Pastoral Pipes

Instrument
August 18, 2024

The Pastoral pipes were an 18th-century predecessor to the Uilleann pipes, played with both a bellows and a chanter that could play a full chromatic scale.

They were primarily used in England and Ireland before evolving into the modern Uilleann pipes.

The pastoral pipe (also known as the hybrid union pipes, organ pipe and union pipe) was a bellows-blown bagpipe, widely recognized as the forerunner and ancestor of the 19th-century union pipes, which became the uilleann pipes of today.

Similar in design and construction, it had a foot joint in order to play a low leading note and plays a two octave chromatic scale.

Pastoral or New Bagpipe

There is a tutor for the “Pastoral or New Bagpipe” by J. Geoghegan, published in London in 1745

Download

You can download the “Pastoral or New Bagpipe” by J. Geoghegan PDF here.

J. Geoghegan Video

Bagpipe Chanter

Articles

The bagpipe chanter is a crucial component of the bagpipe, serving as the melody pipe where the player creates music.

African Skye SA

Pipeband

The African Skye Pipe Band was officially formed in January 1998, by a number of pipers and drummers who had left the Witwatersrand Rifles Pipe Band in September the previous year. Between September and November 1997, these committed musicians used to meet at Rory Bellingan’s house at 145 Queen Street, Kensington, Johannesburg, to practice and debate a name and tartan for the new band. In November 1997, Rory moved to 333 Highland Road, Kensington and this weekly ritual continued there.