History of the Uilleann Pipe

[bagpiper12]

Hi All,
I was wondering how come in America the Irish bagppe is so little known.
My understanding that right before the Famine, it was at its height in Ireland.
I suspect that those who escaped Ireland and landed safely, sought our work,
places to live and starting to raise a family.
So that two generations in, the Irish bagpipe may of been forgotten.
Your posts are welcome to clear this bit of history up for me.
Wayne

[Nanohedron]

FWIW, even the Irish don't always know the uilleann pipes. I was playing outdoors when a fellow walked up and asked what the contraption was, and given his accent I was quite astonished. He said he'd never known of them until then, and it was pretty evident he was being truthful. Seems like the weird stuff always happens to me...

Nothing to do with your query, of course, so sorry for the sidetrack. A bit of grist for the mill, maybe.

[stringbed]

I was wondering how come in America the Irish bagpipe is so little known.

Are you referring to the Irish immigrant community?

There are two useful resources for gauging this here and here.

[Mr.Gumby]

Richie Piggott's wonderful book 'Cry of a people gone' about Irish music in Chicago is perhaps a good read if you are into that sort of thing. Piggott has accumulated a wealth of material for his study and promised to make all of it available on his website richiepiggott.com. He said, when launching the book, you will need to take out a, free, subscription though and probably subject yourself to emailed 'updates (I didn't check closely due to ongoing computer woes). But there's a wealth of photos, recordings and documents that can provide some insight in the workings of Irish music during the last century in one city in the US and the place of the pipes in all of that. It can provide a bit of context.

[pancelticpiper]

For sure there were loads of traditional Irish musicians including uilleann pipers in the USA in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Read the writings of Francis O Neill, the Chief of Police in Chicago.

Due to offering musicians work as policemen, he gathered musicians including uilleann pipers from all over Ireland in Chicago.

There were also loads of Irish musicians including uilleann pipers working in New York, doing recordings and live performances, catering to the vast Irish immigrant community there.

But fashions come and go, and traditional musics of all kinds increasingly fell from favour as the 20th century progressed. In the USA this trend hit hard with Irish traditional music and our own native traditional musics such as Appalachian traditional music. Much of it was people ceasing to dance the traditional dances and switching to the trendy modern dances, done to jazz music.

I think the lowest point was around WWII when you could count the number of Appalachian fiddlers in a particular county on the fingers of one hand, ditto with uilleann pipers in the big northern cities.

Then in the 1950s the Folk Music Revival hit! People began searching out the few remaining old players and putting them in front of microphones in studio and on stage, and scores of young people began learning the old tunes and reviving the old playing styles.

The thing which separates Irish traditional music from our indigenous traditional music is that it was originally borne here by immigrants. Thus Irish immigration patterns also have to be taken into account.



In other words the rise, fall, and rebirth of uilleann piping in the USA should be seen not in isolation but as part of larger trends.

[nwhitmer]

pancelticpiper has it right. I would add a couple observations.

Interest in the uilleann pipes in the US was very much tied in to the waves of immigrants from Ireland. Of any instrument, UP seemed most identified with positive memories of the 'old country.' This was particularly the case from about 1880-1920, when Irish American dances, social events and vaudeville acts would often feature a 'real Irish piper' as an attraction and sign of authenticity. This activity dropped off as the number of immigrants from Ireland decreased. Second and third generation Irish Americans were not much interested.

Pipe bands, modeled after the pipe bands of Scotland, began to be popular after about 1915. This siphoned off some interest in UP.

At its height, around 1900, there was enough awareness of UP in the general population, that 'Irish pipes imitations' were occasionally performed by brass bands, vocal groups, vaudeville acts, etc. I take this to mean that the perfomers calculated that enough of the audience knew of the instrument they were imitating.

By the 1930s the UP and the music it played was generally considered old fashioned and only of interest to country people or the uneducated.

Nick Whitmer
Ithaca NY
USA