Northumbrian Smallpipes - Chanter

Chanter

Although keyless chanters seem to have been common for much of the 18th century, the earliest evidence of the introduction of a keyed chanter is the illustration and fingering chart in John Peacock's tunebook, A Favorite Collection of Tunes with Variations Adapted for the Northumberland Small Pipes, Violin, or Flute, first published by William Wright, of Newcastle, in about 1800.

The first of these were probably made by John Dunn, and the design was subsequently developed further by Robert Reid and his son James.

In practice, beginning players find that the seven key chanter, with a range of D to b, is sufficient for playing most of the traditional piping repertoire. Such a chanter, made by Robert Reid, is shown below - the four views show respectively:

• from the front, the fingerholes (for G, A, B, c, d, e, f sharp),
• from the player's left, the keys (for low E and high a) operated by the left little finger,
• from the back, the thumbhole (for high g) and two keys operated by the right thumb (for low F sharp and for d sharp),
• from the right, the other keys operated by the right thumb (for low D, c sharp, and high b).

Chanters with more keys permit the playing of tunes with a wider range or with more chromatic notes, and allow access to much of the fiddle repertoire.

The chanter has a double reed, similar in construction to an oboe reed. This leads to a distinctive sound, rich in higher harmonics. As the bore is cylindrical, the odd harmonics are greatly predominant.

Traditionally, the chanter has been pitched somewhere between F and F sharp, older instruments often being close to modern F sharp. Several modern makers prefer to produce pipes pitched at what Northumbrian pipers refer to as F+, a pitch where the nominal G sounds approximately twenty cents sharp of F natural. This nominal G, however, is always notated as G. Nowadays, chanters are available anywhere from D to G, F+ being the commonest for solo or ensemble piping, but G being the most popular for playing ensemble with other instruments. Pipes with a tonic of F# are used for solo performance by several pipers now, being brighter in tone than those in F+, without being 'squeaky'.