Bellows and mouth-blown Scottish small pipes being examined in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland in Edinburgh. The photograph was apparently taken in the mid 1930s.

INSIDE: AGM, etc Campbells Border travels Union pipe origins? THE EDITOR offers his apologies journal, Common Stock, and, of small pipes (already the judges for the delay in bringing out course, our first competition. were talking about separate this second issue of Common classes for Lowland and small Stock, which should have He also paid tribute to the pipes), and there were some who appeared in the Summer. societys late honorary president blythely played Highland pipe Nevertheless, the December issue Jimmy Wilson, who died in selections (some of them will appear in December! February, and who would be much excellent) despite the onus on missed. An appreciation of Jimmy the competitor to include The editor also offers his will also appear in the December appropriate Lowland/Border mat- grateful thanks to Peter Cooke Common Stock. erial. and Peggy Morrison at the School of Scottish Studies, Edinburgh OFFICE BEARERS, 1984-85 Chairman Such, however, are the University, for their kind help - Mike Rowan inevitable vagaries of a music in setting this material. Secretary - Jeannie Campbell just at the beginnings of Minute Secretary - Jim Gilchrist revival...and a music which in N.B. Editors new address:- All Treasurer - David Hannay its heyday seems to have been information, manuscripts etc. for Musical Advisor - Gordon Mooney standardised and for which any Common Stock should be sent to Technical Advisors - Colin Ross attempt at standardisation today Jim Gilchrist, 10 Pittville Robbie Greensitt would be highly questionable. Street, Portobello, Edinburgh EH15 2BY. Tel. (031) 669 8235. All this presented an unenviable task for the judges, sponsors were being found. Mixed response Northumbrian musician and Chairmans Ettrick and Lauderdale District pipe-maker Colin Ross and Peter Council had expressed interest. to competitions Cooke of the School of Scottish Studies, who report Mike also thought that the had few yardsticks MUSIC COMPETITIONS can be a mixed to go by. Summing up at the end report, published in May, of the There is no doubt that they felt that the standard in ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Scottish Arts Councils working blessing. they encourage high standards of the open section had been high THE past year had been a good one party on Scottish traditional and, clearly, this was a time of for the Lowland and Border arts suggested that more money playing (at least so far as the judges criteria is concerned), experimentation in styles and Pipers Society, said chairman might be made available to assist techniques. Mike Rowan, giving his report to organisations such as ourselves. but at one extreme there is the Colin thought there the societys annual meeting in danger that they become the sole was evidence of rather too much motivation for practice - bellows movement in the novice the College of Piping, Glasgow, The society had also played something which, one suspects has class, but so far as the open was on June 9. an important part in saving an pp the concerned, he immaculate set of Union pipes, tended to ha en in described the competition-orientated Highland overall standard as "excellent, Summing up the events of the made by Robert Reid of North with some very Shields in 1880, from being sold piping scene where, it can be interesting societys first year as a argued, the importance of the playing in search of different formally constituted organ- abroad by Sothebys. The techniques". National Museum of Antiquities of competition circuit is one reason isation, he said that we now had why Highland piping, in a a membership of 80 with no signs Scotland had put up 3,000 and way, has until the past Peter Cooke added the rider of growth slowing up. Interest ultimately bought the p ipes for peculiar was increasing in Lowland and its collection for 4,016 , the few years stood well apart from that the competition shouldnt be the folk music revival currently taken too seriously... "and we small pipes throughout Scotland, Lowland and Border Pipers Society native instru- should be very careful as was demonstrated by Gordon having given e1,200 towards this, vivifying other about mental forms. forcing people into a mould. Mooneys recent appointment as raised by individual This is a time of experi- official Toun Piper to contributions. In the case of the LBPSs mentation." Linlithgow, and the fact that first competition in Edinburgh in pipe makers such as Robbie An article on the Reid First prize - the Hamish pipes, and on March - indeed it must have been Greensitt of Heriot and Allen and an invaluable the first competition of its kind Moore Quaich - in the open was Colin Ross were making these pipers tune book which was in Scotland for as much as two taken by Paul Roberts from Leeds, pipes in response to growing purchased with it, will appear in on Lowland pipes, playing the air demand. the December issue of Common centuries - the atmosphere, happily, was one of amiable if Tweedside and an impressive set Stock. sometimes bemused fraternity, of variations on the jig Holey Gordon Mooneys tutor was in Hapenny. His style, said Colin preparation, again in response to rather than desperate rivalry. The past year, continued The standard of proficiency was suggested elements of both Irish considerable demand, although it Mike, had also seen the first the piping and the cabrette of the had been held up slightly while issue of the societys own extremely mixed, as was diversity of Lowland and Scottish Auvergne, and perhaps these, in

2 3 the future, could be consolidated an embarrassing business, within what might be identified considering that it was the LBPS Alexander Campbell(on right, as a "Border style". who persuaded the organisers to playing bagpipes) figures in include the competition in what this drawing by the famous Ed- Second in the open was Iain would seem a natural venue for inburgh caricaturist, John Kay. Maclnnes from Lewis with a fine one. Having lobbied them to hold A Medley of Musicians was set on Scottish small pipes. it, none of the societys better Kays retaliation against a Unfortunately, the fact that they pipers turned up, and the a caricature Campbell drew of were very much Highland pipe organisers threatened to scrap him, itself a repone to Kays tunes lost him marks. Third was the competition if no-one drawing of Campbells brother David Hannay, playing an old set entered. Eventually, more out of of Robertson half-longs. concern for the competitions future than through any faith in Andy Hunter, playing their piping ability, Jim Scottish Gilchrist and Robbie Greensitt mpellsCa small pipes, took first place in the novice class, entered the novice class, Jim winning the Heriot and Allan Gilchrist winning. Quaich; second and third places Border were taken, respectively, by In the open, the judge Jeannie Campbell (small pipes) (Colin Ross) declined to award a sketches and Mike Rowan (Lowland pipes). prize, the only competitor being a very sporting Highland piper The pipes duet class was won who picked up a set of small by Paul Roberts and Gordon pipes - virtually for the first Mooney, both on Lowland pipes, time - and valiantly elbowed out Alexander Campbell, His Travels, and the Border Piping Tradition while the winners of the duet a fairly catastrophic set. The (pipes and other instrument) fact that he and the novices By IAIN MacINNES class were Andy Hunter and Mike entered, however, guaranteed the Ward on an intriguing but very future of the competition. Lets HIGHLAND pipers are familiar with Alexander Campbell (1764-1824), mellow-sounding combination of hope that next years event gets editor of Albyns Anthology, through his admiring description of small pipes and Indian bellows- a response which makes it a Donald Ruadh MacCrimmon: blown harmonium! showcase, rather than a musical disaster. "After a few glasses of his own good tody, MacCrummin siezed the pipe - put on his hat ( his usual custom) - breathed into NEWCASTLETON The first Border LAST MEETING OF 1984 pipes competition to be held at the bag - tuned the drones to the chanter - gave a prelude in a Newcastleton Folk Festival, at the end of June turned out to be December 8...College of Piping stile of brilliancy that flashed like lightning - and commenced Otago Street, Glasgow. Failte Phrionnsa in tones that spoke to the ear and affected the heart."(1)

Campbell, fortunately, was of a literary bent and frequently put pen to paper to record his expeditions to the Highlands and the Borders. In his early days as a music teacher and organist in Edinburgh he published a number of his own songs and poems, followed in 1798 by An Introduction to the History of Poetry in Scotland which contained a dissertation on Scottish music, favourably received by foreign musicians. Further literary endeavours, however, met little acclaim, and it was rather his talents as a collector and publisher of Highland music for which he is now remembered. As Walter Scott said of him, he was "a good musician, accurate in taking down music from singing, and indefatigable in collecting it - an enthusiastic, good, humble Highlander besides ... " (2) For the piper two of his manuscript volumes are of particular interest. The first is his Slight Sketch of a Journey Through Parts of the Highlands and Hebrides; undertaken to collect materials for Albyns Anthology; in Autumn 1815. This work is in effect a Report to the Royal Highland Society of Scotland, which sponsored his journey (to the tune of thirty pounds), and includes a description

5 1.-Walter Forsyth, piper to Mr Kerr of Littledean, of his historic meeting with Donald Ruadh MacCrimmon; a description Roxburghshire: he was an excellent performer. of Archibald MacArthur playing in the cave of Staffa - "awfully sublime"; and an account of a dinner in Boisdale, South Uist, where 2.-Walter Forsyth (son of the former) was gamekeeper to the the Lairds piper struck up "and we had the double gratification of then Duke of Roxburghe; the son was reckoned likewise a good good cheer and excellent piping." piper. The third in succession of celebrated Border pipers was Notes of My Third Journey to the Border records another music quest in October 1816, ranging from Peebles to Liddesdale and 3.-Thomas Anderson, by trade a skinner, in Kelso. The father back.(3) and grandfather of Thomas Anderson were esteemed good performers on what is called the Border or bellows-bagpipe. At Traquair he encountered the pipes: "In the evening James They lived about the close of the seventeenth century. Cockburn, a native of Banffshire, appeared, an itinerant and wool gatherer. He had three varieties of bellows pipes - one, an Irish 4.-Donald Maclean, piper at Galashiels (father to the pipe, he performed but indifferently. I pricked down his set of well-known William Maclean, dancing-master in Edinburgh), was Malcolm Cairds come again." This eventually appeared in Albyns a capital piper, and was the only one who could play on the Anthology (1816-18) under the title Donald Cairds Come Again, with pipe the old popular tune of "Sour Plums of Galashiels," it words specially composed by Walter Scott. requiring a peculiar art of pinching the back hole of the chanter with the thumb, in order to produce the higher notes He reiterates the story of its collection, and says of of the melody in question. He died about the middle of the Cockburn: "for his tails of woo he paid but a spring o the pipes; eighteenth century. Richard Lees, manufacturer in for the Southanders, he said, are a unka guid sort o bothies - Galashiels, has the said William Macleans bagpipes in his and vera, very kind to me in trouth, on a lawfu occasions." Scots words capture the spirit of the Caird: possession. "Donald Caird can lilt and sing, Blithely dance the Hieland 5.-John Hastie, piper of Jedburgh, lived about the year 1720 fling, Drink till the gudeman be blind, Fleech till the (see his elegy). He was the first performer who introduced gudewife be kind; Hoop a leglen, clout a pan, Or crack a pow those tunes now played in Teviotdale on the bagpipe. Mr wi any man; Tell the news in Burgh and Glen, Donald Cairds Thomas Scott is decidedly of opinion that the Border come again."(4) bellows-bagpipe is of the Highland (or, at any rate, the north-east coast) origin, as all the pipers with whom he was Campbell then visited Abbotsford, and thence onward to acquainted positively declared. This is a remarkable fact, Maxpopple, home of Walter Scotts uncle, Thomas Scott: not generally known, and difficult of belief. The small " Northumberland bagpipe differs considerably from the one On delivering my letter of introduction, the old gentleman alluded to, particularly in the mode of execution. The seemed rather cold but civil, but he soon warmed and became successor of John Hastie was easy, affable, and exceedingly communicative. He is full of anecdote, an excellent memory, vigorous grasp of mind and a 6.-Robert Hastie (newphew of the former). Mr Thomas Scott lively imagination. Although four-score and five years, yet, thinks that Hastie succeeded his uncle about the year 1731: except a little lame- ness in one leg, he is hale and he was reckoned a good performer. healthy. My business to Teviotdale being on the tapis, his son, Mr. James, tuned his pipe (an Irish pipe) and played in 7.-George Syme was supposed to have been born and bred in one a very superior style, afterward the large Border bellows- of the Lothians. He was the best piper of his time; he knew bagpipe, on which he played with great spirit several of the the art of producing the high octave by pinching the back well-known Border pieces. Then the old gentleman went hole of the chanter, which was reckoned a great improvement. upstairs for his own old pipes, and played several pieces in He was the best piper of his day. He lived about the middle a style of particular excellence, after which we supped and of the eighteenth century. retired to repose. The earliest pipers (Mr Thomas Scott says) of the Scottish Monday, October 21st - Mr Thomas Scott performed many pieces _Border, properly speaking, were of the name and family of on the pipe, two of which I noted down; after which I jotted Allen, who were born and bred at Yettam, in Roxburghshire. down the particulars following regarding the best bagpipers They were all tinkers. The late James Allen was piper to the of the Border, most of whom he himself knew personally. Duke of Northumberland, and was the best performer on the loud and small bagpipes of his time. He being a Border A list of the best Border bagpipers (together with a few lifter, the poor fellow was caught hold of in some of his particulars regarding them) who lived from about the lifting exploits, and cast into prison: but escaping justice, beginning of the year 1700 down till about the commence- ment and set at large, he renewed his bye-jobs, was again incar- of the year 1800, noted down from Mr Walter Scotts uncle, Mr cerated, and condemned to be hanged: which sentence was (at Thomas Scott, presently resident at Monklaw, near Jedburgh, the solicitation of the Duchess of Northumberland) changed to 21st October 1816:- imprisonment for life. He died in jail, at the advanced

6 7 age of eighty years and upwards, about two months before his MacDonalds comments prompt the following line of speculation. pardon came down from the king. This happened in the year Besides being played through the streets morning and evening, the 1808. Lowland pipe was very much a folk instrument, particularly suited to dancing. Mackenzie in the 1820s found it "extremely well calculated After jotting down the preceeding notices respecting the most for playing that rustic species of music called reels"(7), and even celebrated pipers of the Border, I took my leave." MacDonald reluctantly admits that it was "tolerably well calculated for violin reels, and some pipe jigs; but of no great execution "Mr Robert Shortreed, Sheriff-Substitute of Roxburghshire, ..."(8) Farmer has stated his belief that the bagpipe was one of the told me that the office of piper in Jedburgh had been few folk instruments to survive the Reformation, and in that suppressed some years since that when the piper accompanied capacity it must have been called upon not only for marching tunes by the town drummer played - especially in the evenings of and dances, but also to accompany singing and keep abreast of the the spring, summer, and autumn - the joyful group of matrons popular melodies of the day. with their babies, and the little ones which followed the pipe and drum, was delightful to behold. - A.C." To that end it was necessary to expand the scale, which was achieved on the Northumbrian and Irish pipes by the addition of Campbell was rare in being careful to distinguish between the keys, and on the Border pipe by "pinching" or "shivering the back different pipes he encountered - identifying the "Borders Bellows Lill" to get the high B. The addition of only one note, however, bagpipe", the "Irish Pipe", and the "loud and small" pipes of James taking the instrument into a fairly piercing register, could only Allan. Otherwise there is a general paucity of information. The have been of limited value. instruments of town pipers may have ranged from the Border pipe to The development of the Highland pipe in the meantime took a the full Highland pipe, with all variations in between. The statue rather diferent course. In the post-Culloden resuscitation of the of Habbie Simpson in Kilbarchan, for instance, shows him shouldering instrument, from the 1780s, the Great Pipe found itself isolated a mouth-blown, two-droned set; while portraits of James Allan from the folk culture which had nurtured it, and cocooned instead on variously depict mouth and bellows-blown Border pipes and small the expansive estates of the gentry, basking in the favour of pipes.(5) Royalty. Certainly it was played for the march and the dance, but there was no expectation that it should reflect popular and changing Campbells passage shows that in the Eighteenth Century in the musical tastes; the reverse, rather, was true, for the Highland pipe Borders, small pipes, Irish pipes, Border pipes, and possibly was adopted as a symbol of clanship and past glory, and the "martial Highland pipes co-existed. Simple notions of the geographical music of the clans" played on, not in the context of Gaelic Society, integrity of the instruments are hence untenable, particularly as but rather to pander to Victorian sentiment. the practitioners on these varied forms were as frequently Borderers as far-flung wanderers from the Gaidhealtachd and Erinn. The Border pipe, in contrast, enjoyed few of the advantages of aristocratic patronage, and compared poorly with the Highland pipe The music, in consequence, must have shown considerable as a military band instrument, (one reason why there are now no pipe variety, although the Borderer may have been prone to incorporate bands using bellows pipes). By the turn of the Nineteenth Century some of his own technique into the playing of the other instruments. its use as a folk instrument must also have been in jeopardy, for it Indeed Campbell does distinguish between the tunes played by James was by then in competition with fiddles, melodeons, keyed pipes and Scott on the Irish pipe, and the "well-known Border pieces" - of so on, all with greater compass and wider repertoires. I think the which Sour Plooms of Galashiels is specifically mentioned. Border pipe probably was expected to reflect current musical taste, as well as playing "the well-known Border pieces", and in this As regards the Border pipe music, which Im sure was distinct, respect it proved inadequate, to be superseded by more versatile certain provisos should be made. One is that, as with the vocal instruments. tradition, many melodies for the pipe share a common useage in the Lowlands, the Highlands, Ireland and even England - eg. "The Masons One final, connected point to emerge from Campbells manuscript Apron". Centuries of interaction have ensured a wide diffusion, and is the use of the "Irish Pipe" in the Borders, which may simply have often it is the style and interpretation, rather than the actual reflected the pipers need to use an instrument of greater compass melody, which differ. and sweeter tone than the Border pipe. This subject deserves fuller treatment elsewhere, for although the instrument even by Joseph Another cautionary note is that the Border music was dynamic MacDonalds time (1760) was labelled "Irish", it was in fact being and developing, and we should not necessarily seek norms in the manufactured in Scotland for Scotsmen to play. Eighteenth Century music and expression. For instance, Campbell tells us that John chanters made by Bannon and Donald MacDonald of Edinburgh are Hastie (c.1720) "was the first performer who introduced those tunes extant(9), while we hear of the Irish Pipe being cited as a stage now played in Teviotdale on the Bagpipe", which certainly implies instrument(10), and indeed being taught in Edinburgh, (by T. innovation. Another commentator on the Lowland instrument, Joseph Campbell), probably towards the end of the Eighteenth Century.(11). MacDonald (c.1760) found as its main fault its tendency to adapt It was not confined, either, to the Cosmopolitan capital, but played music from other media. "In the Low Countrie where they use bellows by itinerants from Banffshire and in the Border villages, and one to their pipes, they have enlarged the compass of it by adding wonders whether the tunes played on it were Irish, or simply common pinching notes, for the better imitation of other music." He Scottish pieces which exceeded the range of other pipes. specifies "Scotch Tunes, minuets and Italian music."(6)

8 9 Hugh Cheape has broached this subject in his description of the Research increasingly seems to "hybrid union pipe"(12), which he considers a possible precursor to suggest that the origins of the the Union pipe rather than a latter-day and rather poor imitation, union or uilleann bagpipe may well as the name implies. It might be possible to make a case for the lie in Scotland and England, rather early development of the instrument in southern Scotland and than in Ireland... England, as well as in Ireland: note, for example, the publication of early tutors in London(13), the existence of simple "pastoral" forms of the instrument outwith Ireland, the use of English rather than Gaelic terminology for both the instrument and its music, (the term Uileann - elbow - probably being of quite recent derivation. Unravelling Campbells observations thus raise a number of interesting questions. Along with Patrick MacDonald, editor of A Collection of Highland Vocal Airs (1784), with whom he corresponded, he was among the first to systematically collect Highland music, and to give due the history consideration to pipe tunes within the Highland repertory. His transposition of Piobarach Dhomnuill Duibh from the MacLeod of Gesto canntaireachd indicates that he was quite familiar with piping gracing, and his comments in the Notes suggest that he could well of the distinguish good piping from bad. It should also be remembered that he was visiting and collecting prior to the publication of the MacDonald and Mackay collections; when the notation of pipe music was still in its infancy. His observations, in sum, are a uilleann significant contribution to our knowledge of piping in the Eighteenth and early Nineteenth centuries. pipes

(1) Campbell, Alex. Slight Sketch of A Journey Made Through Parts of the Highlands and Hebrides Autumn 1815. MS. E.U.L (Edinburgh University Library). La. III. 577. (2) Scott, Walter Letter to M.V. Hartstone (c.1816) E.U.L. A.A.F., Oct. 1732. The Union Pipes in England and Scotland (3) Campbell, Alex. Notes of My Third Journey to the Border. Oct. 1816. MS. E.U.L. Laing Div. II, No. 378. By PAUL ROBERTS (4) Campbell, Alex. Albyns Anthology Edinburgh (1316-18). Vol II, pp. 82-3. THE BAGPIPE is probably more popular and highly developed in the (5) British Isles than anywhere else in the world. We possess a greater Askew, Gilbert "The Portraits of James Allan, the Northumbrian variety of bagpipes than any comparable region, the most Piper." Proc. Soc. Antiquaries Newcastle. Vol V, No. 3, (1931). sophisticated piping technique and body of music (the Highland), and (6) MacDonald, Joseph A Compleat Theory of the Scots Highland Bagpipe the two most sophisticated forms of the instrument (the Northumbrian (1971 Reprint from 1927 edition) p. 28. small pipes and the uilleann pipes), yet our knowledge of the history (7) Mackenzie, E. In J. Thompsons A New, Improved and Authentic and development of the various British bagpipes is lamentably poor. Life of James Allan Newcastle (1828) p. 29. (8) Macdonald, J. (op.cit.) p.28. Much published research dates from the 19th and early 20th centuries (9) Cheape, Hugh, A Check and is blighted both by the crudest nationalist prejudices and by List of Bagpipes in the Edinburgh the general tendency of Victorian antiquaries to start with a set of University Collection. (Jan. 1983) Edinburgh. pp. 10-18. assumptions and then select the facts to fit. (10) Dalyell, J.G., Musical Memoirs of Scotland Edinburgh (1859) p. 39. Farmer, H.G. In this article I intend to try and outline some recent (11) A History of Music In Scotland London (1947) p. findings about the history and origins of the instrument now 290. generally known as the Irish or "uilleann" pipes. It is of necessity (12) Cheape, H. (op. cit.) p. iv. a rather patchy and speculative account, nevertheless, a series of (13) eg. Geoghegan, John The Compleat Tutor for the Pastoral or surprising facts emerge which point to some equally surprising New Bagpipe. London (c. 1745); OFarrell Collection of National conclusions. In particular, it appears that the instrument was Irish Music for the Union Pipes. London (1804). widely played in northern England and southern Scotland during the 18th and 19th centuries, and it may well have been of Anglo-Scots and not of Irish origin, either a development from, or parallel to, the Lowland/half-long pipes.

The name: Throughout this article I shall refer to the 10 11 instrument as the Union pipes. This was the name by which it was the second half of the 18th century the regulators - keyed pipes universally known in both Britain and Ireland from the mid-18th to capable of producing harmony chords - were added. Despite these the early 20th century. However, in its time it has received developments, Geoghegans tutor could still serve as a tutor for the several other names, and to avoid any confusion it seems sensible to modern Irish instrument, and it went into several editions (the last list and explain these before going any further. Cannon has been able to trace was in 1807). Geoghegans tutor makes no mention of ethnic origin. It refers The first published tutor called the instrument the Pastoral or bagpipe, informing us that "the bagpipe New Bagpipe, but these names dont seem to have caught on. When simply to the "new" Baines and Cocks first discovered Scottish sets in this century, and (has)...at this time been brought to such perfection as now renders it able to perform the same number of notes with the flute or recognized them as a form of what they knew as the Irish pipes, they book clearly aimed at an English coined the name Hybrid pipes. Finally, in 20th century Ireland they hautboy...". However, the was have come to be called the Uilleann pipes. This name is now so audience (indeed, from the introduction it seems to have been universally accepted that it seems pedantic to object to it, yet it particularly aimed at the gentry, attracted to the pastoral cult of is really quite spurious. In 1911 the Irish scholar Grattan Flood the time, in which the theme of the shepherd swain with his bagpipe put forward the theory that "union" could be a corruption of the played such a prominent role). The original and all subsequent " " Irish word uilleann"meaning elbow". It was an interesting idea, editions were published in London. though there was no evidence as such to support it. Unfortunately, enthusiastic Irish patriots seized on the name and popularized it. I have only seen the 1775 edition, published by Longmans of Cheapside ("..where may be had bagpipes... " ) The appended collection is a typical collection of English country dance tunes of We can only speculate as to the origin of the name. It of tunes probably refers to the fact that the regulators play chords in union the period, many of which appear in other collections, and many with with the chanter. Also, in the 18th century "union" was often used indisputably English titles like Paddington Pound and Portsmouth to mean harmony in a social sense - something like that ghastly Harbour. It does include several Irish and Scottish tunes, but this modern word "togetherness" - and I wonder if this lies behind the is quite usual in 18th century English collections, and the Scots name. After all, the instruments sweeet tone, restrained volume, tunes in particular are rather self-consciously so (A Scotch and tremendous musical versatility make it absolutely ideal for Measure, A Scotch Air etc), which surely suggests a non- Scottish small convivial gatherings. audience.

The Bagpipe in northern England: Most readers will be aware of the When Cocks and Baines first encountered the instrument in this great popularity of the bagpipe in 18th and 19th century century it was in a Scottish context, and they presumed it to be a Northumberland. It is of some importance to our discussion to Scottish adaptation of an Irish instrument. However, on the evidence realize that the bagpipe apparently remained popular in several of Geoghegans tutor an English origin seems more likely, and it is other counties of northern England during this period, something perhaps significant that the two areas outside Ireland where the scholars have only recently come to realize. I hope to go into this instruments popularity has been best documented are Yorkshire and subject more fully in a later issue, for the time being it is Northumberland. On the other hand, the name Geoghegan is Scottish! sufficient to note that there are continual references throughout My own feeling is that in the context of 18th century popular the 18th century in the writings of travellers, antiquaries and the culture we cannot draw too fine a distinction between northern like to bagpipes south of the Tyne, especially in Lancashire and England and southern Scotland, and that the Union pipes were Yorkshire, and these references continue, though ever more rarely, probably the product of gradual evolution throughout the northern throughout the 19th century. Indeed, the last Lincolnshire piper so English/southern Scots bagpipe zone. The important point, of far traced by scholars, John Hunsley of Manton, only died in 1851, course, is that there seems to be no indication of an Irish origin. while the most celebrated individual Yorkshire piper, Billy Bolton of Wharfedale, died as late as 1881 - and he doesnt appear to have I would suggest that the Union pipes were either a gradual been the last of the dales pipers either. development out of the Lowland/half long pipes, or a parallel development in response to the same pressures that brought about the Origin of the Union Pipes: In 1746 a little booklet was Lowland type of instrument, and that they probably developed published in London entitled "the Compleat Tutor for the Pastoral or independently in several areas of northern England and southern " New Bagpipe.... , the work of one John Geoghegan. This seems to be Scotland. There was clearly a general tendency towards increasing the first documentary evidence of the existence of the union pipes. sophistication in piping in the Lowlands and in England during the The booklet describes a bellows blown form of bagpipe pitched in D 17th and 18th centuries - a marked preference for small and half- and size pipes, the growing use of bellows, and above all, experiments capable of producing two complete octaves by overblowing. The " illustration inside the cover shows the distinctive long, thin to increase the range of the chanter, either by "pinching and drones and tiny long-necked bag we often find in surviving sets and overblowing or by the use of keys. It must be remembered that this in illustrations of Anglo- Scots union pipes (see, for example, the was very much the golden age of the fiddle. The "pop" idioms of the set opposite page 144 of Frazers The Bagpipe). Over the years the day were the reel, strathspey, and common-time Ilornpipe - instrument was to develop in various ways: the bag was gradually essentially fiddle idioms, with the most popular new tunes reaching enlarged, the bass drone was often shortened by the use of U-tubes, pipers beyond the bagpipes 9 note scale. In response to this extra drones and switches to control them were sometimes added, and learned to squeeze an extra high B from the Lowland chanter, but to keys were sometimes fitted to the chanter. Above all, sometime in , play the bulk of the new fiddle music they really needed an extra 13 12 half octave. As pipers tried to squeeze yet more notes out of their Distribution: That the instrument was popular in southern instruments, many of them must have experimented with weaker reeds Scotland is clear from the number of sets which have survived there. and with narrower and longer bores, eventually coming up with union There are several in museums, and some fascinating photographs in type chanters. It doesnt take much imagination to see how these Baines and Frazer. They were also widely played in Northumberland. developments would then have been refined and standardized by a few There has been a lot of recent research into piping in makers and eventually marketed as the "new bagpipe". Northumberland which has revealed something of the popularity of both the half- longs and the Union pipes in the 18th century. Proud An Irish connection? Throughout the 19th century the Union and Butlers book The Northumbrian Small Pipes not only details pipes became increasingly regarded as Irish. As early as the 1830s several individuals who were primarily Union pipers, it seems to we find Robert Reid, the great Tyneside pipemaker, making a set with suggest that it was not uncommon for individuals to play several the inscription "Erin go Brath" on the chanter though not, kinds of pipes in 18th century Northumberland, sometimes including apparently, for an Irish player (see the December issue). This the Union pipes - thus the great James Allan played the small pipes, could reflect no more than the instruments continued popularity and the half-longs, the big pipes, the Highland pipes, and the Union development in Ireland, and its rapid decline over here. As we have pipes. there is seems to point to an Anglo-Scots seen, what evidence The origin. Yet I do not think we can totally discount the possibility only other area where the instruments popularity has been of some sort of Irish connection in the origin of the instrument. We documented is Yorkshire. It was popular enough there to warrant an have suggested that it evolved independently and gradually entry in the Ab ot Yates dialect dictionary - "Tweedler: a man who throughout northern England and southern Scotland as pipers plays the Union pipes is called a "Tweedler". In 1975 R.A. Scofield experimented to widen the range of the chanter. Is it not logical published a fascinating article in English Dance and Song on "Billy to see this kind of development taking place wherever bagpipes were Bolton, piper of the Dales", describing the career of the most popular and people were listening to the new fiddle music - in celebrated minstrel of the 19th century Yorkshire dales, who Ireland as well as northern England and the Lowlands? Nor does it happened to be a Union piper. take much imagination to see how cross-fertilization could then have taken place. There were important links between Ireland and some of Billy Bolton died as late as 1881, but he doesnt seem to have the strongholds of British piping - between Lowland Scotland and the been the last of the Dales pipers. As recently as 1960 a folklore for example, and with the Yorkshire Dales via major collector was told by an old lady in Barrowford that her father had Ulster colony, played the bagpipes. When asked if he was Scottish she replied seasonal labour migration. "Certainly not, he played the Union pipes" - as if it was the most Irish writers have always maintained that the natural thing in the world! Interestingly enough, though Billy The regulators: Bolton played all over the North and West Ridings, and especially in regulators came in sometime during the second half of the 18th century, and the British evidence supports this view. Geoghegan Wharfedale (where he eventually settled), he came originally from the area around Richmond, as did David Hatton. makes no mention of them (1746), but every set I have seen or heard of dating from the late 18th or 19th centuries has got them. The idea of the regulators is, on the face of it, rather odd. One can Construction: Surviving Anglo-Scots Union pipes are recognizably the imagine the two octave chanter evolving gradually and independently same instrument as the modern Irish pipes, but they are usualy in several places, but the regulators have always struck me as the simpler in construction, often with only three straight drones, one invention of one original mind, and probably a rather eccentric one bank of regulators, and an unkeyed chanter, as opposed to the modern at that! As it happens, I have a possible candidate for the role. Irish set with U-tubes on the bass drone, three banks of regulators, sometimes with two or three keys on the chanter, and such refinements as drone and chanter switches. On the other hand, there Brown and Strattons British Musical Biography (1897) contains a rather curious reference to a Yorkshire piper named David Hatton: are no features on modern Irish sets which cannot be found on some Anglo-Scots sets, and some Anglo-Scots sets are in fact considerably Hatton, David, bag-pipe player, born at Thornton, Yorkshire, 1769; He invented an instrument something like more complex - the Reid pipes mentioned above, for example, had six died November 22, 1847. drones and four banks of regulators, and I have seen a set with the Irish bag-pipe on which he played with much skill. about a dozen keys on the chanter. By 1897 the Union pipes were generally regarded as Irish, and they would seem to be the instrument referred to here. Hatton cannot The only really consistent difference between Anglo- Scottish and Irish sets is the detachable footpiece on the end of Anglo-Scots have invented the instrument, of course, because it already existed chanters. This odd feature extended the chanter by about a third of in 1769, but might not this reference contain a confused memory of length, the invention of the regulators? If we presume he invented them as a its own presumably to make overblowing easier through young man, then this would date them to the 1790s. It should be lengthening the column of air. This seems to have been removed early on in Ireland, although Irish sets still have an ornamental tenon on possible to check whether any surviving sets with regulators pre-date this period. Interestingly enough, there was a David the end where the footpiece would originally have fitted. Removing Hatton, musical instrument maker, living in Dunfermline in the 1820s the footpiece also removed the vent holes, which meant the chanter who invented a new kind of flute. Gordon Mooney tells me this flute could be overblown by stopping it on the knee, a practice known as was a rather eccentric instrument - just the sort of thing that "popping". might have come from the same mind as the regulators! Unfortunately we have no way of knowing whether this was the same David Hatton. The existence of keyed chanters requires some explanation. As

14 15 the instrument gets the second octave through overblowing, the only reason for fitting keys would be to enable the playing of sharps and flats - rarely needed in traditional music. I am informed that even where modern Irish chanters have a few keys, only one is ever used (to get C natural in the upper octave). This suggests that at some stage people were trying to play other forms of music on the Union pipes, and indeed, Geoghegans tutor, though it only includes folk tunes, does suggest that players attempt other kinds of music, and he includes details of how to finger semitones on the unkeyed chanter (interestingly enough, he tells us that keyed chanters already existed in 1746).

This all adds to the impression created elsewhere in the tutor that it was at least partially aimed at a gentry market, and gentleman pipers were certainly not unknown in Ireland. Presumably keys didnt catch on because the instrument ultimately retained its original plebeian character.

Bibliography:

Anthony Baines Bagpipes (Oxford, 1960) Breandan Breathnach Folkmusic and Dances of Ireland (Dublin, 1971)

R.D. Cannon The bagpipe in Northern England, in Folk Music Journal (London, 1971)

A. Duncan Frazer The Bagpipe (Falkirk, 1907)

John Geoghegan The Compleat Tutor for the Pastoral or New Bagpipe.... London, 1746, c.1762, c.1775, c.1800, c.1805, c.1807)

Keith Proud and Richard Butler The Northumbrian Small Pipes, an Alphabetical History Volume 1 (1983)

R.A. Schofield Billy Bolton, piper of the Dales, in English Dance and Song Vol. XXXVII, No. 3, Autumn 1975.

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