Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES 28
Howard was for a time a close companion of ‘Prinny’, the dissolute
Prince of Wales and Prince Regent who would become King George
IV. Courtney also was a favourite of the prince, and of his father
George III. In 1792 at a meeting and dinner of some five hundred of
the Free and Accepted Masons in their hall at Lincoln’s Inn Fields
the Prince of Wales, the Grand Master, was in the chair, and
afterwards ‘Courtney, on the Union Pipes, and Wiepert, on the Harp,
added to the entertainment of the day...’. 69 In 1793 it was claimed
that ‘his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has often commanded
him to attend his parties’. 70 In a 1794 Royal Command performance
of a show in which he played, it was reported that ‘Courtenay, with
the charming music of the Union Pipes, seemed to afford uncommon
satisfaction to the Royal Box’. 71
Courtney did not however spend all his time in aristocratic service:
‘Courtenay, the celebrated Union Piper... was a choice spirit, and
would sooner play on his pipes to amuse his poor countrymen, than
gratify the wishes of noblemen, although handsomely paid for it’. 72
Courtney’s establishing of the bagpipes as an instrument acceptable
to fashionable London audiences may have contributed to the first
stage appearance of a Scottish Highland piper there later in 1788.
The Highland Society of London, as well as having the Scottish
mouth-blown Highland bagpipes played privately at its own London
functions, had been supporting the Highland pipes since 1781 by
organising annual piping competitions and offering prizes. These had
69
The Diary or Woodfall’s Register, London, 4 May 1792.
70
Hibernian Journal, Dublin, 4 Jan. 1793.
71
The World, London, 11 Feb. 1794.
72
Egan 1820: 142–3. The implication that Courtney would have had a familiar
Irish traditional repertory for this audience is borne out by his later introduction
of such music into his stage performances as below. It is likely that Courtney
also played for dancers on these occasions, that being then a primary function of
an Irish piper. This and other references give the impression that Courtney was
himself of humble birth.