What kind of pipes are these?

Uilleann Pipes
1

I didn’t know which section to put this in so feel free to move. I think they are probably Uilleann pipes so this seemed right.

The song is Melezouriou-Glav by Denez Prigent, from the album Irvi. I have this album in my collection and it is one of my favourites. One of the reasons I like it is Breton is meant to sound a lot like Pictish would have sounded, so I like to imagine what it must have been like to hear the Picts singing.

Someone has helpfully used it as a soundtrack to a youtube video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBBebOh_KbQ

I don’t know what they are, but I like them.

2

It doesn’t sound like uilleann pipes. I think its a paper and comb played by a drunk dutchman with hemorrhoids sitting on a bicycle with two flat tyres going over cobblestones .


RORY

3

A quick googling suggests:

Credits of Irvi

Davy Spillane
Uillean Pipes, Low Whistle

Nicholas Meyer
Sound Assistant

Nabil Khalidi
Oud

Mathilde Walpoel
Harp

Pierre Terrasson
Photography

Bertrand Cantat
Chant

Laurent Collat
Programming, Clavier, Mixing, Realization

David Rusaouen
Drums

Denez Prigent
Composer, Chant

Mickaël Cozien
Cornemeuse

Bruno Gruel
Mastering

Louis Sclavis
Clarinet, Clarinet (Bass)

Valentin Clastrier
Vielle

Lisa Gerrard
Arranger, Chant

My goodness, Mr. Spillane gets around :slight_smile:

I notice the “French bagpipes” are also credited there, so I’m still not sure what was in that song. I’m pretty sure it is a different instrument at the start and end though.

Or is it?

4

Yes, the instrument at the start definitely sounds different from the later one to me. The later one sounds distinctively like Uilleann pipes to me. The earlier one could be a Cornemuse I suppose, although I also thought it could be one of those Eastern European keyless (or near keyless) clarinets. Same instrument as at the very end, at any rate.

5

Most serious linguists now think Pictish was a Celtic language rather closer to Irish than Breton/Welsh/Gaulish. Though there isn’t a lot to go on. Here is the entire corpus of Pictish inscriptions:

Location Inscription [tentative translation]

Abernethy qmi

Aboyne nehhtvrobbaccennevv maqqotalluorrh [Nechtan … son of Talorc]

Altyre ammaqqtallv lv bahhrrassudds [..son of Talorc …]

Auquhollie vuunon itedovob b

Birsay 1 (m)onnorranrr
2 bqi a b

Brandsbutt irataddoarens

Bressay crroscc:nahhtvvddadds:dattr:ann
bennises:meqqddrroann [… Nechtan … son of Drostan]

Brodie A von…ecco..
B rginngchqodtosombs
C eddarrnonn… tti… gng.. [Pidarnoin …]

Buckquoy (e)tmiqavsallc

Burrian idbmirrhannurractkevvcerroccs

Cunningsburgh 1 iru
2 ..ehteconmors
…dov …ddrs
3 etteca…
..v:dattua
…rtt..

Dunadd: hcsd.t..v.nh.t
l…vqrrhmdnhq

Golspie: allhhallorreddmaqqnuuvvhrre.rr [… son of …]

Gurness Broch ineittemen mats

Inchyra A ettlietrenoiddors
..uhtuoaged…
B inehhetestieq…inne

Keiss Bay nehtetri

Latheron duv nodnnatmaqqnahhto… [… son of Nechtan]

Logie Elphonstone caltchu

Lunnasting ettecuhetts:ahehhttannn:hccvvevv:nehhtons [… Nechtan]

Newton iddarqnnnvorrenn iku(a) iosie

North Uist m..quntenac..t

St Ninians (…)besmeqqnanammovvez [… son of …]

Scoonie eddarrnonn [Pidarnoin]

Weeting 1 ulucuvute
2 gedevem…dos

Whiteness …vndar

(Other theories, shading into crankiness, relate Pictish to Basque or Lappish. I prefer to believe that the inscriptions were left behind by proto-Polynesians as a waste dump for all the consonants they wouldn’t be needing any more when they got to the Pacific).

6

To me,
the instrument @ 0:00-0:30 sounds like a synthe mixture of hurdy-gurdy (vielle a roue) and shenhai waveforms.

2:59-3:42 with vocal, sounds to me like a highland pipe, (possibly border) chanter.
4:00-4:43 solo, again, sounds to me like a highland pipe, (possibly border) chanter.

theres some didg patches in there too. :smiley:

Personally, I dont hear uilleann pipes, veuze, cornemuse, chabrette (although i seriously toyed with that idea…) nor biniou.

and in closing I wish to say:
“abberoeooetnnvvwoow, 3 tvyynnrreffveeewg, mw”
:party:

7

That’s gotta be it.

8

One of the arguments against pictish being part of the Goidelic Celtic language family (such as Scottish and Irish Gaelic) was that when St. Columba came to Christianise the picts he (a gael) needed an interpreter. This would have been the case if Pictish had been a Brythonic Celtic language like Breton or Welsh.

Either way though, none of this changes the fact that Breton is a beautiful language to hear singing in.

It is a pity it is dying out. Even Denez Prigent (one of its key advocates these days) pretty much admits that the battle to save the Breton language is lost and it will be gone in a few generations.

9

IN the beginning it seems to be an electric fiddle, later it is a GHB or its Breton variant.

10

Altyre ammaqqtallv lv bahhrrassudds: Altyre a-make t’all of 55 bar of suds → Altyre made all 55 bars of soap.

Gurness Broch ineittemen mats: Guinness broke in eight men mats → I spilled my Guinness all over the large table.

Latheron duv nodnnatmaqqnahhto: Lather duv [black] no not make nada → The black lather doesn’t do anything.

Logie Elphonstone caltchu: Logie Elfenstone [goes to] Cal Tech.

Geez, I don’t know why people think Pictish is so difficult.

11

200+ years of official French language policy, and the ongoing fiction of francité, has done an effective job of destroying the regional languages of the hexagon.

12

http://icdbl.org/saozg/index.php

2nd segment COULD be a Biniou Bras, true..but Im still thinking Border pipe.
1st segment still dosent strike me as an ‘actual’ acoustic instrument…gettin some VCA vibrato sense in there…