An
ancient wind instrument, consisting of at least one
leather bag to hold
air, two or three pipes to provide the
drone, and a short pipe with
finger holes named the
chanter on which the
tune is played.
Throughout most of its
history, the bagpipe has been as
peasant instrument and commonly associated with people of low
status such as farmers,
shepherds, and
gypsies. As it was
seldom used in sophisticated company, not much was ever written or recorded about the bagpipe's
early history.
The earliest diagrams of the bagpipe
mechanism only date back to
1619 when
Preatorius assembled his well-known illustrated work on
organography.