history of bagpipes (4)

Concerning bagpipes: The Irish invented them and gave them to the Scots as a joke, and the Scots haven't seen the joke yet.

Actually bagpipes originiated much earlier than that ....in Asia.....Although the early history of the bagpipe is still unclear, it seems likely that the instrument was first developed in the Middle East , or Central Asia.

It seems likely it was developed from an instrument similar to a hornpipe or shawm and coexisted with them. Indeed in several different piping traditions today the bagpipe is played alongside a shawm-like instrument, in Brittany, Galicia, Italy, Catalonia, and Istria. Where or when a bag was first attached to one of these instruments is likely to remain a mystery. However, although the Aramaic word sum·pon·yah´ (???????), appearing in Daniel 3:5, 10, and 15, has been translated "dulcimer" (a stringed instrument) and "symphony", modern Bible translations generally render the expression as "bagpipe." Koehler and Baumgartner's Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros gives the meaning "bagpipe" (Leiden 1958, p. 1103).
The earliest secular reference to a bagpipe occurs around 400 BC, when Aristophones, the Athenian poet jibed that the pipers of Thebes (an enemy of Athens) blew pipes made of dogskin with chanters made of bone. Several hundred years later, Suetonius described the Roman Emperor Nero as a player of the tibia utricularis in Lives of the Twelve Caesars. Nero is reported to have said he would play the bagpipe in public as a penance for not winning a poetry contest.[citation needed] Dio Chrysostom who also flourished in the first century, wrote in Orationes about a contemporary sovereign, probably Nero, who could play a pipe ("aulein") with his mouth as well as with his "arm pit". From this account, it has been deduced that a true bagpipe was used- having a blowpipe, bag and a chanter (probably a double chanter since double pipes were used at this time). A coin of Nero depicts a bagpipe, according to the 1927 edition of Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

There is truly nothing more beautiful than hearing a bagpipe piping one into church for a wedding....piping a mourners lament....or piping Amazing Grace......it is truly haunting and most beautiful........

Thanks for the historical background. Well done!