Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

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45 COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES 1, York-Street, St. James’s’. 132 From this, he may also have played a mouth-blown bagpipe or, more likely, he was giving a generally understood alternative name for his ‘union pipes’. For the run of a new variety entertainment Mirth’s Museum, which begins at the Lyceum in the Strand in March 1794 with ‘The Music entirely new, by Mr. Reeve’, Courtney is back between the acts – as ‘the celebrated Mr. Courtnay’ – with ‘several New Airs on the Union Pipes, Accompanied on the Harp, by Mr. Wieppart’. 133 Again Reeve had a hit on his hands and Courtney is uniquely singled out for notice: ‘Courtnay, on the Union Pipes, as usual, was universally encored, in the favourite Overture to Oscar and Malvina...’; 134 ‘Courtnay, on the Union Pipes, received the most liberal applause last night in the Overture to Oscar and Malvina...’. 135 By the beginning of April, Courtney and Wieppert are billed there as also playing ‘Edmund O’Hanlen’s Gavot with the much-admired Air of “Eman Eknough, 136 or the Little House under the Hill”’, and ‘an entire New Overture, for the Union Pipes and Harp, composed by Mr. Reeve’. 137 But while Mirth’s Museum continues, Courtney himself seems to be in financial or other difficulties. In the same advertisement he announces 132 The only other piper in the Directory is the Highland Society of London’s ‘Macgregor, John, Bag-Pipes’ (43). 133 The World, London, 1 Mar. 1794. In later appearances of the advertisement he is ‘Mr. Courtenay’. 134 Morning Post, London, 15 Mar. 1794. 135 Morning Post, London, 18 Mar. 1794. 136 Irish ‘Éamonn an Chnoic’ (Edward of the Hill). 137 The Oracle and Public Advertiser, London, 1 Apr. 1794. By this date also ‘The Music of the most favourite Airs are published, and may be had at Messrs. Longman and Broderip’s...’.
COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES 46 Mr. Courtenay respectfully begs leave to inform his Friends, and the Public, that Mr. Lingham [the manager] has kindly given him a Benefit on the above-mentioned Evening, to extricate him from the difficulties he now labours under; and humbly flatters himself his Endeavours will secure him the Honour of their Patronage. His domestic circumstances have altered: he has by now moved from 1 York Street, St James’s Square, to 12 Danmark Street, Exeter Street. By the end of May 1794 Courtney is again playing ‘a Solo on the Union Pipes’ and he and Weippert are playing ‘a Duetto on the Union Pipes and Harp’ in the newly rebuilt Covent Garden, 138 which can now hold audiences of 3,600. On 2 June they are performing ‘several much admired Pieces on the Union Pipes and Pedal Harp’ between theatrical performances at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. 139 This is Courtney’s last advertised stage appearance, although he may have finished out a run of Oscar and Malvina in Covent Garden on 11 June. 140 It would seem that by this date Courtney was in the final chaotic stages of alcohol-induced illness. An associate in his last months was another notable character, Captain Patrick Leeson (1754–c.1810s), a somewhat older Irishman born in Nenagh, Co Tipperary. From a modest background and after military training in France, Leeson had become a British army officer and a famous gambler with a stable of horses at Newmarket. Enlisting Courtney and the ‘sweet strains of his pipes, added to copious draughts of whiskey’, he raised an independent regiment in such a short time that he won a great bet on it. 141 Some of the work of recruitment was carried out in April 1794 138 Morning Post, London, 26 May 1794. 139 The World, London, 28 May 1794. 140 Hogan 1968: 1575. 141 Egan 1820: 142–3.
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Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

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