"Pipes presented to James Fraser... as a token of esteem "
IN THIS ISSUE
New Classes for smallpipes; North Hero Gathering; Galloway Summer School; Chanter reeds for smallpipes; Session Etiquette; Irish origins of Jacky Lattin; What s in a Name; Pastoral Pipes; Music; Reviews From David Stevenson From Richard Evans Edinburgh Cumberland
THE STANDARDISATION OF I do not know of `Glen Kabul or `Trip BELLOWS OUTLET DIMENSIONS to Pakistan , but if Robert is interested in It would seem to be a good idea to have tunes linked to that region I have noted some sort of standard dimensions for down and arranged for my own playing a Letters bellows outlets, allowing interchange melody played by the Azad Kashmir Editorial between makers. Standardisation is not a pipe band of the Pakistan army. Also, new idea of course, having been when in Kabul and Peshawar three years Information about the cover From Malcolm McLaren Brisbane Australia mentioned several times in Common ago I was trying to recall the old picture is to be found on page 27. If any Stock [Vol 7.1 pp 8-11; Vol 14.1 p16. English(?) tune `Fortune my Foe and reader can add to this, please get in Ed]. came up with a number of variations or touch. In the last "Common Stock" was the wonderful article by Colin Ross about Julian Goodacre recently supplied developments which are playable along The Melrose piping weekend in me with the dimensions he uses, with a with the original. The original is said to June was reported to be well attended the Chanter Reed for Border Pipes....he request to pass them on. His bellows have been popular at executions, which and productive, with the three tutors is to be congratulated for this. One thing outlet consists of a wooden block with a may have an ironic link to bloody events moving groups to give I have noticed is that for some chanters it between tapered socket. The connecting tube which occurred near where I had been maximum spread of expertise. The may be necessary to make the staple remains attached to the bag and has a staying in Kabul shortly after I left, when Galloway Summer school was also well from a size smaller brass tube eg : 4.00 matching tapered end. The only critical the Taleban took the City. I could attended (see Ian Murray s report in mm. dimensions are those of the taper itself. probably find and post photocopies of these pages), and now available are the Metric sizes are available in good This is 60mm in length and tapers from adult learning evening classes in hobby stores, and are very handy as they these tunes to you or Robert if you wish. Edinburgh set up by Jim Buchanan (see allow for smaller increments between the 17mm down to 13mm over that length. The `Scottish Poetry Library Jig further on for more on this). The North inch sizes. My only observation on the on page 31 is not exactly as I wrote it - Hero Gathering, with its emphasis on Also I have found a good way to measurements is that the taper is a bit though it works! [Apologies; correction teaching and exchange of information is "stabilise" cane (as in chanter reeds) and long for convenience - I would prefer is printed on page 29 - Ed]. described by Craig Hohm, and Hamish make it less susceptible to climatic about 45mm. The answer to that is to use Moore s annual classes, with a change... simply spray it from a spray a rather shorter length, measuring from encourage young pack of Automotive Silicon. You don t the wide end. This will maintain scholarship award to From pipers, continue in Vermont. All of have to put that much on that it drips, it compatibility, since a longer plug will Frank Klawonn which points to a growing and healthy will soak in to a certain extent, and you simply protrude slightly into the bellows, Emden Germany interest in the bellows blown pipes - a can carefully direct the spray into the through the socket. state of affairs which the out-going cavity between the lips of the blades. I am told that these dimensions I have recently joined the LBPS and chairman - Andy Hunter - has been I have been doing this for about are used by Jonathan Swayne and Simon Munro has just sent me the latest particularly keen to encourage. And 12 months now, without any apparent Hamish Moore as well as Julian; we will edition of Common Stock (Vol 14 No.1). of course such interest can be change to the tone or volume of the reed. also use them in future. Robert MacDonald asks in his letter to initialised by a visit to the web site - I do think it makes the reed resist As compared to the traditional Common Stock for some tunes. I guess which can be which now has a new address: moisture ingress, Northumbrian-style system we have used many others have already answered, but particularly noticed in smallpipe chanter www.scotmusic.co.uk/lbps up to now, there is a further advantage: in case he needs the Easy Club Reel I Jock Agnew, reeds at times. the bellows will lie flatter in the pipe can supply a copy of the notes that I got 11 Ulting Lane, Langford, Essex, CM9 6QB case. from a friend who found them [email protected] I hope this information is useful somewhere on the internet. There is also and I am sure Jock would welcome a recent recording of this reel by a comments. German group called DeReelium.
2 EDINBURGH HAS A NEW CLASS ALP Scottish Music Group provides levels of tuition for absolute beginners, improvers, intermediates, advanced intermediates and weekend FOR SCOTTISH SMALLPIPES (IN A) workshops. The teaching method is principally learning by ear in the belief that the acquisition of this skill frees the player to use expression in the tune rather than being tied to the page; also that playing should be from memory Jim Buchanan, Secretary to LBPS, has set up this teaching enterprise which which will help students to join in the numerous sessions that take place caters for pipers coming, so to speak, directly off the street. around Edinburgh. Thirty classes are run by ALP on a wide variety of instruments at all levels. " The growing number and quality of Edinburgh It began with a desire to learn "proper gracings for piping in the Highland folk sessions is an indication of their success. manner. This drew me to Andrew Warren s class for the practice chanter for Rory Campbell and Gary West happily agreed to share the teaching the great Highland bagpipe that is run by the Adult Learning Project Scots of the class. With this promise ALP were then keen to include a new class Music Group, usually known as ALPSMG. This experience made me to complement the existing Highland Bagpipe class. Their brochure said realise that there was a demand for a class for smallpipes, some rented, that "Highland bagpipes are in one key and are probably best described as the could be run within the ALPSMG framework. With prompting from pipes you imagine when you think of the bagpipe. Scottish smallpipes are classmate Kenneth Dickson who shared the same view, I raised the idea with played using a small bellow which is strapped under the elbow. These pipes the LBPS Committee. For about two years Andy Hunter s committee had come in several different keys and can therefore be played with other been thinking about a specification for practice pipes for beginners and it instruments - without drowning them out! " seemed to me that here would be an ideal opportunity to try out the Next we set up stall on enrolment night on 14th September and were experiment of practice pipes, paid for by the LBPS, being rented out to gratified by the queue of applicants at our table. By the end of the evening learners. If we had some sets then we should seek people to teach a course twenty-two people had signed on for the first term. The cost for 10 lessons and then get ALP to provide the framework by hiring teachers and providing is 36 per person and we found 5 sets of practice pipes to hire out at 10.00 a venue. per month. LBPS paid for two sets and Nigel Richard, Julian Goodacre and I should explain what the ALP initiative is about. It is part of a City myself cobbled together three more. Seven people were keen to hire so of Edinburgh Council Community Education organisation initiative and is a demand outstripped the supply. It turned out that about a third of the new registered charity. ALPSMG is run by a voluntary committee with active class are beginners, one third improvers and one third Highland pipers participation by students and tutors who decide the format and composition wishing to learn smallpipes with the divergent aims of being able to join in of their classes. The Group employs a part-time Development Worker and pub sessions and of preserving domestic harmony. an Administrator funded by the Scottish Arts Council. The aims of the Scots Now we have split into two classes; beginners taught by Ian K Murray Music Group are: (to whom grateful thanks for giving so freely of his time and experience) and • to create a critical relationship of respect and status to Scots music song a bigger class with Rory as principal teacher and Gary as back-up. Our and dance that it may live in the heart of the community and beyond teachers contrasting styles are a constant stimulus to this class and, yes, we • to build a repertoire in the Scots idiom with reference to the past, present really are trying to develop the skill of learning by ear although most of us and into the future are still hooked on the dots. We are on a steep learning curve with the • to encourage and maintain the oral and aural transmission of the Scots hiring-out of practice pipes. I am grateful to Robin Beck of Loanhead for tradition his robust and practical design for these. Mark II is in development and I • to bring the best practitioners of Scots music song and dance into the life look forward to reporting on this in the next issue. Oh, and I still try to of the organisation as performs and as tutors to inspire and encourage do "proper" gracings sometimes but now I just don t worry about it any students more. • To give students the skills and opportunities to perform together in the community.
4 5 NORTH HERO SUMMER SCHOOL AT KIRKDALE Ian Murray, with his wide experience ofpiping and research, gives us an insight PIPERS GATHERING into the Galloway Summer Piping week.
Craig Hohm A "South of Creetown", says the guide to the Rhins and Machars of Galloway, "A This was my first visit to the North Hero Piper s Gathering. The Gathering takes winding track takes you up to Cairnholy, the haunting remains of two chambered place among the cluster of town buildings facing Lake Champlain, with the cairns dating to around 2000BC. Commanding a fine view over Wigtown Bay it s Green Mountains in the distance. Accommodations range from State Park easy to appreciate why our forebears found this a special place." It was also a camping to elegant Bed Breakfast hotels on the waterfront. special place for those who decided to spend a week honing or developing their skills on Border or small pipe. The mornings were devoted to lessons in the individual pipes: Scottish smallpipes, Uilleann, Northumbrian, English pipes. I attended the Scottish For a second year, David and Janet Hannay opened the doors of Kirkdale House smallpipeto lessons offered by Mike MacNinch and Gary West. In addition to a dozen pipers together with their pipe cases, music stands and blue tack. Their taking us through several tunes, Mike orchestrated duet playing between the `D teachers were David Taylor and Jock Agnew who combine the correct balance of and `A pipers, and Gary emphasised methods of ornamentation. enthusiasm and patience to maintain the momentum of learning and playing for a Afternoons featured seminars in various topics. Of special interest to me was full five days, and have sufficient energy left to join in the informal evening `Crossing the Borders - adapting music for different bagpipes ; Dick Hensold sessions. played `Somewhere Over the Rainbow (from The Wizard of Oz) on Northumbrian smallpipes, and Jerry O Sullivan used Uilleann pipe techniques The bellows-blown pipe is not an instrument that lends itself to long hours of on the Scottish smallpipes for a version of `Langstrom s Pony , complete with solitary playing: it is for playing with other pipers and other musicians. That is crans and a slurred `C natural in part four. - - why the Melrose weekend and a week at Kirkdale are so successful.
ThroughoutPipes the weekend the town hall was thronging with vendors. We learned new ways of playing Highland tunes with harmonies and counter (Uilleann, Highland, Scottish small, Northumbrian, Reel, and the various permutations of Julian Goodacre s research and imagination) were available to melodies but without the inhibitions which attend preparation for playing before try and buy. There were CDs, tapes, books, other instruments, and tables of judges. Thus phrasing to enhance melodiousness took precedence over the supplies, including baulks of exotic wood yearning to be the pipes of tomorrow. constraints of accepted settings which have become so set in concrete. There was an opportunity too to explore the less familiar Border tunes with their distinctive Saturday night we had a dance in the main hall. Generally, given my age and rhythms and runs which do not come easy to those who instinctively fall into the inherent gravity, I refrain from dancing in public places; but on this occasion I Highland way of expressing tunes no matter their provenance. was compelled by the true vocation of pipe music to leap about with everyone else. Why don t we dance more with this music? So the week flashed by in these glorious surroundings and equally glorious -. weather - not always guaranteed in this part of the world. David Hannay organised Sunday night was a concert by the instructors concluding with Geoffrey the evening sessions for the most part in pubs, some of which were in obscure Goodacre and the Unidentified Flying Chaucers. This quartet, supplied by Julian with pipes seemingly drawn from a Brueghel painting (or The Canterbury parts of Wigtownshire. He reminded me of the old Hollywood films of Robin Tales), finished the show by marching out of the hall onto the front lawn where Hood whose merry men would materialise from nowhere on the sound of a horn I (and my reluctant wife) were compelled to leap around once more in a - call. Throughout the week all kinds of musicians appeared by means of a few satisfying conclusion to the weekend s activity. phone calls.
Next year s gathering is the last weekend in August. It is already on our In addition to the formal teaching we had a talk from Jock Agnew on his approach schedule. 10-- to the tunes in Matt Seattle s transcription of the Dixon manuscript and also a demonstration and talk by Richard and Anita Evans, Northumbrian and Scottish
6 7 smallpipe instrument and reed makers. Even if none of us had any intention of making a reed it was a valuable experience to see the various skilful steps CHANTER REEDS necessary to produce a reed which makes the most of an instrument. FOR SCOTTISH SMALLPIPES On 6th August it all came to an end. And as Enid Blyton was wont to say we returned home tired but happy. Our thanks for the undoubted success for the week For the second year in succession Richard and Anita Evans gave a talk go to David Hannay, to Janet Hannay, whose lunches were quite splendid, and to on maintenance and other matters connected with Scottish smallpipes David and Jock for their unstinting help in improving our musicianship, if such an at the Galloway Summer School (see lain Murray s report elsewhere in this Issue). The notes on reed-making, designed to accompany Anita s exalted term is justified. talk, would / suggested, make interesting reading for a wider audience if accompanied by photographs. These Anita has kindly provided. The reeds we use in our Scottish smallpipes are the same as our reeds for Northumbrian pipes in F . Also, please note that while most of the procedures and dimensions are standard, this is my way of making reeds and some of the techniques differ from other makers. These instructions are not complete in that they are designed to accompany a demonstration [or, in this case photos. Ed]. TUBE CANE I order mine from Windcraft Ltd., Riverside, Mill Lane, Taplow., Nr Maidenhead, Berkshire SL6 OAA. Tel.01628 778377. Ask for bassoon cane. A kilo gives you quite a lot of pieces, about 7 inches long by 1 inch diameter. It s best to share between a few people if you don t make many reeds, as I find the quality of the cane does deteriorate in time. I store mine in a sealed plastic bag.
Practice session: Ian MacDonald and James Sibbet MAKING THE REEDS Cut one of the tubes into two pieces, each being a minimum of 3 1 /2 inches, maximum 3 3/4 inches long. If the tube isn t long enough I use the shorter pieces for Northumbrian G reeds, but if you don t need these there will be some wastage. (Photo
With the tube upright, tap with a chisel into several pieces each about 1 /2 inch wide. (Photos 2 3).
Thin down each piece using a sharp gouge and a gouging block. Keep turning the pieces round to ensure even gouging. Don t make it too thin (apparently it should be the thickness of a good quality business card!). Technically speaking it should be a minimum of 25 thou [thousandths of an inch] and mine are usually nearer 30 thou. Its very important to gouge evenly - hold the slips up to a light to check for thick parts. Finish off with wet and dry (wrap it round a short piece of
Tuition around the table: L to R - Jim Buchanan, Alastair Neilson, 8 Brian Rumble, David Hannay, David Taylor. 9 MAKING A CHANTER REED FOR THE SCOTTISH SMALLPIPES broomshank) on the inner surface. This early stage is crucial to the quality of the reed, and needs a lot of practice. (Photos 4, 5 6). Trim the edges of the cane slips so that they are 7/16 inches wide, and make sure the edges are parallel and straight - use a piece of sandpaper on a flat surface. I use a home made gauge to check the width. (Photos 7 8). r Supporting the slip on the broom shank, trim each end to a point, to a depth of 5/8 inches. Use a craft knife with a very sharp blade. (Ph 9).
(Non standard technique) - coat each end of the slips on the inner surface with superglue and leave to dry. I find this helps to stick the splittingnucane to the staple later on and helps prevent Using the broom shank for support, mark the centre of the slip and press the knife blade down enough to score but not cut. This must be at right angles to the slip. (I use the reflection in the knife blade as a guide). Gently but firmly fold the slip in half. The edges should line up and the points meet! If they don t, the reed won t work. Keep the edges together by wrapping with sewing cotton, but not too tight as this has to be moved down later. (Photos 10, 11 12).
THE STAPLE I buy 3/16 inch brass tube from a model shop, cut into 7/8 inch lengths. Smooth off any ragged edges inside and out. Use a profiled nail tapped lightly into one end to start off the shaping, then squeeze the ends with pliers. This shaping will affect the quality of the reed, so take care! File the outer surface of the staple to provide a key for the cane part. Insert the shaped end of the staple into the folded cane slip so that about 1 /4 inch protrudes beyond the points.
(Non-standard technique) [see CS 11.2. p.31 Ed] - grip the cane slip on the staple at the pointed part with pliers and hold the exposed end of the staple in a flame. Allow a short while for the cane to warm and become pliable, but stop if it bursts into flames and turns black!! Take care, as there will be some fumes from the superglue. Push the wrapping gently down towards the shoulders of the reed. You will find that the cane moulds itself to the staple and the warmed superglue will help it stick. Make sure the staple and the cane are in a nice straight line. (Photo 131.
When cool, apply a small drop of superglue to each side of the points and allow to dry with the staple end pointed slightly downwards - glue must not enter the upper body of the reed. When the glue is dry, use a knife, file etc. to chamfer the edges and points and make a nice smooth base for the wrapping.
Using waxed yellow hemp thread, embroidery thread or similar, wrap the end of the reed carefully up to an inch above the end of the staple (should be just past the reed shoulders). This wrapping needs to be made airtight by coating with a mixture of knotting [obtainable from your friendly DIY] and shellac, or possibly varnish. Leave until absolutely dry. (Photo 14)
Now you are ready for the hard part! SCRAPING THE REED I use 240 grit wet and dry to begin with, and a sharp bladed craft knife. Alternate between sanding (with the wet and dry on a flat surface) and scraping until the desired area begins to thin and flex. Hold the reed up to a bright light at frequent intervals to
13 check on progress. When it feels right (sorry, this is a case of trial and error, and practice), twist a piece of wire around the cane part just above the wrapping and squeeze gently with pliers. This is the bridle. (Photos 15, 16, 17 18).
Continue with some gentle sanding (400 or 600 grit wet and dry) and scraping, then trim the end of the reed with a sharp blade, so that the total length of the reed is 2 inches. Using the reflection in the knife again to ensure you are cutting squarely. I use a small cutting block for this job. Continue sanding and scraping until the reed begins to crow when sucked. Unlike Highland bagpipe reeds, these reeds must not be exposed to moisture. Take great care not to over-thin, especially the tip of the reed. Again, only trial and error and a lot of practice will tell you how to proceed at this stage.
Hopefully at the end of all this you will have a wonderful reed which you can fit and forget for years. It s worth a try, anyway!
14 Some types of tunes can be played together as a group and others must be played Session Etiquette solo.
Dick Edie Playing together: There are many interesting and bouncy tunes which work well with a whole group playing - if you dry up you can always cut to holding low A It seems remarkable to me that it is necessary to write a piece about the manners and adding to the background drone. These tunes are often highland pipe tunes. If involved in playing smallpipes is music session but, over the past year, I have you want to play in a mass pipe band go and find one, there are a few about! Get experienced several occasions where gross rudeness by players of Scottish your timing from watching the other pipers fingers rather than looking at music. smallpipes has ruined a potentially great session. These occasions of, rudeness have largely been borne out of ignorance. This is a chance to put this right. Slow airs are definitely in the land of the solo piper. There is absolutely nothing more infuriating than starting to play a slow air and having another piper crash in What do we go to sessions for? playing a different phrasing than you. It simply doesn t work. If the other piper started to play the tune first its another occasion to listen and enjoy - hopefully. Sessions exist for people to enjoy their music and to contribute musically to an event. I go to sessions to play some of the tunes I feel that I play quite well. I go to Duets with harmonies only work where the pipers have practised them or are sessions to hear other pipers play some of the music which they play quite well. I skilled at playing at each others speed (whisky usually helps). If you haven t go to sessions to hear other and enjoy musicians music, perhaps on a variety of played together before then an embarrassing public debut may not be the ideal instruments. The final reason I go to sessions is to play along with other people for first time. some of the time. Some tunes which often work when played together: What should I bring to a session? Teribus, Drops of Brandy, Barren Rocks, Battle of the Somme, Boy s Lament for When going to a session bring your instrument in good order. It is probably best to his Dragon, Fr. John Macmillan and Louden s Bonny Woods and Braes. run the chanter through an electronic tuner before going to ensure that your idea of A is the same as everyone else. Some tunes which definitely need to be played by one piper alone:
Bring some tunes with you. I would recommend that you only attempt to play Hector the Hero, Fair Maid of Barra, She Moves Through the Fair and any tune tunes which you know very well indeed, if possible off by heart. If you have an which has fast runs in it - Lindisfarne (melody). incomplete knowledge of the tune or are not up to speed at playing it, listen. You may learn a lot. Some good examples of duet tunes using melody and harmony: Lonely Loch nan Eun, Chevy Chase, Lindisfarne, Miss Forbes Farewell to Banff (for A and D pi es ) . How many tunes to play? p
Listening to smallpipes play all night is a very acquired skill. Listening to many The smallpipes are not small, indoor versions of the Highland pipes but have a smallpipes played badly all night is excruciating. However, listening to a well very individual musical personality. Let s avoid future embarrassment by balanced session of mixed instruments complimented by smallpipes can be balancing the skills of listening and playing. wonderful. You can have too much chocolate!
I would recommend that you come along expecting to play no more than four tunes in total over the evening, giving plenty room for other pipers and other instruments. You really can get a great deal out of hearing someone else. What types of tunes should I play?
16 The Old English family of Lattin of Morristown Lattin had settled near Naas, co. THE IRISH ORIGIN Kildare, at the turn of the twelfth century. On the death of Patrick Lattin (1762- 1836) Morristown passed to Alexander Mansfield of Yeomanstown, co. Kildare, who was married to his daughter Pauline; their descendants continued to occupy Morristown Lattin down to the 1950s. But the memory of Jack Lattin continued to OF JACK LATTIN cling to his family-home. When George Mansfield (1845-1929) of Morristown Lattin died in January 1929, his obituary noted that he had been related to Jack Sean Donnelly gives us an insight into the origins of the well known tune Jack Lattin, who had danced from Morristown to Dublin, with heavy wagering on both sides . Lattin, the spelling of which tends to vary in the published sources familiar to Lowland pipers. Among the Mansfields, the tradition was that Lattin s marathon was much shorter and more local than the published versions had it. Sometime in the 1880s, Maude If any tune could be said to need no introduction to readers of Common Stock that Mansfield of Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin, a great-granddaughter of Patrick Lattin s, would be Jack Lattin , which is found from the early I730s in the likes of the had told P.W. Joyce that Jack Lattin, her great-grandfather s uncle, had been a William Dixon MS, the Duke of Perth s MS, and various published collections. famous dancer. He had died, aged twenty-one, in the middle of the eighteenth Jack Lattin was also found in Ireland, which is no surprise, as numerous Scottish century, and a family rhyme had it that, reels passed into Irish tradition during the period 1780-1800. Yet, there was a Jack Lattin dressed in satin tradition current in the nineteenth century that Jack Lattin was Irish in origin: Broke his heart of dancing; O Farrell qualified it as Irish in his 1804 tutor for the union pipes and, around the He danced from Castle Browne same time, Dublin music-publishers were describing it as `A Favourite Irish Air . To Morristown. In The Panorama; or, a journey to Munster (Dublin, 1807), pp viii-ix, it was said that Jack Lattin This note is in the National Library of Ireland, MS 2983, ii, p.250, and clearly Joyce overlooked it when writing his 1910 account (which is also inaccurate in ...was composed by a Gentleman in the County of Kildare whose name it other ways). Castle Browne is approximately eight miles from Morristown Lattin. still retains; it is a great favourite in Ireland as the Timrodee in Otaheite. The enthusiastic Composer is said to have been so transported with his own The ancestral grave of the Lattins, in St David s Churchyard in the town of Naas music, that he tuned his bagpipes one morning, and played and danced to it itself, is marked by a handsome stone commissioned in 1719 by Patrick Lattin from his own house to Dublin, but died a few days after from the fatigue. (1669-1732) and his wife, Jane Alcock (1674-1746) to replace a broken one dating from 1600. The first burial recorded on the stone was that of Jack Lattin, P.W. Joyce (1827-1914) in English as we speak it in Ireland (Dublin 1910), had their elder son: the following to say about this marathon dancer (pp 172-3): Here lyeth the body of JOHN LATTON Eldest I ll make you dance Jack Lattin - a threat of chastisement often heard in Son of the above PATRICK LATTON who Departed Kildare. John Lattin of Morristown House county Kildare (near Naas) this life the seventh day of July 1731 in the 21st wagered he d dance home to Morristown from Dublin - more than twenty year of his age miles - changing his dancing-steps every furlong: and won the wager. I ll make you dance is a common threat heard everywhere: but I ll make you Jack Lattin was also said to have been an excellent fiddler, and was to be found dance Jack Lattin is ten times worse - I ll make you dance excessively. ... during the mid-1720s playing in a tiny inn on Dublin s Sandymount Strand, The Conniving House. (The Lattins had a town-residence in Dublin, Lattin Court (now It is worthy of remark that there is a well-known Irish tune called Jack part of Greek Street), in the parish of St Michan s, and Jack may have been Lattin, which some of our Scotch friends have quietly appropriated, and not attending the school in the parish which Jesuits kept in defiance of the Penal only that, but have turned Jack himself into a Scotchman by calling the tune Laws.) The writer Thomas Amory (c.1691-1788), who left Ireland for good Jockey Latin . c.1725, recalled The Conniving House in The life of Buncle Esq.. (vol.l, London 1756), pp 87-8:
19 was a public house, ... about a quarter of a mile The Conniving House, ... dance and its music did not become common throughout Ireland until the last beyond Rings-end, on the top of the beach, within a few yards of the sea.... quarter of the eighteenth century. However, while people in Dublin and the rest of Many a delightful evening have I passed in this pretty thatched house with Ireland may not have been dancing Irish reels during the 1730s, they were who played on the bag-pipes extreme[ly] well; the famous Larrey Grogan, certainly dancing Scottish ones. The collection of country dances published in dear Jack Lattin, matchless on the fiddle, and the most agreeable of Dublin and imported from London during this era contained numerous reels and companions, ... and many other delightful fellows; who went in the days of other Scottish dances. In fact, the only surviving copy of Neal s 1734, which lacks their youth to the shades of eternity.... a title page, is described in a manuscript note on its first page as a collection of Scotch dances popular in Dublin during 1736. Larry Grogan, the earliest-known gentleman Irish piper, was born in 1701 and died in Barbados, the West Indies, in the latter half of 1728 or early 1729. This In Ireland the original version of Jack Lattin remained popular as a country dance celebrated amateur piper , who qualified as attorney in 1726, made a great well into the early nineteenth century. It faded away thereafter, though, to be impression on his contemporaries. He, too, gave his name to a celebrated tune, a replaced, especially in Ulster by Scottish versions. In 1898, for instance, one of jig that Irish musicians - especially pipers - still play as Coppers and Brass and the tunes in the repertory of a professional piper from Farney, co. Monaghan (in the Humours of Ennistymon . He is said to have composed the immensely popular south Ulster), was Lock o Latin , an obvious slip for Jock o Lattin . Part of the song Ally Croker , and the numerous songs written to Larry Grogan throughout reason for this decline was that a different type of reel came into fashion in most the eighteenth century, including one praising Grogan himself, published c.1750, parts of Ireland from the 1800s onward. If anything, Irish musicians and dancers and The County of Limerick Buck-Hunt (1735), which commences By your would regard the likes of Jack Lattin (and the contemporary Rakes of Mallow , in leave, Larry Grogan, ... . print already by 1733) as single reels , from their simpler rhythm and type of step used.
The tunes Larry Grogan and Jack Lattin were already circulating in Dublin by Some variants and relatives of Jack Lattin have been collected from the living the early 1730s; in a poem dealing with the music popular in the city during that tradition in Ireland over the last 150 years, but no example of the original tune has decade a character names them when calling for his favourite tunes: ever been taken down. Several examples of elaborated Scottish versions are to be found in manuscript and collections, but these obviously derive from printed ...damn you! play up the Black Joke, sources. The strongest trace of Jack Lattin in Irish traditional music nowadays is Or else you ll get your fiddles broke, the well-known Donegal reel, The Pinch of Snuff. This is occasionally called Then play Jack Lattin, my dear Honey! Jackson s Reel , or Jack o Lattin , and the tune does share some parts with the Hey! Larry Grogan for my money! more elaborate Scottish settings of Jack Lattin , but there is no direct resemblance between the first parts. In Faulkner s Dublin Journal, 2-5 June 1733, a forthcoming concert was advertised as including ... several Concerto s on the Harp, and Jack-Latin on the P.W. Joyce interpreted I ll make you dance Jack Lattin as meaning that the victim Pipes, by two of the best Masters in this Kingdom. In November of the next year, of the threatened beating would dance, with pain, as much as Jack Lattin did. The 1734, John Neal of Christchurch yard, Dublin, published both Larry Grogan and threat, though, while referring implicitly to the marathon, can only refer directly to Jack Lattin in his third collection of country dances. Neal took fifty-three out of the dance Jack Lattin . The phrase was immortalised in literature by James Joyce Caledonian Country Dances (London, 1733), fifty-six dances from John Walsh, (1882-1941). He had a tenuous connection with Jack Lattin in that he was the remaining being Larry Grogan (p.3), Jack Latin (p.15), and the Humours of educated, between 1888 and 1891, in the Jesuit college of Clongowes Wood, the Caledonian Country Dances, Trim (p.17). John Walsh republished both tunes in Castle Browne of Lattin s day. In Ulysses the hero Leopold Bloom has a (London, 1737) - Jack Lattin (p.23) and Larry Grogan (p.63). Book the Second sadomasochistic fantasy in which a number of elegantly-dressed Dublin society But while Jack Latin is identical in both collections, Walsh s setting of Larry ladies - a masochist s dream-team! - gather to thrash him for sending them Grogan differs a good deal from Neal s, which was a fiddle version. anonymous obscene postcards. As The Honourable Mrs Mervyn Tallboys prepares to set about the quivering Bloom, Mrs Bellingham finds the prospect The reel as a dance and tune appears to have been of Scottish (or at least northern) quite thrilling: Tan his breech well, the upstart! Write the stars and stripes on it! ... origin, and Jack Lattin is a rare early example of one with Irish associations. Not Make him smart, Hanna dear. Give him ginger. Thrash the mongrel within an inch surprisingly, Scottish tunes, including reels, were regarded as typical of Ulster in of his life. The cat-o -nine tails. Geld him. Vivisect him. But Hanna dear is the 1720s and 30s. But though Irish reels were being published by the 1750s, the equally vivid - to Bloom s ineffable delight: I ll scourge the pigeonlivered cur as
20 long as I can stand over him. ... I ll flog him black and blue in the public streets. I ll dig my spurs into him to the rowel. Striding towards Bloom she promised - What s in a Name? cracking her riding crop against an elegant, highly polished black boot - I ll make it hot for you. I ll make you dance Jack Latten ... . Interpreting Tune Titles Sources. Sean Donnelly, A Wexford gentleman piper: "Famous Larry Grogan" (1701- Gary West 28/9), Journal of the Wexford Historical Society xvi (1996-7), 40-65. The study of names - onomastics - has for long been a popular pastime for Idem., Ecstasy in eighteenth-century Kildare? The strange fate of John Lattin of interested individuals and academic institutions alike. Most of this attention has Morristown Lattin (1731), Journal of the County Kildare Archaeological Society been given to place names, for in a country like Britain which has played host xviii, part 4(1998-9), 565-88. to so many language groupings during its history, the study and interpretation of place names can reveal a great deal about all manner of things from our past. Population movements, land use and ownership, trading points, belief systems, festival and battle sites and many more historical features can be identified through the place name records kept in such holdings as the Scottish Place Name Archive held in the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh.
Surprisingly, however, little attention seems to have been paid to names within a musical context. Just as place names can provide a glimpse of the thought patterns and social backgrounds of our forebears, so tune naming practices and fashions can surely reveal something of the cultural contexts within which they were composed. I stress from the start, however, that I am not a `names researcher - places, tunes or otherwise - and certainly can t do this theme justice in this short article. Please treat this therefore very much as a preliminary suggestion as to what could constitute a useful study for someone to take up and develop much more fully.
Leaf through any of the `standard collections of Highland pipe music. and it becomes immediately obvious that the contexts within which most of the tunes were composed and named differed enormously from that reflected in collections belonging to a different genre, such as the William Dixon manuscript. The contrast in naming practices can be explained in a single word - patronage. Whether relying upon clan-based aristocratic support or employment in one of the regiments of the British Army, most of the prolific composers of Highland pipe tunes have owed their living to sponsorship and patronage, a fact which is underlined firmly in the names of their tunes. Aristocratic support is of course reflected most strongly in the ceol mor or piobaireachd tradition, with the salutes to and laments for the clan chiefs serving as the musical parallel to the panegyric eulogies and elegies of the household bards. (We have to look to the rather more entertaining local folklore and storytelling traditions to find out what people really thought of the laird\ and their hangers-on!).
22 The military connection is even more strongly represented in the Highland house until the following year s harvest had been successfully brought in, and naming tradition. A quick survey of Harry Bain s Directory reveals a total of there was often strong competition or `kemping among the harvest workers to 372 tunes named after commissioned officers, including 90 captains, 57 majors see who would be the one to win the last sheaf. In Gaelic speaking areas this and 65 colonels, most of them either 2/4 or 6/8 marches. All the Scottish token was referred to as `am maighdean (the maiden) or `an cailleach (the old regiments are well represented in names of tunes which mark tours of duty - the woman), but in Lowland areas and certainly in Berwickshire where the tradition ` Welcome to and `Farewell to class, and of course battles and skirmishes was particularly strong, it was the `kirn-dolly or simply `dolly which watched formed the inspiration for many army-based composers. over the household for the coming year.
All this resulted in a massive body of tunes whose titles reflect a heroic, The one tune title in Dixon which remains obscure is number 22, Wally as the militaristic and at times sycophantic flavour which stands in stark contrast to Marquess Ran. As Matt points out, Dixon uses the word `Markets in his the more earthy repertoire of the lowland and border areas, and indeed, of pre- contents page and `Marques above the tune itself. I agree with his suggestion military Highland piping. The tune-names in collections like that of Dixon that the mists would only be cleared if lyrics were discovered which display a healthy irreverence and classlessness which celebrates the everyday accompanied the melody, but a search through the extensive song collections of concerns and goings-on of the folk who would have played and listened to the School of Scottish Studies has proven fruitless. Certainly, `Wally or `Waly them. While some of the names are obscure, many get straight to the point and is a common exclamation of sadness or lamentation within the British folksong leave little to the imagination. In this respect they closely resemble the lowland and ballad traditions, as in Waly, Waly Up the Bank, for instance, although Scots folk song tradition which, despite the pretensions of most collectors and almost paradoxically the word can also mean beautiful, jolly or pleasant. One publishers, has for long contained a strong element of the bawdry. Burns interpretation of the title suggested by Jock Agnew is that the word `ran could Merry Muses and Peter Buchan s less well-known manuscript collection , The be used to refer to a border or a garment hem, thus giving `Lovely as the hem of Secret Songs of Silence housed at Harvard, represent only the tip of the iceberg the Marquess gown . This, and several other interpretations are certainly of blue songs and ballads, for a lifetime s collecting by Hamish Henderson has plausible. Any suggestions will be warmly welcomed! unearthed much more of this risque material which was common fare in the farm bothies up and down the country. Another popular Lowland tune which people always seem to find intriguing when learning it is Linkum Doddie. `Doddie , or `Dod , of course, is a Scots It is of no surprise, then, to find such titles as Young and Lusty Was I, Over the diminutive form of `George , and so it would be reasonable to assume that it Dyke and Till Her Laddie, Hit Her Between the Legs, Lasses Make Yer Tails referred to George from somewhere called `Linkum . However, Burns uses the Toddle and Cuddy Claw d Her show up in the Dixon manuscript which was put whole phrase as an imaginary place name within his song, Sic a Wife as Willie together a good century before Victorian sensibilities began to change attitudes Had: towards this kind of thing. Matt Seattle s excellent notes don t shy away from Willie Wastle dwalt on Tweed explaining these titles, although in these particular cases they mean exactly The spot they ca d it Linkum-doddie what they say! (Both `over the dyke and `tail toddle are euphemisms for Willie was a wabster guid, sexual intercourse, the explicit surviving lyrics of the latter serving to correct Cou d stown a clue wi onie bodie any confusion over this.) Female drunken-ness seems to have been another favourite theme for songsters and composers to celebrate. Burns tale of an The reference to the Tweed obviously places this in the border area, although informal female drinking club, Guid E en Tae Ye Kimmer is mirrored in Dixon the unfortunate woman referred to was reputedly the wife of a farmer who lived by The Lasses Bushes Brawly which could be roughly translated as `the lassies near Bums at Ellisland. Burns tune for this, usually named as The Eight Men of drink well . Moidart in most collections, is essentially the same as that which we know now as Linkum Doddie. Exactly where this leaves us I m not sure. Did Burns invent Of course, it would be a mistake to imply that all the Borders repertoire relies the name himself, with our tune starting its life in this song, or was it already in on licentious tales for its inspiration, for by far the majority of tunes have titles common currency by his time? I m sure some deeper research would provide which reflect the more innocent pastimes and surroundings of daily life among the answer. Once again, suggestions are welcomed. the masses. As with all folk genres, people, places and nature are the most common themes used in the naming process. Working life is also reflected There are of course many other tune names which pose interpretative problems, strongly in tunes such as Souters of Selkirk, The Apprentice Lads of Alnwick but as I said at the outset, this article merely represents a tentative toe being and Cut and Dry Dolly New Way. The latter, I assume, refers to the common dipped in some rather muddy waters, and it certainly raises far more questions tradition of keeping the last sheaf from the harvest as a good luck charm and than it answers. With more thorough research, I think a study of tune names permanent thanksgiving. The sheaf was dressed in ribbons and hung in the
24 25 could prove very helpful in our attempts to understand the roots of the music we are playing and enjoying today. COVER PICTURE
References Cited Malcolm McLaren writes from Brisbane (having recently moved there from Bain, H (ed) 1983 Bain s Directory ofBag pipe Tunes Albyn Press Tasmania); Buchan, P The Secret Songs of Silence Manuscript, Harvard University Collections did have a look at the old set of pipes I mentioned to you some time ago - Burns R The Merry Muses and Other Burnsian Frolics. An Entirely New I Compendium of Scottish Songs and Fragments from the Secret Collections of they are very impressive. Robert Burns Cunningham, A (ed) 1835 The Complete Works of Robert Burns Grange They were "presented to Mr. James Fraser by the inhabitants of FORTINGALL Publishing as a token of their esteem....Oct 1878" Seattle, M (ed) 1995 The Master Piper: Nine Notes that Shook the World. A Border Bagpipe Repertoire Prick d Down by William Dixon AD 1733 On the box in which they came is the inscription "James Fraser, Swinstead Dragonfly Music Hall, Lincolnshire".
As well there is a really good photo of what I think is James playing the pipes [front cover - Ed] photographed by "W.H. Redshaw Son, Bourne"
There are 2 chanters with the set. 1..Dn McDougall Breadalbane; 2..Jn McK (I think this is the original one).
The current owner of this set is Andrew, who told me that the pipes were left under the bed in the residence of his Grandfather (a Mr Jack) who lived in Dalby, about 150 km west of Brisbane, here in Queensland. Some pieces of the original uniform, the hose, kiltpin etc were with the pipes in the original box under the bed. The sad thing is that nobody knew (or had forgotten) about them until after Mr Jack died, and by then most of the older members of the family who may have been able to shed some light on the origin of these pipes were also dead. The only clue is that Mr Jack s father came from Perth in Scotland, but nothing is known of how he might have acquired the set.
Also, remembering that one of the chanters is "McDougall", I have a copy (from Piping Times?) of a price list (c.1880) for bagpipes manufactured by Pipe-major Duncan M Dougall, Breadalbane, Aberfeldy, Perthshire for:
Great Highland or Military bagpipes; Half-size of Reel Pipes (inc. bellows); Miniature or chamber pipes.
I will measure the pipes accurately and do a write-up after I get to Brisbane. Can you throw any light on James Fraser, or who was Jn McK?
27 found its expression equally in the exterior forms of musical instruments as in THE PASTORAL OR NEW BAGPIPE the style of the music they were required to make. According to Anthony Baines, Hotteterre was above all a piper and bagpipe-maker. Taking as his starting point the rustic French bagpipe called musette de court, which like Jon Swayne presented this talk at the 1999 LBPS Collogue in Glasgow, and early uillean pipes and pastoral pipes show the same flair for beauty of line read a paper by Brian McCandless (who couldn t make it to the Collogue. It is and turning expertise. The musette often used costly materials such as ebony, hoped to publish that paper in a future issue of COMMON STOCK). Jon also ivory and silver; the bag was covered with embroidered satin, and above all demonstrated some of the points on his own set of Pastoral pipes. air was supplied by bellows, so that the ladies and gentlemen of court did not have to disfigure their faces by undignified blowing. Tutors were published The origins of Pastoral Pipes are quite mysterious. The name itself seems to for the instrument, lessons were given, they were taken on picnics, and have come from John Geoghegan s tutor of 1746, but many other names have featured in pastoral ballets. been used, such as: Irish bagpipes, union bagpipes, hybrid union pipes, organ pipes, and old Northumbrian bagpipes. Grove s Encyclopaedia of Music in Here we have that word pastoral again. The Concise Oxford Dictionary gives 1954 contained the following description by William A. Cocks: "...a form of the principal definition as `of shepherds , and for the related word pastorale it hybrid Irish Union Pipes, generally having two tonic drones in octaves, and a has `simple opera etc with rural subject; slow quiet instrumental composition "regulator" all in one stock. The chanter is like that found on the Irish pipes, with notes flowing in groups of three and usually with drone notes in bass but it has an added foot joint and is played as the ordinary Scots form. This suggesting bagpipes . In Britain as in France there was a fashion for music, 19th type appears to have been in use in the later half of the 18th and early operas and stage performances on rural themes which continued into the late centuries, but has completely died out. Neither Ireland nor Scotland will own 18th century. John Gay s `The Beggar s Opera written in 1727 was, you to it." might say, an every day story of country folk, woven around popular ballads and melodies of the day. It featured the pastoral pipes and included the tune We will probably never know who first designed the instrument, but we can "A Charming Nun to a Fryar Came" which is also included in Geoghegan s say something about the cultural and musical climate in which it came into tutor and in John Playford s "Compleat English Dancing Master" of 1728. being, and for this it is interesting to look at the situation in classical music. h By the middle of the 17 century, wind instrument playing was at a low ebb. The main features of the pastoral pipes are as follows: a long narrow chanter, The shawm and curtal which formed the backbone of the renaissance wind typically around 520mm (20") in length made in two parts, the body 330mm bands, and the recorder which was used in indoor music, had fallen into (13") and the foot . 190mm (7"). The foot carries two ventholes (though decline. The new musical styles coming out of Italy favoured the violin. But sometimes only one is seen). The bore generally approximates to a straight in Paris, Louis XIV, the `sun king was presiding over Europe s grandest cone starting at around 4mm at the throat expanding at a taper of between 45 court, and enormous sums of money were being spent on entertainment, which and 50:1. Fingerholes are small; usually less than 5mm. Earlier, simpler meant money for musicians and musical instrument makers. A group of models have two drones, a bass and a tenor. Later you find three drones in talented turners and woodwind makers from the Normandy village of La octaves, and sometimes a single regulator with two or three drones. And Courture-Boussey were working in Paris, of whom the best known is Jean I representing what must have been a culmination in the development of the Hotteterre. It was there and then in response to primarily musical demands instrument, in the National Museum of Scotland there is an exquisite set made that the extraordinary burst of creativity took place which gave rise to the in ebony or cocus, ivory and silver, possibly by Robert Reid of North Shields, birth of instruments which became our modern woodwinds, flute, oboe and with four drones (the fourth drone playing a fifth above the middle drone) and bassoon. It is thought that the first orchestral performance on the new oboe two regulators fitted not beside the drones in the subsidiary stock but on the took place in Paris in 1657. The recorder was also given a rebirth at this side of the main stock. The chanter also has keys for C natural, B flat, G time, and the clarinet was invented a little later in Germany. One feature sharp and F natural (assuming a D tonic). This is the only keyed pastoral which distinguished the new woodwinds from their more primitive ancestors chanter I am aware of (apart from two in the Chantry Museum at Morpeth was the fact that they were made in several relatively short joints or sections, which have keys for the right hand little finger). The bass drone is four in the case of the oboe and flute, which amongst other things enabled compressed physically in the way found on early uillean pipes. That is to say, easier and more precise construction. The necessary increase in wall the drone stock is made in two parts. The drones themselves fit into a plug or thickness over a socket allowed the turners to express their feeling for beauty subsidiary stock which fits into the main stock. The bass drone is looped back h of line, as witnessed by the many magnificent 18 century flutes, oboes and into the plug in which a channel is cut leading to the third section of the drone. recorders which survive. This was of course the era of the baroque which 29 28 The third section ends in a tenon for the socket of the final bell section of the covered by 6 closed-standing keys (as on a regulator), three on the front drone. The pipes are of course bellows-blown, and all the parts are generally operated by the left little finger, and three on the back by the right thumb, of fine, elegant construction. and extends the range of the instrument upwards by a 5 semitones and 1 whole tone, in other words, a fifth. As well as forming an extension to the Roughly a year ago, two sets of nearly identical pastoral pipes were sold at chanter range, it can be played at the same time as the chanter. As far as Sotheby s in London. They were described as Scottish Union Pipes, and one the pastoral pipes are concerned, the fingering chart in Geoghegan s tutor of the chanters was marked Robertson. This would be Hugh Robertson who shows a range of 2 octaves and a note from low C up to high D, chromatic worked as a turner and bagpipe maker on Castle Hill, Edinburgh in the last notes being achieved by cross-fingering. That the chanter overblows is a quarter of the 18 h century. Fortunately I had the opportunity of measuring result not only of the shallow taper, but also of the disposition of the finger one of the sets. Apart from the fact that this is one of the very , few sets and vent holes, the design of the reed/staple combination, and the fact that marked with a maker s name, the most astonishing feature to me was the the reed is set up to respond to a relatively light pressure. smallness of the bag, which appeared to be original. The main body of the • With the addition of a regulator to the pastoral pipes, both instruments have bag measured a mere 10" x 7". The leather was probably sheepskin, pale a means of playing a simple accompaniment to the chanter melody cream in colour, quite soft almost like chamois leather; turned inside out, • Though of course this is not unique to them, both instruments are bellows- presumably through the dronestock hole after sewing, and sewn with small blown. neat stitches, incorporating a separating strip or gusset between the sewn • Tutors were published for both instruments, which implies that their edges of the bag. In fact the workmanship reminded me of a musette de court owners could not only read, but also read music. bag which I once saw, I think in Paris. The bellows were also quite small and • Finally it seems likely at least until the mid 18t h century that the neat, a little bigger than Northumbrian smallpipe bellows. Although I have instruments were in use chiefly by people of means. The instruments must seen or measured a dozen or so pastoral pipes, I had the impression for the have been quite expensive by the standards of the day, and no doubt first time that the instrument must have been more economical of air, and play appealed to the kind of people who perhaps had a harpsichord in the front at a lower pressure than I had previously assumed. room.
The frontispiece to Georghegan s tutor shows a man in fashionable clothes At this point I would like to quote from the Preface of Geoghegan s tutor, as it playing the pipes in a formal garden in front of a large urn. It s fascinating to helps to give a feel for how the instrument was regarded, and raises certain compare this with the painting `The Concert Champetre by Francois-Hubert question with regard to its performance. Drouais (1727-1775). Though the French painting is much more opulent both in its execution and content, the parallels between the two pictures and the "The Bagpipe being at this time brought to such perfection as now renders it spirit behind them are striking. On the other hand, similarities between the I able to perform the same number of Notes with the flute or Hautboy, 1 thought musette and pastoral pipes while not immediately obvious, are also it might be acceptable to the Curious to set forth this small Treatise, and I surprisingly extensive. hope my Labour will not be intirely unworthy their Notice, having taken the same with a View of explaining all the Difficulties which deter a great many • In the first place, both are quieter than the `normal outdoor pipes of the from attempting it, and prevent any Improvement to be made in the Musick of period. The lower volume was required in order that the instruments could this Instrument. be played with other art instruments such as flute, violin and harpsichord I have known some young Gentlemen who had not only a fine Taste for all without overpowering them. This was achieved partly by the relatively sorts of Musick, but also a fine Genius to have a great Desire to play the low pitch for a bagpipe and partly by bore design. The musette has a Bagpipe, yet have been hindered from what their Inclinations so urged them narrow cylindrical bore and very small fingerholes, whereas the pastoral to, by this Instrument s wanting a scale or Gamut to learn by, which all other pipes as I have said before use a conical bore with a very shallow taper, Musical Instruments of any Value have. and small fingerholes. The taper of between 45 and 50:1 compares with a My principal Design in this Treatise is by a Scale or Gamut to shew the taper of around 30:1 on an early oboe, and 38:1 on the modern oboe. manner of Making all the Notes that appertain to this Instrument, Natural, flat • Both instruments have found ways of extending the normal bagpipe range and sharp, with the Way of adjusting them exactly whereby a Man may of nine notes. Jean Hotteterre was responsible for fitting a second chanter, thoroughly understand the principles of this Instrument. I have also explained the so-called petit chalumeau to the musette; it is accommodated beside the all the shakes and other Graces particularly adapted to this Instrument by main chanter in a double chanter stock. It has a blind bore with 6 holes perfectly understanding these Rules Scales. Those of good Genius who are 30 31 disposed to play this Instrument may be able to improve the Musick of it very who lived in Bucklyvie, Scotland in the 1770s and who took them with him much beyond what at present it is. I flatter myself this Treatise will not be when he emigrated to America. They have been in the family ever since. unacceptable to the Professors of this ancient pastoral Musick or to the There are probably 30 or 40 sets of pastoral pipes known to exist. There are Makers of the Instrument, one of whom I am informed has of late invented a sets in The Chantry Bagpipe Museum, Morpeth, Northumberland, the Way of fixing two keys to the chanter or Pipe whereon the Notes of Musick are National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, made, which perform a Note more than any other Pipe or Hautboy, and make the Museum of the Conservatoire of Music, Brussels and others in private some flat and sharp Notes with great Exactness. But since I have not met with hands. Not many perhaps. Geoghegan s tutor is known to have run through any Pipe of that kind, I hope it will satisfy them that I have made this Scale so six editions, which suggests that it sold in considerable quantity. On the other as to explain the Manner of Making all the Flats and Sharps, Independent of hand, it is possible that it was sometimes bought only for the tunes, of which any Keys." there are 41. They are a curious mixture, some being quite playable and idiomatic on the instrument; in other words, they are bagpipe tunes. Others, First of all the writer attempts to place the instrument on the same footing as especially those which seem to be operatic airs, pay no regard to the existence art instruments, and appears to be addressing the kind of audience to whom of drones, sometimes modulating into another key. Some are written in B the idea of learning an instrument without written assistance, moreover, flat, but played in D they lie outside the range of the chanter. Still others written music is problematical. Secondly, although further on in the tutor he jump about so much that it s difficult to see how they could have been does describe in words how to perform what he calls shakes and graces, he comfortably played on the instrument. does so somewhat perfunctorily and without any precise written examples. Thirdly he admits to being unacquainted with the latest developments. Finally Comparing the instrument with early examples of uillean pipes shows that he implies that the ability of the keyless chanter to perform accurate cross- save for the pastoral foot joint the two instruments are virtually identical. I fingered chromatic notes is in doubt, suggesting that a keyed version can do so have photographs of a most beautiful set of pipes by Kenna (Timothy Kenna, with greater exactness. These are just some of the issues raised by the tutor. 1768-94?) in boxwood and ivory. The chanter measures 390mm (15 3/8"), I shall be alluding to the music in a moment. As far as the issue of keys is which makes it slightly shorter than the longest known pastoral chanter body. concerned, we know that at least one instrument with a keyed chanter was The foot of the chanter carries a very plain stepped ivory mount. There is a produced. This would not have been done, had cross-fingering been entirely single four-key regulator and four drones, three in octaves and the fourth playing a fifth above the tenor. The bass drone is arranged in the same way as successful, which is borne out by my own experience with the instrument. pastoral pipes. The workmanship is immaculate and shows the same unerring When was this instrument first produced? I would like to think it was towards flair for line and proportion. It s interesting to note that if you remove the foot joint from a pastoral chanter, it functions quite well played with the same the end of the 1600s, and that some of the same spirit of innovation I have technique as the uillean pipe chanter, although the two systems work best with described as happening in France was also taking place in Britain and Ireland. slightly different reed/staple setups. In particular, the pastoral chanter seems New ideas in musical instrument technology have generally propagated to prefer a shorter staple than is usual with uillean chanters. This is supported themselves relatively rapidly in Europe, allowing composers to perform and by what is believed to be an original reed fitted to a pastoral set by Robertson audiences to hear the latest music. Brian McCandless, part-time musician and in Brussels, which measures about 59mm (2 3/8"). pipemaker from Philadelphia, says that the first fingering chart he has found is dated 1704. Some years ago I saw a pastoral chanter belonging to Alan It is possible to speculate that the pastoral pipe was the prior instrument, that Ginsberg. Uniquely as far as I know, it was made in one piece of wood, the foot joint was discarded at some stage, that instruments both with and which is a reminder that joints in woodwinds were not in general use until the h without the foot joint continued to be made in parallel for a period ending in second half of the 17t century. It was clearly of earlier provenance than the the early 19t h century, and that thereafter the pastoral type fell out of favour. average surviving examples. Perhaps it was an early experiment. It s not difficult to see why this should have happened, since the ability of the footless chanter to be stopped on the knee, enabling staccato playing and How widely was the instrument used, and what was its distribution? Besides easier overblowing, makes for a much more expressive instrument. All you its documented role in popular stage performances of the rural kind or lose is the ability to play standing up. otherwise, Brian McCandless believes that it was made and played throughout th the United Kingdom of the 18 century, and in Ireland - Dublin, Aberdeen, Since the above was written, Rod Cameron has pointed out, and of course he s Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, London and England s colonies. In fact in right, that the loss of the foot joint affects so much more than the ability to Philadelphia Brian has described and copied a set made by William Squire 33
32 play standing. It affects all tunes containing a low C sub-tonic, and prejudices a whole style of playing involving the low C, and especially the use of what we would call the birl. Geoghegan says: "The first and chiefest curl is perform d by the little Finger of the lower hand on the Chanter which is done by a doubling the little finger on the lower hole. This Double is done by a moveing the finger to and fro on the lower hole. It performs the sound of two Quavers which when a Man is Master of doing and playing a few tunes he will be able to give several Graces therewith."
Set of Robertson Pipes - sold at Sotheby s 1998 Brian Rumble Polka The Piper s Pectoral (or Bellows Bump) for reasons best known to Jim Buchanan!
Hope s Jig (Composed by Tom Robertson at the Galloway Summer School)
Corrigendum The Scottish Poetry Library Jig (Ref page 4 this issue. Correction to Vol 14.1 p.31 bars II David Stevenson Jan 1999
1999 Brian J. M. Rumble. Composed at the Scottish Smallpipes Summer School, Kirkdale House, Galloway. unearthed, will be what it sounds like: Burning of the Piper s Hut uninflected, deceptively foursquare, and REVIEWS quirky. Specifically, the tunes (almost without exception) do not work played THE WHITE HOUSE HORNPIPE A legato, and Scottish gracings are wrong on Second Selection of Dances and Other them. They are designed for the closed Piping Tunes for Leicestershire fingering of the Julian Goodacre pipes. If smallpipes etc you don t have a set of Goodacre pipes (or John Goodacre if you have but have never mastered the White House Tune Book No. 4 closed fingering) the etc of the title is probably a better bet than trying to play them on Scottish smallpipes in a Scottish The first selection was Johnny D s Home, way. They work very well on the whistle, published ten years ago. The White and you ll find yourself tonguing the notes House Hornpipe follows it and, since we more often than not. have the makings of a series here, it starts In his introduction, incidentally, at number 25. Johnny D has been much John Goodacre says that the tunes are consulted, the tunes introduced at odd written with a flattened leading note in moments in more or less accommodating mind, but that in most cases a sharpened sessions, and after ten years the book has leading note will do, if that is what you SECONDS acquired a patina of oil and other bagpipe have. Many of the tunes make some play detritus in the bottom of the case. No with the leading note (the jig Bucket and doubt The White House Hornpipe will do Spade, for example), and, whilst the writer the same. obviously has the last word, I thought that Here we have twenty-three tunes. they worked better with a sharpened Some are on one or other of the Goodacre seventh. It is the same with the tunes in Brothers tapes, but most are new to me. Johnny D; I ve tried them with both sorts of They are divided into five sections: jigs, leading note over the years, and prefer waltzes (including mazurkas), Scotch them sharp. tunes , polkas and hornpipes and other The book itself is in the same square tunes . There are three of the format as Johnny D. In other words, it Scotch tunes : two reels and a slow air. looks nice and it s small enough to fit Both reels seem to me best played not too easily in a bagpipe case without buckling fast; indeed they feel like hornpipes under or tearing. The music is reproduced from the fingers. What distinguishes them from John Goodacre s own (I assume) elegant
(Seconds composed by Alastair Neilson at the Galloway Summer School 1999) Scottish feel and the suitability for Scottish printed. Just occasionally it s not clear fingering and the flattened seventh. which note is meant, but, since you would Apart from the Scotch tunes, the learn the tunes anyway, that doesn t feel of the music here is implacably un- matter; similarly as regards the two, or Celtic. If, as of course we all believe, there possibly three, transcription errors. is a lost Leicestershire piping tradition, More importantly, there are this, when the manuscripts are finally occasions when bars or phrases straddle
39 reveals the pipes let loose in the hands of the tune. It is quite common for performers the end of a line in a way that could have up of the Bagpipe Museum in Glasgow (see skilled exponents who have recovered to be approached by pipers and asked for been clearer. CS 13 No 2 Dec 1989). past riches and variety and are taking the the name of a tune and where it is Sometimes, an indication of the Scotland s national instrument is the bagpipes of Scotland into an imaginative published. I would argue that the aural tempo intended for the tune would have Great Highland Bagpipe, a powerful and future, but still faithful to the inherited and takes precedence over the visual - in some helped, particularly with the waltzes, some successful wind instrument with unique ancient traditions which the Book of the courses on the uilleann pipe held in Ireland of which I guess are meant to be at qualities. Seeking distant origins fails to Bagpipe describes. learning is based solely on listening to the Viennese speed and others only half that. explain this phenomenon since what we (To be published by "Appletree". Price teacher. But these are all very minor quibbles. have now is as much the product of a 7.99) The fact that Gordon Mooney had I will not attempt a detailed account recent rather than a remote past. The Book recorded Over the Border by the time I had of the tunes, partly because it s beyond my of the Bagpipe interprets the Highland purchased the eponymous book made all powers of description, and partly because bagpipe as the creation of a society in the the difference to the accessibility of the if you don t know them you won t be much historical Gaidhealtachd and analyses Matt Seattle Out Of The Flames tunes to me. However the Border Bagpipe the wiser, and if you do you ll likely origins in the context of European history. Book and The Master Piper were published Music For Border bagpipes disagree. But if some at any rate of them This reveals a sometimes bewildering From 1733 to the present in 1993 and 1995 respectively and it is only do not become part of our common variety of bagpipes and possible patterns of now that a recording of some of the tunes in currency, they should. That means that evolution and diffusion; influences may be We are no longer people of the book: or, to The Master Piper has become available. you should buy this book, and its seen in long-term social and economic put it more correctly, we are no longer The CD has two titles - Music for Border predecessor, and make sure they get change, movement of people and ideas, the people who depend on the book. Our Bagpipes from 1733 to the Present, and known. Those of a more cautious growth of towns, the Crusades, and the so- sources of information are now technically Matt Seattle Out of The Flames. Those disposition should seek out someone called Twelfth-century Renaissance. conversant with the latter title know that it diverse and sophisticated and become else s copy and test it. Try Welford Place, Hypotheses are offered for further testing. increasingly so every few months. This is pertains to the William Dixon MS of 1733 a reel for enthusiastic unison playing, Pipes may have spread to Scotland true of music as it is of other subjects. Yet presented by Matt Seattle as The Master Calico Ban, a nicely lopsided slip-jig, The and then into the Highlands from France books of music continue to be published as Piper. However of the 12 tracks only 5 are New Director, a gorgeously elegant and the Low Countries and from England, if it were an earlier age. Insofar as bellows Dixon tunes. It is not therefore a listener s mazurka, with a counter-melody to make it ultimately to be adopted in a cultural up- blown pipes are concerned two of the more guide to the book and not even an orthodox more so, The Chocolate Army Knife for its beat Gaelic society and taking over the recent books come from the pen of Matt reproduction on Border Pipe. What this CD distant echoes of Frank ?field, Ice Cream instrumental role of the harp or clarsach. Seattle - the Border Bagpipe Book and The sets out to do is entertain. Treat for its distant echoes of the A medieval-style patronage of court Master Piper. I have nothing but admiration The aim is achieved by setting the Caribbean, or Round the World for sheer and castle was emulated in the burghs for the scholarship of these books which is Dixon and other border tunes in various oddness. And then buy the book and try where the Lowland and Town pipers have enhanced by the meticulous presentation of modern idioms accompanied and the rest. left a fainter but nonetheless definite the music. Pipers of the Lowland and sometimes submerged by a host of modern tradition. Border persuasion are fortunate to benefit instruments played by very talented Robin Bynoe. The erosion of burgh patronage and the from the work which has gone into both musicians. The instruments listed are breakdown of traditional Gaelic society left publications. clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophones, the Highland bagpipe with the army of But there has been a missing percussion, cittern, fiddle, bass guitar, empire and new patrons of paternalist and element; and that is, what do all these 90 English concertina, keyboard, hurdy-gurdy, The Book of the Bagpipe philanthropic Highland Societies in the tunes sound like when played by an expert. electric and acoustic guitar (the last nineteenth century. The Book suggests I can only remember hearing less than 20 mentioned played by Matt himself). Dixon Hugh Cheape, author historian and piper, that the bagpipe in modern Scotland is the performed in public and not necessarily as having escaped the flames emerges deep tells us something about the forthcoming product of relatively recent interpretations set out in Matt Seattle s arrangements. fried on this CD and is bound thereby to (small he insists) book on the origins of the of exclusive traditions of piobaireachd Pipers especially are attracted to sheet attract a strong following of supporters. bagpipe. As a curator of the Museum of composition and performance and of music after they have heard someone play For purist reactionaries like me this CD Scotland, he was responsible for the setting competition. An evolving present-day
41 40 must be a disappointment. The Border pipe Dixon s Highland Laddie (page 42 in is a notorious instrument to reed, tune and The master Piper) is a tune every bellows provide a truly satisfying sound. I have only blown piper should learn. It is played here heard three instruments that I could say I with a joyful rhythm and joins track 5 as had pleasure listening to. And Matt Seattle s another success. pipe is not one of them. Additionally his The West Indian has been skilfully technique falls well below the standard one arranged for and attractively played by would expect on a commercial recording. A guitar and fiddle. The border pipe thankfully master of the instrument would make the makes but a brief appearance. music flow effortlessly, but it is manifestly I would have preferred a not an instrument Matt is truly happy playing straightforward rendition of An Thou Were - in contrast to his virtuoso playing on the My Ain Thing. There appears to be some guitar, an instrument on which he provides electronic jiggery pokery here with some beautifully phrased music as if it were alien sounding orchestral chords. Four second nature. Vicker s fiddle tunes follow and hardly fit the The CD opens with Dixon s Little generic title Music for Border Bagpipes. The Wee Winking Thing. From the Guitar s same could be said of Nathaniel Gow s opening sequence it is evident that Dixon is Gudewife of Peebles. The last sentence in to be given a funky Caribbean treatment, the CD note reads "Nathaniel, I trust does which would not be out of place in a disco. not object to our treatment of his tune." While I enjoyed this track I did not take to The CD ends with Mock the tracks 2 and 3. The playing and the sound Soldier s Lady and The New Way to of the instrument in The Lad that Keeps the Morpeth, both Dixon tunes played Cattle, The Lads of Duns (as printed in The sufficiently straight to assist old carnaptious Border Bagpipe Book) and Lindisfarne, Neanderthals like me to learn both tunes. festooned with superfluous G grace notes For a review of Matt Seattle s CD and in waltz rhythm, did nothing for me. which takes a completely different stance, Two more Dixon tunes - the politely readers are referred to William Marshal s titled Rangers Frolick and Saw Ye Never a Lighting the Flame in the Autumn 1999 Bonny Lass are distinguished by some first Newsletter of the Bagpipe Society. rate clarinet playing; the bass clarinet being particularly effective. Ian Murray Would that the remainder of the CD TUNE X-WORD solution! had come up to the standard of pipe playing heard in The Wood of Fyvie, Such a Wife as Across: PEEBLES, CURLEW, ICING, Willy Had, Linkumdoddie; the Oyster Wife s UNION, RETREAT, SETTER, SCENIC, Rant and Ratho Fair. Accurate and ARDNISH, REEDS, VITIE, MANUEL, rhythmical - a pleasure to listen to. ELLIOTS. Track 6 The Fisherman s Daith is a Down: PRIMROSE, EVICT, LOGIE, song sung expressively and movingly with SCOUTS, ARNISTON CASTLE, BEAN, guitar and concertina accompaniment. RONDEAUS, ERCHLESS, DEVIL, Towards the end the pipe intrudes. INTRO, RUAN.
42 Meetings and Events
January 2000; date to be advised. Bums supper LBPS style. Contact Jim Gilchrist 0131 669 8235
May/June 2000; date to be advised. Melrose piping weekend. Contact Rona MacDonald 0141 946 8624
August 2000 - First week; dates to-be advised. Galloway Summer School for Scottish smallpipes and Border pipes at Kirkdale, Galloway. Contact David Hannay 01557 840229
Edinburgh. 1st Tuesday of the month. New venue:Castle Bar Cafe, Johnstone Terr (near Edinburgh Castle). Contact Nigel Richard 0131 551 1726
2nd London. 3 rd Thursday of every month (except July). London Scottish Regimental Headquarters, Horseferry Rd. Contact Jock Agnew 01621 855447
3rd NORTHEAST. 1st and Thursday of the month. New venue: The Swan pub, Greenside. Contact Steve Barwick 0191 286 3545.