Quelle est votre cornemuse médiévale ?/What is your medieval bagpipes?

Bonjour,

Comme nous le savons, dès l'époque médiévale un grand nombre de cornemuses nous sont connues par l'iconographie.

Malheureusement, il n'existe pas beaucoup de tentatives de reproductions sérieuses... qui regarde de plus près les sources iconographique et aussi qui prennent en compte le tempérament de l'époque qui devait être pythagoricien.

Nous trouvons des copies de cornemuses qui ont plus ou moins la même allure que celles que nous trouvons dans l'iconographie, mais bien souvent il s'agit de cornemuses déguisées... Soit des cornemuse écossaise, des veuze ou des hummelchen auxquelles le facteur a donné une allure médiévale.

Pour ma part j'utilise une veuze qui semble être proche des cornemuses à anche double que l'on trouve à partir de la fin du XIIIème, comme ici:

Cambridge University Library, MS Dd.5.5, fol 409v

Et j'utilise depuis peu un boha qui semple proche des cornemuses à anche simple que l'on trouve déjà au XIIème (voir XIème) comme ici :

bnf Français 25516, 174r

Et vous, qu'utilisez-vous comme cornemuses médiévales ?

While not really having a strong opinion on the subject, I have to note that up to now there is only one uncontested medieval chanter that has been found. It is the Rostock one, mid-15th century. When found in the 1970-es, it was intact. Inept storage resulted in it splitting hopelessly and distorting as well. When found, it was actually looking very much like Durer's bagpiper's chanter, straight for the upper half and then flaring slightly in an elegant (NOT Corvus Corax-style) way. (However, it is much shorter.) Well, it seems that the bore was parallel for the upper 3/4 or so, and flaring lower down. The width of the bore nearly certainly means that it had a single reed, not double. Keep in mind that ALL bagpipes from Eastern Europe, in the line North-South from Sweden , through Poland,Slovakia (and Czechia as well), Hungary and down in the Balkans have single reed chanters. Germany at the time could very well have the same. In fact, since German bagpipes died out centuries ago (all modern ones are recreations, not copies), it is reasonable to suspect that single-reed chanters were common, perhaps more than common. Which basically points to a rather common sound on the lines of the Swedish Sackpipa, the Estonian Torupill, Belorussian Duda, and similar. They all share a basic similarity of sound. In the West, the picture is different. There are all the surviving pipes, which all point to double reeds and conical bore chanters. From the various Gaitas of Iberia, up North to the Highland pipe, and the various French and Netherlandish pipes. They all muct date from at the latest late Medieval times. Probably earlier. And then, there are the Italian Zampognas, which are probably holdovers of even earlier Auloi, just equipped with a bag. (Not to mention the Sardinian Launeddas.)

All in all, I don't think we can reasonably talk of THE MEDIAEVAL BAGPIPE , more of the great variety of Mediaeval bagpipeS, just like we talk of the great variety of bagpipes today.

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Yuri Terenyi September 15, 2015 17:54

While not really having a strong opinion on the subject, I have to note that up to now there is only one uncontested medieval chanter that has been found. It is the Rostock one, mid-15th century. When found in the 1970-es, it was intact. Inept storage resulted in it splitting hopelessly and distorting as well. When found, it was actually looking very much like Durer's bagpiper's chanter, straight for the upper half and then flaring slightly in an elegant (NOT Corvus Corax-style) way. (However, it is much shorter.) Well, it seems that the bore was parallel for the upper 3/4 or so, and flaring lower down. The width of the bore nearly certainly means that it had a single reed, not double. Keep in mind that ALL bagpipes from Eastern Europe, in the line North-South from Sweden , through Poland,Slovakia (and Czechia as well), Hungary and down in the Balkans have single reed chanters. Germany at the time could very well have the same. In fact, since German bagpipes died out centuries ago (all modern ones are recreations, not copies), it is reasonable to suspect that single-reed chanters were common, perhaps more than common. Which basically points to a rather common sound on the lines of the Swedish Sackpipa, the Estonian Torupill, Belorussian Duda, and similar. They all share a basic similarity of sound. In the West, the picture is different. There are all the surviving pipes, which all point to double reeds and conical bore chanters. From the various Gaitas of Iberia, up North to the Highland pipe, and the various French and Netherlandish pipes. They all muct date from at the latest late Medieval times. Probably earlier. And then, there are the Italian Zampognas, which are probably holdovers of even earlier Auloi, just equipped with a bag. (Not to mention the Sardinian Launeddas.)

All in all, I don't think we can reasonably talk of THE MEDIAEVAL BAGPIPE , more of the great variety of Mediaeval bagpipeS, just like we talk of the great variety of bagpipes today.
Félix Ferrà September 15, 2015 13:58

Une sâckpipa (cornemuse suedoise pythagoricienne).

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Medieval and Renaissance wind instruments

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