True enough, but that's 1821, right? That's 107 years later. It took much less time for the Italian violin to completely displace the native fiddle.AaronMalcomb wrote:
There are documented rules stating that pipers were not to tune on the platform suggesting some level of tunability or at least a sense of tuning by the pipers. The old pipes may not have been refined but I'm not convinced they were "crap" to use your word.
How can a quality musical instrument have no value? I can't think of any examples of hand made instruments that sound good that aren't valuable. The only way it makes sense to me that "This new bagpipe" (Quoting Donnchadh Ban Macintyre in 1784) could so completely displace the previous instruments is if it sounded dramatically superior. My Scottish Small Pipes aren't suitable for playing in competition, but that doesn't mean they have no value.
The old pipes may not have been kept because of lack of value but that doesn't necessarily equate lack of quality.
I have read most of Barry Shears book (referenced previously in the thread) and I don't really see anything that furthers the discussion at hand (The development of the bagpipe). Except that it documents the value that 19th c. gaelic culture placed on bagpipes (and pipers).