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Píobaire, An, Volume 7, Issue 1, Page 26

Píobaire, An, Volume 7, Issue 1, Page 26
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periodical Publisher
Na Píobairí Uilleann
periodical Editor
Chairman, NPU
periodical Title
An Píobaire
volume Number
1
issue Content
Píobaire, An 7 1 26 20110224 26 T HE UILLEANN PIPES are unique among the world’s bagpipes in their ability to com- bine a melody on the chanter, with a sus- tained bass line (drones), with a chordal accompaniment (regulators). With this set-up the uilleann pipes are able to produce a rich and var- ied musical experience. Still there are times when I have found that har- monies and note combina- tions in my head seem trapped within the confines of the instrument. Like most 20th centurians I was exposed to a crazy quilt of music growing up. The walls of my boy- hood home reverberated with the sounds of my mother’s collection of cinema scores, my broth- ers’ 1970s art rock, big Russian classical com- posers, and moderns such as Gershwin, Copeland and Bernstein. My instrument as a child and young adult was the clarinet, through which I pushed a lot of classical music. These influences didn’t just go away when I gave my- self over, whole heartedly, to playing music on the pipes. Through exposure to some of the piping greats I was able to glean tantalizing glimpses into some very interesting explorations into the pipes’ sonic outer reaches. The piping of Séamus Ennis on “White Connor's Daughter, Nora”, Geoff Woof’s playing of “Valentia Harbour”, and Tommy Reck’s piping of “An Raibh Tú ag an gCarraig” serve as good examples of great tunes in unusual harmonic settings. Contemporary pipers are car- rying on this innovation with use of such tech- niques as “cross” chording on the regulators (striking of diagonally placed, instead of adja- cent, keys) and mixed drone configurations. My first explorations with this type of modal playing in my own piping was with a C chanter and a D set of pipes. With this set-up it was somewhat of a revelation (for me anyway) that one could play tunes with the C chanter, D drones, and cer- tain regulators voiced. My current favorite piece for this set-up is the air “The Enchanted Valley” (No.1 in O’Neill’s, so you can’t miss it). A rough idea of this assemblage may be found at this location on the internet: http://www.box.net/shared/s0fm2b5ccb My latest goofing around has focused on getting unorthodox musical combinations out of a full set of D pipes. A full set of pipes is a great thing to have, but the poor bass regulator – for all its size and majesty – gets visited so infrequently compared to its more popular brethren the tenor and baritone regulators. In my playing it mostly gets used for the odd boom-chick/bouncy vamps à la Ennis and arpeggio-rich party pieces like “Castle of Drumore”. On the bass regulator there are the notes (top to bottom) C, B, A, and G. These notes are replicated an octave up on the tenor regulator, and thus there is some redun- dancy built into the traditional three regulator setup. The B and A notes have a particularly in- teresting contribution to make toward extending the harmonic diversity of a D set of pipes. Short ~ TECHNICAL ~ USING REGULATORS AS DRONES TOM KLEIN “it was somewhat of a revela- tion that one could play tunes with the C chanter, D drones, and certain regulators voiced”
issue Number
7
page Number
26
periodical Author
[Periodical]
issue Publication Date
2011-02-24T00:00:00
allowedRoles
anonymous,guest,friend,member

An Píobaire, Volume 7, Issue 1

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