Musette "Béchonnet" & Cornemuse des Bourbonnais
The bagpipe is based on Joseph Béchonnets(1820-1900) re-development of the French bagpipe Cornemuse du Centre.
He lived in Effiat on the border between Auvergne and Boubonnais and was a clog-maker and turner. Béchonnet succeeded in building an almost chromatic chanter, which extended over 1½ octaves.
He also added a third drone fitting into the chanter-stock(tete) and used a pair of bellows instead of blowing by mouth.
Many chanters, built by todays bagpipe-makers, have their roots in Béchonnets´ invention.
I build my Musette Béchonnet with two drones (one, respective two octaves under the chanters lowest tone,”6-fingering”) or three drones (+ the same octave as the chanters´ lowest tone).
The big drone lies either over the shoulder or bent forward.
As in all of my bagpipes I offer a mouth-blown and a bellow-blown version.
The following keys are available (6-fingering/3fingering):
A/D, G/C, F/Bb,
French bagpipes tuned in D/G are usually called Cornemuse des Bourbonnais.
The beautiful inlays in the individual doublestocks are always especially interesting and creative.
