The cornemuse du Centre France (or musette du Centre) (bagpipes of Central France) is a type of

bagpipes Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, N ...

native to Central France.Boydell, Barra R. "Cornamusa (ii)." Grove Music Online. 2001. Oxford University Press. Date of access 9 Feb. 2024. They have two drones, one an octave, one two octaves, below the tonic of the

chanter The chanter is the part of the bagpipe upon which the player creates the melody. It consists of a number of finger-holes, and in its simpler forms looks similar to a recorder. On more elaborate bagpipes, such as the Northumbrian bagpipes or ...

. They can be found in the

Bourbonnais The Bourbonnais (; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Borbonés'') was a Provinces of France, historic province in the centre of France that corresponds to the modern ''département in France, département'' of Allier, along with part of the ''dépar ...

Berry A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples of berries in the cul ...

, Nivernais, and

Morvan The Morvan (; historically Morvand from the Latin ''Murvinnum'' 590)Pierre-Henri Billy, ''Dictionnaire des noms de lieux de la France'', éditions Errance, 640 pages, 2011 , is a mountainous massif lying just to the west of the Côte d'Or esc ...

regions of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and in different tonalities.

Construction

280px, Musette du Centre The drones consist of tubes of wood (two for the small drone, three for the larger) that telescope into one another to tune the instrument. The drones have single reeds. The chanter is equipped with a double reed of reed or plastic. The chanter can be in a wide variety of keys, depending on its length: * 6 inches (Upper G) * 10 inches (Upper D) * 11 inches (Upper C) * 14 inches (A) * 16 inches (G) * 18 inches (F) * 20 inches (D) * 23 inches (C) * 24 inches (A#) * 26 inches (A) * 30 inches (Lower G)

Famous players

* Eric Montbel *

Jean Blanchard Jean-Pierre rançoisBlanchard (; 4 July 1753 – 7 March 1809) was a French inventor, best known as a pioneer of gas balloon flight, who distinguished himself in the conquest of the air in a balloon. Notable for his successful hydrogen balloon ...

* Robert Amyott * Julien Barbances

Playing

The cornemuse du centre is a

chromatic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are used to characterize scales. The terms are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, es ...

instrument, on most modern instruments all semitones of the scale can be played. The instrument is (generally) not tuned to an

equal temperament An equal temperament is a musical temperament or Musical tuning#Tuning systems, tuning system that approximates Just intonation, just intervals by dividing an octave (or other interval) into steps such that the ratio of the frequency, frequencie ...

, to allow playing in harmony with the drones. Also, due to the presence of the drones which cannot be tuned to another pitch, only a subset of the keys which would be technically feasible are usually played, i.e. the drone is either the key's tonic or the dominant. Further, typically used embellishments do not work as well or not at all if the music is transposed to another key. As most semitones can be played, music in different modes of a key can be and are traditionally played (e.g. on a cornemuse du centre 20p: D-major, D-minor, D-mixolydian etc.), which would not be possible on a purely

diatonic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are used to characterize scales. The terms are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair ...

instrument. The fingering of the chanter is usually semi-closed for high pitched instruments, which means that the fingers of the lower hand (which is usually the right hand) are placed on their holes when removing the fingers of the upper hand. Chanters of 20 inches or greater are generally played with open fingering.

References

{{reflist Bagpipes French musical instruments