Na Píobairí Uilleann

Chairman, NPU

An Píobaire

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8 1 14 20120206 14 I first met Séamus in the early 1950s at a monthly meeting of the Céilidh Club which was started by Peter Kennedy, the folk music collector, and held in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House, Re- gent’s Park Road, London, home of the Eng- lish Folk Dance & Song Society. It was my first close encounter with the uil- leann pipes, resulting in a shock I was not pre- pared for. I was, as they say, blown away! I spent the next day in a daze recovering from the intoxicating Ennis experience. But it was not just the incomparable sound of his pipes, his style of playing or the chance to study the workings of this complex instrument: it was the presence of this lanky man (described else- where as… “a long young greyhound of a fel- low”) wrapped in his pipes, leather on knee, elbows working, and his long fingers coaxing the chanter to wail, growl, cluck, trill and spit staccato notes by employing all the tricks and techniques known to the old master pipers for melodic decoration. In particular, Séamus never over-did the use of the regulators but se- lected harmonies at tastefully spaced intervals. Here, in this room, on this day in London, I was privileged to be in the company of the man reputed to be the best Irish piper of all time: a virtuoso exponent of the indigenous music of Ireland, passed down through generations by Gaelic instruction from old hands to young fin- gers, in peat-reeked parlours. His rich voice and enviable brogue, his singing, whistle play- ing and droll humour, completed the spell. I re- call a newspaper report of his wedding which alluded to his piping and singing which “would charm the birds from the trees”. From that moment my sole aim in life was to play the pipes like Séamus. Frantic enquiries produced the illustrated price list of the pipe maker T. Crowley & Son of Cork. The sensible way to start was with their practice set: ‘The Finest Value ever offered in Practice Sets. Or- namental Chanter Head, Imitation Ivory Mounts, Non-Stretchable Rubber Bag, Extra Strong Bellows – leather bound and rubber Mick Cannon, Séamus Ennis and Pat Goulding Bob Rundle

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2012-02-01T00:00:00

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