I was at work today when an odd noise like a cross between bagpipes and accordion appeared in the distance.
Every hour for the rest of the day an odd man with a bushy beard and a pointy hat marched past with an odd musical instrument. It looked like a northumbrian pipe, certainly it had a big long bag of air under his left arm which he wasn’t blowing into, leaving the likelihood of a pump under his other arm, however rather than the little chanter pipe you get on bagpipes (and, judging by the picture at wiki, normal northumbrian pipes) it had something resembling a clarinet coming out of it at the front, a great long thing going up and down from the end of the air bag.
I think it would be awfully difficult to walk and play the uilleann pipes - the drones are very long, and stick out horizontally, rather than up and down on your shoulder like the Great Highland Pipes. Check out the picture of the piper playing the full set in the wiki article to see what I mean. Any time I’ve seen them played, the piper is sitting down.
I don’t work anywhere particularly interesting, the nearest thing to this usually is a bloke with a loudhailer banging on about jesus and that. Occasional busking students.
IT was curved like a saxomaphone, but the hole in the end was a bit smalled and it wasn’t brass.
It’s not the biniou, the chanter was bigger than that and the air bag was bigger too, judging by the picture on wiki. The air bag looked about the size of a goat. I seem to remember bagpipe bags can be made of goats, so maybe it was one.
Not the police one either, the chanter pipe was longer and narrower and the air sack was larger. Although the funny get up those poles are wearing prompts me to a bit more description of the man who was holding them: big bushy grey beard, described by the various bystanders as being dressed like a medieval peasant, although I didn’t think so, and with an oddly shaped hat, sort of a cone with the point cut off so the top was flat.
The Uillean pipes look more like it but I can’t find a good picture of someone using them standing up, and this bloke was literally marching around town all day, or at least from about ten in the morning till three in the afternoon. Also, they look a bit ornate whereas this bloke’s bag was a dull grey and there was nothing shiny or brightly coloured anywhere about his person. Also, listening to it on youtube, it sounds a bit sharp and bagpipe like, whereas the ones I heard yesterday were suprisingly mellow and mellifluous. Still, the Uillean is easily the closest of these.
