Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

51
MeAnIngS OF ‘UnIOn PIPeS’
already reached a distinct stage of development prior to 1788, and
no element of either was adopted from the other, then or
subsequently.
But this meaning of 1788 is nevertheless a correct one, correct not in
organological but in socio-political cultural terms. The union in
question is the notional union of an Irish form of bellows pipe, played
by an Irish performer, with the Scottish musical ethos prevailing in
contemporary london, the english capital. An instrument associated
with rebellion and war in Scotland and Ireland is now being used on
stage in the capital to perform ethnically tinged but politically neutral
and unthreatening music which is acceptable to the three kingdoms.
It unites the kingdoms in musical taste; it is a new instrument for a
new era of peaceful coexistence, one desired by Courtney’s patrons.
This common show-business tactic of accommodation to a local
audience provides one convincing explanation for Courtney’s introduction
there of a new quasi-political term for his musical instrument.
There is support for this view in the little that we know of Courtney’s
repertory as performed publicly in london: it is not at first Irish but
largely Scottish (‘Maggie lawther with variations’ was his showstopper
throughout his career) 156 or newly composed in a Scottish
156
‘Maggae lawther’, Courtney’s main cited musical piece, had however long been
associated with both Scotland and Ireland, and the idea of ‘union’ may also be
in play here. The song ‘Maggie/Maggy/Magie lauder/lawder/lawther’ (‘Wha
wadna be in love wi’ bonnie Maggie lauder’) is of course Scottish, but the origins
of its melody have been disputed between the two countries (for an early
discussion see O’neill 1910: 168–71). Its tune was printed many times in the
eighteenth century, and sometimes with variations, but Courtney’s set is not
identified as such in any source. Since John lee published music from Oscar
and Malvina about the time Courtney was in Dublin, lee’s publication of
‘Maggie lawder with Variations’ is reproduced above. It is undated but
published from 70 Dame St, Dublin, where lee was from c. 1778–1803 (hogan