The bombardes

version française


The bombards are par excellence the traditional breton instruments. They are part of the oboe familly. Before the creation of the bagadoù, the traditionnal ringers of low-Brittany played in couple : bombarde and biniou bihan (small bagpipe) or in trio: bombarde-biniou-drum.

The most used bombardes are in Bflat, but the ringers from Quimper also use some bombardes in Eflat; this instrument is also called lombarde, it has 8 keys and has been very recently introduced in the bagadoù.

The ringer of bombarde blows in a double reed . The way to pluck the reed has a great importance for the quality of the sound given out.

The bombarb chapter of the Kemper Bagad is composed of twelve to sixtheen musicians. The bagad also uses a wind instrument called "treujenn gaol" (a sort of clarinet). This instrument is used in some regions of Low-Brittany (Montagne, Fisel, Plinn...).

To perform turn from these regions, one the musician plays of this instrument.


Contribution Olivier Couet [couet@hphigz.cern.ch]