Northern Europe Bagpipes
You can find a photo of my Swedish sackpipa here. During the 19th century, in western Dalecarlia
(Dalarna), this bagpipe was still common, and the last hereditary piper, Gudmunds Nils Larsson, was heard playing the pipes as late as the 1940's. Be sure
and visit Olle Gallmo's Swedish Bagpipes site for more information on this
instrument.
This old photo (1898) is of Tiisu Hindrek, an Estonian player of the torupill ('trumpet-pipe'). The playing of this bagpipe nearly died out during the
middle of the 20th century, but has recently been revived by a few enthusiastic young players. This pipe's bell-less cylindrical chanter and 'cocked' drone
employ single reeds. According to the information found at Kustas Tiivas' website Torupill,
the bag was commonly made from the gullet of a large seal.
The bagpipe to the left is a Russian volynka. It's rather rare these days (most Russians have never even heard of it). It is also said to have been
played at one time in Finnland where it was called a pilai. It uses single reeds in its chanter and drone. A detail also found on Swedish and
Balkan bagpipes, are the scouped-out finger holes of the chanter. This volynka was made by Pavel Stepanov, a woodwind maker in Russia. I obtained the
photo from Jan Winter, the owner of this instrument. His volynka is pitched in G, but also
plays in C.
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to enlarge (27k)
Eastern Europe Bagpipes
This is a photo that I lifted from the Lark In the
Morning Music on-line catalog. It shows a Bohemian "bock" or dudy. I believe this instrument was made by Pavel Cip, a renown maker of E.
European pipes and Early Music wind instrumentrs. Notice the "folded" bass drone with the recurved section (an interesting feature).
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to enlarge (22k)
This is an image of a Bohemian bagpiper playing the type of pipe seen in the above photo. I "borrowed" this image from Thorsten Stoye's wonderful
Die Sackpfeife in Deutschland site.
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to enlarge (61k)
This is a photo showing a very elaborately decorated Hungarian duda. This instrument was made by Ferenc Tobak
of Fort Bragg, CA, (formerly of Hungary) who appears in the next image. To find out more about the duda, visit Donald Lindsay's
Hungarian Bagpipes on the Internet.
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to enlarge (26k)
This photo I took of my friend Fero playing his duda at my bagpipe workshop during the Lark In the Morning Music Camp, Mendocino Woodlands, CA, August, 1996.
Ferenc is without question, the premier maker and one of the best players of this instrument. He and his wife Mary conduct frequent Hungarian music and
dance workshops in Northern California.
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to enlarge (52k)
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