History
In 1376, the poet Iolo Goch describes the instrument in his Cywydd to Syr Hywel y Fwyall. Also, in the same century, Brut y Tywysogion ("Chronicle of the Princes"), written around 1330 AD, states that there are three types of wind instrument: Organ a Phibeu a Cherd y got ("organ, and pipes, and bag music"). Continuous use of the instrument has since waxed and waned in popularity according to musical fashions. Pipe making has historically been localised and idiosyncratic, and piping since the sixteenth century has generally been employed in celebratory or public roles such as weddings, markets, or dances.
"Mabsantau, neithioirau, gwylnosau, &c, were their red-letter days, and the rude merrimaking of the village green the pivot of all that was worth living for in a mundane existence. I do not remember much about the Gwylmabsant and the Gwylnos - I came a quarter of a century too late for those wonderful orgies - but I remember the neithior with its all-day and all-night rollicking fun. We did not have the crwth, but we had the fiddle, and occasionally the harp, or a home-made degenerate sort of pibgorn. I myself am a tolerable player on the simplified bibgorn."Read more about this topic: Welsh Bagpipes
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