The bombard's relatively stiff reed requires enough lip and breath support that a talabarder cannot play a lengthy, sustained melody line.

Prior to World War I, a given pair of Soners (musicians) would typically cover all of the weddings, funerals, and other social occasions within a given territory, which would be jealously guarded from other performers.

This duet of bombard and bagpipe, sometimes accompanied by a drummer in past centuries, has been practiced for at least 500 years in Brittany in an unbroken tradition.

In some parts of Brittany from the beginning of the 20th century onwards into the revival period of the 1970s, the most popular sonneurs de couple were the paired ‘treujenn gaol’ clarinet and accompanying button accordion.

In the late 1940s, the creation of the Bagad, a specifically Breton orchestra of bagpipes, bombards and drums, by figures such as Polig Monjarret and the organization Bodadeg ar Sonerion (Brotherhood of Musicians), offered a new role to the instrument.

As the Bagad was a Breton take on the Scottish pipe band concept, the music initially performed was typically more martial in character.

Bombards range from large bass models approaching an english horn to tiny instruments playing a high C diatonic scale.

Today, the bombard is played in combination with a wide variety of instruments (biniou, veuze, Scottish Highland pipes, saxophone, piano, organ, clarinet/treujenn gaol, violin, flute, guitar, bass, and percussion) in Fest Noz groups as well as in ensembles of many other styles - from classical to folk, rock, pop, punk, metal - in arrangements of traditional Breton dance tunes or in new compositions.