Uilleann pipes : Ireland musical instrument

The uilleann pipes are the characteristic national bagpipe instrument from Ireland. The current name of the musical instrument in English is ‘union pipes’. The name is part of the Irish language term píobaí uilleann, from their pattern of Inflation. There is no historical note of the name of the musical instrument before the 19^th century. The musical instrument was an innovation of Grattan Flood and the name stuck.

source of picture: uilleann-pipes.de

The bag of the musical instrument is bloated by means of small set of bellows tied around the waist and the right arm of the player. The bellows of the musical instrument not only relieve the player from the effort required to blow into a bag to maintain the pressure, the bellow also permit dry air to power the reed of the instrument, minimizing the adverse effects of moisture on tuning and longevity. Some players of the musical instrument can converse while playing on the musical instrument.

The uilleann pipes are differentiated from several other forms of bagpipe instrument by their tone and wide range of notes, the chanter of the musical instrument has a range of 2 octaves, including the sharps and flats, along with the distinct blend of chanter, drones and regulators. The regulators of the musical instrument are fortified with closed keys that can be opened by the wrist of the player, permitting the player of the musical instrument to play simple chords, giving a rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment as requested. There are also many decorations based on multiple or the single grace notes. The chanter of the musical instrument can be staccato resting the chanter’s bottom on the thigh of the player to close off the hole on the bottom and then open and close only the holes needed. A staccato effect can be created when one tone hole is closed before the next one is opened, because the sound stops totally when no air can go out at all.

The musical instrument have a different harmonic structure, sounding quieter and sweeter than several other musical instruments like the Great Irish Warpipes, The Great Highland Bagpipes or  even the Italian Zampognas.  The musical instrument is often played indoors, and is most often played while sitting.

Uilleann is the genitive of the Irish term ‘uille’ that means elbow, accentuating the use of the elbow when playing the musical instrument. Meanwhile, the first attested form is the Union pipes at the ending part of the 18^th century, probably to signify the union of the chanter, drone and regulators that make up the instrument. Another theory is that the pipes were played all through a prototypical full union of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. This was realized in 1800, with the Act of Union; the name for the bagpipe somewhat predates this. Alternately, in Scotland, North-East of England and Ireland, the musical instruments were certainly a favorite instrument for the upper classes and were fashionable for a time in formal social setting where the name of the instrument may also originate.

The first bagpipe instruments to be well-confirmed to for Ireland were analogous, if not identical to the highland pipes that are now seen in Scotland. These instruments are now called Great Irish Warpipe, and they are called píob mhór in Ireland and Scotland.

While the warpipe was well used upon the battlefield of France, the musical instrument almost got discarded in Ireland. The musical instrument needed the joining of a bellows under the right arm that pumped air through a tube to the bagpipe under the left arm of the player. The musical instrument was fabricated around the starting of the 18^th century; the history of the instrument is portrayed in prints of carvings and icons from the modern sources. Geoghegan’s lecture of the 1740s calls this musical instrument pastoral bagpipe. The pastoral bagpipe was bellow that was played in either a seating or standing position. The conical bored chanter of the musical instrument was played open unlike the uilleann pipes that can be played closed. The earliest pastoral bagpipes possessed two drones and later examples had one or two regulators.

The earliest surviving uilleann bagpipe has been traced back to the 2^nd half of the 18^th century, though it must be said that the dating is not absolute. Only recently has scientific attention started to be paid to the musical instrument, and problems relating to different stages of the instrument’s development have yet to be solved. Gradually, it is becoming welcomed that the musical instrument came out of the pastoral pipes and achieved popularity in Ireland within the Protestant Anglo-Irish community and its gentlemen players.

The musical instrument is most typically tuned in the key of D, although flat set are common in other keys like C#, C, B and B♭ and some sets in E♭ have been tried on the instrument. These terms only started to be used in the 1970s, when the producers of the musical instrument started receiving requests for bagpipes that can be in tune with the tin whistles that are embossed with the key they play in C, B♭, etc. the length of the chanter determines the overall tuning; accompanying pieces of the musical instrument like the drones and the regulators, can be tuned on the same key as the chanter of the musical instrument. The chanters of about 362 mm length manufacture a bottom note on a near D above the middle C on the piano. The contemporary concert pitch bagpipes are a relative recent invention, pioneered by Taylor brothers, traditionally of Drogheda, Ireland and later of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the later part of the 19^th century. The pitch pipes have wider bores and larger tones than the earlier flat pitch sets and a consequence are a good deal louder, but not in any way as loud as the Highland pipes of Scotland.

Because of the complexity of the musical instrument, learners of the musical instrument usually start out with partial sets of the instrument that is called practice sets. The practiceset id made up of only the basic element of pipe bag, chanter and the bellow, having no drones or regulators. The chanter of this version of the musical instrument is available in keys ranging from the concert pitch D chanter in ½ -note steps downwards to a B♭ chanter, the latter being normally known as flat set. To be able to be perfect on this musical instrument, the scholars must be able to learn to pump the bellows constantly while controlling the pressure on the bag and playing the chanter of the instrument steadily.

A half set is the next stage up from the practice set of the instrument. As with the other forms of pipes, this musical instrument use drone that are normally three pipes accompanying the melody of the instrument’s chanter with a continuous background tonic note. The musical instrument is commonly equipped with three drones, which are the tenor drone, the baritone drone and the bass drone. The pastoral pipes had four drones. The drones of the instrument can be switched off. This is made potential by a key that is linked to the stock.

A full set of the musical instrument, as the name implies, is a complete set of the musical instrument. This would be half a set with the addition of the three regulators. There are three closed pipes, analogous to the chanter, held in the stock. Just like the drones of the instrument, they are often given the names tenor, the baritone and the bass, from the smallest to the largest. The regulator uses keys to accompany the melody of the instrument’s chanter; these are organized in rows to give limited two notes chords, single notes for stress on phrases or precise notes. The regulators’ notes from the highest to the lowest are: Tenor: C, B, A, G, F#. Baritone: A, G, F#, D. Bass: C, B, A, G.

The chanter is the part of the musical instrument that is used to plat the melody of the musical instrument. The musical instrument has 8 finger holes: Bottom D, E♭, E, F♯, G, A, B, C, C♯, D'. To gain the bottom D, the chanter is lifted off the knee of the player, exposing the exit of the bore, where the note of the musical instrument is manufactured. The chanter of the musical instrument is set on the right knee of the player thereby closing off the bottom hole of the instrument. Several players of the musical instrument use a strip of leather stretched over the knee and this provides for an airtight seal.