Na Píobairí Uilleann

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An Píobaire

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7 5 28 20111214 28 Thus, to my own astonishment, after many trials, I found it possible to achieve a low C while re- specting all of the above-mentioned parameters; the chanter is lengthened for C, but not for D; none of the tone, timbre, tuning or volume of any other note is affected; the device fits over the chanter tenon without any alteration of the chanter being required, and can be quickly removed when not wanted. There is only one moving part, so its functioning is straightforward and reliable. More- over, this peculiar foot-joint takes full advantage of one of the peculiarities of uilleann piping tech- nique; the closing of the foot-joint is accomplished through the practice of bringing the chanter down onto the leg. Thus, we only have to account for mechanical movement of the sleeve in one direc- tion, i.e. downwards to open the foot-joint again, instead of two directions, which would be expo- nentially more complicated. If it were not for this unique feature of uilleann pipe-playing, this de- vice would not be workable. It follows therefore that neither would it work easily on any instru- ment other than the uilleann pipe chanter. I have made a number of prototypes of this foot- joint for the concert D chanter which I was fortu- nate enough to be able to show to several pipers at the Northeast Tionól in East Durham, New York, this past October. In trying it out, players were able to successfully play low C and switch be- tween that note, the bottom D and other notes on the chanter. Although I had originally expected the foot-joint to be useful mainly for airs and other music of slower tempo, one particularly enthusi- astic young piper from California surprised me by making quick work of it in a session at reel speed. Many pipers will be leery of the idea of a foot- joint for quite some time – some will always be leery of it. But perhaps for some others, the time for the occasional C voyage has come again. I would be more than a bit interested to hear of other attempts to ‘go to C’ and how others may have dealt with the aforementioned challenges. Please email me at HORNPIPES@GMAIL.COM. DUNCAN GILLIS Ottawa, Canada Figure 3 The foot-joint Duncan Gillis Duncan Gillis

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2011-12-01T00:00:00

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