaita"

The term "gaita" It has, in many places in the Iberian Peninsula, the generic meaning of wind instrument, not necessarily restricted to the instrument with bellows. Its use has also spread to South America.

Here is a list of other instruments also known as bagpipes:

• In Brazil: it refers to harmonic or accordion.
• In Andalusia: the gaita spendreña, instrument of the albogues family that is similar to the alboka Basque, but with only one sound tube.
• In villages of the Guadarrama mountain range (Madrid): the mountain range (similar to the previous one).
• In Asturias: the Sigüencu gaita, a much simpler albogue.
• In many places of Aragon: the dulzain.
• In Upper Aragon: Graus's gaita, which is also a traditional oboe.
• In Navarra: the Navarre gaita: a type of dulzain.
• In Extremadura: the Extremadura gaita, a flute of three holes, similar to that of León and Zamora, the xipla of the asturian west, the gaita of Huelva, to the ibicenic pito, to the flabiol Catalan and txistu Basque.
• In Salamanca: the gaita charra, a flute of three holes, similar to that of León and Zamora, the xipla of the asturian west, the gaita of Huelva, the ibicenco pepper, the flabiol Catalan and txistu Basque.
• In Andalusia: the gaita, flute, gaita roiera, flauta roiera or, even, pito rociero, are denominations of the same instrument, the flute of three holes own of the province of Huelva and, by extension, of the Aljarafe (Sevillana region adjacent to Huelva) and of all Andalusia; it is similar to the gaitas mentioned above of Extremadura, Leónfina and Salamanca.
• In Venezuela: the gaita zuliana or marabina is a very popular musical genre in the country.
• In Colombia (etnia Kogui): the Colombian gaita (kogui: kuisi), a type of indigenous flute.

Bagpipes from other countries

Electronic bagpipe

José Angel Hevia with his gaita midi

The Asturian bagpiper José Ángel Hevia invented together with Alberto Arias and Miguel Dopico, in the 1990s, the “MIDI bagpipe”. This is a fully electronic bagpipe that allows you to reproduce an infinite number of different timbres and imitate the sound of any type of bagpipe, although it is based on the Asturian bagpipe. Obviously, the blowtorch and the original bellows are removed, which are replaced by a body with no other function than being attached under the arm to maintain the normal position of the bagpipe headdress.

Curiously, the idea and motivation to develop the MIDI bagpipe was the problem that arose for some Hevia students, who could not practice at home due to the large volume of the traditional instrument and its stinging and incisive sound (more for those who do not initiates).