Electronic bagpipes
The electronic bagpipes are an electronic instrument emulating the tone and/or playing style of the bagpipes. Most electronic bagpipe emulators feature a simulated chanter, which is used to play the melody. Some models also produce a harmonizing drone(s). Some variants employ a simulated bag, wherein the player's pressure on the bag activates a switch maintaining a constant tone.
Electronic bagpipes are produced to replicate various types of bagpipes from around the world, including the Scottish Great Highland bagpipe, Spanish gaita, French cornemuse, Italian zampogna and Swedish säckpipa.
[edit] History
Electronic bagpipes have been attested as early as 1962, when The Electronic Musical Instrument Manual noted the existence of electronic bagpipes using transistors, caveating: " but there is only one commercial musical instrument on the market and it would seem reasonable to wait for the elimination of some of the less desirable features of transistors..."[1] A range of publications going into the 1980s discussed such electronic piping developments, though in 1981 the company Keltronics advertised what they claimed to be "the world's first electronic bagpipes".[2] Later commercial developments included the work of Anders Fagerström, who in 1991 manufacturing a Great Highland practice chanter, and later electronic pipes emulation the Galician bagpipe and Swedish sackpipa.
Around the year 2000, Spanish bagpipe player José Ángel Hevia Velasco, the software engineer Alberto Arias and the technician Miguel Dopico collaborated to create an electronic Asturian bagpipe with a pressure-sensitive bag, which thus visually and ergonomically more closely resembled a traditional bagpipe.[3] A similar development with a pressure-sensitive bag was invented In 2005 the German Rolf Jost, and has since been produced under the brand-name redpipes, in varieties emulating various bagpipes.
[edit] Players
Bands and musicians playing electronic bagpipes include KoЯn, Eluveitie, Gaelic Storm, Red Hot Chili Pipers, Furunkulus, The Dangleberries, Seer, Peter Purvis, Hevia, and Konan.
[edit] References
- ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=decIAQAAMAAJ&q=%22electronic+bagpipes%22&dq=%22electronic+bagpipes%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=5flIT8nsHbCG0QG8gpXuDQ&ved=0CGMQ6AEwBQ
- ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=jiMiAQAAIAAJ&q=%22electronic+bagpipes%22&dq=%22electronic+bagpipes%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=QvxIT6jFI6bX0QHBnfy1Dg&ved=0CE4Q6AEwATgK
- ^ "José Ángel Hevia Velasco". entertainmentinspain.com. http://www.entertainmentinspain.com/Jose%20Angel%20Hevia%20Velasco.htm. Retrieved 3 November 2010.
