- Irish Traditional Music Archive

THE UILLEANN PIPES IN IRISH TRADmONAL MUSIC
Uilleann pipes, also known as union pipes or Irish pipes, are the specifically
Irish form of bellows-blown or elbow-blown bagpipes.
The term 'uilleann pipes' is pronounced 'ill-un pipes' with the stress on
the first syllable. Deriving from the Irish uille/uillinn 'elbow' and variously
spelt, it is a modern coinage introduced only at the turn of this century, but
now universally used. The older terms, 'union (bag) pipes' and 'Irish (bag)
pipes', have been in use since the eighteen th century. The modern name
has been translated into Irish as pib uilleann and the instrument is also
referred to in Irish by the older piopai, a generic term for pipes.
Bagpipes in General
Bagpipes, classified as wind instruments and reed instruments, essentially
consist of a reeded chanter or melody-pipe, with finger-holes, which is
sounded with air from an attached bag held under the player's arm. In the
older form the bag is inflated through a blowpipe h eld in the mouth.
Almost all b agpipes also have reeded pipes of fixed pitch called drones
which sound continuously with the chanter melody. Bagpipe reeds, made of
cane or other materials, are fixed in the various pipes of the instrument and
produce sound as they vibrate under air pressure. They can be single reeds
(one piece of the material) or double (two pieces bound together). Mouthblown bagpipes are thought to have originated in the prehistoric period in
the Near or Middle East from which they have spread throughout Europe,
to India and to North Africa. In recent times the Scottish Highland form
has spread throughout the world.
A bellows attached to the player's elbow has been used in Europe for
inflating the b ag since at least the sixteenth century, and bellows-blown
forms include the Czech dudy, the French musette, the English Northumbrian small-pipes and the Scottish Lowland pipes.
The Irish Uilleann Pipes
Uilleann pipes differ uniquely from other bellows-blown bagpipes in having
a main ch anter range of two octaves and a number of closed chanters called
regulators which can be used in combination for harmonic and rhythmic
accompaniment, and they are almost unique in having the main chanter
closed for almost its entire range, a feature which allows a silence between
n o tes.
All parts of the instrument, including the reeds, are custom-made, and
the materials now used in its construction are close-grained woods such as
ebony and boxwood for chanter, drones, regulators , etc.; animal skin,
rubber or plastic for the bag, connectors and valves; brass or silver for metal
fittings; and plastic (formerly ivory) for decorative or supporting
components.
A full modern set of uilleann pipes (see drawing) consists of
•
an open-ended fixed-pitch wooden chanter of conical bore, fitted
with a double reed, with seven finger-holes in its front and one
thumb-hole in its back. Its diatonic scale is produced by crossfingering.
The bottom note of the chanter is conventionally called D,
whatever its actual pitch. The commonest chanter, a 'concert pitch'
chanter, is 36 cm in length and has as bottom note the D above
middle C. 'Flat sets' are pipes with bottom chanter notes lower than
D: from C sharp to B flat. Bottom chanter notes higher than Dare
sometimes found: E flat or E.
Different numbers of metal keys can be fitted to chanters to
provide chromatic semi tones, but the only one required by the music
normally played on the instrument is that which produces C natural
in the second octave.
Except for the production of its bottom note , the chanter is
normally closed off at its end by being rested on a piece of leather
called the popping strap tied on the knee of the player. This sealing
of the chanter is necessary for the playing of the higher octave which
is partly achieved by 'overblowing' or the exerting of extra pressure
by the elbow on the bag, and it allows an instant of silence to occur
between notes.
•
the bag, which is fed with air from the bellows and, which supplies air
to the sounding parts.
•
the main stock, a hollow wooden cylinder onto or into which are
fixed the bag, drones and regulators, and which is fed with air from
the bag.
•
the three wooden drones, pipes of cylindrical bore, which sound
continuously and are fitted with single reeds: the small or tenor
l.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Bag
Bellows
Main stock
Tenor drone
Baritone drone
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Bass drone
Tenor regulator
Baritone regulator
Bass regulator
Chanter
After Wilbert Garvin, THE IRISH BAGPIPES: THEIR CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE
2nd ed., Ballyrnena, 1988, p. 3
drone (tuned in unison with the bottom note of the chanter), the
middle or baritone drone (an octave below the tenor), the big or
bass drone (an octave below the baritone). The drones may be
silenced by the use of a switch on the main stock.
•
the three wooden regulators, tenor, baritone and bass, which are
closed fixed-pitch chanters of conical bore fitted with double reeds
and four or five metal keys each of which sounds a note when
pressed. The regulators lie beside each other so as to allow the
playing of simple tonic or dominant chords, or individual notes,
when the keys are activated by the heel of the lower hand or the
fingers of a temporarily free hand. The regulators are only
sometimes used.
The uilleann pipes are a relatively quiet indoor instrument, almost
always played in a sitting position with the bag under one arm and the
bellows under the other; with the left hand, usually, covering the thumbhole and upper three finger-holes and the right the remaining holes; and
with the drones and regulators lying across the thigh of the player. They
are played by professionals and amateurs, of all social classes, and most
players have been men. They are not very widely played in comparison
with the fiddle and other instruments, probably because they are
relatively expensive to acquire and difficult to play, tune and maintain,
but they have a high status and are played solo more than other
instruments. Learners can begin with bag, bellows and chanter, and add
drones and regulators by degrees. Most music performed on the pipes is
dance music, but played more nowadays for recreational listening than
for dancing, and most pipers also have a repertory of 'slow airs', song airs
played instrumentally.
Style
There are now no regional piping styles, and pipers develop their own
personal styles or imitate the styles of virtuoso players. The melody may be
played with a lesser or greater degree of articulation. The former style,
'open', 'loose', or legato playing, uses the minimum number of fingers
needed to produce a note, while the latter style, 'tight' or non-legato
playing, uses the maximum. Most players use a mixture of the two styles.
The normal melodic ornaments of Irish traditional music - grace notes,
rolls and triplets etc. - are used on the pipes, and in addition special
ornaments such as crans, tight triplets, popping, etc. Style also includes
the uses to which the drones and regulators are put.
History
The uilleann pipes are thought to have developed in Ireland in the early
eighteenth century, possibly in the southern half of the country and
probably under the influence of foreign forms, and they gradually replaced
the earlier mouth-blown bagpipes played here since medieval times. The
oboe and German flute, introduced to Ireland in the decades around 1700,
may have had an influence on their development. The instrument was
being referred to as the 'Irish pipes' by the early 1770s, suggesting that a
distinctly national form had evolved by the mid-eighteenth century, and by
the 1790s it was being called the 'union pipes', seemingly in reference to
the addition of a regulator in the previous decade, or to the union of
drones and regulator in the main stock. It reached its developed form in the
early nineteenth century, when it replaced the harp as the classical
instrument of Irish music, and by the mid-century it was being widely played
throughout the country (less widely in the northern counties where the
fiddle was dominant) and even in Britain and the United States.
The social consequences of the Great Famine of the 1840s and the
introduction of mass-produced concertinas and melodeons from Britain
and Germany in the second half of the century almost brought the
instrument to extinction, but it was boosted by the Gaelic Revival movement
of the 1890s and early twentieth century, and clubs were founded in Cork
and Dublin for its promotion. Its fortunes waned again from the War of
Independence until the r'evival of interest in Irish traditional music which
began in the 1950s and which still continues. There are now hundreds of
good pipers in Ireland and abroad, and the uilleann pipes are at their
strongest since before the Famine. Detailed studies of piping have been
made, makers of pipes are unable to keep up with demand, and the
instrument is being used in the playing of music other than traditional
music. A specialist international society exists for the promotion of the
pipes: Na Piobairi Uilleann (the Society of Uilleann Pipers), 15 Henrietta
Street, Dublin 1 (tel. 01-730093).
For further details, see 'The Uilleann Pipes: A Listening and Reading List',
available from the Archive for a SAE or International Reply Coupon.
© Irish Traditional Music Archive / Taisce Cheal Duchais Eireann, 1992.
No 5 of a series of information leaflets.
Available from the Archive at 63 Merrion Square, Dublin 2
(tel. 01-619699, fax 01-686260).
Grant-aided by An Chomhairle Ealaion / The Arts Council and the
Arts Council of Northem Ireland.