Chanter with extension or 'foot joint' for a set of Pastoral bagpipes

Chanter for a set of Pastoral bagpipes with two drones set in a stock with a long chanter, uncovered skin bag and mounts of brass and bone. British, early 18th century. Two of the 'drones' in what appears as a four-drone combination are a linked 'return' for the bass drone, extending the column of air back through the stock in order to reduce the standing length of the bass drone itself. Collected by Dr Duncan Fraser.

The Pastoral Bagpipe was developed in the early 18th century for chamber music and light opera. Such instruments were used for example in the popular and fashionable pastoral dramas with music such as the 'Gentle Shepherd' (1725) by the writer and poet Allan Ramsay (1688-1758) and in John Gay's 'Beggars' Opera' (1728).

The early instruments, created by musical instrument makers in London and Edinburgh, had only two drones, bass and tenor, and the chanter. The chanter, made in sections like a flute, had a long narrow conical bore with the extension, described as the 'foot joint', allowing the instrument to be overblown into a second octave. A 'tutor' and book of music, 'The Compleat Tutor for the Pastoral or New Bagpipe', was produced in London for the Pastoral Pipe by John Geoghegan in about 1746 (ref. NMS H.1947.129).

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