Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

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65 COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES By the following year P. O’Farrell had embarked on the seminal music-publishing work for which he is remembered today. From 1804 to about 1811 he edited collections of Irish and Scottish instrumental music in London, and in them gave precedence to the pipes and further authority to Courtney’s term: O Farrell’s Collection of National Irish Music for the Union Pipes... Adapted Likewise for the German Flute, Violin, Flagelet [sic], Piano and Harp... Gentlemen may Likewise be Accommodated with Real Toned Irish Pipes; and later O Farrells Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes... Adapted for the Pipes, Flute, Flageolet and Violin vols 1–4. 192 In these titles O’Farrell seems to be going out of his way to emphasise that the union pipes are Irish pipes, and throughout the publications he conscientiously attributes tunes to an Irish or Scottish origin when possible. In 1808 he is advertising a ‘Union Pipe Concert and Ball’ in London. 193 The Courtney term was likewise used in print by the Irish professional piper Richard Fitzmaurice, who in April 1803 was advertised as playing the ‘union pipes’ in London. 194 He played frequently in Scotland, and published in Edinburgh about 1805 Fitzmaurice’s New Collection of Irish Tunes. Adapted for the Piano Forte, Union Pipe, Flute, & Violin. 195 The new term was again used by John Murphy finally publishing in Paisley about 1810: A Collection of Irish Airs and Jiggs with Variations, Adapted for the Pianoforte, Violin & Violoncello, by John Murphy, Performer on the Union Pipes; at Eglinton Castle. 196 192 For details of editions etc. see Cannon 1980: 81–5. 193 Morning Post, London, 14 Apr. 1808. 194 Morning Chronicle, London, 11 Apr. 1803. In 1806 in London he was playing the ‘Irish pipes’ (Morning Chronicle, London, 18 Mar. 1806). For his first name see Sanger 2009: 20. 195 See Cannon 1980: 87. 196 Murphy c. 1810: title page, quoted in Cannon 1980: 90–1. The musical Earl of Eglinton had been president of the Highland Society of London in 1779 (Highland Society of London 1873: 22), and may have been instrumental in
COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES 66 With these new publications, intended for professional as well as for amateur musicians, the term ‘union pipes’ could be said to have achieved printed permanence after it had become firmly established in stage performance. The degree to which the term had become de rigueur in Britain is particularly evident in Liverpool in 1819 when a visiting piper from Ireland is seen in his advertisement in the very act of turning from his native term to the new one: Mr. Plunket, the celebrated Performer on the Irish pipes is arrived, and attends the Mystic Tavern, Hale-street... for the instruction of young Gentlemen on the Union Pipes... 197 John Murphy had been performing in Scotland since the 1780s, as seen, and Richard Fitzmaurice there since about 1805, on the evidence of his book, and frequently thereafter, but it is 1807 before we find the earliest evidence of the term ‘union pipes’ linked to a Scottish piper: ‘Monthly Obituary... At Port Dundas... in the 26th year of his age, Mr. James M’Kenzie, whose abilities as a performer on the Union Pipes stood unrivalled...’. 198 From his age, M’Kenzie could only have been using the term (if he did at all) after the death of Courtney. The following year ‘Mr. Arbuckle, The Caledonian Conjuror’ is presenting a show of ‘Magical Deceptions’ in Derby and varying the proceedings by playing a selection of the ‘most ancient and beautiful Scotch Airs on the Grand Union Pipes’. 199 In 1811 a Philadelphia production of Oscar and Malvina featured ‘union pipes to be played by Mr. Bunyie’, who also played on the ‘Scotch bag-pipe’ and was by his name a Scotsman; 200 the following inviting Murphy to play for the Society in 1788, as above. 197 Liverpool Mercury, Liverpool, 29 Jan. 1819. 198 Caledonian Mercury, Edinburgh, 10 Oct. 1807; European Magazine, and London Review, London, Oct. 1807: 324. 199 Derby Mercury, Derby, 11 Aug. 1808. 200 Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, Philadelphia, 23 Feb. 1811; Alexandria Gazette, Alexandria, Virginia, 25 July 1811.
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Denis Courtney on stage in Oscar an
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Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

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