Dr. Angus MacDonald

Bagpipe, as a genre label, refers to repertoire centered on bellows- or mouth-blown bagpipes, most prominently the Great Highland Bagpipe of Scotland, performed solo or within pipe bands. Characteristic features include a fixed drone chord, a limited modal scale (often A Mixolydian on the Highland pipes), and dense ornamental technique (gracings) that articulates rhythm and melody. Core forms range from the stately, theme-and-variation lineage of piobaireachd (pìobaireachd) to the "light music" of marches, strathspeys, reels, jigs, and hornpipes. Although bagpipes are found across Eurasia and North Africa, the modern bagpipe genre coalesced around Scottish folk and military traditions and later fused with rock, electronica, and global folk idioms, making the sound both ceremonial and contemporary.