The name, which is modern, refers to the Anglo-Scottish Border region, where the instrument was once common, so much so that many towns there used to maintain a piper.
Indeed, some late 17th-century paintings, such as a tavern scene[1] by Egbert van Heemskerck, probably from south-eastern England, show musicians playing such instruments.
There was an attempted revival in north-east England in the 1920s and new instruments were created for Newcastle Royal Grammar School, Durham University OTC, and Northumberland Boy Scouts.
[2] The term half-long pipes is now used to refer specifically to surviving Northumbrian examples from this period;[3] these were in part modelled on an 18th-century set which had belonged to Muckle Jock Milburn, and is now in the Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum;[4] however, they were given a different drone configuration.
The instrument consists of a chanter which plays the melody, drones which play a constant unchanging harmony, a bag which holds the air to blow drones and chanter, and a set of bellows to supply air to the bag.
The instrument has three cylindrically bored drones inserted into the pipebag by a common stock, typically tuned A, a, e', or A, a, a.
There is a distinct body of music for the instrument – many of these tunes survived in the fiddle and Northumbrian smallpipes repertoire after the playing of Border pipes died out in the mid-19th century.
Most notably, the William Dixon manuscript, dated 1733, from Stamfordham in Northumberland, was identified as Border pipe music by Matt Seattle in 1995, and published by him with extensive notes.
Some of these are limited to a single octave, and many of this group correspond closely to tunes for Northumbrian smallpipes known from early 19th-century sources – "Apprentice Lads of Alnwick" is one of these; others are melodically and harmonically richer – using the full nine-note compass and the G major subtonic chord – a fine example of this group is Dorrington.
Some of the smallpipe tunes in Peacock's book, from the early 19th century, are in the Lydian mode, with a tonic of c, but with one sharp in the key signature; these – "Bobby Shaftoe" is one – make more musical sense in the major mode with an f natural, viewed as adaptations from originals for Border pipes.
The nine-note modal scale, usually mixolydian, with a compass from the subtonic up to the high tonic, separates them clearly from most fiddle and smallpipe tunes.
The Lowland and Border Pipers' Society was formed in 1982 and has played a large part in the revival of the instrument and its music.