Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

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21 COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES Establishment of ‘Union Pipes’ It is necessary to detail what is known of Denis Courtney’s career in order to understand not only how he introduced the term ‘union pipes’, but how he established it so firmly in contemporary musical consciousness that it would outlive him as a standard term for more than a century. The explanation for this feat lies in the considerable public successes he enjoyed in the course of his brief musical career. Had he not been successful, the term would hardly be known today. Courtney in London 1788–1792 Even before his first public appearance in London on 14 May 1788, Denis Courtney is seen as receiving an unusual measure of recognition there. On 10 April, as ‘Courtney’, he was brought by Sir Hector Munro to play privately for the Highland Society of London, along with his fellow Irish piper John Murphy. They shared a fee of two guineas. 57 Both played for the Society again for the same fee on 8 May, ‘Courtney having come without being ordered’. 58 In the several advertisements taken for his stage debut a particular emphasis can be discerned in the promotion. The concert itself is introduced as a benefit for him, something which implies that the performer already has a following. The tickets are expensive – 7s. 6d. each. They are being sold by the leading music sellers, publishers and musical instrument makers Longman and Broderip of Cheapside who, as contemporary makers and sellers of ‘Bagpipes, Scotch or Irish’, 59 were possibly involved in the promotion of the concert. Courtney himself is to be found at the fashionable address of 1 York Street, St James’s Square, where he would remain until the year of his death. His supporting artists, especially the musical director and 57 NLS MS Highland Society of London Dep. 268/34. General Sir Hector Munro, Bart., became president of the Highland Society of London in 1800 (Highland Society of London 1873: 23). 58 NLS MS Highland Society of London Dep. 268/34. 59 Longman and Broderip catalogue [c. 1780].
COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES 22 violinist Dieudonné Pascal Pieltain, 60 are well established London favourites. On the eve of the concert a further burst of publicity is employed: the full programme for the night is given in an extended advertisement. It will be a performance for listeners, free of the vulgar associations of bagpipes, and presented in terms of contemporary classical music, but at the same time novel. It will be supported by members of the nobility, who are probably the members of the Highland Society of London for whom he had lately played. The first half will feature ‘Concerto Union Pipes, Mr. Courtenay (being the first ever attempted on that instrument)’; the second ‘Maggy Lawther, with new variations, by particular desire of some noble personages, on Mr. Courtenay’s Union Pipes’. It is not explained what ‘Union Pipes’ are, 61 but Courtney had received a considerable build-up for his debut. The promotion was highly successful. According to an anonymous reviewer in The Times of London on the morning after the concert: Last night Mr. Courtney introduced a new species of music to the public, called the Union Pipes, being the Scotch and Irish Bagpipes united; and he performed Maggae Lawther, with its variations, on it with great success.’ 62 Not quite everyone in the audience however was impressed with the music of the pipes. John Marsh, an English composer, recorded that 60 For Pieltain see Highfill et al.: 11, 306. 61 I had formerly thought (Carolan 2004: 21–3) that the instrument was already familiar to British audiences since no mention was made of the novelty of the term (or of the instrument), and that earlier examples of it would be found in print. Although earlier examples of the term may yet be found, I now think that the absence of explanation was an advertising ploy. 62 Issue of 15 May 1788 (reference courtesy Terry Moylan). The form of Courtney’s name used here is interesting: the writer clearly knew that it was really ‘Courtney’ in spite of his newspaper’s advertising.
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Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

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