Polig Monjarret, who has died aged 83, was a leading figure in the Breton cultural renaissance that began in 1940s. A piper, he was also a collector, and two volumes of his life's work, Tonioù Breizh-Izel, contain more than 6,000 Breton airs.
He was a founder of Bodadeg ar Sonerion (BAS), the Breton pipers' association, and a promoter of Breton-Irish links.
Fellow piper Paddy Maloney first met him in 1959 and was deeply impressed by his wide knowledge of the Celtic world. He greatly enjoyed collaborating with Monjarret on the Chieftains' 1986 album, Celtic Wedding, which drew on the Breton tradition and featured guest musicians from Brittany. His influence on Breton music, Maloney said, was as great as that of Seán
Ó Riada on Irish traditional music.
He had a special interest in Ireland and was responsible for the twinning of Breton and Irish towns that began with Lorient and Galway and continues to this day, the most recent example being Roundwood, Co Wicklow, and Spezet. He visited Ireland many times, got to know many of the country's leading musicians and in 1974 delivered a paper on the bombarde at Éigse na Trionóide. He invited Irish artists and pipe bands to Brittany and persuaded Brittany Ferries to establish the Roscoff-Cork route. And he also organised holidays in Brittany for children from Northern Ireland.
He was born in 1920 at Tréguir, near Guingamp in northern Brittany. Brought up by Breton-speaking grandparents, he attended a French-speaking monastery school and when the war broke out returned to Guingamp to help his mother with the family cabinet-making business.
He had an interest in scouting and was a member of several youth groups, including the Pathfinders. Also known as Polig an Dioul, he was passionate about music from an early age and played the violin. However, in March 1941 at an exhibition at Mordelles in Ille-et-Villaine he was won over to the bombarde, a sort of oboe. "With a tiny pipe of just 22 centimetres you could play a symphony! I thought it was fabulous! I was just 20 years old and bought it at once, and haven't touched the violin since," he said.
Moving to Rennes, he became involved in Breton nationalist politics and with groups promoting Breton culture. He began a lifelong friendship with fellow musician, Dorig Le Voyer, with whom he started music associations throughout Brittany. He returned to Guingamp in 1942, where he used false papers provided by Breton groups to avoid being sent to labour camps in Germany.
Tired of hearing out-of-tune singing and music-making off the beat, he and some friends in 1943 founded BAS during the fourth congress of Frammkeltiek Breizh (Celtic Institute of Brittany). It was important to them that Breton traditional music should be handed over intact to a new generation. He was named secretary, and Le Voyer president.
A year later he was taken into custody by the Gestapo and sent to a labour camp in the South Tyrol. Liberated in May 1945 by Allied troops, he stole a car and with six other prisoners made his way to Paris. From there he returned to Rennes.
Resuming his work with BAS, he had reason to be proud of the organisation's achievements. For the 50 pipers of the 1940s, there are now thousands, and with a good degree of mastery of their instruments. It has been estimated that in the 60 years of its existence BAS has trained over 30,000 pipers. It has also fostered the emergence of the bagads, modelled on the Scottish pipe-bands.
As a collector, Polig Monjarret aimed to preserve the traditional repertoire of the old Breton pipers as well as their characteristics. He collected marches, wedding tunes and hymns as well as dances. Tonioù Breizh-Izel (Folk Music of Western Brittany) was the result of years of meticulous research and paying close attention to the old pipers, described in Ancient Customs of Brittany as "quacks who could sell wind by the pound".
He did not subscribe to the view that Breton music had Irish characteristics. For him it was qualitively different from Irish or Hebridean music. Originating in the medieval music of western Europe, it preserved the eight forms of plainchant.
Music aside, he saw himself as "a purebred Breton", a Celt who had more in common with the Irish than with the French.
He lived outside Lorient in Pleoumer where he established the Breton Conservatory, which conducted classes in all aspects of Breton culture and folklore. His knowledge of the Celtic tradition encompassed Cornwall, Galicia, Ireland and Scotland as well as Brittany.
He was in 1974 a founder of the annual cultural festival, Interceltique de Lorient, which began in Brest as a gathering of pipers. It now attracts a million visitors over 10 days and features between 50 and 60 pipe bands, some from as far away as Japan.
An accomplished cook, he had his own TV series in which he extolled the virtues of traditional Breton dishes. Archaeology was another major interest.
He was married to the noted traditional singer, Zaïg, who had toured widely in the 1950s and 1960s, including to Ireland, and who died in 2000. His daughters, Soazig, Nolwenn and Gwenola, survive him.