Brief, concise uilleann info

[tommykleen]

Hi all,

Well it's coming up on "that season" again, and I am hoping to give the local media a go at getting them to do something on the uilleann pipes for St. Pat's. I could use some online links to brief, to-the-point info on the uilleann pipes. It would be good to have info that doesn't have all the mythical *stuff* that you find about the pipes (i.e., they were designed to foil the British, Shakespeare mentioned them, etc). That stuff sounds cool, but I see this as a chance to set the record (albeit spotty) straight.

Can you direct me to good, brief content, please? Remember, media people don't want to wade through a ton of material.

Thanks for any help here.

[daveboling]

Is this too much verbage (from http://www.pipers.ie/home/Resources_Abo ... rument.htm)

The Uilleann pipes is the Irish form of the bagpipes – a family of instruments with representatives throughout Europe as well as parts of Asia and Africa. It emerged in the first half of the 18th century in Ireland and Britain and was developed to its modern form in Ireland over the following 50 to 60 years.
It is the most highly developed of all bagpipes, having a chanter capable of sounding two full octaves, as well as other features not found on other bagpipes.

I've given up on trying to explain when people ask about the you-lee-ann pipes, and just tell them they are the Irish Bagpipes (I don't think you can say the word "union" in the southern US ). When they ask why I dinna wear a kilt, I ask them if they would be comfortable standing in front of me while I played from a seated position

dave boling

[MTGuru]

When they ask why I dinna wear a kilt, I ask them ...

... where they got the idea that the Irish wear kilts.

I admit, your response is more ... interesting. Or you could say you find playing the pipes very exciting, and let them figure out the rest.

[Mr.Gumby]

... where they got the idea that the Irish wear kilts.

it's not such an outrageous idea as you seem to think, especially early 20th century Gaelic League circles seem to have had a thing for wearing them and I have seen boys dancing in (saffron) kilts not all that long ago.

[MTGuru]

it's not such an outrageous idea as you seem to think

Yes, I do know. But the question is probably conditioned more by the kilted pipe bands that flood the streets here once a year than by the historical revisionism of the Gaelic League.

[oleorezinator]

it's not such an outrageous idea as you seem to think

Yes, I do know. But the question is probably conditioned more by the kilted pipe bands that flood the streets here once a year than by the historical revisionism of the Gaelic League.

Once a year in New Jersey and New York for an entire month.

[boyd]

On the subject of Irish kilts and tartans:

http://www.scottishtartans.org/irish_kilts.htm is a very comprehensive history of it all.

It even mentions the "Ulster tartan" that was ploughed up out of the ground by accident on my uncle's farm near Dungiven, County Derry in the 1960's !!

Generally, kilts get funny looks in Ireland.
You wouldn't want to be wearing one unless you are marching about in a pipe band.

I had my wedding in Belfast in 1995.
All my relatives from the northwest of Ireland attended along with a lot of be-kilted Scottish work colleagues.
One endearing memory was of my aunt from the above-mentioned farm spending the evening lifting kilts and then giving out loud whoops of delight as she surveyed the contents

Boyd

[Nanohedron]

Can you direct me to good, brief content, please? Remember, media people don't want to wade through a ton of material.

Seriously, Tom, don't you think that composing the media blurb yourself would be the way to go? Best concision, quality control-freakery satisfied, and just the passing whiff of irony to keep it all from mere flat pedantry; if anyone could do it, it would be you.

[tommykleen]

Thanks, Nano...but I needed something in the can and ready to go. I have had some good suggestions on and off the board here. Thanks everyone! I also sent along this piece.

....And it looks like we might have a bite!

[TheSilverSpear]

Kind of along these lines but in a slightly tangential way, I was reading a thing about the NYPD pipe band playing "Irish" tunes on the Highland pipes. Are they really, as Gordon Duncan used to do and a lot of people who were his students continue to do, or are they just confused?

[Pipey]

Ironically, many Irish bands in the US, e.g. Ancient Order of Hibernia Societies, Police and Fire Department Emerald Society bands wear Scottish military pipe band uniforms, including a variety of tartans, feather bonnets and most of them play both traditional Irish and Scottish tunes. Not sure if they are confused but, in some cases, they seem to value appearance higher than the quality of music. Pipe Bands representing Irish Counties tend not to do so.

[Calum]

Somewhere, I think there's a PhD thesis lurking in the conflation of Irish and Scottish cultures internationally.

As far as GHB bands go, most of them are playing tunes that fit (with or without violence ) and song airs - Garryowen, Wearing of the Green, Start of the County Down, and all this stuff. Gordon Duncan (who was actually a capable Uilleann player as well) it ain't.

[TheSilverSpear]

Yeah, there's a paper on the invention and conflagration of tradition in there somewhere. I had a nosy at their website.

So basically Irish-American New York City cops (and then, other groups of a similar demographic afterwards in the US), in order to invigorate and further deepen their Irish identity, borrow a tradition that was invented by the Victorian elite in SCOTLAND, the militarization of the Highland pipes, pipe bands, marching around in kilts, and then lay claim its ancient Celticness and Irishness. What was the British military actually doing in Ireland at the time they were making up the Highland piping military tradition? I wonder...... Not trying to keep a lid on an impending rebellion or anything like that, surely.

[tommykleen]

Every year the two major local papers -and even the quarterly Irish-centric paper- do a story on the local Irish pipe band (tricked out in all Highland gear, but playing some Irish tunes in addition to the usual GHB tunes). Last year I had finally had it and wrote the papers imploring they do something...anything...about the local uilleann pipes scene, which is very robust and paradoxically large and established for this part of the world. If everything goes ok one of the papers might run something on the uilleann pipes this St. Pat's. Keep your fingers crossed!

Now don't get me wrong. The GHBs are cool and I would not want to denigrate their place in the fabric of Celtic, or general folk, music. I just grow extremely weary of pipe bands being promoted as the soul of Irish music. In the big article last year on the local Irish pipe band, the headline read "In pubs across the Twin Cities, one bagpipe band has become St. Patrick's soundtrack" with the subhead: "Imagine running in a marathon while carrying a noisy, unwieldy instrument – and wearing a skirt. For years, a band of busy bagpipers have made it their mission to fill as many pubs as possible with the sounds of Ireland." There was an accompanying video where the band was filmed and interviewed. One point the camera focuses in on a sheet of music, "The Flower of Scotland ". Another player describes how important it is for him to play the pipes and be proud of his Scottish heritage...

Let me be clear: I have no issues with this Irish pipe band, (or any Scottish GHB pipe band for that matter). They are a cherished part of the large St. Patrick's Day festivities. Have been for over fifty years. But does any pipe band represent the soul of Irish music?

Let me also state that there is a ton of repertoire in Irish traditional music that has its origin beyond Ireland...from Scotland in fact. So I am not drawing any neat line around The Emerald Isle and claiming "this is in/this is out". I also know that the uilleann pipes may very well have originated in Scotland/Northern England.

But there has got to be a way to break this idea that Highland pipe bands should be featured in the Irish-themed articles and events, to the complete and utter exclusion of the Irish pipes.

I know this is a battle that is likely never to be won. Surely, Sisyphus was an uilleann piper.

[bensdad]

Surely, Sisyphus was an uilleann piper.

Yes, and Tantalus too.
And the guy who had his liver eaten out by eagles every night.