Accession Number HRL.2019.0003: source unknown, date unknown
[identification of item], Serbian Gaida, SPEC.HRL.0007, Hilandar Research Library, Ohio State University
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Processed by: Audrey Wimbiscus, 2019 January; Finding aid written by: Audrey Wimbiscus, 2019 January
Bagpipes are a type of woodwind instrument that have been found throughout Europe, eastern Asia, and northern Africa for at least a millenium. The instrument consists of an animal-hide bag or bladder that is inflated either through a player's breath and a blowpipe mouthpiece, or a set of bellows. A player would then compress the bag to push air out through the chanter and the drones, producing music. The chanter has finger-holes that are covered or uncovered depending on which note a player wishes to produce. Bagpipes have at least one drone, if not more; these produce the constant droning notes that characterizes most bagpipe music.
The gaida is one of the types of bagpipes from the Balkans and southeastern Europe. They are often decorated with goat imagery. Gaidas and other Eastern European bagpipes are unique for including a tiny hole on their chanters known as a flea-hole, which is used to raise the key of notes being played by a half step.
The Serbian Gaida is a bellows-driven gaida, or Eastern European bagpipe, that dates from circa 1800s to 1920. This gaida consists of an animal-hide bag with a blue and pink cover, an attached wooden chanter with attached chanter bell, bellows detached from the instrument, a leather strap for attaching the bellows to a player's waist, and a three-part wooden drone. The first part of the drone is attached to the bag, the second piece is the "folded" 3-stock wooden piece with string wrapped around the ends, and the third piece is the cylindrical wooden part. Folded drones make a gaida smaller, more compact, and easier to transport.