Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

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41 later in the same month, at a Dublin benefit for him, Courtney is extending his performance repertory in a more Irish direction: ‘Mr Courtney will introduce several Airs on the Union Pipes, particularly The Munster lilt, And Papa! Papa! Mama! Mama! 120 By this time he is being billed as ‘Performer on the Union Pipes to the Prince of Wales’, and is also now performing ‘ellenaroon’ 121 and ‘the favourite Air of Coolun’. 122 These are among the ‘Irish lilts’ and ‘Irish airs’ he now regularly performs. By June 1793 Courtney’s Irish visit only had a few weeks to run, and the publicity stops were being pulled out for another benefit for him: The performance of... Mr. Courtney... on the Union Pipes is justly admired here as well as in england, and this evening he is to give such further instances of his abilities, as never were known before. This... is a desirable treat; and as Mr. Courtney, who has had the honour of being countenanced for his singular merit on the Union Pipes, by his Majesty, and his royal highness the Prince of Wales, is shortly to return to england, it is probable those who delight in that music, will never have such another opportunity of enjoyment. 123 eSTABlIShMenT OF ‘UnIOn PIPeS’ In the event Courtney stayed on in Dublin for another six weeks, and finished up the theatrical season in the Theatre royal at the end of July in his by now usual style: ‘Mr. Courtney will perform the celebrated Overture and rondeau of Oscar and Malvina, with several favourite Irish Airs, on the Union Pipes’. 124 120 Freeman’s Journal, Dublin, 14 May 1793. 121 Irish ‘eibhlín a rún’ (eileen my love). Freeman’s Journal, Dublin, 18 May 1793. 122 Irish ‘An Chúilfhionn’ (The fair-haired girl). Freeman’s Journal, Dublin, 18 May 1793. 123 Freeman’s Journal, Dublin, 11 June 1793. 124 Freeman’s Journal, Dublin, 30 July 1793. he appeared on the same bill as robert Owenson, who was performing a ‘Planxty in character’.
COUrTney’S ‘UnIOn PIPeS’ AnD The TerMInOlOgy OF IrISh BellOWS-BlOWn BAgPIPeS 42 Courtney’s Last Years 1793–1794 Courtney had not been forgotten in london during his Irish sojourn. In March 1793 an engraving of a portrait of him by the leading contemporary illustrator Isaac Cruikshank appeared as the frontispiece of a new publication, a confirmation of his five years of public celebrity: This day were published... The Whim of the Day of 1793: containing a selection of the choicest and most approved Songs; embellished with a beautiful representation of Mr. Courtenay playing on the union-pipes, in the favourite pantomime of Oscar and Malvina... 125 But also in March 1793, during his absence in Ireland, Courtney’s position as an Irish piper on the london stage would be briefly challenged in public, as would his by-now established new term for the pipes. James McDonnell, the Irish professional bellows piper from Cork already noticed as appearing with Courtney in london in 1791, was again in london. he had an unadvertised success there on 25 February 1793 in Mr. Willis’s music rooms on King Street, St James’s. On 14 March he took a newspaper advertisement for another performance by him at the same venue, describing himself as ‘Mr. M’Donnell, (The Celebrated Performer on the Irish Pipes)’. he would perform ‘a new Variety of the most-admired Scots and Irish Airs on the said Instrument... Together with a Selection of the Ancient Irish and Scots Music... Between the Acts, Mr. M’Donnell will play any favourite Tune that may be desired by the Company’. 126 McDonnell would not be heard of performing again in london. 127 125 The Star, london, 7 Mar. 1793. This is the portrait of Courtney reproduced as the frontispiece of this essay (for which click here) and discussed below. 126 True Briton, london, 14 Mar. 1793. Antiquarianism was in the air. As cited, three harp festivals had been held in granard, Co longford, in the 1780s, and one in Belfast in 1792 (for which see Moloney 2000). Bunting would publish one dance tune taken down from McDonnell in 1797 (Bunting 1840: xi). It is of interest that McDonnell also gives primacy here to Scottish music and uses a Scottish M’ in the spelling of his surname in london. 127 This was probably not for musical reasons. McDonnell was a proud and irascible character, prepared to offend patrons and other employers, and in 1789 involved in legal difficulties in Scotland (see Sanger 2006).
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Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

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