Bagpipes and their history under scrutiny of our musicologist
Prof. dr hab. Zbigniew J. Przerembski from the Department of Systematic Musicology in the Institute of Musicology at the Faculty of Historical and Pedagogical Sciences became a leader of the international European Union grant “Historical and Ethnographic Study of Belarusian Bagpipes: Symbolism, Music and Cultural Revival” as part of the EU4 Belarus Salt III programme. Uladzimir Lobach and Eugen Baryshnikau are Belarusian researchers who also participate in the project.
The scientist specializes in studying folk music and the history of traditional music, analysis and classification of styles, genres, instruments, and performance practice. The newest study has a scientific and social aim. It is to document the historical cultural heritage, including the heritage of the Daugava river basin. Moreover, the study aims to expand instrumentological knowledge about the East Slavic (Eastern European) bagpipes – their origin and evolution in terms of structure, musical properties, and symbolic significance in culture.
The research will mainly focus on an area located in the Daugava river basin (and surrounding areas to some extent), which is the centre of the East Slavic (Eastern European) type of bagpipes, described as Belarusian.
The Daugava River flows through Russia (Andreapol in the Tver Oblast), Belarus (Vitebsk and Polotsk), and Latvia (Daugavpils, Salaspils, Riga) flowing into the Gulf of Riga. Hence, the bagpipe practice will be taken into account not only in the area of ethnic Belarus, but also in areas in eastern Lithuania, eastern Latvia (Latgale), and western Russia. Therefore, the semantic scope of the name of the Belarusian bagpipes will be extended and specified.
The research will include various types of sources; historical: written (including linguistic ones), iconographic – from the end of the 15th century, as well as folkloric and ethnographic sources derived from the field exploration conducted from the 19th century to the contemporary times.
– These will be complex historical, ethnographic, and instrumentological studies – prof. Zbiginiew J. Przerembski announces. – They may serve as a support for cultural institutions in the promotion and cultivation of the musical history of this area, including the tradition of bagpipes, which especially has a chance to support the Belarusian cultural identity – he adds.
A bilingual (English-Belarusian) monography of bagpipes will be published. It will present the history of this instrument starting from the late Middle Ages to the contemporary times, with an addition of archival sources and musical transcriptions of bagpipe melodies. These melodies (derived from 56 authentic recordings of bagpipers from the period before World War II) will be found on CDs and streaming platforms. A practical guide to playing the Belarusian bagpipes will also be developed as a help for musicians and educators.
Coverage: Katarzyna Górowicz-Maćkiewicz
Translated by Kinga Krzywonos (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.
Publication date: 4.12.2025
Added by: M.K.
