Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

23 COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES
having seen an advertisement ‘for the benefit of one Courtney,
performer on the union pipes, I went to it & sat in the gallery, but
came away (finding myself rather tired) as soon as he had played his
concerto, with w’ch I was not very well pleased, some parts of it
being as I thought like a person singing & crying at the same time’. 63
Courtney’s success was quickly followed up on the same day as The
Times review appeared, on 15 May, with a surprise appearance
during a concert on the pre-opening night of the 1788 season at the
fashionable London pleasure gardens at Vauxhall. Two thousand
were in attendance at the gardens, and the musicians played in a
newly enlarged and brilliantly lit promenade room.
The concert was unexpectedly enriched by the introduction of
Courtney, the bagpipe player, who performed the tune of Maggy
Lauder with uncommon beauty. It is astonishing what tenderness
of tone and variety he gives to the instrument. 64
The gardens were open again two nights later, and Courtney was
again on hand:
After the concert was finished in the garden orchestra, Mr.
Courtenay performed a concerto on the Union Pipes in the Grand
Saloon, which was received with much applause, for the execution
and skill he displayed on an instrument as single and novel for the
audience, as for a regular concerto. 65
Another newspaper review was in agreement with this assessment.
The singers had disappointed – they were ‘much agitated by their
first appearance at this place’ – but
63
Robins 1998: 432.
64
London Chronicle, London, 15–17 May 1788.
65
Ibid.