BAGHÈT: Italian Musical Instrument

The Baghèt is a bagpipe instrument that is historically played in Bergamo and Brescia, corresponding to the province of Lombardy in the contemporary Italy. The musical instrument is a small double-reeded bagpipe with two drones, linked with rural music players. The musical instrument became defunct in the mid-20^th century, but the musical instrument is now performed by some revivalists.

Even if the instrument is much older, the existence of the instrument is confirmed by the ending part of the 14^th century in a fresco in a castle of Biazano. Other representations are Malpaga Castle in Piario in the church of St. Augustine in Bergamo, in Dance Macabre by Simon Baschenis in the church of San Vigilio, Pinzolo. The musical instrument played in a picture sources, all the musical instrument have a chanter to perform the melody and a drone that rests on the shoulder of the player. In many pictures, the musical instrument is accompanied by the bombard.

Enough evidences in pictures and texts suggest that an analogous musical instrument was used in the surroundings of Brescia and Verona.

The Baghèt was mainly a rural musical instrument that is played during the winter period when work was sluggish, until the festival of Epiphany when the musical instrument would be put away until the next winter. The musical instrument was mainly manufactured locally, and normally passed down from a father to his son.

The musical instrument were virtually abandoned in the social disorder of the mid-1950s, according to research done by Valter, the last player of the musical instrument was Giacomo Ruggeri Casnigo.

The musical instrument was said to be nonexistent, per Roberto Leydi, an ethnomusicologist in the publication in 1979, ‘the bagpipes in Europe’. New research carried out by the composer, Valter Biella, led to the detection of some remaining pipes.

The musical instrument is made up of A small bag, that is made of a goat or sheep leather, A melody chanter, double-reeded, having the range of an octave in the key of major A, a tenor drone that is playing an octave below the chanter of the musical instrument, A bass drone that is  playing two octaves below the chanter of the instrument, having a single-reed, A blowpipe that can be used to inflate the bag by mouth.

The name baghèt was the most used, though there were also the names of la pìa. The player of the musical instrument is called bagheter.