I thought the word for "bagpipe" (the smaller version played in seisuns) in Irish was spelled "uillean." Can it also be spelled starting with a "v," that is, "villean?"

Go raith maith agat,

Dáithí

No, it most certainly cannot - not in Irish anyway :-) By the way, the uillean pipe is not a bagpipe like the Scottish one.

Thanks for the answer Jonas. Is it correct for me to call the uillean pipe a bagpipe, or is there a different musical term for it?

Le meas,

Dáithí

it is Uilleann (ILLun, coming from the word for elbow - because of the bellows) and it is most certainly the king of all bagpipes. Virtually every country from Ireland to Pakistan and Sweden to Libya has its own bagpipes...they were an ancient Roman invention (as we would recognize them) and spread all over the empire and to the cultures just over its borders.

Píb Uilleann would be the correct spelling, and Píb Mór would be the Great Highland Bagpipes.

I play them...check out my page for a brief history and some photos

http://members.aol.com/PipesOfIreland

They are not the same. The are both wind played pipes but bagpipes are played by blowing into them, while uillean pipes are played by blowing air into the pipes by way of a elbow bellows.

Uilleann pipes and Highland pipes are both bagpipes, two different members of the same family. In the uilleann pipes, there's a bag, and it's inflated by a bellows, which the piper operates with his elbow, hence the "uilleann."

No, I'm not a piper, but some my best friends are.

Le meas, Paul

yes, "bagpipe" is a family of double reed instruments where a bag (sometimes mouth-blown, sometimes bellows-blown) is used to substitute for "circular breathing" and allow continuous play.

this includes Uilleann pipes, Irish war pipes, Great Highland Pipes, northumbrian smallpipes and dozens more from galicia to deep in the middle east.

Píb mhór in Scotland (píb is feminine)

Antaine,I didnt know they were a Roman invention! I have a Berber friend from Algeria who couldnt believe the similarity between the Uilleann pipes and the ones they have in Kabilia in Northern Algeria..he was sure of a cultural link..do you have any links to the history of the bagpipes??

hm, what I've printed here and on my page was had from numerous sources, so I'm afraid I don't...but you can tell your friend he was absolutely correct in that the berbers have pipes because they were part of the R. Empire and the Irish do because they were just over the border with extensive trade.

One of the sources I looked at had said that it was believed one of the roman refinements was to add a bellows, but the uilleann pipes didn't come to be until the 1600s so there is not direct link between the berber pipes and the irish ones.

there seems to be some evidence that the uilleann pipes were developed as the main irish pipes from the pastoral pipes(which can be played standing up) in response to the english outlawing pipes as tools of war. the uilleann pipes MUST be played sitting down, and are therefore "safe" and a way to have your pipes and not be arrested for treason...

Actually you can find bagpipes in many traditional musics throughout the world. That doesn’t mean that the Romans were present everywhere! I think that the theory saying that the Romans brought bagpipes to Scotland is influenced by a Romanocentrist (?) point of view. Irish and Scottish people were not more stupid than the Romans, they could be able to invent such an instrument by themselves...

true, but bagpipes as we know them seem to be a roman thing. other cultures had bladder pipes and instruments that worked on a similar principle.

the romans didn't bring bagpipes to scotland, tho...the irish did. it seems that the irish gaels liked what they saw (and heard) through trade with roman britain and developed their own version of the instrument (not the uilleann pipes, tho). When the gaels displaced the Picts and Caledonii after the roman withdrawl they brought the bagpipes with them.

the bagpipes came from India, probably.they are clearly describe in the Veda, at list 1000 years before the Latins were messing around.
Romans were not belong music or art, generally.
they took something from the Greeks.
The Celts are linked with old north east asian races and both are belong the indo-europeans (so called) people. so i think ther is a similar background. d.