Julian Goodacre bagpipe maker

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Julian Goodacre bagpipe maker

  • home
  • Blog
  • About Me
    • My Approach
    • My Workshop
    • My Writings
      • Miscellaneous writings
      • Bagpipe research
      • Pipe Making
    • From Tree to Pipe
    • Collaborations
  • My Bagpipes
    • English Bagpipes
      • Leicestershire Smallpipe
      • English Great Pipe
      • English Doublepipe
      • Cornish Doublepipe
      • Border Horn
    • Scottish Bagpipes
      • Scottish Smallpipes
      • Border Pipes
      • Great Highland Bagpipe
      • Montgomery Smallpipes
    • Other Bagpipes
      • Dürer Pipes
  • Your Bagpipe?
    • Choosing Your Bagpipe
    • Buying your bagpipe
      • FAQ
      • My Waiting List
    • Beginning Your Piping
  • Music Shop
  • Contact

Bagpipe Research

The Iain Dall Chanter
The Iain Dall Chanter

This basis of this article was originally a paper that I delivered to The Piobaireachd Society Conference, Pitlochry, in March 2006.
THE IAIN DALL CHANTER LINKS THE PAST TO THE FUTURE

Bagpipes: Tradition and Innovation
Bagpipes: Tradition and Innovation

A 40 minute video of a lecture and recital that I presented at the 2014 Royal Greenwich International Early Music Festival, London to demonstrate contrasting approaches to my instrument making.

My Welsh Bagpipes- My Dead End Revisited!

An article for Chanter, the journal of the Bagpipe Society,in January 2009, in which I look back at my design of Welsh bagpipes and examine my reasons for dropping it from my range of pipes.

Musing on the Musa
Musing on the Musa

An article originally published in Chanter, journal of the Bagpipe Society, in May 2014. A description of my interaction with and copying of, the MüSa, a bagpipe from the north of Italy

The Reconstruction of Historic British Bagpipes
The Reconstruction of Historic British Bagpipes
Based on a transcription of a talk given I gave to The Piobaireachd Society on March 19th 2005.
Mallorcan Bagpipes
Mallorcan Bagpipes

An article written for Chanter, the journal of The Bagpipe Society.

Welcome Back-The Continuing Renaissance Of The English Bagpipe
Welcome Back-The Continuing Renaissance Of The English Bagpipe

 This is an overview of the current  revival of English bagpipes that  I wrote for a programme in The Edinburgh Festival in the early 2000's

Oil paintings of musical instruments- should we trust the Old Masters?
Oil paintings of musical instruments- should we trust the Old Masters?

My article for FoMRHI, the Fellowship of Makers and Researchers of Historic Instruments.  about the use of mirrors and lenses by artists from 1420 and the implications for modern instrument makers when interpreting and copying paintings of musical instruments.

Bagpipes In The Scottish Borders- An Emerging Jigsaw.
Bagpipes In The Scottish Borders- An Emerging Jigsaw.

This is the History chapter that I wrote for MORE POWER TO YOUR ELBOW - A practical Manual to the buying, playing and maintenance of the Scottish bellows blown bagpipes. Book published by The Lowland and Border Pipers’ Society. 2003. ISBN 0 9522711 O 9

BAGPIPES AND HURDY- GURDIES CONFERENCE

BAGPIPES AND HURDY- GURDIES CONFERENCE

‘A Centenary Celebration for the Pitt Rivers Museum’
OXFORD, 21-23RD SEPTEMBER 1984


I wrote this article for Chanter, the journal of the Bagpipe Society, in April 2012

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The Iain Dall Chanter

The Iain Dall Chanter

Bagpipes: Tradition and Innovation

Bagpipes: Tradition and Innovation

My Welsh Bagpipes- My Dead End Revisited!

My Welsh Bagpipes- My Dead End Revisited!

Musing on the Musa

Musing on the Musa

The Reconstruction of Historic British Bagpipes

The Reconstruction of Historic British Bagpipes

Mallorcan Bagpipes

Mallorcan Bagpipes

Welcome Back-The Continuing Renaissance Of The English Bagpipe

Welcome Back-The Continuing Renaissance Of The English Bagpipe

Oil paintings of musical instruments- should we trust the Old Masters?

Oil paintings of musical instruments- should we trust the Old Masters?

Bagpipes In The Scottish Borders- An Emerging Jigsaw.

Bagpipes In The Scottish Borders- An Emerging Jigsaw.

BAGPIPES AND HURDY- GURDIES CONFERENCE

BAGPIPES AND HURDY- GURDIES CONFERENCE

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bagpipe research

  • The Iain Dall Chanter
  • Oil paintings of musical instruments- should we trust the Old Masters?
  • Bagpipes In The Scottish Borders- An Emerging Jigsaw.
  • BAGPIPES AND HURDY- GURDIES CONFERENCE
  • My Welsh Bagpipes- My Dead End Revisited!
  • Welcome Back-The Continuing Renaissance Of The English Bagpipe
  • Mallorcan Bagpipes
  • Bagpipes: Tradition and Innovation
  • The Reconstruction of Historic British Bagpipes
  • Musing on the Musa

Mallorcan Bagpipes

An article written for Chanter, the journal of The Bagpipe Society.

 Steve Ellises account of his search for the illusive Mallorcan bagpipes in the last issue of Chanter prompted me to dredge my memory on this subject. I can provide only a few more relevant snippets of information and one rather disappointing sighting.

I was first made aware of them when my friend Jamie went to live on Mallorca in about 1979. Knowing of my passion for pipes he wrote to me with an account in a letter of a Fire Festival where bonfires are lit at night and people run through the streets with blazing torches to the accompaniment of music, sometimes on the bagpipes. Somewhere I still have his letter, somewhere....

He made friends with a local instrument maker who I think may have been a pipemaker. Certainly this maker was interested in bagpipes- I sent Jamie over some photocopies of Northumbrian pipe music which he bartered for a FUBIOL MALLORQUI- a Mallorcan whistle neatly made of almond wood and brass. I still have it- it is nearly ten inches long with a bore just over half an inch. It was supplied with a DIGITACIO- a handwritten fingering gamut. It is a fiendish whistle to play as it has five finger holes on the front and three (yes three) on the back. For the back holes you use both your thumbs and the upper part of your right hand (bottom) pinkie!

Jamie eventually made a tape of some Mallorcan piping- just a few tunes, perhaps played by the instrument maker. One of the tunes was called 'Running with the Devil' and was associated with the Fire Festival. I borrowed the tape, copied it, and returned the original to Jamie. I later found my 'copy' was blank and sadly Jamie died before I was able to borrow and copy his original again. I cannot remember much about the music now.

The only actual sighting I have had was at St Chartier on Saturday 12 July 1986 GRUP D'EN BIEL MAJOAL opened the evening concert. Dressed in traditional costume Toni Artigues played the xeremies (bagpipes), Dolfi Mulet played fobiol et tambori (whistle and drum) and Biel Majoral sang and played the ximbomba. I cannot recall what a ximbomba was- perhaps it was rumblepot? Also I cannot recall if the fobiol was played with both hands like mine or was played one handed simultaneous with the drum . The photo in Baines look similar to what I saw of the Mallorcan pipes.

I taped their concert, but only have kept one track. At best it could be described as pretty dreary as there was considerable discrepancy between the tunings and intervals of the whistle and bagpipes.

Perhaps Steve should try and arrange for his next visit to coincide with the Fire Festival!

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