Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

43 COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES
Courtney’s Last Years 1793–1794
Courtney had not been forgotten in London during his Irish sojourn.
In March 1793 an engraving of a portrait of him by the leading
contemporary illustrator Isaac Cruikshank appeared as the
frontispiece of a new publication, a confirmation of his five years of
public celebrity:
This day were published... The Whim of the Day of 1793:
containing a selection of the choicest and most approved Songs;
embellished with a beautiful representation of Mr. Courtenay
playing on the union-pipes, in the favourite pantomime of Oscar
and Malvina... 125
But also in March 1793, during his absence in Ireland, Courtney’s
position as an Irish piper on the London stage would be briefly
challenged in public, as would his by-now established new term for
the pipes. James McDonnell, the Irish professional bellows piper
from Cork already noticed as appearing with Courtney in London in
1791, was again in London. He had an unadvertised success there on
25 February 1793 in Mr. Willis’s music rooms on King Street, St
James’s. On 14 March he took a newspaper advertisement for
another performance by him at the same venue, describing himself as
‘Mr. M’Donnell, (The Celebrated Performer on the Irish Pipes)’. He
would perform ‘a New Variety of the most-admired Scots and Irish
Airs on the said Instrument... Together with a Selection of the
Ancient Irish and Scots Music... Between the Acts, Mr. M’Donnell
will play any favourite Tune that may be desired by the
125
The Star, London, 7 Mar. 1793. This is the portrait of Courtney reproduced as
the frontispiece of this essay (for which click here) and discussed below.