Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

More documents

Recommendations

Info

33 COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES :;;i]~}a:::::=::;:::&i: : ~::-::::::::::;::::: ~>~ '-'-' i s::::;:r::::::!; c:::::::::::= ,&' ttrTa tf I waF, 1$ cr 9 :=?3 b 1$;; ;::tim ~J II ~ R ondo Da Capo l @'~ j I1r llj ifltlrrrfrtrtFt I~ II
COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES 34 Illustration on previous page: From William Reeve etc., The Overture, Favorite Songs, Duets and Choruses in the Grand Pantomime Ballet of Oscar & Malvina, Longman & Broderip, London, n.d. [1791] One newspaper correspondent, styling himself ‘The Ghost of Carolan’ and complaining about Courtney’s stage costume in Oscar and Malvina, incidentally confirms his nationality and that of his pipes: As an Irishman, give me leave to observe, that in the representation of Oscar and Malvina the Irish pipes are introduced; but why the piper should be habited in a Highland dress, I cannot reconcile to my feelings... Now, by my shoul, I tink an Irishman playing so well upon the pipes as little C——y, should not be ashamed of his brogues, and let the music give his Scotch bonnet the lie. 95 Now known for their duets in Oscar and Malvina, Courtney and Weippert had begun to perform together as entr’acte entertainment in variety productions, such as Collin’s Evening Brush at the Lyceum 95 Morning Post and Daily Advertiser, London, 8 Nov. 1791. There must be a suspicion that the writer was the Irish actor and humorous dramatist John O’Keefe, who, as said, had been introducing Carolan tunes to London audiences since the early 1780s, sometimes in collaboration with Shield, the part-composer of Oscar and Malvina (see O’Keefe 1826: II, 49,70–1, 77; Fiske 1986: 274, 459, 600–12 and passim) . O’Keefe was interested in the Irish pipes: he had introduced the piper James MacDonnell to Cork stage audiences in 1774 (Carolan 1984: 59–61) and had pipers as characters in his 1783 stage production The Shamrock (O’Keefe: II, 49; Fiske 1986: 459). The dilemma faced by the musical directors of Oscar and Malvina – of wanting to represent Scottish pipes on stage, but being unable to use Highland pipes because their confined melodic range and their unique temperament (those features which are the very basis of their character and attraction) prevented them playing melodies of extended range and playing in concert with other theatre instruments – is a familiar one. It is usually solved nowadays, from the television series Kidnapped to the film Braveheart, by using Irish uilleann pipes off-screen.
Page 1 and 2: Denis Courtney on stage in Oscar an
Page 3 and 4: COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND
Page 33: COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND
Page 85 and 86:
COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
show all

Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?