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The irish Uillean pipe: a story of lore, hell and hard D

Abstract

International audienceThe irish Uillean pipe is a bellows-blown bagpipe that resembles other baroque musettes (french musettes de cour) such as the english Northumbrian pipe and french Musette. According to A. Baines, it appeared in Ireland in the late seventeenth century, in a version somewhat simpler than the instrument known in the present days. It is surely among the most evoluated bagpipes nowadays with a rather complex playing. The lowest note of the chanter has the noticeable characteristic, searched after by musicians, of having two different timbres. One of these, known among musicians as the hard D, is strikingly louder and clearer than the other, the soft D. The contrast between them is traditionally a much appreciated quality of an instrument. In this paper, we concentrate on this particular note and propose an explanation for the appearance of these two distinct timbres

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