Pineda bagpipes (elder wood, cow horn, reed)

It is usual to call certain pastoral instruments made with wood and bone “albogue” (rustic flute). These make a sound thanks to a simple reed.

The model shown here is a reproduction of one found in the Sierra de Pineda in the province of Burgos.

Similar instruments have been found elsewhere in the peninsula, always in mountainous areas with livestock economies: Sierra de Madrid, Guadalajara, Sierra de Grazalema in Cadiz…

It consists of a sonorous wooden tube made from an elder branch, which, given its soft centre, is easy to perforate. Other examples, such as those from the Sierra de Madrid are made from the wood of the fig-tree, which is similarly soft. They have four or five holes to produce notes, with the peculiarity that the wood is cut down around the holes leaving a ridge between them. Some examples have a square tube or is decorated with carvings or engravings by fire.

The sound is produced by the vibration of a reed made from a reed shoot, a thin elder twig which is perforated, or some kind of plant shoot, closed at one end and with a cut lengthways.

The two ends are finished off with pieces of bone, one which will act as an amplifier and the other to protect the reed and as a mouthpiece. The mouthpiece is sometimes carved in the wood itself or has disappeared as is the case of the Gastoreña hornpipe in the Sierra de Grazalema .