Karl Partridge playing at a New Year’s Eve party last week.

Losing the żaqq would be equivalent to losing a priceless ancient monument, according to the man who documented the Maltese bagpipe before the last active player passed away.

And in his bid to lend this unique bagpipe a lifeline, Karl Partridge will be playing and speaking about the żaqq at a conference in Glasgow – the first time the instrument will feature in an international bagpipe convention.

Dr Partridge, a consultant ecologist by profession, documented the żaqq with Prof. Frank Jeal 40 years ago, publishing their findings in the Galpin Society Journal in 1977.

Some 30 years later, Steve Borg, co-founder of the Maltese group Etnika, tracked down the pair in England. They told him they wanted to pass on a document on the instrument to a Maltese person interested in reviving the tradition.

He suggested they hand it to the National Archives, so in 2013 they presented field documents, audio recordings, photographs, slides and folk music instruments, including the żaqq, żafżafa, chanters, reeds and different components of the instruments that the farmers had given them in the 1970s.

As a folk instrument it has a place in Maltese society even today and I believe more effort needs to be invested in securing its future

Their research had been carried out between 1971 and 1973, when Dr Partridge’s parents were living in Malta. At that time there was only one active player left – Tony Cachia Il-Ħammarun of Naxxar (he died in 2004).

So then 22-year-old Dr Partridge got Mr Cachia to make him a żaqq and he learned how to play it while looking for former żaqq players in Naxxar, Mosta, and Vittoriosa.

Although they could still play, these former players had no working instruments of their own, so he recorded some of them playing his own.

Dr Partidge noted that in the 1970s there was little interest in Malta in documenting traditional music.

The Galpin Society Journal and illustrations from it.

Although this changed just before Il-Ħammarun died, today there were very few active players in Malta and the żaqq still led a precarious existence. Unfortunately, the complexity of musical motifs and ornamentation has been lost, he added.

Dr Partidge believes that Il-Ħammarun had his own style, and were it not for him, the żaqq could have become extinct. However, the melody he played was simpler and less varied that that of the older players.

“It would be great if some of the new players could re-learn the older music and re-introduce the richness of this very ancient and uniquely Maltese tradition.”

Dr Partridge was speaking to this newspaper ahead of the lecture next month on the Maltese żaqq at the third International Bagpipe Conference. He believes the żaqq is important internationally as a unique type of bagpipe. The instrument has never had the international recognition it deserves and as far as he is aware, it has never been previously discussed at an academic conference.

Dr Partidge, who often plays the instrument in County Down in Northern Ireland, will start off his lecture by playing a new żaqq he made recently.

Asked whether the instrument was still relevant today, he said: “Definitely – its loss would be equivalent to the loss of a priceless ancient monument. As such it is vital that it continues to be played.

“The żaqq is a primitive bagpipe and I know that there is a certain ambivalence towards it in Malta. However, as a folk instrument it has a place in Maltese society even today and I believe more effort needs to be invested in securing its future,” Dr Partridge said, stressing that while it was classified as a primitive bagpipe, the music of the żaqq as played in the past was not primitive in any way.

The music was quite complex and required good playing skills.