Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES 2
history of the term. Other terms for the uilleann pipes are also traced.
As well as core questions of terminology, consideration of ‘union
pipes’ also necessarily touches on the whole history and
historiography of Irish bagpiping, and involves other dimensions of
Irish musical culture: artistic processes and allegiances; national
identity and self-representation, especially in relation to the Irish
language; and the ongoing globalisation of Irish traditional music.
It must be emphasised that only the history of the term is being
centrally addressed, not the history of the instrument itself. Although
the two are of course related, they have led somewhat independent
lives. Changes in terminology did not necessarily reflect
developments in the physical nature of the instrument; such
developments did not necessarily lead to the introduction of new
terminology.
But to provide a context for the discussion of piping terminology,
some brief consideration of the history of the instrument itself is
unavoidable. Bagpipes are musical wind instruments consisting of a
reeded melody-pipe or chanter with finger-holes by which the player
produces melody, an attached skin bag acting as an air-reservoir, a
blow-pipe attached to the bag by which the player inflates it, and,
normally, reeded fixed-pitch melody-pipes attached to the bag which
provide a droning accompaniment to the chanter. Known in classical
times, they are immemorially old and of uncertain origins. By the
Middle Ages they were a common instrument, existing in many
different forms across Europe, and in Asia and north Africa. Played
mainly out of doors, and usually by professional players of low
status, they are thought to have reached the limits of their popularity
in western Europe from the fourteenth century to the seventeenth. 4
4
Baines 1995: 100.