Hello,
Do you already play Bombarde? French instrument (Bretagne)?
Is it hard???
Thanks,
Wear ear protection and bribe your neighbours.
Sonja
My understanding is that it really only sounds decent when played along with a biniou koz. The bombarde play the “bass” parts while the biniou plays the high parts.
Check out: http://biniou.stalig.com/?LACUR=FR-EUR
I’ve heard both Mark Roberts and John Skelton play bombarde without a biniou koz. I guess it just depends on your taste whether it sounds decent or not. Mark said he got complaints from his neighbors when he practiced. His nearest neighbors lived two miles away. Anyway, an instrument that does sound decent on it’s own is the Welsh pibgyrn (pibgorn, pibcorn)-at least according to my taste. I heard some of it last week played by Andy Mclaughlin of Crasdant. I was sitting close by at a session and it didn’t blow my head off. Check them out here:
http://www.tyrbwlch.freeserve.co.uk/index.htm
and Crasdant here:
http://www.crasdant.com/eng/index.shtml#Scene_1
Steve
I sat next to Andy at the session Steve mentioned, and though loud, the pibgorn was, as Steve said, not ear splitting (not as loud as a bombarde, IMO). Andy is also a fine flute and whistle player; we shared a couple of tunes and it was quite enjoyable.
I heard John Skelton play bombarde a few weeks ago actually, in his flute class at Augusta Heritage in WVA.
I would definitely wear earplugs if I ever learned to play that thing. It looks like it takes a lot of breath, too, since reeds are not as sensitive as flute-like instruments.
our bodhran player has a bombard, he uses it to punish his dog mostly but he does pick it up every time I reach for my generation high G.
Andy played whistle a lot at that session. He is really very good. His whistle looked a lot like a Susato Kildare to me and it sounded great. He has a beautiful 8-key flute too. Sigh.
Steve
After recent revelations about neckties and glaucoma 
, I think I’ll leave the bombarde to the bretons 
Bombarde. The very soul of here, Brittany.
Cosmic blaster.
Heard it live yesterday again, with the Fest-Noz (ball) of Mesquer. BTW the tune “Le bal de Mesquer” is an old classic in Brittany.
Yesterday the bombarde sang along with a Veuze. It’s one of our Southern Brittany things; same as biniou-kozh, but one octave lower for both the chanter and the single drone.
Gotta learn this free-reed thing some day. It’s cheap, and doubly so because it certainly doesn’t need a mike and amp for public performance, even in a stadium.
Just getting cold feet because of the second register. Blowing the first one alone made me discover unknown blood vessels on my forehead. Before, I never thought one could get hemorhoids that far up. 
Now if you think your Overtons lack back-pressure, you’re ready… 
Hilarious, Z. I think the Bombarde is a great instrument on its own or with Biniou Kozh, Scottish Highland pipes, or Veuze. The old French Canadian band Ad Vielle Que Pourra used to play them with Flemish-style Cornemuse pipes and sometimes with Grand Bourbonnais pipes, a nice sound at a safe distance 
When the players are on their game there is a spine-tingling majesty to the loud, brazen, and very old shawm-and-bagpipes combination in all its permutations. I love it. It makes no apologies. It’s rough, it’s tribal, and it makes snooty classical types run for cover.
In response to the original question: it’s a double reed. Of course it’s difficult. That’s not the point. You’ve either got the double reed bug and the passion to be a good double reed player or you don’t. If you get one, you will need lots of space or a sound-proof room for practice, and you will need access to a steady supply of reeds. I have heard that scottish GHB reeds can be made to work in a Bflat bombarde, please correct me if I’m wrong, anybody who may be in the know.
I went to a Clandestine show right after they got back from Brittany one time and they had a bombarde with them - and played it in a tiny pub - after warning everyone that they call it the “cone of power”.
–NancyF
E.J. plays a bombarde made by LeHart (the esteemed flute maker). It’s a hard instrument to blow, the reed is nearly as hard as a Highland pipe chanter reed. On top of that you do the reed manipulation with your lips like on an oboe. The rest is easy, not very different from whistle. The hardest part is staying friends with your neighbors.
Cheers,
Aaron
SteveK and janice, where was that session that Andy McLaughlin played at? I only ask because he works here in Bangor, north Wales, and I quite often see at the sessions at the Nelson pub but as yet have not seen him play a hornpipe (that’s the English translation for pibgyrn for those non-Welsh speakers, which also includes myself). He also plays piano accordion, although I haven’t seen him do this since the days when he taught Welsh folk music at the old Catholic church in Bangor (which has since been turned into a Weatherspoons).
TTFN.
Pipingturtle, it was a session that took place at a bar in Goderich, Ontario (home to power outages!) during the Celtic College last week.
If you see Andy anytime soon, tell him “Hi” from Janice, the Canuck whistle/piper…
Actually, there were an inordinate number of Brits/Scots/Welshman on the teaching staff this year. I heard a lot of great tunes that I’d not heard before, particularly from the Welshmen (who also played many tres cool Breton tunes).
Piping Turtle…I was there too..it was in Goderich in western Ontario at the Celtic Roots festival.
I am off to northern England and north Wales in September…is it possible that if I was to drop into this Nelson pub I might hear a session with Andy playing? He was a most delightful fellow. Is there a particular session night there?
Ooh, peeps interested in my local sessions.
Andy frequently pops up at the Friday sessions, which are every Friday and it’s your typical Irish trad fayre, although occassionally you get different stuff like when my friend played a gypsy tune on her fiddle with me accompannying on the bouzouki. The first Monday of every month there is a Welsh session at the same place, and Andy most often plays at this one (as far as I can tell, I don’t go to the Monday session very often). This session’s a bit odd because they don’t bother dimming the lights, there’s absolutely shedloads of fiddles and it seems like everyone’s been practising together really hard. Both sessions are at the Nelson on the beach road which goes alongside the boatyard. It’s not too hard to find.
Sadly I don’t go to the session very often anymore, I’m normally too busy dancing.
TTFN.