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Description: | This pipe was formerly owned by the notorious Jimmy Allan, piper to the Duchess of Northumberland. The ownership is fully authenticated and the instrument is mentioned in Allan's 'Life'. It bears the Edinburgh hallmark, but no date letter and the date may be any year between 1787 and 1820. Allan is correctly described as 'Piper to the Duchess'. It is only within recent years that the office has been termed 'Piper to the Duke'.Northumberland has not just one but two unique musical instruments, both of which are types of pipes. The Northumbrian smallpipes, often simply referred to as the Northumbrian pipes consist of a 'bag' which is inflated by bellows under one arm (rather than by blowing into it, like the Scottish bagpipes) whilst the other arm is used to gently deflate the bag through the various 'pipes' or chanters. The music is light, lilting and melodic. The second instrument is the slightly larger Northumbrian half-long pipes, also known as Border pipes. These produce a stronger, more robust sound than the smallpipes but are still nothing like as strident as the Scottish bagpipes (which are primarily an outdoor instrument). A recent discovery has been the find of written music for the half-long pipes, written in 1733, some 60 years before the oldest known Scottish bagpipe music.The photograph forms part of a fascinating collection of images of Northumbrian pipes which are now held by the Northumberland Records Office. Taken from an exhibition held at the former Bagpipe Museum at Newcastle's Black Gate in 1961, this catalogue contains photographs of some of the oldest and rarest examples of local pipes. Of particular interest are the oldest surviving Northumbrian pipes, a rare small pipe with a seven keyed 'D' chanter pitched 2 and 1/2 tones below the ordinary pipes, and an ancient set of Border pipes formerly owned by Muckle Jock Milburn of Bellingham. The portraits of local pipers featured at the end of the catalogue are also equally fascinating. ; Catalogue of an exhibition of Northumbrian pipes held at the Black Gate Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne, April 1961. ; | Rights holder: | rights holder : Society of Antiquaries | Source: | Folk Archive Resource North East | Identifier: | farne:R0701701 | Go to resource |
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