Uilleann pipes
The uilleann pipes (/ˈɪlən/ ⓘ IL-ən or /ˈɪljən/ IL-yən, Irish: [ˈɪl̠ʲən̪ˠ]), sometimes called Irish Bagpipes, are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Earlier known in English as "union pipes", their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms píobaí uilleann (literally, "pipes of the elbow"), from their method of inflation. There is no historical record of the name or use of the term uilleann pipes before the 20th century. It was an invention of Grattan Flood[3] and the name stuck. People mistook the term 'union' to refer to the 1800 Act of Union; this is incorrect as Breandán Breathnach points out that a poem published in 1796 uses the term 'union'.[4]
"Uilleann" redirects here. For the letter of the ogham, see Forfeda.
The bag of the uilleann pipes is inflated by means of a small set of bellows strapped around the waist and the right arm (in the case of a right-handed player; in the case of a left-handed player the location and orientation of all components are reversed). The bellows not only relieve the player from the effort needed to blow into a bag to maintain pressure, they also allow relatively dry air to power the reeds, reducing the adverse effects of moisture on tuning and longevity. Some pipers can converse or sing while playing. The bag which the bellows fill is clamped under the other elbow, which squeezes the bag to control the flow of air to the reeds (which make the notes).
The air goes from the bag to the chanter, drones, and regulators. The chanter is played with the fingers like a flute. The chanter has a range of two full octaves, including sharps and flats (because, unlike most bagpipe chanters, it can be overblown to produce the higher octave[5]). The chanter is often played resting on the piper's thigh, closing off the bottom hole, so that air can only escape through the open tone holes. If one tone hole is closed before the next one is opened, a staccato effect can be created, because the sound stops completely when no air can escape at all. The three drones are simple open pipes; they constantly play three notes spread an octave apart. The three regulators are closed pipes. Untouched, they do not sound, but they have keys that can be opened by the piper's wrist action (or hand, if they take one hand off the chanter).[5] Each regulator key sounds a different note when opened. The regulator keys are aligned so that several may be pressed simultaneously. These enable the piper to play simple chords, giving rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment as needed. There are also many ornaments based on multiple or single grace notes.
The tone of the uilleann pipes is unlike that of many other forms of bagpipes. They have a different harmonic structure, sounding sweeter and quieter than many other bagpipes, such as the Great Irish warpipes, Great Highland bagpipes or the Italian zampognas. The uilleann pipes are often played indoors, and are almost always played sitting down.
Etymology[edit]
Uilleann is a genitive form of the Irish word for "elbow”, uillinn. The Irish term for uilleann pipes is píb uilleann (alt. píob uilleann), which means "pipes(s) of the elbow(s)”.[6]
However, the first attested written form is "Union pipes", at the end of the 18th century, perhaps to denote the union of the chanter, drones, and regulators. Another theory is that it was played throughout a prototypical full union of England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. This is definitely untrue, because this name for the instrument predates the Act of Union, which took effect in 1801. Alternatively, the uilleann pipes were certainly a favourite of the upper classes in Scotland, Ireland and the North-East of England and were fashionable for a time in formal social settings, where the term Union pipes may also originate.[7]
The term "uilleann pipes" is first attested at the beginning of the 20th century. William Henry Grattan Flood, an Irish music scholar, proposed the theory that the name "uilleann" came from the Irish word for "elbow". He cited to this effect William Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice published in 1600 (Act IV, sc. I, l. 55) where the expression "woollen pipes" appears. This theory originated in correspondence between two earlier antiquarians, and was adopted as gospel by the Gaelic League. The use of uilleann was perhaps also a rebellion against the term union, with its connotations of the Act of Union. It was however shown by Breandán Breathnach that it would be difficult to explain the anglicization of the word uilleann into 'woollen' before the 16th century (when the instrument did not exist as such) and then its adaptation as 'union' two centuries later.[4]
History[edit]
The first bagpipes to be well attested for Ireland were similar, if not identical, to the Scottish Highland bagpipes that are now played in Scotland. These are known as the "Great Irish Warpipes". In Irish and Scottish Gaelic, this instrument was called the píob mhór ("great pipe").
While the mouth-blown warpipe was alive and well upon the battlefields of France and other parts of Europe, it had almost disappeared in Ireland. The union or uilleann pipe emerged during the early 18th century around the same time as the development of the bellows-driven Northumbrian smallpipes and the bellows-driven Scottish Lowland bagpipes. All three instruments were far quieter and sweeter in tone than their mouth-blown predecessors. Essentially their design required the joining of a bellows under the right arm, which pumped air via a tube to a leather bag under the left arm, which in turn supplied air at a constant pressure to the chanter and the drones (and regulators in the case of the Irish Uilleann pipes). Geoghegan's tutor of the 1740s calls this early form of the uilleann pipes the "Pastoral or New bagpipe". The Pastoral pipes were bellows blown and played in either a seated or standing position. The conical bored chanter was played "open", that is, legato, unlike the uilleann pipes, which can also be played "closed", that is, staccato. The early Pastoral pipes had two drones, and later examples had one (or rarely, two) regulator(s). The Pastoral and later flat set Union pipes developed with ideas on the instrument being traded back-and-forth between Ireland, Scotland and England,[1][8] around the 18th and early 19th centuries.
The earliest surviving sets of uilleann pipes date from the second half of the 18th century, but it must be said that datings are not definitive. Only recently has scientific attention begun to be paid to the instrument, and problems relating to various stages of its development have yet to be resolved. The Uilleann pipes or union pipes might have originated from the Pastoral pipes (Border pipes, Northumbrian pipes, Scottish smallpipes) and gained popularity in Ireland within the Protestant Anglo-Irish community and its gentlemen pipers, who could afford such expensive hand-made instruments. The Irish uilleann pipes are far more elaborate in their design, and their development is likely to have occurred among the well-to-do. Certainly many of the early players in Ireland were Protestant, possibly the best known being the mid-18th-century piper Jackson from Co Limerick and the 18th-century Tandragee blind pipemaker William Kennedy. The famous Rowsome family from Co. Wexford were also Church of Ireland until the mid-late 19th century. The Uilleann pipes were often used by the Protestant clergy, who employed them as an alternative to the church organ.[9] As late as the 19th century the instrument was still commonly associated with the Anglo-Irish, e.g. the Anglican clergyman Canon James Goodman (1828–1896) from Kerry, who had his tailor-made uilleann pipes buried with him at Creagh (Church of Ireland) cemetery near Baltimore, County Cork. His friend, and Trinity College colleague, John Hingston from Skibbereen also played the uilleann pipes. Another piping friend of Canon Goodman, Alderman Phair of Cork (founder of the pipers club in Cork in the 1890s) had Goodman's pipes recovered from Creagh cemetery. They were later donated to Cork piper Michael O'Riabhaigh, who had re-established the (by then extinct) pipers club in Cork in the 1960s.
Tuning[edit]
The instrument is most usually (nowadays) tuned in the key of D, a tradition begun by the Taylor brothers (originally of Drogheda, Ireland, and later of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) in the late 19th century. Canon Goodman played a Taylor set. Up to then, most pipes were what would be termed as "flat sets" in other keys, such as C♯, C, B and B♭, tunings which were largely incompatible with playing with other instruments. The chanter length determines the overall tuning; accompanying pieces of the instrument, such as drones and regulators, are tuned to the same key as the chanter. Chanters of around 362 mm (14+1⁄4 in) in length produce a bottom note on or near D4 (D above middle C) where A4 = 440 Hz, i.e. modern "concert pitch". Such pipes are a relatively recent invention pioneered by the Taylor brothers. They typically have wider bores and larger tone holes than the earlier "flat" pitch sets, and as a consequence are a good deal louder, though by no means as loud as the Highland pipes of Scotland. They were developed by the Taylors to meet the requirements of playing in larger venues in the United States; today they are the most common type of uilleann pipes encountered, though many players still prefer the mellower sound of the earlier style narrow-bore pipes, which exist in pitches ranging from D through C♯, C, and B down to B♭. Pipemakers before the Taylors had, however, built concert pitch pipes using the narrower bores and smaller fingerholes of the flat pipes. Some of these instruments seem to have been designed with lower pitch standards in mind, such as A4 = 415 Hz. The Taylors also built many instruments with higher pitch standards in mind, such as the Old Philharmonic pitch of A4 = 453 Hz that was commonplace in late 19th-century America.
The D pipes are most commonly used in ensembles, while the flat-pitched pipes are more often used for solo playing – often fiddlers will tune down their instrument to play with a piper's flat set, but the inflexibility of other instruments used in Irish music (accordions, flutes, etc.) does not usually permit this. It is noteworthy that Irish music was predominantly solo music until the late 19th century, when these fixed-pitch instruments began to play more of a role. Like some older pipe organs, uilleann pipes are not normally tuned to even temperament, but rather to just intonation, so that the chanter and regulators can blend sweetly with the three drones. Equal temperament is almost universal with the fixed pitch instruments used in Irish music, which can clash with the tuning of the pipes.
Notes
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