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Article: THE BAGPIPE: A COMPLEX INSTRUMENT WITH A LONG HISTORY.(Entertainment)
- Article from:
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer
- Article date:
- October 4, 1999
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the Dialog Corporation by Gale Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The bagpipe is one of the oldest and most complex of musical instruments. Much of the music dates to the 1500s, but the instrument itself goes back at least to 1150, when it was featured in a woodcut of a pig playing a pipe.
The first written mention of the ``great pipes'' was in 1623, when a bagpiper from Perth, Scotland, was prosecuted for playing on the Sabbath.
During Bonnie Prince Charlie's rebellion of 1745, the Loyalist English government considered bagpipes instruments of war because of their role in rallying Scots to battle. One man, James Ried, was executed in 1746 for high treason for the crime of playing the bagpipe, although he insisted he ...