THE BAGPIPE: THE HISTORY OF A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT. by Collinson, Francis - 1975

London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975. 257 pp, large 8vo (9 7/16" H). B&w illustrations. "(A) fascinating full-length history of one of the world's most interesting and ancient musical instruments. The story begins in 3000 B.C. with the mouth-blown reed pipes, predecessor to the bagpipe. Mr Collinson looks at the history of this instrument as known in ancient Babylonia and Egypt, through the ancient Grecian Empire and Greece itself, to Rome and thence to Britain. He investigates the application of the bag principle to the mouth-blown pipes in Hellenic Egypt and Rome, and the first appearance of the bagpipe in Great Britain and Ireland in the eleventh or twelfth century. He describes the development of the bagpipe in the British Isles, its rise and gradual waning, leaving the Scottish Highland bagpipe and the Northumbrian pipes as the sole survivors. Having traced its evolution, the book goes on to narrate the fortunes of the 'Great Highland Bagpipe' itself. This is an account which encompasses the Jacobite risings and Culloden, and the Disarming Act 1747, by which the use of the bagpipe was more or less proscribed. It covers the great music of Pibroch, in the hands of the MacCrimmons and other pipers, and continues up to modern times. Appendices list the bagpipes of other countries and the materials used in the instrument's manufacture, and there is a comprehensive bibliography." Cigarette odour, previous owner's bookplate on front pastedown, small bookstore stamp on title page, minor browning in margins of pages, light browning to edges of textblock, slight corner bumps, very light edgewear, heavy indentation lines with tiny scuffs down spine - probably from binding process. Dust jacket is clipped, has light edgewear/wrinkling, browning to edges, two tiny dints on front hinge, crease down rear flap. . First Edition. Hard Cover. Good+/Very Good-.