Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

37
eSTABlIShMenT OF ‘UnIOn PIPeS’
national Music. The celebrated Courtney, whose superior character,
unrivalled abilities, and uncommon execution on the Union Pipes are
so well known to every person of taste in the three kingdoms, makes
his first appearance this evening in the dramatic Pantomime of Oscar
and Malvina... 106
Another notice of the same date was even more effusive and emphasised
the national angle more strongly, while touching on the
contemporary antiquarian interest in older music:
The musical amateur, the man of refined taste, and the admirer of ancient
music, will this evening gratify their feelings beyond their most sanguine
expectations by the unrivalled performance of the celebrated Courtney
on our favourite national instrument, the Union Pipes... 107
A management advertisement speaks of ‘The Bagpipes by Mr.
Courtney from the Theatre royal, Covent garden, his first
Appointment’. 108 It is noticeable that his Irish management, unlike his
london promoters, frequently advertise him as playing ‘bagpipes’.
Since it was, as said, ‘our favourite national instrument’, there was no
need to camouflage it in Dublin as there had been in london, but rather
it was a good business move to draw attention to its national familiarity.
On the other hand the new and fashionable london term for the pipes
is also employed, although not the piper’s london stage name.
Courtney was once again an undoubted hit: a review speaks of ‘the
engaging novel[t]y of C’s superior performance on the union pipes,
a novelty sufficient of itself to fill a house, for he has to boast the
admiration of all the best judges in london for his masterly
execution, his delicacy yet power of tone, and for his affecting
106
Saunder’s News-Letter, Dublin, 4 Jan. 1793.
107
Hibernian Journal, Dublin, 4 Jan. 1793.
108
Hibernian Journal, Dublin, 7 Jan. 1793.