Na Píobairí Uilleann

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An Píobaire

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8 5 10 20121206 10 THE LONG LOST NOTE “T HE LONG NOTE” is said to be a single jig version of the first two parts of “Jenny’s Welcome to Charlie”, a four part reel associated with Donegal, and which, in some settings, goes down to low C in its first part. There are many other dance-tunes and songs in Irish traditional music that use the low leading note, sometimes as an auxiliary note, sometimes as an essential part of the melody. As many read- ers will know, this note, low C, was once playable on pipes, namely the pastoral pipe, now com- monly accepted as the direct ancestor of the uil- leann pipes. Beginning in the early to mid eighteenth century, this bellows-blown bagpipe was both made and played in Ireland, Scotland and England and, in basic structure, was quite similar to the uilleann pipes, one main difference being a foot-joint that extended the lower end of the chanter, permitting the playing of C below the bottom D. It is believed that pipers soon began re- moving the foot-joint in order to be able to stop the chanter on the knee and make use of staccato and dynamic effects in their playing. Stopping the chanter was not possible with the pastoral foot- joint due to it having vent holes on either side, so the foot-joint eventually became an historical “footnote” – and low C was lost. Being a Highland piper since a young age, and a long-time admirer, if not a serious student, of uilleann piping I became fascinated with the pastoral pipes the moment I first heard of them from fellow piper Alan Jones in the early 1990s. Specifically, I always wondered whether there might be a way for the uilleann pipe chanter to play low C, as the pastoral chanter once did, yet still be closable on the knee, maintaining its characteristic staccato and dynamic capabilities. This was a mind- puzzle that I would return to over and over again throughout my years of music-playing and part-time instrument making. Sometime in 2009 a solution began to take shape – a new kind of foot-joint that allows the playing of low C but still permits the chanter to be stopped and doesn’t interfere with its tuning or tonal- ity. The foot-joint is designed to slip on and off of any concert D chanter quickly, with no mod- ifications necessary. I’ve described how the de- vice functions in more detail in an article in the December 2011 issue of An Piobaire. 1 Having made a few working prototypes of this C foot-joint, I was curious to see other pipers take it for a test run and to hear what comments they might have. A few senior pipers very graciously tried it out at the Northeast Tionól in October of 2011, and one of the world’s most famous gave it a go when he passed through my town in November. I was en- couraged that each expressed some positive inter- est in it and offered some helpful feedback. There was one comment though that tuck in my craw a bit. It was something like “Well its interesting al- right. I just don’t know what I’d do with it.” A few other Internet commentators, although not having had the chance to try the footjoint, have also won- dered specifically which situations it could be used in. Of course, while working out the design over the last few years, I’d also begun to compile a short mental list of tunes that go down to C. But these comments reminded me that it’s been over a hun- dred years since pipers have had access to low C, and that the piping repertoire that has developed in the meantime therefore excludes that note. It may not be obvious to many players where low C could be useful or what “off-limits” tunes might be newly playable on pipes if that note were available. So per- haps it is timely to begin a discussion of a possible repertoire for uilleann pipes with C foot-joint. What follows is by no means intended to be a definitive or comprehensive list of all possible pieces of music. It is simply an arbitrary assortment of tunes that go

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