Sac de Gemecs

The sac de gemecs (meaning ‘bag of groans’) is a bagpipe from Catalonia. It is the same type of bagpipe as the xeremies, the Mallorcan bagpipe. They both present the particularity of having three drones (bordons) that are gathered in a common stock, and a separate melodic pipe (grall). These Western Mediterranean bagpipes are of the Western bagpipe type, with cylindrical drones, and a conical melodic pipe. Historically, the sac de gemecs was included in a trio formation called the ‘cobla de tres quartans’, which included a flute and drum (flabiol and tamborí), a shawm (tible) and a bagpipe (sac de gemecs) (Busquets and Sans, 1993).


Catalonian bagpipes started declining in the 19th century and became extinct in the first half of the 20th century. This has been attributed to two factors: the heavy industrialization of Catalonia and the association of the instrument with old-fashioned times, and the fact that the sac de gemecs was not included in a new instrumental formation, the ‘cobla de sardanas’, which rapidly became extremely popular, taking over other traditional practices (Plujà, 2019:42-3). The sac de gemecs were revived in 1983, and early instrument makers were influenced by the bagpipe making activity in Mallorca.


This sac de gemecs was made by Catalan maker Jordi Aixalà in 2002/3. The maker started his activity in 1985, at the beginning of the instrument’s revival. Aixalà designed the instrument using a mix of styles, based on what was available at the time – he started turning instruments in a traditional style slightly later. The melodic pipe (grall) follows the design of a sac de gemecs from Vilafranca del Penedès, a village about 45km west of Barcelona. It is made of granadillo, as Aixalà was influenced by the extensive use of this material for Mallorcan xeremies in the early 2000s. The cowhide leather bag was made by a young artisan nicknamed Xapu, who had a limited production and only made a few (Aixalà, 2023).

(Cassandre Balosso-Bardin, 2023)


References

Aixalà, Jordi, 2023. Email communication with Cassandre Balosso-Bardin. Instrument File #2004.40. Musical Instrument Department Archives, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.


Busquets i Peret, Simó and Francesc Sans i Bonet, 1995. Les cornamuses i el sac de gemecs.


Plujà, Joan Josep Mayans. 2019. ‘El sac de gemecs: una joya recuperada del instrumentario catalán.’　Música tradicional, educación y patrimonio: investigaciones etnomusicológicas y educación. Documenta Universitaria.