site.btaMaster Bagpipe Maker Says Demand for the Instrument Is Rising

ESD 13:21:31 31-10-2019
SN1317ES.107
107 CULTURE - RHODOPE BAGPIPE - DEMAND

Master Bagpipe Maker Says
Demand for the Instrument
Is Rising


Smolyan, Southern Bulgaria, October 31 (BTA) - The demand for the local Rhodope version of large bagpipes called "kaba" bagpipes is increasing, Hristo Topchiev who has been making them for many years said in a BTA interview. Orders for the typical Rhodope instrument have been coming from across this country, as well as from Bulgarians in Germany and the United States. Orders for small child-size bagpipes have also been increasing.

Some of Topchiev's bagpipes have even travelled to China. He has made over 100 in 2018 and the orders keep coming in. A Rhodope bagpipe costs between 250 and 400 leva.

Bagpipes are a tradition folk instrument in Bulgaria and many locals think it is typical of Bulgaria and Scotland alone. In fact, it is an instrument that has been existing in the traditions of peoples ranging from Europe, though North Africa and the Middle East.

Spain even has a bagpipe museum. The International Bagpipe Museum (Museo internacional de la gaita) is located in Gijon, Asturias, Spain. The museum was founded in 1965. Traditional music in Galicia and Asturias still uses bagpipes.

The use of bagpipes in Bulgaria, Spain and Scotland has given birth to an original theory that the Celts were responsible for the distribution of the instrument. Whatever the truth, it is a fact that the bagpipe is an ancient instrument characteristic of cultures distant from one another, from Poland to Hungary and Crete.

Rhodope bagpipes are traditionally made of natural materials, although today synthetic ones can also be used. The bag itself is usually larger than those in other cultures, as for example the Scottish Great Highland bagpipe, the Georgian gudastviri or those featured in the paintings of Hendrick ter Brugghen and Hieronymus Bosch. RY/BR