Re: What is the Scottish bagpipes scale

on 3/22/01 5:49 AM, tuning@yahoogroups.com at tuning@yahoogroups.com wrote:

> The reference pitch (low A) is no longer the standard 440 Hz but today may be
> tuned anywhere from about 460 Hz to about 480 Hz, whatever works on the day.
> This makes it closer to a Bb in standard tuning, but pipes are rarely played
> with equal tempered instruments.

Thanks for your wonderful FAQ on Scottish pipes tuning. As an enthusiast of
traditional Scottish music, I found it quite enlightening.

An interesting aside as to the base pitch of the pipes. It was originally A
440 or so, as you mentioned, however, in piping competions, bands started to
tune slightly higher than other bands, this made them sound more dynamic and
exciting, so they'd win. This started the trend of everyone tuning higher
and higher so as to win piping competitions, until Bb was reached. Some
pipers are even pushing up towards B these days, but a number of people are
trying to get this practice to stop, even disqualifying bands that tune
intentionally higher than concert Bb.

There are a number of contemporary Scottish bands that use the highland
pipes along with 12 ET instruments such as guitars, bouzoukis, keyboards,
electric fretted bass, etc., mixed in with non-equal tempered instruments
such as fiddle, wooden flute and pennywhistle. Tannahill Weavers,
Battlefield Band, Ossian and Rare Air are all bands worth checking out.

Seth

--
Seth Austen

http://www.sethausten.com
emails: seth@sethausten.com
klezmusic@earthlink.net

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause
and reflect."
-Mark Twain

--- In tuning@y..., Seth Austen <klezmusic@e...> wrote:

/tuning/topicId_20402.html#20402

> An interesting aside as to the base pitch of the pipes. It
> was originally A 440 or so, as you mentioned, however, in
> piping competions, bands started to tune slightly higher
> than other bands, this made them sound more dynamic and
> exciting, so they'd win. This started the trend of everyone
> tuning higher and higher so as to win piping competitions,
> until Bb was reached. Some pipers are even pushing up towards
> B these days, but a number of people are trying to get this
> practice to stop, even disqualifying bands that tune
> intentionally higher than concert Bb.

This is exactly the same situation that occurred in European
concert music a couple of centuries ago. During the Renaissance,
"A" used to be as low as about 415 Hz.

The pitch rose for precisely the same reason: orchestras
and bands tuned slightly higher so they'd have a more
exciting sound over a competitor.

The best essay I've seen on this phenomenon is the one by
Ellis in his Appendix to Helmholtz's _On the Sensations of
Tone_.

I wrote a more detailed post about this about a year and
a half ago. It should be in the Archive.

-monz