Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

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COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES Nicholas Carolan, Irish Traditional Music Archive, Dublin Version 1.0 as at 14 May 2012 1 Irish uilleann pipers and followers of the uilleann pipes generally know nowadays that their instrument was once often known as the ‘union pipes’. 2 The term was one of those commonly used before 1900 to refer to variant forms of the bellows-blown bagpipe found in Britain and Ireland, the United States of America, Australia, and elsewhere. After 1900 it continued in use but gradually gave way in Ireland to ‘uilleann pipes’, 3 which term eventually spread to be used universally, or almost so, for the Irish form of the instrument. There is nevertheless uncertainty about the term ‘union pipes’ – its origin, forerunners, meanings, spread and demise – and it is proposed 1 Much of the information on which this essay on Irish music terminology is based has been newly discovered through ongoing international print and image digitisation programmes. Since other relevant information will doubtless emerge from these sources in the future, the essay will be updated here to include such information as it is found. For expansion of bibliographic etc. citations see Information Sources below. Corrections and earlier instances of terms cited can be sent to union.pipes@itma.ie, but because of other commitments it will not be possible for the writer to enter into correspondence. The essay should be cited by author, title, version and date on www.itma.ie as above. 2 This form of the term is used throughout here for convenience, except in quotations, but the term also occurs in historical sources as ‘union pipe(s)’, ‘union bag(-)pipe(s)’, ‘Irish union pipes’, etc., and its elements are often given initial capitals. Original spellings and initial capitalisation (only) have been retained here in quotations. Primary sources quoted have been checked unless otherwise stated. 3 This term also appears in variant spellings in older sources and often with initial capitals: ‘ullann’, ‘uileann’, ‘uillinn’, ‘ullian (bag-)pipe(s)’, etc. Introduced only in the twentieth century, it is the term now in standard use in Ireland to refer (ahistorically) to Irish bellows pipes of any period and in any place.
COUrTney’S ‘UnIOn PIPeS’ AnD The TerMInOlOgy OF IrISh BellOWS-BlOWn BAgPIPeS 2 here to examine these aspects, and to establish an outline history of the term. Other terms for the uilleann pipes are also traced. As well as core questions of terminology, consideration of ‘union pipes’ also necessarily touches on the whole history and historiography of Irish bagpiping, and involves other dimensions of Irish musical culture: artistic processes and allegiances; national identity and selfrepresentation, especially in relation to the Irish language; and the ongoing globalisation of Irish traditional music. It must be emphasised that only the history of the term is being centrally addressed, not the history of the instrument itself. Although the two are of course related, they have led somewhat independent lives. Changes in terminology did not necessarily reflect developments in the physical nature of the instrument; such developments did not necessarily lead to the introduction of new terminology. But to provide a context for the discussion of piping terminology, some brief consideration of the history of the instrument itself is unavoidable. Bagpipes are musical wind instruments consisting of a reeded melody-pipe or chanter with finger-holes by which the player produces melody, an attached skin bag acting as an air-reservoir, a blow-pipe attached to the bag by which the player inflates it, and, normally, reeded fixed-pitch melody-pipes attached to the bag which provide a droning accompaniment to the chanter. Known in classical times, they are immemorially old and of uncertain origins. By the Middle Ages they were a common instrument, existing in many different forms across europe, and in Asia and north Africa. Played mainly out of doors, and usually by professional players of low status, they are thought to have reached the limits of their popularity in western europe from the fourteenth century to the seventeenth. 4 4 Baines 1995: 100.
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Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

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