Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

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29 COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES been held to date in Falkirk and Edinburgh, 73 but now Mr. Neal M’Lean, piper to the Society in London and a prizewinner in their 1783 competitions, 74 was advertised to appear for one night only at Sadler’s Wells theatre on 10 September 1788. He would take part in an Ossian-inspired pantomime entertainment entitled The Witch of the Lakes; or, Harlequin in the Hebrides. There would be introduced ‘A New Scotch Reel; accompanied on the Bagpipes, in character’, and M’Lean would ‘entertain the Audience with a Pibroch on the Prize Pipes, descriptive of a Highland Battle’. 75 In time Denis Courtney would have an outstanding success in a similar London- Scottish Ossianic pantomime entertainment. Courtney next appears in print – ‘Concerto Union Pipes, Mr. Courtney’ – at a benefit in March 1789 in the Free Masons’ Hall for the singer Miss Leary, who had featured in his own initial benefit almost a year earlier. 76 Thereafter he again disappears from view until he has three engagements as ‘Courtney piper’ with the Highland Society of London in March, April and May 1790. 77 His relationship with the Society continued: he played for them again in January 1791 as ‘D. Courtney Irish Piper’, and in February of the same year as ‘Dennis Courtney’ in company with a ‘Jms Macdonald’, 78 who was doubtless James McDonnell, an Irish professional bellows piper famous in Cork since the 1770s, and also later active in Scotland and London. 79 In April 1791 Courtney publishes a preliminary notice of a concert and ball to be given for his benefit: 73 Manson 1901: 389. 74 Manson 1901: 388. 75 Gazeteer and New Daily Advertiser, London, 8 Sept. 1788. 76 Morning Post and Daily Advertiser, London, 25 Mar. 1789. 77 NLS MS Highland Society of London Dep. 268/34. 78 Ibid. 79 See below.
COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES 30 Mr. Courtenay, Performer on the Union Pipes, begs leave to inform his Friends and the Public, that his Benefit is fixed for Thursday, the 12th of May, at the Great Room, the Crown and Anchor, in the Strand; where will be a grand concert of Vocal and Instrumental Music. After the concert will be a Ball. 80 The Crown and Anchor was a popular London meeting and dining venue with one of the largest rooms in the city, capable of seating 2,000. 81 It was not as prestigious as the Free Mason’s Hall of his debut, and the tickets were cheaper, but Longman and Broderip are still in support and he is still living at 1 York Street. 82 A report of a masquerade held the following month in the London pleasure gardens at Ranelagh suggests something of Courtney’s current lifestyle. One of the masqueraders appears in the character of ‘Courtnay and his bag-pipes, as tipsey as any piper need be’. 83 Another report of the same occasion however simply lists the character as ‘Mr. Courtenay, the performer on the Union Pipes’. 84 Both reports furnish evidence that he had become a noted figure on the fashionable London scene. 85 At this time Courtney had begun to make guest appearances in the intervals of theatrical presentations at leading London venues: at, for instance, a performance of Love in a Village starring the well known actor and singer Mr. Incledon at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden: ‘With a variety of Entertainments. In which will be introduced the 80 The World, London, 27 Apr. 1791. 81 See Parolin 2010: 112–3. 82 The World, London, 27 Apr. 1791. 83 The World, London, 4 May 1791. 84 Morning Post and Daily Advertiser, London, 4 May 1791. 85 It would seem that the character of Courtney became a standard feature of masquerades: ‘Courtenay, with his bag-pipes, attracted as usual much notice.’ (London Chronicle, 14–16 Feb. 1792). From another report of this occasion, it seems that he was represented in his stage persona as a ‘Highland piper’ (Morning Herald, London, 16 Feb. 1792).
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