Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

67 COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES
year Bunyie was again appearing on the ‘union pipes’ in another
production of the show in Baltimore. 201 He was the first of a number
of Scottish players performing on the Highland pipes and the union
pipes in the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century;
they too referred to the latter instrument both as ‘union pipes’ and as
‘Irish union pipes’. 202 In 1812 a Malcolm MacGregor of Glasgow
(who had been a prizewinner at the Highland Society of London’s
competitions for the Highland bagpipe from 1802) 203 was awarded a
premium by the Society for ‘essential improvements made by him on
the Great Highland Pipe, and the Union and Northumberland Pipes,
on which last instruments he played several tunes in an excellent
style’. 204 From 1818 MacGregor was appearing on the London stage
playing airs from Oscar and Malvina on ‘union pipes’, as well as
‘Highland pipes’ and flute, in both Scottish and Irish contexts: in a
Caledonian Melange in April 1818; 205 an Irish ‘aqua-drama’
O’Donoghue and his White Horse in June 1818; 206 and a Sons of
Caledonia fundraising concert in November 1820. 207 In 1815 in
Sydney, Australia, a James Stewart, again presumably a Scottish
professional player, published a newspaper notice about the
attempted theft of his ‘Set of Union Pipes’. 208 In 1820 an unnamed
native of Edinburgh was playing ‘National Airs on the Union Pipes’
there in an entirely Scottish evening of entertainment, 209 and in 1821
John McGregor, piper to the Highland Society of London, was
201
Federal Republican, Baltimore, 1 June 1812.
202
See below, and Carolan 2011: 22–5.
203
Manson 1901: 389; Campbell 2011: 23–5.
204
Minutes of the Highland Society of London, quoted by Campbell 2011: 24.
205
The Times, London, 6 Apr. 1818.
206
The Times, London, 17 June 1818. M’Gregor was accompanied on the harp
by O’Farrell’s former musical partner Nicholson.
207
The Times, London, 8 Nov. 1820.
208
Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, Sydney, 20 May 1815.
209
Caledonian Mercury, Edinburgh, 9 Mar. 1820.