Better late than never

Wikipedia informs me:

In baroque music, a pastorale is a movement of a melody in 3rds over a drone bass, recalling the traditional Christmas playing of pifferari (players of traditional bagpipes and flutes) in Italy. [...] Common examples include the last movement of Corelli's Christmas Concerto (op.6 no.8) [...].

Ah, so now I understand why my music teacher urged us to make it sound like bagpipes when I played it in my school orchestra twenty years ago and more.