Bagpipe
The bagpipe in five languages — bagpipe, cornamusa, Dudelsack, cornemuse
Related
Five languages
| Language | Name |
|---|---|
| Chinese | 风笛 |
| English | bagpipe (usually bagpipes) |
| Italian | cornamusa |
| German | Dudelsack |
| French | cornemuse |
A bagpipe combines a bag, a chanter and drone pipes. The player fills the bag by mouth or bellows, then squeezes it with an arm, so the sound need not stop for a breath. The chanter carries finger holes; the drones sound fixed notes. The Scottish Highland pipes are the best known type, while Irish uilleann pipes are bellows-blown.
Watch out: a bagpipe is not a flute. A flute is blown directly by the player and its sound breaks with the breath; the bag separates breathing from sounding and keeps the drone continuous. Chinese 风笛 and 长笛 differ by one character, but the two belong to different families in construction and sound.
Read deeper → The bagpipe
Sources
- 各语种乐器名与风笛构造，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Bagpipe"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.