Swedish bagpipes
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Swedish bagpipes (sv. säckpipa) is a local variety of bagpipes. The instrument was practically extinct by the middle of the 20th century; the instrument that today is referred to as Swedish bagpipes is a construction based on instruments from the western parts of the district called Dalarna. The Swedish bagpipe tradition is relatively unknown to most Swedes, who when they hear the word "bagpipes" immediately think of Scotland. Medieval paintings in churches suggest that the instrument was spread all over Sweden. Although it seems reasonable that the depicted instruments were played in the neighbourhood, there is no hard evidence showing the painters had not been inspired by instruments they saw abroad. The bagpipes survived in live tradition only in the western parts of Dalarna.
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[edit] The revival
In late 1930's, the ethnologist Mats Rehnberg found some bagpipes in the collections of the museum Nordiska museet, and he wrote a thesis on the subject. Rehnberg managed to find the last carrier of Swedish bagpipe tradition, Gudmunds Nils Larsson in the village Dala-Järna. Rehnberg visited him together with a teacher of music called Ture Gudmundsson, and with the information he got from Larsson and Gudmundsson managed to make an instrument that could be played. He also recorded two tunes for the national publicly-funded radio broadcaster Sveriges Radio. During the coming decades a couple of instruments were made, but the thing that made the Swedish bagpipes spread was when Leif Eriksson started to manufacture a model of bagpipes that he himself had developed and the well-known folk fiddler Per Gudmundson learned to play it. Eriksson's bagpipes was a compromise between the roughly ten different instruments that could be found at museums, and he also made some slight modifications to make the instruments better suited for playing with other instruments such as the fiddle.
Today there are a couple of Swedish folk music groups that include the bag pipes in their setting. The most well-known of these is by no doubt Hedningarna. Another is Svanevit. The title riksspelman that can be earned by playing traditional music in front of a jury, can nowadays also be earned on Swedish bagpipes.
[edit] The instrument
The bag is notably smaller than that of many other bagpipes. This, however, is no major problem as the pipes require relatively little air. The chanter has a single cane reed and a cylindrical bore, with a range of one octave. It is essentially diatonic (with a melodic ascending A minor--A major with a flat third--scale starting on E) since cross-fingering has little effect.
Common modifications to the traditional model:
- A double hole for the C hole instead of a single one can be bored, one of which can be covered, for example with beeswax, to produce C, and uncovered to produce C#. This makes the key of A major possible.
- The 'tuning hole', a hole traditionally placed on the underside of the chanter and which is used for tuning the bottom note of the chanter (with beeswax to make the hole smaller), can be placed on the top side instead, enabling it to be used as a fingerhole. This adds a low D to the scale.
- A key can be fitted to operate a hole above the usual fingerholes, to give the piper an additional high F#.
The fact that the chanter, with its cylindrical bore and single reed, is extremely unaffected by crossfingering, and that that the drone is tuned to the same note and octave as the bottom note of the chanter, makes it possible to play in a closed or semi-closed manner, enabling the player to quickly play the bottom note in between other notes--since this will blend with the sound of the drone, it gives the illusion of silence, and the possibility to play staccato.
The tone of the instrument is quite soft, not too different from that of a harmonica or an accordion.
[edit] References
- Allmo, Per-Ulf (1990). Säckpipan i Norden: Från änglars musik till Djävulens blåsbälg. Stockholm and Uppsala: AllWin hb.
- Eriksson, Leif, and Per Gudmundsson (1981). Säckpipan i Dalarna: Något om ett bortglömt instrument. Falun: Dalarnas Museum.
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