An Píobaire - Na Píobairí Uilleann

An Píobaire
Vol. 4 No. 26
Iúil/July 2004
Contents
2 ............Cover Photo Details
3 ............Editorial
4 ............WCSS / Donations and acquisitions
5 ............News & Events
8 ............New Publications
9 ............Chris Langan Weekend
11 ............Birmingham Pipers’ Club
12 ............Salt Lake Pipers’ Club
14 ............Irish Pipers Tionól Osaka 2004
16 ............“An Irish Fortune Hunter’s Wedding”
18 ............Willie Clancy’s ‘Single’
20 ............Airs & Graces - “A Stór mo Chroí”
23 ............“Slán le Willie Clancy”
24 ............Seanchas - Patsy Touhey at St. Louis
27 ............Patsy Touhey at Chicago
28 ............Reed-making kit
29 ............Budget Practise Set
30 ............Items available from NPU
31 ............Advertisements
32 ............Calendar of Piping Events
The cover picture shows Ivan Goff playing during the Chris Langan
Weekend in Toronto. (Photo - Paul Reid)
An Píobaire is the newsletter of Na Píobairí Uilleann Teoranta, 15 Henrietta Street, Dublin 1, Ireland, and is issued five
times annually - 1st week February, 3rd week April, 1st week July, 3rd week September, 1st week December. Deadline
for contributions - three weeks before these dates. Views expressed in An Píobaire are not necessarily those of Na
Píobairí Uilleann Teo. or of the Board of NPU Teo.
Editor:
Gay McKeon, Chairman, Na Píobairí Uilleann Teo.
Editorial committee: Gay McKeon, Patricia Logan, Sean Potts, Terry Moylan, Robbie Hannan
Board of Directors: 2003-2004, Gay McKeon (Chairman); Patricia Logan (Secretary); Dermot McManus (Treasurer);
Harry Bradley; Tom Clarke; Ivan Crowe; Nollaig Mac Cárthaigh; Pat Mitchell; Noel Pocock;
Denis Quigley; Gerry Lyons.
Honorary President: Seán Potts
Patrons:
Peter Carberry, Longford; Dave Hegarty, Tralee; Tommy Kearney, Waterford; Neil Mulligan,
Dublin, Joe Shannon, Chicago.
Registered Office:
15 Henrietta Street, Dublin 1.
Telephone:
Office: 01-8730093; Fax: 01-8730537; Archive: 01-8735094;
E-mail: info@pipers.ie Web site: www.pipers.ie
Membership:
Full & Associate - €38 p.a. Unwaged/junior members - €19 p.a.
Advertisements:
Ordinary advertisements carried free, display adverts - €20
An Píobaire contents © Na Píobairí Uilleann Teoranta, unless otherwise stated.
Na Píobairí Uilleann Teoranta is incorporated in Ireland, Company Reg. No. 242874.
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ensured the development of NPU during her
tenure. The Board was further strengthened
by the election of Harry Bradley; already
Harry is making a strong contribution on the
development of piping related projects. I am
certain that the new Board will continue to
serve the membership very effectively over
the coming year and thank them for their dedication and hard work.
Currently there are several exciting projects
in progress which will be completed within
the next 6 months. The long anticipated
music of Seamus Ennis will be published by
year end, a DVD of reed making is currently in production, we have commenced work on production of a CD
ROM on the appreciation of piping also
we will issue a further CD in the Master
Pipers series this year.
The recent end of year recital by students who attend the weekly classes
held at Henrietta Street was a tremendous success In my opinion the teaching of piping is the most important
aspect of the work of NPU and I would
like to extend my thanks to each of the
teachers involved. The classes are coordinated by Mary Walsh and Nollaig
Mc Carthy. To them and all of the
teachers, a sincere thanks, your work is
invaluable. All of you who teach piping
around the world are to be encouraged
and congratulated.
Gay McKeon
lot of constructive discussion took
place at the recent Tionol regarding
improvement of our website, the
feedback from members was invaluable. We
have finalised the specification of a new website and expect to have this work completed
before September 2004.
At the May meeting of the Board members of
NPU Gerry Lyons was elected as Secretary, I
wish Gerry every success in his new role.
Gerry succeeds Patricia Logan who served as
Secretary for over a decade, I would like to
thank Patricia for her commitment, which
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~ 32nd Willie Clancy Summer School ~
Lunchtime Recitals: From 1:15 to 1:45
daily, Monday to Friday at The Mill on the
Ballard Road. Performers will be:
Monday - Conor McKeon
Tuesday - Brian McNamara
Wednesday - Jimmy O’Brien Moran
Thursday - Leo Rickard
Friday - Joe Doyle
Maintenance Room: This room is available
for invited pipemakers to gather in. A number
of pipe-makers will be available from
Tuesday afternoon onwards. Details may be
had from piping teachers.
Learn to Listen/Listen to Learn: How to get
the most from music recordings, with Ronan
Browne and Sean Corcoran. Bring cassette
recorder and headphones if possible.
Solo Performance Class: Afternoon class
conducted by Mick Coyne. Contact NPU staff
to enrol. Limited to eight participants, but
observers welcome.
Piping Classes: Teachers this year will
include: Kevin Rowsome; Joe Doyle; Robbie
Hannan; John Mitchell; Gay McKeon; Sorcha
Ní Mhuiré; Micheál Ó Briain; Leo Rickard;
Stephen Scales; Mikie Smyth; Séamus Ó
Rócháin; Domhnaill Banks; Nollaig Mac
Cárthaigh; Brian McNamara; Seán McKeon
and Michael Dunne.
iping events in the Willie Clancy Summer
School will include the following:
P
Reedmaking Class: Located in the Social
Services building. Conducted by Dave
Hegarty and John Mitchell. Note that this
space is reserved solely for reed-making.
Piping Concert: The Piping Concert takes
places on Wednesday at 8:00pm. Performers
will include:
Peter Browne
Robbie Hannan
Tommy Keane
Seán McKeon
Mick O’Brien
Séamus Ó Rócháin
Kevin Rowsome
~ Donations & acquisitions ~
eceived from Denis Grehan - collection
of cassette recordings made over the past
decade.
Na Píobairí Uilleann has reciprocal arrangements with several other piping and musical
bodies to exchange publications. Complete or
near-complete runs of many of these publications are available to members in our library.
Recent publications received include the following:
Ar Soner – Magazine of Bodaged Ar
Sonerion/Assemblée des Sonneurs de
Bretagne. No. 373, Mars/Avril 2004
Piping Today – magazine of The National
Piping Centre, Glasgow. Issues 9 & 10
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~ News & Events ~
Henrietta Street Recitals
Mystery Solved!
he Saturday night recitals at NPU – Ceol
Faoi Thalamh – have been very successful, (mostly) very well attended and very well
received. One visitor remarked that the music
was superb and the venue was the most elegant setting in Dublin in which to hear traditional music. Perfomers have included pipers
Mick O’Brien, Ronan Browne and Robbie
Hannan.
Each week the programme has also included a
young piper from among the students at
Henrietta Street. Sean McKeon, James
Mahon, Elvin Moynagh, Éanna Ó Cróinín and
Maitiú Ó Casaide have played and have made
a great impression on the audiences. The
recitals will continue until June 26 and resume
in September. They start at 8:30 and admission is €12 (concession €8). See website for
details.
he mystery of the sculpture of the piping
Ganesh has been resolved. An article in
the Irish Independent of June 2 has revealed
that the sculpture, and other similarly eccentric pieces, is located in Victoria’s Way
Sculpture Park just north of Roundwood, co.
Wicklow.
The park is the creation of Victor Langheld,
who survived the Dresden fire-bombing in
1945 and attributes to that experience his
unique outlook on life. He has travelled widely in India and immersed himself in Eastern
philosophies. He designed the sculptures himself and had them carved in India by Indian
craftsmen. They mostly depict the Hindu deity
Ganesh in various poses. The picture of the
piping Ganesh is entitled “PaddyGanesh”.
Details can be found at:
homepage.tinet.ie/~victoriasway/
T
T
Piping Classes at NPU
iping classes will resume in Henrietta
Street after the Summer, as follows:-
P
Term 1:- September 14, 21, 28; October
5, 12, 19. (6 classes, fee €42)
Term 2:- November 2, 9, 16, 23, 30;
December 7. (6 classes, fee €42)
December 14th - Christmas party!
As classes will not be overcrowded, places
cannot be guaranteed to anyone who has not
pre-registered. The class fee is payable on the
night of enrolment at the beginning of each
term. Classes start at 7:30. For further information contact Mary Walsh or Nicola Spain at
8730093.
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ly-used equipment or formats becoming
obsolete. During the transfer process all the
material will be indexed and we will receive
this index in electronic form.
Upon receipt of this material we will be starting a programme of making this music available to members through our website. The
functionality for this has still to be worked
out, but we envisage the material being presented as browsable pages, with user ability
to search by performer, tune-type, tune-name
etc. Now is the time for constructive suggestions as to the design of the site.
We are confident that the publication of this
material will prove a welcome and valuable
addition to the services to our members.
Digitisation Project
PU has accumulated a significant collection of sound recordings over the years
since our foundation in 1968. These cover our
own activities, of course, but also include
unique, unpublished recordings of all the significant pipers of the 20th century, ranging
from Micí Cumbá up to the young turks of
today.
The recordings are in a bewildering array of
formats. We have spools of tape in every size
from 3” to 12”, recorded at every speed (and
sometimes combination of speeds) from
15/8”ps to 15”ps, on half-track and quartertrack formats. We have material on cassette
tapes; mini-discs; 16mm film; Betamax, VHS
and Super 8 video; DAT, CD-ROM and vinyl.
The task of making this available to members
has been stymied by the lack of suitable
equipment. In common with every archive in
the world we are afflicted by the problem of
equipment obsolescence. We were able to
have our Revox A77 (a classic machine) reconditioned so that we could play spools of
tape, but then discovered that the variety of
speeds and formats meant that we still had
access to only a portion of them.
While investigating the cost of acquiring the
equipment required to handle all this material
we were told by Mick O’Brien about a Dublin
firm which provides a professional digitisation service for archives. It turned that it
would make more sense to contract the service out, so this has been done and a start has
been made on the material.
The company concerned perform similar
services for the British Library and the BBC,
so we are very confident that the work will be
done to the highest standard. NPU will
receive back (along with the original recordings) public access and backup copies of
every item on CD format. We will also get
.WAV sound-files of every item in order to
provide some future-proofing against current-
N
Rathlin Piping Festival
athlin Airs - A Centenary of Piping
Festival will take place in Rathlin Island
from 29th July to 2nd August.
The festival is inspired by the first Feis na
nGleanna held in Cushendall in 1904, to
which a contingent from Rathlin Island travelled on a steamer hired by Sir Roger
Casement and Francis Joseph Biggar. It was
at this feis that Neil McCurdy (or ‘Neil the
piper’) of Rathlin won a piping competition.
The prize was a set of marching pipes, possibly made by O’Mealy the noted Belfast pipe
maker.
The programme will include performances
from the Armagh Pipers, singer Kathleen
Graham (Isle of Skye), piper Alan
MacDonald (Glasgow), singer Cathal
McConnell (Fermanagh), renowned Breton
piper Patrick Molard accompanied by bassist
Alain Genty, and the Scottish group Dàimh.
There will also be a variety of accompanying
activities including workshops instructed by
professional musicians Robbie Hughes,
Maurice Bradley and Cormac Ó Briain in
reed-making and uilleann piping, visual arts
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and historical exhibitions, children’s art club
and literary recitals.
Admission to events is by ticket only. For further information and a festival programme,
contact Desima Connolly, Arts Development
Co-ordinator, Rathlin Co-operative Society,
The Manor House, Rathlin Island BT54 6RT.
Tel: 028 2076 3908/Email: arts@rathlinislandcoop.fsnet.co.uk
Friday evening will entail registration and an
introduction to what’s going to happen over
the weekend. Saturday and Sunday classes
are from 10am till 4pm. Topics covered, apart
from learning tunes, will be:
Pipe maintenance and tuning tips,
Slow air interpretation and playing,
Regulator playing.
I also will devote a large part of each day to
reed making. Depending on numbers and if
people come equipped with tools, we will
ommy Martin will be teaching uilleann have a reed making class. If people don’t have
pipes at the St. Louis Irish Arts summer reed making tools with them I’ll just make a
school will take place in St. Louis, Missouri, reed anyway and as I’m doing that I’ll explain
from June 28th till July 19th monday to fri- what exactly I’m doing in relation to how a
reed works and how tuning is influenced by
days.
Beginers to Intermediate levels classes are each cut and scrape I do. All while listening to
from 1.30 til 3.30 Intermediate to Advanced a couple of recordings of hits by some of the
classic pipers! And a few humorous anecdotes
classes are from 4.00 til 7.00.
There is a workshop fee of $250 for the three thrown in too. If you want to (you don’t have
weeks. If you can’t do three weeks and are to) purchase reed making tools in advance
Tim Britton
interested in taking classes for a few days, you can do so from
www.skep.com/britton/ or Seth Gallagher
contact irisharts@primary.net for other rates.
Also on the weekend of July 9/10/11 St. Louis www.uilleann.com or Na Píobairí Uilleann in
Irish Arts will hold workshops devoted to Dublin www.pipers.ie
The fee for the piping weekend is $75 which
pipes alone!
includes a lunch on
Saturday and Sunday and
I’ll supply the materials
for the reed making, cane,
metal, hemp, wax, etc.
You may get a free
reed!!!! To round off the
weekend there will be a
concert at 6pm on Sunday
featuring ME :) and a few
more pipers and students,
I’ll post more details on
that when I get more info
on the line up. If you’re
doing nothing else, come
on along.
Congratulations to Sean McKeon, whose group “Cuisle” were the winners of
tompipes@eircom.net
Siansa Gael Linn 2004. Pictured with Sean are Caitlín Nic Gabhann, Diarmuid de
Tommy Martin
Búrca, Conchubhair MacAodh Bhuí, Pádraig MacAodh Bhuí, Siobhán Ní
St Louis Irish Arts
T
Dhomhnaill and Áine Ní Ghruagáin. (Photo courtesy of Saol and Seán Ó Ceallaigh)
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~ New Publications ~
Broke my Heart
4 Jigs: O’Hare’s Tilt; The Chiaroscuro
Jig; Jig of Quills
5 Hornpipes: The Tailor’s Twist; The
Cuckoo’s Nest
6 Reels: Quill and the Ivory; The
Grandmaster; Belles of Tipperary
7 Jigs: The Blarney Pilgrim; Palm
Sunday; Gan ainm
8 Air: The Satin Slipper
9 Reels: Barry’s Trip to Paris; Hilda’s
Choice; Tommy Peoples’
10 Jigs: Garrett Barry’s; An Rógaire Dubh;
Frainc an Phoill
11 Reels: Dave Normanway MacDonald’s
Wedding; Toss the Feathers; The
Monaghan Twig.
Eliot Grasso
Standing Room Only
Available from NPU at €20.00 (less members’ discount)
plus postage.
Brian McNamara
Fort of the Jewels (BMNCD2)
Available from NPU at €20.00 (less members’ discount)
A
s a fifteen-year-old, Eliot Grasso was
one of the young pipers who featured on the
NPU recording A New Dawn. Uilleann
Piping, Another Generation, published in
1999. He has now released a solo album, with
traditional and newly-composed tunes, several of these composed by himself. All but two
of the tracks have accompaniment on either
guitar, mandola or bouzouki, and there is an
accompanying fiddle on four of the tracks.
Incidentally, I couldn’t say for sure, but the
name of the third tune on track 10, which was
learned from Paddy Glackin, sounds to me
suspiciously like a multilingual pun. (TM)
1 Reels: Miss Susan Cooper; The
Sandpiper; Boys of the Lough
2 Jigs: My Darling Asleep; Hag at the
Churn; Darby Gallagher’s
3 Reels: Farewell to Kilroe; The Girl that
plus postage.
rian McNamara has two previous recordings under his belt—Leitrim’s Hidden
Treasure, recorded with his family, and the
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solo A Piper’s Dream.
The standards established with those earlier
recordings are maintained here. Brian has
continued mining the Grier manuscript and
other local collections for tunes and versions
of tunes that will be unfamiliar to modern
ears, and these are presented in mainly solo
arrangements (9 of the 16 tracks) with Benedict Koehler on pipes and/or Gráinne Hambly
on harp joining him for the other tracks. The
notes are copious and informative. (TM)
6 Single Jigs: Hug the Bundle; Maloney’s; Thomas Reilly Clerk of Fore
7 Hornpipes: Mrs. Crotty’s; The Humours
of Tullycrine
8 Air / Reel: A Stór mo Chroí; Biddy
from Muckross
9 Piece: The Humours of Glynn
10 Jigs: Paddy Fahey’s; The King of the
Pipers
11 Reels: The Spike Island Lasses; Dr
Taylor’s Favourite; The Green Garters
12 Slip Jigs: Hardiman the Fiddler; The
Arra Mountains; Redican’s Mother
13 Reels: Hobble the Boutches; Sandy over
the Lea
14 Air: Táimse i m’ Chodhladh
15 Reels: Ormond Sound; The Connaught
Heifers
16 Hornpipes: Kilcooley Wood; The not so
Bashful Bachelor
1 Jigs: Paddy from Portlaw; Handsome
Young Maidens; I love you not and I
care not
2 Hop Jigs: Top the Candle; Do It Fair
3 Reels: Captain Locker; Gladstone’s Bill
4 Air: Dún na Séad (Fort of the Jewels)
5 Reels: Patsy Touhey’s Favourite; Fr
O’Grady’s Visit to Bocca
Hidden Fermanagh ~
Traditional Music and Song from
County Fermanagh
Cyril Maguire. Fermanagh Traditional Music Society.
ISBN 0-9546200-0-3 www.fermanaghmusic.com
Available from publishers
ot on the heels of the ‘Boss Murphy’ collection, reviewed in the last issue of An
Píobaire, comes Hidden Fermanagh, another
very local collection of material. Unlike the
Murphy collection, this one includes songs as
well as music, but the material is entirely of
local Fermanagh provenance.
Originally the suggestion of Cathal Mc
Connell, the work was carried out by the
Fermanagh Traditional Music Society and
edited by Cyril Maguire.
Cathal, with his years of collecting music and
song in his native county, was one of the three
main resources for material for the collection,
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another being local fiddle player John Mc
Manus. The third was the ‘Gunn Book’, a
manuscript music collection compiled by
John Gunn, a fiddle player from the banks of
Lough Erne. He wrote down this music in the
1850s and 1860s and possible also before the
Famine. The book includes some 178 tunes—
reels, jigs and hornpipes almost exclusively—
and the point is made by the editor that at the
time of the book’s creation the more wellknown collectors and publishers such as
Bunting and Petrie had a very narrow focus
on airs and harp melodies, and excluded
(sometimes deliberately) the dance music.
The comparative scarcity of notations of
dance music from the period make the ‘Gunn
Book’, and similar collections like the Grier
and Murphy collections, of immense importance. It is to be hoped that the Fermanagh
Traditional Music Society will proceed to the
publication of an edition of the manuscript.
Published in conjunction with the printed collection are two CD2 of selections from the
book, played and sung by local performers.
Terry Moylan
Two of Piper Jackson’s tunes from the ‘Gunn Book’ as re-printed in Hidden Fermanagh
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~ Birmingham Pipers’ Club ~
Birmingham Pipers Club First Annual Open Day
Kieron Concannon
unday the 25th November 2003 saw the
Birmingham Pipers Club not only reopen its doors to pipers from across the
country but marked the re-emergence of the
club “phoenix like” from the ashes of its four
year long hiatus.
Thanks to the sterling efforts of John Cooke,
Aidan O’Brien and Marcus Coulter (all
founder members of the original club) the
club is back in action with a hugely successful Open Day which was greatly enhanced by
the presence of Dublin piper Gay McKeown.
The event got under way at the Birmingham
Irish Centre around 12.30 with thirty pipers
from all parts of the country gathering first for
a cup of tea and a chat followed shortly by the
appearance of as many different sets of pipes
as I have seen gathered in one room for a very
long time. Pockets of pipers gathered in
nooks and crannies of the room discussing
makers, pipes, reeds and tunes and generally
renewing old acquaintances or making new
ones and of course playing a few tunes.
Alan Burton from Bristol, Andy Faden from
Bedworth and Brian Howard from Sheffield
provided advice and tuition on reed making,
reviving sick reeds, teasing reluctant reeds
and creating sparkly new ones - have we ever
been so well provided for in terms of reed
makers? Marcus Coulter who now has his
own pipes workshop in Birmingham had a
couple of his chanters on display which were
greatly admired by those lucky enough to get
their hands on them. I managed to play both
and have to admit to being very impressed
with there tone, accuracy and ease of playing.
I can safely say I have never encountered a
concert pitch chanter SO easy to play. Even
though it was a concert D chanter the pressure, feel and superb ease of playing reminded me more of a flat pitch C or B. One piper
thus enamoured with his work went as far as
to say “Every novice piper should be given
the chance to start playing with a chanter like
this!” Fantastic work Marcus!
Gay McKeown played a set of tunes for about
40 minutes followed by a Q and A session
where topics including tunes, technique and
regulator playing were covered — if any of
you have been lucky enough to take part in
any of Gay’s regulator workshops you'll
know just how excellent his tuition on this
subject can be. The most common question
regarding the regulators seems to be “What’s
the best way to start?” Gay usually recommends turning “out” the bass and tenor reg (if
you have a full set) so they are out of the way
completely and concentrating ONLY on the
baritone. This was demonstrated to great
effect and as Gay says himself “One reg often
sounds as good as two”. Excellent advice for
the novice regulator player.
Johnny Rooney and his son Larry made an
appearance and joined Gay for a tune session.
As many of you will know, Johnny is related
to the great Johnny Doran and aspects of the
Doran style abound in both Rooney senior
and Rooney junior’s playing. At one point I
found myself wondering if Johnny’s regs
were made of titanium or Kevlar such was the
exuberant, energetic and rhythmic pounding
he gave them whilst his rapid fire right foot
drove imaginary nails through the hardwood
floor with a blinding ferocity, surely Johnny
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is the Jackie Chan of the pipes! What a treat
for those just embarking on playing the regulators, to get up close and personal with such
a passionate exponent of the art.
Congratulations must go to John, Aidan and
Marcus for making the day such a resounding
success in getting the old club back on its feet
in the most spectacular fashion. The club
plans to meet on a monthly basis at first and
hopefully resume its weekly classes soon
after. The club remains in its old home the
Birmingham Irish Centre in Digbeth. Pipers
of all abilities will be catered for, with beginners welcome of course. Enquires should be
directed to John Cook, Aidan O'Brien or
Marcus Coulter on +44 (0121) 6866243
~ Salt Lake Pipers’ Club ~
Mark A. Stevenson
he Salt Lake Piper’s Club formed in
the autumn of 2003 to promote uilleann piping and support previouslyisolated uilleann pipers and aspiring pipers in
Utah and surrounding states (Idaho, Nevada,
Wyoming, Colorado and Arizona). The group
emerged out of the desire of three pipers,
Brian Dobson, John Ward and myself, to seek
out and actively support other uilleann pipers
in the region, widen our circle of friends and
support for our shared obsession, and hopefully find someone—anyone—who knew
more about reeds and reed making than we
did!
Brian put together the club’s website in early
November and before the end of the month
the club was up and running with a great
online presence. The site has continued to
grow ever since and has provided help and
encouragement to pipers as far away as
London England and Japan. Recently the
SLPC also opened an online store to help
raise funds for future events and gatherings.
A wildly eclectic variety of items are available through the club and some have been
purchased by friends and families of great
highland pipers as well. Who says we’re not
making progress?
Thanks to the tireless efforts of Brian Dobson
in getting our group off the ground, we held
our first formal meeting and Tionól in January
2004, and were delighted to have a dozen
pipers of beginning or intermediate abilities
in attendance, not only from the Salt Lake
valley, but even as far away as Idaho and
Colorado. Fr. Patrick Carley (who hails from
Thurles, Co. Tipperary) generously offered
the meeting hall of St. Joseph the Worker in
Salt Lake City as a regular venue for this and
future gatherings, replete with an industrialsized kitchen perfect for the potluck dinners
which have become a favorite feature of our
meetings. Over the winter and spring, we
have had several smaller, informal gatherings
to swap tunes, enjoy a session after a Boys of
the Lough concert in Ogden, and attempt to
make what was for most of us our first reeds
under the tutelage of our own John Arnold of
Logan. Through sheer pluck and the grim
determination born of the isolated piper, John
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Front, l-r: Bill Tiernan, Brian Dobson, Chans, Dave Robinson
Back, l-r: John Arnold, Ryan Orr, Mark Stevenson, John Ward
has in short order become quite a competent
reed maker. His latest feat includes reeding
his newly-acquired Charles Roberts fivedrone half set, drones and all.
A subsequent Tionól on the third Saturday in
May brought two newcomers who had never
tried uilleann pipes before, and who went
home with a loaner practice set compliments
of Brian. A third newcomer was unable to
attend, but will be ‘given the treatment’ at a
future meeting. Bill Tiernan, a piper of many
years experience from Grand Junction,
Colorado, has given generously of his time
and talents in mentoring the group in reed
making and musical instruction at both of our
meetings, helping us tackle the reels “The
Mountain Road” and “Last Night’s Fun” at
our May meeting. After the reed-tweaking,
several new tunes and dinner, everyone got to
play their ‘party pieces,’ and the subsequent
session lasted until midnight. Our warmest
thanks to Bill for making the 5 hour trip each
way to join us - again!
Our next planned activity involves representing the club at the 30th anniversary of the Utah
Scottish Festival and Highland Games in
June, where we plan to give the visitors and
gathered Great Highland Pipers an opportunity to see and hear the uilleann pipes, and perhaps bring a few over to the dark side . . .
Beyond regular monthly meetings, one of our
goals for the near future is to raise some funds
in order to bring in some guest pipers from
outside the intermountain states for future
workshops/tionóls, perhaps in partnership
with like-minded organizations in the area. If
there are any skiing pipers (or piping skiers)
out there, you’ll want to drop into our next
winter Tionól for some tunes and world-class
powder! You’re very welcome to the Salt
Lake Piping Club. You will find the Salt Lake
Piping Club online at:
www.saltlakepipers.com
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~ Irish Pipers Tionól Osaka 2004 ~
he first Uilleann Pipers’ meeting in
Japan ‘Irish Pipers Tionol 2004 Osaka’
was held on 8-9th May 2004. A total of
nine pipers gathered for this Tionol to Koko
Plaza Osaka. While most of them were from
near Osaka area, some came by Shinkansen
or aiplaine from great distances in order to
attend this historic meeting.
on the BBS of ‘Midnight Walker’ web site.
At last the Tionol came true after a great deal
of effort by HRAGUCHI Toyoaki, the first
known Japanese Uilleann piper, TAKEUCHI
Nobuhiro, the web master of ‘Midnight
Walker’, and NAKATSUI Makoto.
The Tionól mainly consisted of a reed making
class and a night session. As for the reed,
T
The session at Murphy’s
During the past few years, more people have
gotten interested in the Uilleann Pipes and
begun to play them in Japan. Actually there
are some pipers who are playing pipes in Irish
Pub in Tokyo and Osaka and so on. They got
acquainted with each other in the sessions or
on internet, and talked about holding a pipers’
meeting or establishing a piping club. The
time had been ripe when HRAGUCHI
Toyoaki made a proposal of a pipers meeting
pipers have such a great interest in it that they
have made a habit of asking about its condition, just like asking about the weather, which
is drastically changeable on our Japanese
Islands.
The first day began with not a short discussion on each other’s instrument. Next, reed
making class led by HRAGUCHI Toyoaki
and NAKATSUI Makoto was held.
While following Hegarty method, the new
14
original way of reed making
was also shown, such as the
new way of sanding the
cane slip. After a short
break, the workshop lasted
until evening.
We are grateful to NPU
staff and Mr. Nick Whitmer
for their kind help to prepare a set of reed making
tools for the Tionol which
Left to right: Tsuruhashi’s Froment, Takeuchi’s Roberts, Haraguchi’s
was hard to obtain in Japan,
Froment, Chotin’s Williams, Matsusaka's Ginsberg, Nakatsui’s O’Grady,
and the written instruction
Gosha’s GHP
made by NAKATSUI
the
playing
skills, the new tunes, maintenance
Makoto for this class was also very helpful.
These tools and instruction made our work of the instruments and so on. A French piper
easier and some members managed to com- CHOTIN Fabrice taught them the basic regulator technique using a slow air ‘Foggy Dew’.
plete their chanter reed during this class.
In the night session at Murphey’s in MATSUSAKA Ken, piper from Kyoto,
Shinsaibashi, the centre of Osaka, not only played Breton dance tunes.
amateur pipers but also professional musi- Among those who were present was GOSHA
cians livened up our Tionol joining in the Yoshiaki, an excellent Scottish Great
Highland Bagpipe player, who stimulated and
night session.
The next day, dividing into some groups, the encouraged us a lot by playing some Scottish
members showed and instructed each other tunes and teaching basic fingering skills to
some of the attendance.
What impressed me most at this Tionol was
the strong enthusiasm of the attendance.
Most of them were intermediate or advanced
pipers. They had made astonishing efforts to
obtain many skills, with the help of very few
instructors and texts such as ‘The Art of
Uilleann Piping’ and so on.
This meeting made us acquainted with pipers
from various parts of Japan. Actually this
meeting began with no specific purposes,
such as establishing a new club. However,
there are not a few people who want lessons
for beginners, and a workshop led by an
overseas piper. It is hoped that further meetings of Uilleann pipers will be held and
become annual here in Japan, far from
Ireland, in order to provide information for
everyone interested in the Uilleann Pipes and
their music
Tessin Kaneko taking his first reedmaking lesson from
TSURUHASHI Toshihiro
Toyoaki Haraguchi
15
“An Irish Fortune Hunter’s Wedding” (Detail) By permission of Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales
~ From The Archive ~
Willie’s ‘Single’
thus articulated singly compared to the two
sets of three quavers of the double jig. Today
single jigs are usually written in 12:8
although this has not been consistent practice
down through the years.
George Petrie finally published his ‘Ancient
Music of Ireland’ in 1855. It contained 147
melodies ranging from airs to dance music to
ploughman’s whistles and, although much
criticised for the absence or scarcity of song
texts and the fact that it fell short of the 200
melodies promised, it was a rich store of lore
and commentary, a window or snapshot of the
opinions of a prominent collector who had
travelled the country for the Ordnance
Survey, who collected ‘in the field’ as well as
from the armchair.
n the mid 1970s, when NPU and the
Willie Clancy Summer School were in
their infancy and everyone was young, I
remember listening to a tape of Willie Clancy
which the club had made available for copying. It had a version of this unusual jig
‘Willie’s Single.’ To a debutant struggling
with so many unknowns of instrument, technique and repertoire, it represented one of the
Glorious Mysteries to be solved or at least
mastered. That which was unusual was more
attractive. There was something about this
tune that did not sound right, yet it worked
overall.
One of the strongest features of single jigs is
the crotchet quaver movement that makes up
most of the bars. The rhythm of the dance is
I
Willie's Single Jig
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(a)


 

                               
(b)
(f)
2.
      
  
 1.
 

 
         
 
 
 

    
     

  
   

20
     

 

   

     

   

     
  
  


24
18
Among the anonymous tunes in Petrie’s 1855
volume is a single jig (in 6:8), collected for
him by one James Fogarty of Tibroghney, Co.
Kilkenny. Petrie comments: “it appears to be
the more ancient or original form of the double-jig tune now so well known by the name
of ‘The Irish Washerwoman,’ and which,
under that appellation, has been for at least a
century a very popular dance-tune in Ireland.”
The first part of this tune closely resembles
the ‘Irish Washerwoman’ with the exception
of the last two bars. However, it is the second
part that connects it to ‘Willie’s Single’ and, I
believe, exposes the less obvious link to the
first part. In the same way that names get lost
or changed, so also do tunes get mixed up or
4 and 6, the tune is back on track for the final
two bars of the first part.
Labelling the motifs a, b, c etc the bar
sequence should be clear from the following
diagram.
Petrie: | a | b | c | d || a | b | e | f |
Willie: | a | x | b | c || y | a | e | f |
By inserting ‘motif x’ in bar 2 and ‘motif y’ in
bar 5, and by omitting the repeat of ‘motif d’
and ‘motif b’ the tune is transformed or, as
Breandán Breathnach would not say, ‘metamorphosed’ into something that sounds very
different. (c.f. ‘The Nomenclature of Irish
Dance Music’)
Willie's Single Jig (Willie's version, 1st Part)

   
(a)

 



      
(y)

   
(x)
(b)
     

(a)

 

     
(e)


embellished almost out of recognition. If you
are going ‘All the Way to Galway’ you might
reverse the order of parts when making the
return journey on ‘The Road to
Lisdoonvarna.’
Seán Donnelly has directed my attention to
the collection The English Dancing Master
published by John Playford in 1651 which
contains the earliest printed version of the
first part of the ‘Irish Washerwoman’ under
the titles ‘Sedany’ or ‘Dargason’.
Taking Petrie’s version as close to the ‘original’ composition, I suggest that bars 2 and 5
of Willie’s version were added, pushing the
bar sequence on and, by omitting Petrie’s bars

(c)
(f)

 


     
1.
Part of the disparity between the versions lies
in the fact that the “Washerwoman’s” first
phrase of two bars is predictably transposed
up a tone for the second two-bar phrase and
transposed back for the third two-bar phrase
resulting in far too much repetition. Clancy’s
version, on the other hand, undermines the
logic of the tune’s phrasing until bar 7 is
reached. For me, Petrie’s version solves the
origin of a most unusual tune. As to who
made the changes, we will never know. I
know which version I prefer.
Jimmy O’Brien-Moran
19
~ Airs & Graces ~
Willie Clancy
A Stór mo Chroí
3
A
home
stór
mo chroí
that
you’ll
ma ny
the time,
heart
will
stran
rich
pine,
love
gers’
in
I
that
when you’re
soon
by
be
land
night
sore
may
her
trea
know
for
is
be
ly
ne
ver
20
that
ing.
and
gol
long long
It’s
day
griev
sures
way from the
ving.
by
bright
the
a
lea
and
be
far
For
fair,
den.
a
old
your
And
You’ll
go,
en.
the
And
the
A stór mo chroí, when you’re far away
From the home that you’ll soon be leaving.
It’s many the time, by night and by day
That your heart will be sorely grieving.
For the strangers’ land may be bright and fair
And rich in her treasures golden
You’ll pine, I know, for the long, long ago
And the love that is never olden.
A stór mo chroí, in the strangers’ land
There is plenty of wealth and wailing.
Whilst gems adorn the great and grand
There are faces with hunger paling.
The road is dreary and hard to tread
And the lights of their cities blind you.
Oh turn, a stór, to Erin’s shore
And the one that you left behind.
A stór mo chroí, when the evening sun
Over mountain and meadow is falling,
Won’t you turn away from the throng and list
And maybe you’ll hear me calling.
For the sound of a voice that is surely mine
For somebody’s speedy returning.
A rún! a rún! Won’t you come back soon
To the one that will always love you.
n December 1972, a month before Willie
Clancy died, a group of pipers paid a visit
to Miltown Malbay with the intention of
spending the weekend in his company and
enjoying the music and good humoured conversation for which he was renowned. I was
lucky to be involved in that trip and I treasure
the memories of the hours spent in Willie’s
presence in the back of Friel’s—sometimes
playing, sometimes singing, sometimes talking, always basking in the glow of Willie’s
genial personality.
the group would perform a piece solo as their
turn came around—much as singers still do. I
think that Breandán Breathnach had a lot to
do with this; his regular reiteration of his conviction that solo performance was the only
mode for pipers made a lasting impression on
his circle.
I
On one occasion when my turn came around
I played the air of the song “A Stór Mo
Chroí”. When I had finished Willie remarked
that it was his favourite song, probably in distress at my handling of it.
It was a time before ‘the session’ had got such
a grip on the music, and the practice in our
company at the time was that each member of
Through the good offices of Peter Browne we
recently received a recording of Willie’s play-
21
ing and singing, and it contains his sung rendition of “A Stór Mo Chroí”, which we now
present here.
songs of his have entered the tradition, but
none is so widely performed as “A Stór Mo
Chroí”. The air as performed nowadays is a
version of “Bruach na Carraige Báine”, the
tune specified by O’Higgins.
The recording was used by Pat Mitchell during a talk at the Tionól in Spanish Point in
2003. It was the first time I had heard Willie
sing the song, being more familiar with Sean
’ac Dhonncha’s rendition, so I was surprised
with a particular feature of it. This is the introduction of the Fnat note in the 7th line of the
song, on the word ‘pine’, and at the same
point in the other verses.
There are small differences between Willie’s
text and the original. These include one mistake by Willie, where he ends the first line of
the final verse with the word ‘sun’. The original has ‘mist’, which provides a rhyme with
the third line. O’Higgins’ third verse (including original spelling) is as follows:
A stoir mo chroidhe! when the evening mist
O’er mountain and sea is falling,
Then turn away from the throng, and list,
And maybe you’ll hear me calling—
For the sound of a voice that I’ll sorely miss,
For somebody’s quick returning;
A ruin, a ruin, O, come back soon
To the love that is always burning.
To the best of my knowledge no other singer
performs the song in this way. Sean ’ac
Dhonncha introduces a remarkable and beautiful melodic variation in the third verse on
the phrase “A rún, a rún” where he performs
his famous slide up to Fnat on the first “rún”
and a slide up to E on the second “rún”.
However he doesn’t introduce the Fnat in the
previous verses, so its use in the final verse
comes as a marvellous surprise. Of course the
repetition in the text matches and facilitates
the musical device.
Willie’s rendition of the song can be heard on
our website at: www.pipers.ie/sound/
Clancy_A Stor Mo Chroi.mp3. Note that
Willie sings it three tones higher, starting and
finishing on D.
When I heard the recording of Willie’s
singing I mentioned my surprise to Seán
Potts, who replied that he too had been surprised at hearing it, and for the same reasons.
The air is an excellent one for the pipes. It is
in a minor key, with a suitably plaintive
sound. The introduction of Clancy’s and ’ac
Dhonncha’s slides and accidentals present a
bit of a challenge, but I can’t see any way
around this; the melody doesn’t seem to fit
anywhere else on a one- or two-keyed
chanter.
Finally, it might be worth remarking on a particular phrase which occurs in the second
verse. The song was discussed at some length
a few years ago by an internet discussion
group, and one contributor professed himself
unable to grasp the meaning of the line “in the
strangers’ land there is plenty of wealth and
wailing”. In case there are others who are baffled by the expression, it simply means that in
those countries to which Irish people were
emigrating—in effect, Britain and America—
enormous wealth was to be found juxtaposed
with widespread misery. The point is reinforced in the following two lines.
The song itself was written by Brian
O’Higgins and published in his collection
Songs of Glen na Mona in 1929. O’Higgins
was a prominent nationalist and polemicist
and a prolific writer of verse. A few other
Terry Moylan
22
~ Sing a song of piping ~
Slán le Willie Clancy
Éamon Ó Géaráin
(Caismirneach an t-Srutháin, Swift Print, Birr, co. Offaly.)
Sciobadh Willie uainn gan choinne;
Bhí banna ceoil thuas ar Neamh,
Is theastaigh píobaire ó Dhia;
Chuir “Sé” fios ar Willie,
Chun teacht ar laethe saoire,
Is tar éis beagán ama,
Go bhféadfadh sé dul abhaile,
Ach bhí Willie iontach tógtha,
Leis an dream thuas ar Neamh,
D’aithin sé a lán dá chairde,
Ag seinm is ag cleachtadh,
D’iarr sé méadú ar a chonradh,
Ar choinníoll beag le Dia!
Go bhfanfadh sé lán-aimseartha,
Ar choinníoll go bhfaigheadh sé sos gairme,
Chun filleadh ar Sráid na Cathrach—
Bliain i ndiaidh bliana,
Le h-aghaidh na Féile i mí Iúil,
Chun casadh le sean-cháirde,
Ó thíortha thar sáile,
Is le comharsana ó bhaile:
Síníodh an Conradh céanna,
idir Willie is le Dia;
Tá a fhios ag gach mac máthar
go bhfuil Dia an-mhacánta,
Is go bhfuil Willie féin,
Lách-ionraic-cineálta;
Mar sin—gach mí Iúil,
Bíonn laochra móra Ceoil,
Ag comóradh ag ceiliúradh,
is Willie féin ag stiúradh,
I mbun sult, spraoi is scléipe,
Chuile bhliain ar feadh seachtaine,
I Sráid na Cathrach cois mara.
Translation:
Willie was taken from us without warning
There was a band up in Heaven
And God wanted a piper.
He was the one who told Willie
To come for a holiday.
And that after a while
He could go home,
But Willie was delighted
With the crowd in Heaven
He found many of his friends
Playing and practicing.
He asked for his stay to be prolonged
As a small favour from God.
That he would stay on full-time
On condition that he would get an occasional
break
To return to Miltown Malbay—
Year after year
For the festival in July
To meet old friends
From foreign lands
And his local companions
The same covenant is agreed
Between Willie and God
Every mother's son knows
That God is generous
And that Willie himself is
Gentle, upstanding and kind
So—every July
There are the great musical heroes
Competing and celebrating
With Willie himself directing
In the middle of the fun and the crack
Every year for a week
In Miltown Malbay by the sea.
23
~ Seanchas ~
Patsy Touhey at Saint Louis
representative explained at the commencement of the interview.
“It appears to be an undoubted fact then that a
performance, degrading to the Irish character
took place on 30th April?”
“It does. I reached the Exhibition at about 12
o’clock on Friday, 4th May, and made my first
appearance in the Irish Theatre on the following Saturday night. When I arrived I found on
the scene three acrobats and a piper named
Touhy, from New York, who is described as
one of the greatest pipers in the world. In
addition there was a French-American named
Drummier, and a man named Bernard
Kavanagh. Kavanagh, who lives within 15
miles of Buffalo and is of Irish parentage, was
acting as assistant to the stage manager, an
Englishman of the name of Martin. Martin
was subordinate to Mr. Myles Murphy, a New
York comedian and director of amusements at
the Irish Section, while Mr. Murphy was acting, of course, under Mr. Hanly.”
“Now, as you have mentioned the assistant
stage manager, I might point out to you a
rather remarkable statement that has been
published over here. It is said that a Jew was
engaged to assist the Englishman in managing
the Irish Theatre, and that he happened to be
the son of a gentleman whose New York
Theatre was some time ago the scene of a riot.
It appears that at this theatre a play called
‘M’Fadden’s Flat’ was hooted and rottenegged off the stage, because it represented the
Irish of New York as ‘supplying the missing
link.’ The name of the theatre-owner associated with this performance is given as
Rosencrest, and the assistant stage manager in
the Irish section at St. Louis is alleged to have
been his son. The stress laid on this fact prac-
Dublin Evening Mail, 21 July 1904
THE "STAGE IRISHMAN"
CONTROVERSY
At St. Louis Exhibition
THE IRISH THEATRE Co's
EXPERIENCES
Facts of the Dispute
INTERVIEW WITH MR. J.F.
McCORMACK
r. J.F. M’Cormack, the well-known
tenor, who has been singing in the
Irish section of the St. Louis
Exhibition since the 4th May Last, arrived in
Dublin some days ago. His presence in the
city gave a “Mail” representative the opportunity of securing reliable and first-hand information of the facts of a now notorious controversy. The details of the “stage Irishman”
have already reached the public through the
medium of this and other journals. But, so far,
public opinion has been unassisted by any
authentic record of actual personal experience. Mr. M’Cormack is, however, capable of
supplying such an interesting and enlightening narrative. His courtesy enables us to put it
before our readers. After a perusal of this
plain and unadorned tale they will be able to
form an accurate judgment as to the extent of
the alleged outrage on Irish sentiment and
self-respect, and as to the exact value attachable to the recent repudiations of Mr. Edward
Devoy.
M
“I have called to get an account of your experiences at the St Louis Exhibition,” the “Mail”
24
tically insinuates that Rosencrest’s influence
had something to do with the monkeyIrishman ‘humour’ of April 30th?’
“There was certainly a man named
Rosencrest,” replied Mr. M’Cormack, “but he
had nothing to do with the performances in
the theatre. It was untrue to say that he was
assistant manager. I believe he was Mr.
Murphy’s secretary. Now, the first night I
appeared there was not a single feature in the
performance that any reasonable man could
object to. Of course I heard that Touhy had
given a very offensive representation of the
stage Irishman on the first night, but the dispute on that was seemingly ended. I heard all
about the row and the agreement between
Hanly and the players, providing against the
repetition of what was objected to.”
“Now please tell me about your own personal
experiences of the ‘Stage Irishman’.”
“All went well until the evening of the 24th
May. Then Touhy, whom I have already mentioned, came on and sang a song called
‘Patrick’s Day.’ Yes: it is absolutely true to
say that this song held the Irish up to ridicule.
It was about a man who took 30 days to celebrate the feast of St. Patrick, and who took 29
of the days to get well from the effects of the
first day’s drink. While Touhy was singing
this, he worked in a lot of very offensive
‘business’ — he played the drunken Irishman
in a very disgusting manner.”
“You considered it a degrading exhibition,
then?” “Decidedly, it was most degrading and
scandalous,” said Mr. M’Cormack, with
indignant emphasis. “I watched the performance from inside the curtain. I was angry and
disgusted. Touhy was encored and danced. I
went straight up to Mr. Martin, and said, quietly and publicly — ‘Mr. Martin, I will not go
on the stage after such an artist.’ He said, ‘All
right.’ I went upstairs to my dressing room,
and on the way met Mr. Digges, who said —
“Quite right, Mac! I will back you out in
this!” Mr. Digges went to Martin; but I can’t
say what occurred between them. There were
some angry words. Martin told Mr. Digges
and his friends to get away out of that. I was
not ‘next on the programme’ when I objected
to go on. Miss Marie Narelle was; but the
moment I heard the stage Irishman sing, I
made up my mind.”
“It is reported that Martin on this occasion
reviled the Irish actors and their nation. Did
you hear him do so?”
‘No, not exactly; but when myself and Digges
and another were about to leave I heard him
say — ‘The idea of these upstarts coming
over from Ireland to try and dictate to a man
who has been at the business all his life,’ and
he added that if we left the theatre we might
take the consequences and that they would
not allow us inside the place anymore. We
then left and were joined by Miss Quinn and
Mr Caulfield.”
“You all withdrew?”
“Marie Narelle went on, but Miss Lily Foley
did not.”
“Were you acting on your own account or in
concert with others?” “Decidedly on my own
account. I was thoroughly disgusted with
what had happened, and I accept the fullest
personal responsibility for my own withdrawal.”
“What happened next?” “We were all in a
bunch outside the theatre considering what
we would do. Murphy came along, and
Digges and myself went over to him to speak
to him. He looked very sour, and passed us by
without speaking. After that Mr. Hanly, whose
son was speaking to us at the time, came
along, and we all stopped him. He answered
that we ‘should arrange all that with Mr.
Murphy.’ We told him Mr. Murphy would not
speak to us. He passed on, but at his son’s
request came back and asked what our grievances were. We told him we objected to having our country and ourselves held up to
ridicule. Mr. Digges was a spokesman. I cannot remember his reply exactly, but he said
25
something about putting 75,000 dollars into
the show and getting it back. But I clearly recollect that he denied any knowledge about the
stage Irishman going on the boards, and said
that he was every bit as Irish as any of us, and
had the very same objection to these exhibitions.”
“Is it a fact, as I have read, that the ‘stage
Irishman’ appeared in all his glory the following night?” “That statement is absolutely
false. He did not appear the next night, or any
night afterwards up to the time I left.”
“After that night, as a matter of fact, was there
anything at all to object to?” “Absolutely
nothing, so far as I could see. Late on the
night of the 24th May — the night of the dispute — I had an interview with Hanly and
Murphy. Hanly accused me of breaking my
contract I answered that I was prepared to
stand by what I had done. He said that the
legal thing for me to have done was to have
gone on in the order of the programme, and to
have made my protest afterwards. I said that I
was aware a protest had been made before,
and that he had given an undertaking to the
players that there would be no stage Irishman
again. He said — ‘Are you aware of the fact
that the protest you speak about was never
handed in properly, and that the management
were merely given to understand that it had
been drawn up. ‘I said I heard it had been sent
in, but in any event I was prepared to stand by
what I had done myself. Then he asked me
would I go on if I got a guarantee that Touhy’s
performance would not be repeated, but I said
it would be better for both parties that I
should go home. At his request I reconsidered
my decision, and as a result of guarantees
given to us, Miss Foley and I went on the next
night and continued to sing up to the time of
my departure for Ireland. I came back because
my health was not of the best, and I had trouble with my throat.”
Mr. McCormack could not speak from personal knowledge about the developments
leading to the alleged dismissal of Messers.
Digges, Ewing, and Miss Quinn by the
Advisory Board, presided over by Mr.
Edward Devoy (President of the American
UnitedIrish League). “We were,” he said,
“kept completely in the dark about all this.”
“Why were you kept in the dark?” “Because,”
he replied, “we were considered to be weakkneed individuals — false to our principle for
the sake of a few dollars.”
“You don’t plead guilty to that, I presume?”
“Certainly not. We did not go back to sing
until we got a guarantee that there would be
no more of the stage Irishman. What then had
we to protest against? We had made our
protest, and it had been successful. That is a
point I would like to have brought clearly out,
because I consider that a serious injustice has
been done to those who continued on in the
theatre.”
On being shown Mr. Edward Devoy’s denial
that the performances in the Irish Section caricatured the Irish Race, Mr. M’Cormack
declared that it was misleading. The entertainment of 24th May was anything but
“refined and attractive” and reflected anything but “credit” on the Irish character. “At
the same time,” said Mr. M’Cormack, “from
the description you give me of the reports
published in Ireland about the dispute, I must
say that they greatly exaggerate the state of
affairs. The ‘Stage Irishman’ at St. Louis was
bad, no doubt, but not one-tenth as bad as
some of the things I have seen applauded at
the theatres in Dublin.” It was his opinion that
a little more moderation and good temper on
both sides would have honourably adjusted
the St. Louis differences. “Personally, he had
carried away from St. Louis no resentment to
anybody, and he would always look back to
his sojourn there with feelings of real pleasure.”
The above is an edited version of Count John
McCormack’s account of the ‘Stage Irishman’ controversy at the Saint Louis Exhibition in 1904
26
n the middle of the court is a platform protected from the hot sun
by a large white awning, and here the musical functions of the village are conducted. Tuohey, the piper, ‘discoorses’
jigs and reels to the delight of an admiring audience, while Patsy Brannigan, a light-heeled
Donegal peasant, dances with a vigor and
grace that a first-class variety artist
would grow green with envy to look at.
Patsy, in his gray clothes, ruffles
and green stockings, is a great
attraction, but he is not
swelled up with pride,
being bashful and modest.
I
A description of Patsy
Touhey’s performance
at the Chicago World’s
Fair from The
Columbian Gallery - A
Portfolio of
Photographs from the
World’s Fair, The
Werner Company,
Chicago 1894. The
accompanying sketch
may be the first published image of Touhey.
~ Technical ~
Taking some of the pain out of reed-making
These can be obtained direct from Howard
Music on their website at www.howardmusic.co.uk, Na Píobairí Uilleann, Dublin;
Bagpipes Galore Edinburgh and other specialist folk shops.
hy do reed cane companies not produce cane ready gouged for uilleann pipers? The oboe and bassoon players can have their cane supplied not
only gouged but with the outside shape profiled and almost finished scraped. Well one
company has invested the time, effort,
research and tooling to produce not only the
cane components of the reed but also staples
for concert pitch pipes. The cane is available
in stick, pre-gouged, gouged and “ready-tie”
form. Feedback from early sales has been
very encouraging with repeat orders from
some keen new reedmakers. The staples are
solid tube spun and swaged with different
bores to suit various makes of concert pitch
chanters.
W
Company details:
Howard Music Ltd.
196 Rock Street,
Sheffield.
S3 9JF.
United Kingdom
Phone +44 (0)114 296 7272
Website: www.howardmusic.co.uk
E-mail shop@howardmusic.co.uk
28
~ Budget Practise Set ~
or those interested I am starting to
make a budget practice set consisting of
a straight ebony chanter with no keys,
an imitation leather stitched bag and leather
bellows. No Ivory, very plain. All that said,
this chanter plays just as well as a fully keyed
model.
F
Going price is $600.00 and right now the wait
is only 2 months.
at Sky has distilled his decades of reedmaking experience into a manual entitled THE CHANTER REED The beauty
and curse of piping, and has kindly made this
available to all pipers for free. It may be
downloaded from the NPU website in either
PDF or WORD formats. For the PDF format
input the following address into your web
browser: www.pipers .ie/download/reedadjust.pdf. For the Word version substitute
‘doc’ for ‘pdf’ at the end of the address.
Patrick Sky
(919) 929-2048
P
29
Videos and CDs from Na Píobairí Uilleann
Videos 1 & 2: €25; Video 3: €32. CDs: €21 (less discount, plus P+P)
NPUCD008 - Piping In Ireland. Issued in collaboration
with the Royal Scottish Pipe
Band Association (Northern
Ireland). This is a record of
the live performances during
our joint programme of
activities. (Also on Video)
The Art of Uilleann
Piping Vol 1 - Beginners’
Guide. An introductory
guide to playing the uilleann pipes with tuition by
Gay McKeon and Nollaig
Mac Cárthaigh. Covers the
basics of handling the
instrument and introduces
the player to simple tunes.
Also includes a problemsolving section to assist
newcomers to the pipes.
NPUCD010 - A New Dawn
- Uilleann Piping, Another
Generation. Performances
from young players Mikie
Smyth, Darragh Murphy,
Louise Mulcahy, Eliot
Grasso, Ciarán Ó Briain &
Conor McKeon.
The Art of Uilleann
Piping Vol 2 Intermediate Guide.
Builds on the Beginners
Guide by introducing more
complex piping technique
including cranning and various triplets. Includes a
booklet containing written
notations of all the tunes
performed on the video.
NPUCD011 - Johnny
Doran - The Master Pipers
Vol 1. Published in association with the Dept of Irish
Folklore, UCD, this contains all of the music
recorded by Doran.
NPUCD012 - Tommy
Kearney - The Master
Pipers Vol. 2.
Old and new recordings
from the Waterford piper
and patron of NPU.
The Art of Uilleann
Piping Vol 3 - Higher
Intermediate Level.
Takes the student further
into piping technique and
introduces more different
tune types. Includes a
booklet containing written
notationsof all the tunes
performed on the video and
also a CD (NPUCD009)
with sound recordings of
all the music.
NPUCD013 - Sean
McAloon - Stór Píobaireachta / Piping from the
Archives Vol. 1
Re-mastered recordings of
the Belfast piper made in
the 1970s.
30
Advertisements
~ FOR SALE ~
Patrick Murray practice set, 6 months old.
Reed works, could do with a new one soon.
CAN$600 (approx Stg£300). Darren Thomas,
eepluver@sympatico.ca (4/25)
Full set in D by BC Childress, blackwood
and brass, keyless chanter, brass drone reeds,
played regularly, all in working order. BC is
an excellent US maker who stands by his
work. $3,000. Contact Charles (Cathal)
Morley at cem@reformer.org (4/24)
Full Set, D, by Martin Preshaw, playing
very well, in excellent condition, made 2000.
Ring 07710 030408, or email tommyfegan@hotmail.com Price £2,250.00 (4/25)
Three quarter set for sale, with chanter and
drones by Peter Hunter and two regulators
by Johnny Bourke. Phone 01-2891031
(4/25)
~ WANTED ~
Concert pitch chanter made by Kirk
Lynch. Chanter has two keys: Fnat and Cnat.
Has a chanter top from a Seth Gallagher
chanter. Made 2000-2001. Please contact me
at whitefacedsimnee@aol.com or call 216851-3555. €800 Timothy Benson (4/24)
Cillian Ó Briain Half Set in concert pitch
wanted. (or single parts of Half set: Chanter /
bellows / drones / bag) Must be in perfect
working order! If possible fully keyed
chanter! Loïc JOUCLA loic@kyranmusic.net (4/25)
Uileann pipes made by Brad Angus in the
key of C. They come with a wooden case and
extra reeds, and are in excellent condition.
$5100.00. Marta Collier. martabeag@adelphia.net (4/25)
Full flat set of pipes, B or C considered but
must be in "perfect" playing order.
Keith Powell 0044 (0) 1248 430 147 or
keith@yoganorthwales.co.uk (4/26)
Na Píobairí Uilleann does not endorse, directly or indirectly, the goods or services offered here. These advertisements are carried as a service only. The reference number [e.g. (4/6)] on each advertisement indicates when it first
appeared in An Píobaire; 4/6 indicates Vol. IV, No. 6. Advertisements are carried for a maximum of three issues, or
until the advertiser requests NPU to withdraw the advertisement, whichever comes first.
To avoid unnecessary trouble and expense to others, please advise NPU when an advertised set has been sold.
African Blackwood and
Ebony
Martin Preshaw
Uilleann Pipemaker
Mill Cottage, 26 Millvale Road,
Katesbridge, Co. Down BT32 5LT
Tel: workshop 028 406 71722
home 028 406 71525
email: martin@pipemaker.freeserve.co.uk
No order too small.
Timber cut to order.
Northern Crescent Timbers
4 The Climb, Rickmansworth,
Herts. WD3 4DX, England
31
Calendar of Piping Events
July 11-17
18th South Sligo Summer School, Tubbercurry, co. Sligo. Phone 0719120912, Fax: 071-9185035. Website: www.sssschool.org
July 17-24
16th Annual Joe Mooney Summer School, Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim.
Contact Nancy Woods at +353 (0)78 41213, Mary Doyle at +353 (0)78
41426. Website: www.homepages.iol.ie/~nwoods/ email: nwoods@iol.ie
July 19-24
Francis McPeake International Summer School, Belfast.
website: www.francismcpeake.com/summerschool.htm
July 26-31
Scoil Acla, Achill, co. Mayo. Contact phone + 353 98 43414. email:
info@scoilacla.com. Website: www.scoilacla.com
Aug 9-15
Piping Hot - Glasgow International Piping Festival, Glasgow Royal concert Hall. International programme including uilleann piping performance by
Robbie Hannan. Contacts: Tel. 0845 241 4400; email info@pipingfestival
.co.uk; Website www.pipingfestival.co.uk
Aug 28-30
The Pipers’ Gathering, Shore Acres Inn, North Hero, Vermont. Featuring
Brian McNamara, Benedict Koehler and David Power. See website
www.pipersgathering.org for details.
Sep 10-12
Celtic Fest Mississippi, Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Musem, 1150
Lakeland Dr, Jackson, MS 39216-470. Featuring Paddy Keenan. Details from
www.celticfestms.org
Oct 1-3
Al Purcell Irish Music Gathering, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Beginners, intermediate and advanced piping classes; reed-making classes. See website for
details: www.geocities.com/thelongnote
Oct 8-10
16th Annual Templemore Tionól. Contacts: Joe Barry at 050431409,
Brendan Collins at 0504 50969
Oct 22-24
2004 Southern California Tionól, San Juan Capistrano. Piping guests will
be Mick O'Brien, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and Benedict Koehler. Details
from So.Cal. Uilleann Pipers’ Club, c/o Larry Dunn, 7153 Knowlton Pl., Los
Angeles, CA 90045-2215. Website: www.socalpipers.com/tionol_2004.html
Oct 29-Nov 1 East Coast Tionól, East Durham, New York. Performers will include Mick
O’Brien & Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, David Power, Mickey Dunne and
Debbie Quigley. Reedmaking will be taught by Nick Whitmer, and piping by
Patrick Hutchinson and Benedict Koehler. Details from www.eastcoastpipers.com