Thin ice here,I think, John.
Leaving aside the century in which the unique sound of the pipes was
created and whether the addition of keys "improved" this sound, there
are real problems, these days, with the appellation Northumberland.
You rightly point out that the Kingdom of Northumbria belonged to a
different era to the modern version of the instrument but then so does
Northumberland as now designated by the boundary changes of the 1970s.
Jim is far closer to the truth when he refers to Northumbria as the
home of our pipes as this region does imply the inclusion of what is
now Tyne & Wear, and Durham.
The locals of course usually just referred to them as pipes and used
appellations "Scottish" or "Irish" to denote otherwise. When
geographical information was added for the benefit of a wider audience,
Northumberland was used.
This now, however, has a greater lack of accuracy than
"Northumbrian" as it means that the very place where the piping
developments you mention is excluded from the named location.
Perhaps some would like us now to refer to "Northumberland" pipes for
the older version and "Tyne & Wear" pipes for the modern version?
As aye
Anthony
--- On Tue, 5/1/10, gibbonssoi...@aol.com <gibbonssoi...@aol.com>
wrote:
From: gibbonssoi...@aol.com <gibbonssoi...@aol.com>
Subject: [NSP] Re: NSP
To: j...@millgreens.f2s.com
Cc: nsp@cs.dartmouth.edu
Date: Tuesday, 5 January, 2010, 23:03
The pipes and the kingdom belong to different eras -
the Northumbrian pipes reached something like their modern form in a
similar time and place to the steam locomotive.
But they were called 'Northumberland pipes' then, as were their
simpler
'unimproved' pre-Peacock version.
'Northumbrian' is now used, confusingly, to refer to any of
-the Anglo-Saxon kingdom
-the modern county
-the modern NE region, from the Tees to the border,
never ever specifying which is meant.
It is apparently a gross error to do so, though I never understood
why....
John
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