Na Píobairí Uilleann

Chairman, NPU

An Píobaire

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SANDIE PURCELL, who has worked for NPU as Administrative Assistant for five and a half years, has decided to resign from her position in order to return to fulltime education. Sandie came to NPU with an impressive record. She is a fiddle player, a music teacher and a composer, with a music degree and a track record of composition in the traditional style. Her publications included a collection of original compositions – 101 Original Compositions of Irish Traditional Music – many of which can be heard on the CD she released with her band Reelan. After joining the staff of NPU she took up the pipes, under the tutelage of Gay McKeon, and became a piper. Sandie leaves to resume her education, and will be missed by her colleagues and by the many members who were very appreciative of the courteous and efficient manner in which she did her job. NPU wish her every success. THE ACOUSTICS OF THE CHANTER hold an eternal fascination for most pipers so it was an obvious choice when young Cork piper Aisling Sage and co­researcher and pianist Ryan Culhane decided to enter the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition. The 4th year students, from Bandon Grammar School in Cork, used the AUDACITY software to measure and plot the frequencies and harmonics of Aisling’s chanter, which was made by Cork pipemaker John Mitchell. Their entry was compiled and submitted in Irish and entitled Eolaíocht Na bPiobaí Uilleann (The Science of the Uilleann Pipes). The young researchers compared the results from the pipes to other instruments such as the tin whistle to learn about the many additional layers of harmonics in the uilleann pipe chanter and also to discover for themselves the wonders of just intonational tuning. John Mitchell’s chanter proved to be the ideal research model with ‘A’ weighing in bang on 440Hz. Gerry Lyons

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2014-02-14T00:00:00

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