Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

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35 COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES in the Strand during March 1792. 96 In May 1792 Courtney is having another benefit in the Crown and Anchor and playing ‘an entire New Concerto on the Union Pipes by Mr. Reeve, who Composed the Favourite Overture in Oscar and Malvina’. He is supported by Weippert, Mr Incledon, Mrs Mountain, Miss Leary, and other leading London entertainers. 97 Later in the month Courtney and Weippert are accompanying the singing of a Scottish duet by Incledon and Mountain in a theatrical evening in Covent Garden which featured as the afterpiece the popular comedy The Irishman in London. 98 For the first time in his London career, Courtney is billed as playing the ‘Irish Pipes’; this was doubtless thought appropriate for the theme of the comedy, which also featured ‘A Planxty’ sung by the Irish specialist singer Mr Johnstone. 99 But ominously Courtney fails to appear for the last night of a run of Oscar and Malvina in the same venue: ‘Mr. Weippart with his Harp, undertook the whole piece by himself, with wonderful execution and taste; the sweet tone which he brought from the Harp astonished the Company’. 100 By the beginning of November 1792 Courtney and Weippert are together again in Oscar and Malvina during the new theatrical season in Covent Garden. 101 At this time Courtney was beginning to be noticed in books as well as in newspapers: 96 Morning Chronicle, London, 29 Mar. 1792 etc. See also Morning Herald, London, 19 May 1792 (in The Irishman in London); and Morning Herald, London, 26 May 1792 (in Kean’s Evening Lounge). 97 Morning Herald, London, 7 May 1792. The ticket price had increased from the 5s of his earlier benefit in the same venue to 7s 6d: his stock had obviously risen because of Oscar and Malvina. 98 Public Advertiser, London, 28 May 1792. 99 Gazeteer and New Daily Advertiser, London, 22 May 1792. 100 Morning Herald, London, 2 June 1792. 101 Diary or Woodfall’s Register, London, 1 Nov. 1792.
COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES 36 ... in many passages she [a stage singer Miss Broadhurst] reminds us of Courtenay, on the Union Pipes, who certainly commands the greatest power, and produces the most bewitching and various sounds on that Instrument which possibly can be conceived. His ingenuity seems to have made a new discovery in Instrumental Music... 102 Courtney in Ireland 1793 By early January 1793, a month in which France would declare war on Britain and Ireland, Courtney’s successes in Oscar and Malvina had brought him across the Irish Sea to Dublin and he is noticed there as an arriving celebrity: ‘Yesterday morning, Mr Courtney, so famous for playing on the pipes at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, arrived from Holyhead.’ 103 He had been brought over by Richard Daly, manager of the Theatre Royal, Crow Street, ‘at a very considerable sum’ 104 to appear there in a roadshow version of the piece, one of two productions that had been running in Dublin from late 1792: Hitherto its success has been unprecedented, and the Manager... has, to encrease its attraction, brought over at a considerable expence, Courtney, whose performance on the bagpipes, at Covent Garden, has established his pre-eminence on that favourite instrument. —His first appearance will be tomorrow evening... when a very crowded audience is expected’. 105 102 [Pigott] 1792: 261. The reference is also found in the 3rd ed. of 1793 and the 4th ed. of 1794. 103 Public Register, or, Freeman’s Journal, Dublin, 1–3 Jan. 1793. He arrived on 2 January. Holyhead is a Welsh port of embarkation for Ireland. 104 Hibernian Journal, Dublin, 4 Jan. 1793. 105 Freeman’s Journal, Dublin, 1 Jan. 1793. Courtney seems to have been the only one of the original London cast to have transferred to Dublin – a testament doubtless to his unique talent and to the attraction his art would have for Irish audiences. A well known Irish actor who was already part of the Dublin cast, as one of the ‘Principal Bards and vocal Performers’, was Robert MacOwen or
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