Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

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.