Swedish bagpipes
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Swedish bagpipes (säckpipa, sv, svensk säckpipa, or ''dråmba'', ''koppe'', ''posu'', or ''bälgpipa'') are a variety of
bagpipes Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, No ...
from Sweden. The term itself generically translates to "bagpipes" in Swedish, but is used in English to describe the specifically Swedish bagpipe from the
Dalarna Dalarna () is a '' landskap'' (historical province) in central Sweden. English exonyms for it are Dalecarlia () and the Dales. Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland Värmland () also known a ...
region.


History

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...
paintings in churches suggest that the instrument was spread all over Sweden. 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 only region of Sweden where the bagpipe tradition survived into the 20th century.


Revival

In late 1930s, the
ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...
Mats Rehnberg found some bagpipes in the collections of the museum
Nordiska museet The Nordic Museum ( sv, Nordiska museet) is a museum located on Djurgården, an island in central Stockholm, Sweden, dedicated to the cultural history and ethnography of Sweden from the early modern period (in Swedish history, it is said to begi ...
, 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 Larsson together with a music teacher, Ture Gudmundsson, who managed to reconstruct an instrument, with which Ture later played and recorded two tunes for the national publicly funded radio broadcaster
Sveriges Radio Sveriges Radio AB (, "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a licensing fee, the level of which is d ...
. During the following decades only a few instruments were made, until 1981 when woodworker Leif Eriksson (pipemaker) started to manufacture a model of bagpipes that he himself had developed, and the folk fiddler
Per Gudmundson Per Gudmundson, born 1955, is a Swedish folk musician. He plays the fiddle and has also been instrumental in the revival of the Swedish bagpipes in Swedish folk music together with instrument maker Leif Eriksson.Hedningarna Hedningarna (''The Heathens'') is a Swedish, and for some years partly Finnish, folk music band that mixes electronics and rock with elements from old Scandinavian folk music. Their music features yoik or juoiggus, a traditional Sami form of s ...
, Svanevit and Dråm (the two latter involving Erik Ask-Upmark and Anna Rynefors). Players of the Swedish pipes are now eligible to compete playing traditional music before a jury to earn the title of ''
riksspelman The title of riksspelman (, ''National Spelman'') is a generally recognized badge of mastery for Swedish folk musicians. It is an honor bestowed upon bearers of the silver or gold Zorn Badge, awarded annually by the Zorn Jury, a panel of expe ...
''.


Construction

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.


Evolution

*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 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 The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...
or an
accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...
.


Makers

Today, there are a small number of professional or semi-professional bagpipe designers. Leif Eriksson (pipemaker) represents the traditional one; Alban Faust, Börs Anders Öhman, Max Persson and Seth Hamon drive the development towards modern instruments.


See also

* :Säckpipa players


External links


Olle Gallmo's site
with history, instructions, and tunes
Norden Sackpipa Association of the Americas (NSAA)r/SwedishBagpipes on RedditBörs Anders Öhman
Swedish bagpipe maker
Seth Hamon
Swedish bagpipe maker


References

* * {{Authority control Bagpipes Nordic folk music Swedish musical instruments Reconstructed musical instruments