After defining the mechanical framework of the bag control of bagpipe, this paper presents a study of the bag pressure control in a musical context through the comparison of six players and two bagpipes: one Galician (gaita) and one Majorcan (xeremies), the latter mainly differentiated organologically by a much larger bag size. General observations first lead to the identification and interpretation of the range of control parameters observed. A more detailed analysis of the control parameters during the production of steady notes highlights the coordination between insufflations and the arm displacement necessary to produce a stable and continuous sound. Finally, the bag pressure variation is observed in a musical context and correlated with the musical task, thus, associating different control strategies to the different bagpipes played by the musicians.

1.
J.-P.
Van Hees
,
Cornemuses: Un Infini Sonore
(
Coop Breizh
,
Spezet, France
,
2014
).
2.
W. A.
Cocks
,
A. C.
Baines
, and
R. D.
Cannon
, “
Bagpipe
,” Grove Music Online, available at http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.01773 (Last viewed September 8, 2017).
3.
I.
Cossette
,
B.
Fabre
,
V.
Fréour
,
N.
Montgermont
, and
P.
Monaco
, “
From breath to sound: Linking respiratory mechanics to aeroacoustic sound production in flutes
,”
Acta Acust. Acust.
96
,
654
667
(
2010
).
4.
C.
Vauthrin
,
B.
Fabre
, and
I.
Cossette
, “
How does a flute player adapt his breathing and playing to musical tasks?
,”
Acta Acust. Acust.
101
,
224
237
(
2015
).
5.
V.
Fréour
, “
Acoustic and respiratory pressure control in brass instrument performance
,” Ph.D. thesis,
McGill University
,
Montreal, Quebec
,
2013
.
6.
S.
Carral
,
D. M.
Campbell
, and
T. D.
Rossing
, “
Relationship between blowing pressure, pitch, and timbre of a Scottish bellows blown border bagpipe
,” in
Proceedings of the Stockholm Musical Acoustics Conference
(
2003
), Vol.
1
, pp.
251
254
.
7.
R. B.
Dannenberg
,
B.
Brown
,
G.
Zeglin
, and
R.
Lupish
, “
McBlare: A robotic bagpipe player
,” in
Proceedings of the 2005 Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression
,
National University of Singapore
(
2005
), pp.
80
84
.
8.
A.
Almeida
,
C.
Vergez
,
R.
Caussé
, and
X.
Rodet
, “
Physical study of double-reed instruments for application to sound-synthesis
,” in
International Symposium in Musical Acoustics
, (December
2002
),
Mexico, Mexico
.
9.
J.-P.
Dalmont
,
J.
Gilbert
, and
S.
Ollivier
, “
Nonlinear characteristics of single-reed instruments: Quasistatic volume flow and reed opening measurements
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
114
,
2253
2262
(
2003
).
10.
A.
Almeida
,
C.
Vergez
, and
R.
Caussé
, “
Quasistatic nonlinear characteristics of double-reed instruments
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
121
(
1
),
536
546
(
2007
).
11.
A.
de Cheveigné
and
H.
Kawahara
, “
YIN, a fundamental frequency estimator for speech and music
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
111
(
4
),
1917
1930
(
2002
).
12.
S.
McKerrell
, “
Sound Performing: Sound Aesthetics among Competitive Pipers
,”
Int. Rev. Aesth. Sociol. Music
42
,
165
187
(
2011
), available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/41228647?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.
13.
B.
Bergeot
,
A.
Almeida
,
C.
Vergez
, and
B.
Gazengel
, “
Prediction of the dynamic oscillation threshold in a clarinet model with a linearly increasing blowing pressure
,”
Nonlin. Dyn.
73
(
1–2
),
521
534
(
2013
).
14.
C.
Balosso-Bardin
, “
The Mallorcan bagpipes (xeremies): An anthropological portrait of an instrument
,” Ph.D.,
SOAS University of London
,
London
,
2016
.
You do not currently have access to this content.