The chanter is the part of the

bagpipe 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, No ...

upon which the player creates the

melody A melody (), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of Pitch (music), pitch and rhythm, while more figurativel ...

. It consists of a number of finger-holes, and in its simpler forms looks similar to a

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. On more elaborate bagpipes, such as the Northumbrian bagpipes or the

Uilleann pipes The uilleann pipes ( or , ), also known as Union pipes and sometimes called Irish pipes, are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms (literally, "pipes of the ...

, it also may have a number of keys, to increase the instrument's range and/or the number of

keys Key, Keys, The Key or The Keys may refer to: Common uses * Key (cryptography), a piece of information needed to encode or decode a message * Key (instrument), a component of a musical instrument * Key (lock), a device used to operate a lock * ...

(in the modal sense) it can play in. Like the rest of the bagpipe, they are often decorated with a variety of substances, including metal (silver/nickel/gold/brass), bone, ivory, or plastic mountings.

Cylindrical vs. conical bore

Chanters come in two main types, parallel and non-parallel bored (although there is no clear dividing line between the two). This refers to the shape of the internal bore of the chanter. On the

Great Highland Bagpipe The great Highland bagpipe ( 'the great pipe') is a type of bagpipe native to Scotland, and the Scottish analogue to the great Irish warpipes. It has acquired widespread recognition through its usage in the British Armed Forces, British mili ...

, the internal bore is conical: it is this that gives the chanter its exceptional volume. The Northumbrian pipes, on the other hand, have a parallel bore, giving them a much sweeter and quieter tone.

Keyed chanter

Although the majority of chanters are unkeyed, some make extensive use of keys to extend the range and/or the number of accidentals the chanter can play. The most common pipe featuring this arrangement is the Northumbrian smallpipe.

Double chanter

Another variant of the chanter is the two-piped chanter (often called a double chanter). The chanter pipes may be designed to be played separately, one with each hand, or the two chanters may be played in

unison Unison (stylised as UNISON) is a Great Britain, British trade union. Along with Unite the Union, Unite, Unison is one of the two largest trade unions in the United Kingdom, with over 1.2 million members who work predominantly in public servic ...

(as in most Arabic bagpipes). One chanter may provide a

drone Drone or The Drones may refer to: Science and technology Vehicle * Drone, a type of uncrewed vehicle, a class of robot ** Unmanned aerial vehicle or aerial drone *** Unmanned combat aerial vehicle ** Unmanned ground vehicle or ground drone ** Unma ...

accompaniment to the other, or the two chanters may play in a

harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

s and sixths (as in the northern Italian

Müsa The müsa, or müsa appenninica, is a bagpipe from the Apennines of north-west Italy which was commonly used to accompany the piffero in the folk music of the Quattro Province: the ‘Four Provinces’ of (Pavia, Alessandria, Genoa and Piacenza). ...

and central-southern Italian ''

zampogna Zampogna (, , ) is a generic term for a number of Italian double chantered bagpipes that can be found throughout areas in Latium. The tradition is now mostly associated with Christmas, and the most famous Italian carol, " Tu scendi dalle stelle" ( ...

''). In pipes of the

Carpathian basin The Pannonian Basin, with the term Carpathian Basin being sometimes preferred in Hungarian literature, is a large sedimentary basin situated in southeastern Central Europe. After the Treaty of Trianon following World War I, the geomorphologic ...

up to five separate chanter bores may be placed in parallel within a single chanter assembly, providing both melodic and rhythmic possibilities: in the simplest case, one pipe is used to play the melody while the second provides a variable drone, while more complex pipes may separate certain individual notes into separate, stopped pipes.

Intonation

Because of the accompanying drone or drones, the lack of modulation in bagpipe melody, and stable timbre of the reed sound, in many bagpipe traditions the tones of the chanter are tuned using

just intonation In music, just intonation or pure intonation is a musical tuning, tuning system in which the space between notes' frequency, frequencies (called interval (music), intervals) is a natural number, whole number ratio, ratio. Intervals spaced in thi ...

, although bagpipe tuning is highly variable across traditions. On the Great Highland bagpipe, tuning of the individual notes of the chanter is done using tape to slightly cover the finger holes as needed. Historically, it was done with wax, as was done with other woodwind instruments.

Practice chanter

The

practice chanter A bagpipe practice chanter is a double-reed woodwind instrument, principally used as an adjunct to the Great Highland bagpipe. As its name implies, the practice chanter serves as a practice instrument: firstly for learning to finger the diffe ...

is used as a practice instrument for the Great Highland Bagpipe. It is somewhat similar in appearance, though slightly smaller than the bagpipe chanter, and has a top piece before the reed so it can be blown directly from the mouth. It is also used as a first instrument so that learners can initially learn the finger technique before learning the mechanics of controlling the bag. It is almost exclusively made of hardwood or plastic. The practice chanter of today may also be a descendant of the

hornpipe The hornpipe is any of several dance forms and their associated tunes, played and danced in Great Britain and Ireland and elsewhere from the 16th century until the present day. The earliest references to hornpipes are from England, with Hugh As ...

or "stock-and-horn", a historical reed pipe of Scotland with a capped double reed and bell made of horn, played by shepherds, among others."The Bagpipe" - Francis Collinson

References

{{Reflist Bagpiping