Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

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).