Na Píobairí Uilleann

Chairman, NPU

An Píobaire

5

7 5 27 20111214 27 The good thing about running up against the above-mentioned obstacles was that the parame- ters of a successful method for achieving low C began to reveal themselves in sharp relief. The ideal method must not alter the chanter or its con- struction in any way; it must not alter the tone, timbre, tuning or volume of any of the existing notes, especially the bottom D, in any way; its presence must be optional, that is, it must be pos- sible to remove the device and throw it into the pipe case, or into the bin, or out the window when playing the chanter in the established familiar way is desired. In short, the ability to play C must not come at the expense of any aspect of the normal functioning of the chanter or the playing thereof. Since, as a basic rule, lowering the pitch of a wind instrument requires an increase of its length, and since increasing the length of the chanter body would substantially change the character of the bottom D, among other notes, I was left with a maddening paradox. I must increase the chanter length in order to sound low C. While doing so, I must also be sure not to increase the chanter length so that D is not affected. Here I lingered, ponder- ing this conundrum, for many a night. This was easily the most difficult instrument-making puzzle that I had yet undertaken. Then, on the last of that particular series of nights, it occurred to me that perhaps the said length could be added and subtracted as required. This thought, after many more months of nights, conundrums and metal shavings, resulted in a device comprised of a perforated tube over which slides an outer sleeve of brass, itself perforated at its lower end. The top end of the tube forms a socket that fits over the lower end (tenon) of the chanter. This ‘foot- joint’ of sorts, has three basic positions. In the first position (see FIG. 1), with the chanter pressed down onto the leg, as per usual, the outer sleeve is pushed all the way up, fully covering the inner tube and closing the chanter. In the second position (FIG. 2), with the chanter lifted just partway off of the knee, the holes in the outer sleeve are opened and C is sounded. In the third position with the chanter lifted fully off of the knee (FIG. 3), again as per usual, the outer sleeve slides all the way down re- vealing the open end of the chanter which is flush with the perforated section of the inner tube. The outer sleeve slides downwards the instant the chanter is lifted, through a combination of gravity and two powerful neodymium magnets pushing away from each other. The player can fine-tune the low C to his/her liking depending on the precise amount of lift off of the knee. Figure 1 Figure 2 Duncan Gillis Duncan Gillis

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[Periodical]

2011-12-01T00:00:00

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