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Píobaire, An, Volume 4, Issue 47, Page 10

Píobaire, An, Volume 4, Issue 47, Page 10
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periodical Publisher
Na Píobairí Uilleann
periodical Editor
Chairman, NPU
periodical Title
Píobaire, An
volume Number
4
issue Content
10in 1743. Dr Cheape writes that this bagpipeprobably took its form from the ‘Lowland’ or‘Border’ bagpipe, while admitting that theevidence is meagre, and possibly borrowedacoustic concepts from the Baroque oboe. Inany event, its genesis is to be found in theworkshops of professional musical instru-ment-makers, rather than in the folk tradi-tions. He discusses the significance of ‘pas-toral music’, and the development of themusette in France by Hotteterre, suggestingthat Geoghegan may have deliberately imitat-ed the idea. These instruments were first cre-ated by musical instrument makers inLondon, and later in Edinburgh and Dublin,and were still being made in Edinburgh in the19th century, well after the ‘Union’ pipe hadevolved. Dr Cheape implies that this instrument had noparticular connection with Ireland, and citesno evidence from Irish sources either for oragainst any such connection. Yet Geogheganwas an Irishman, and did include some Irishitems in his book, including a Carolan piece,‘Dr John Stafford’, disguised as a ‘ScotchMeasure’. Several of the other tunes seem tohave been taken from other tutors in the sameseries, and printed unaltered; at least one hasrests in it. In 1791 ‘Mr. Geoghegan’ isclaimed to have been a good friend of WalkerJackson (c.1722–98), the famous gentlemanpiper from co. Limerick, and there were atleast two other pipers called ‘Geoghegan’active in the early 19th century who may havebeen related to him. But if this instrument hadno Irish connections, what are we to make ofthe various references to ‘Irish’ bagpipe(r)sfrom the early 18th century onward? In June1732, ‘a noted Irish Bagpiper, and MidnightBully’ was arrested for quarrelling in a brandyshop in London. In New York in 1735, a manwas performing an impression of an Irishpiper, while Tobias Smollet, a good Scot,describes a man as having a voice like a crossbetween a sow-gelder’s horn and an Irish bag-pipe in Roderick Random (1750). ‘A fine pairof Irish pipes’ was raffled in Traquair,Scotland, in 1757. In Ireland, there are unmis-takable references to a domestic bagpipe fromthe early 1700s. Also, there are at least threedepictions of the pastoral bagpipe fromIreland between the 1750s and the early1800s, and there are further illustrations of itin the 19th century – though some of theseseem to have been copied from older pictures.As late as 1912, Dr Richard Henebry, a piperhimself, heard a piper from co. Limerickplaying on what he described as a long, openchanter, which sounds like a pastoral pipe. Bythe time Geoghegan published his tutor, aswell, the famous Larry Grogan, another gen-tleman piper, was dead for fifteen years, hav-ing been born in 1701. The Revd JamesSterling (1706–62), with whom the jig ‘ThePriest of Lurgan’ was associated, was stillalive, and in 1735 was specifically exemptedfrom a challenge issued by a professionalpiper in Dublin, ‘Blind Patrick Connolly’,possibly the subject of ‘Blind Paddy’s Fancy’in Geoghegan’s book. These examples couldbe multiplied many times over, and they showthat there was a domestic bagpipe in use inIreland by the early 1700s, and it is quite pos-sible that this was the instrument for whichGeoghegan wrote. Dr Cheape did emphasisethe possible Continental connections of thisinstrument, and we might ask which countryin the British Isles had the closest culturallinks with France, Spain and Italy. Irelandnever comes to mind immediately because thepopular image of cultural contact is often thatof the grand tour; yet thousands of Irishmenleft Ireland to train as priests on theContinent, to attend schools and universities,to fight in the French and Spanish armies, orto go into business as merchants. There is animpression that the instrument spreads fromthe south to the north; even in the nineteenthcentury, for example, the Irish pipes tend tobe scarcer in the north of Ireland than in thesouth or west.
issue Number
47
page Number
10
periodical Author
[Periodical]
issue Publication Date
2008-09-01T00:00:00
allowedRoles
anonymous,guest,friend,member

Píobaire, An, Volume 4, Issue 47

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