This past Sunday I had the pleasure of finally hearing one of the greatest Irish Uilleann pipers in the world in a live performance at an house concert in Olympia, Washington. The piper was Paddy Keenan, and for those of you who follow Celtic music, he is one of the original members of "The Bothy Band" one of the bands that brought Irish music to the world. There are few pipers that can come close to this man. He shared the concert with singer and exceptional DADGAD tuning guitarist, Tommy O'Sullivan, who is gaining a good reputation as a fine Irish artist as well.
Paddy is on the left and Tommy, on the right it the picture above. They are tuning the instruments before the concert.
I asked Paddy if I could take a picture of his pipes and he came over and told me that the wood is ebony, the metal is silver and the white trim is made of ivory.
The Uilleann (pronounced, "illen") pipes are played by pumping air, from the bellows, tied to the right elbow, ( if you are a right handed player ) into the air bag under the left arm. This supplies air pressure to the three main parts of the pipes.
1. The chanter, upon which, the melody is played.
2.The regulators, which play the harmony and rhythms.
3. The drones, which play a continuous sound.
In this picture, Paddy moved the bellows so the regulator could be seen better. It is the part nearest the back of the chair with all the buttons. The drones are attached behind it and the lowest drone has the white circular piece on it. The chanter is partially obstructed by the bellows in the picture above though, you can see it better it the picture above it. Uilleann is an Irish word meaning elbow, hence using the elbow to pump air into the instrument rather than blowing air into the air bag as is done with the Highland Pipes or the Irish War Pipes. There are many variations of pipes that are played by pumping a bellows and another example is the Scottish Small Pipes which has a chanter and drones. The Uilleann is the only one that uses regulators.
To see it played is a treat especially when the piper is using all of the instrument at once. Generally, one can play the chanter alone or with the drones. The chanter is played with both hands whilst the regulator is played with the wrist of the right hand or the fingers of the right hand depending if the melody is high enough on the chanter where one can remove the right hand to use the fingers instead of the wrist. Paddy has said that this instrument breathes. ;-) I think it holds the collective soul of Ireland in its body as well.
Paddy started playing the pipes at the age of 10 years old. Paddy also comes from a family of Travellers who lived in wagons pulled by horses that travelled on the roads of Ireland back when he was a lad. When he was growing up they were looked down upon by small-minded people whose kids would call him names. Kids can be cruel and the Travellers were pejoratively called Tinkers, Gypos, Knacker, Sham. The Travellers' call themselves, Pavee, the title name of their own tribal clan.
Unfortunately, the picture taken above became too bright when the camera flashed against the ivory. Paddy pointed out to me that the ends of the tuning knobs were carved in the design of the "hops" plant, in his "drinking days!" ;-) I tried to capture them for you to see but, there it is.
Here are the instruments sans their players. As it turned out, they were playing a concert in Seattle on Saturday and had a concert scheduled in Portland for Monday so they were looking to fill in the day in-between with a concert about half way to Portland and Olympia was perfect for it. Olympia has a great Celtic community of musicians and the audience Sunday evening was composed of all musicians. We had a jam seisiún after the concert where Paddy joined us. Peggy, the fiddler in the band I'm in and I played a few of my tunes and Paddy would like to do some of them. What an honour that would be for me if that project becomes a reality. If he is ever touring and comes to your city or town by chance, do try and see this legendary piper. He is considered the best living Uilleann piper of today.
10 comments:
A performance that turned into a jam...how delightful!
Thanks for the education on the Uilleann Pipes, my friend. I had no idea there were so many varieties. Or that Uilleann meant "elbow."
Greg: You're very welcome! If I were much younger,( as in my early teens ) I would take up those pipes. They are an amazing instrument played in the right hands.
There's a story that claims it takes 21 years to become a great piper. The first seven, you learn how to play the chanter well, the second seven, the instrument wrestles with you to see who will dominate whom, and the last seven, you apply all of the parts of the instrument and develop your own style of playing. Many pipers start out on the penny-whistle first. And I think all of them can play the whistles and long flutes. It was a great evening I will remember for the rest of my life.
What a fantastic experience! I loved the Bothy Band, though I never owned one of their tapes/albums. They were one of the many bands I knew about only from listening to Fiona Richie's NPR show, "Thistle and Shamrock". I haven't thought about that show in ages. Is it still running? I must check. And what a thrill to know Paddy Keanan may be taking your music on the road with him! I hadn't known he was a Traveller; even still there is plenty of prejudice against them in Ireland. As recently as 2002 (when I was there last) an up and coming young performer was refused entrance to the pub where she was scheduled to play, because she was a Traveller. Of course membership in the EU means that more racial minorities are making their homes in Ireland (there are more Cantonese speakers than Irish speakers in Dublin now), so maybe greater tolerance will result. Goodness, this is a long note, and I could go longer, but I'll stop here and say thanks for sharing such a magical night with us.
Patrick: It truly was a magical evening and one I will cherish and remember for the rest of my life. I'm sure you would have loved the concert as well.
Many in Ireland are still fighting for the rights of the Travellers and Paddy has said it's well past time that land was given back to many of the Traveller's who were forced off their lands and had to live on the road.
I find that the musical spontaneity of an impromptu jam can be so magical.
Thanks for teaching us about the pipes
Dantallion: You bet!
The magic of the moment, not knowing where the music is going to take you, and knowing further, that this moment in life is special and can never be repeated, makes "live" performances very special for me.
Paddy Keenan never plays a piece the same way twice and to watch him play, you know you are hearing it in a way that matches his mood of the moment. He starts out by turning on his drones with perhaps, a few of the regulators tuning them quickly into harmony with the drones, then he takes off with the melody on the chanter. Somewhere in the process, he has closed his eyes when he started playing. He is truly in another world of his own making and he has taken us along with him as well. The post-concert jam seisiún had the same feeling with tunes being added by any person willing to keep the music going at the moment. It's always interesting where the music leads us and what tune will be chosen to follow the previous. I can say that I haven't had this much fun musically, in a long time. ( I wish you all could have experienced it as well. )
Funny, I took this course and met this guy who won the world championships as a bag pipe player.
The course was a language course, not bag piping. I've heard him play a couple of times, I pretend to like it.
Tylenol please to be honest.
My father loves the pipes though.
My grandparents from Scotland would disown me I guess???
Alan: Not everyone loves the pipes. My other half doesn't. I'm guessing that you were listening to the Highland Pipes, which are very loud and can only be played with drums and other pipers. The Uilleann pipes can be played with other instruments and I find them more interesting. I wouldn't worry about having to turn in your Scottish membership card just yet. ;-)
Back in '97, I was briefly involved with a local LGBT Irish/Irish-American group (you can find everything in NYC; actually there were two such groups). We had a St. Paddy's dinner and part of the entertainment was provided by a group based in Long Island that is made up of leather bikers who play bagpipes. I'm not making this up. They have their own tartan (black and blue, natch). You really can find anything around here. They were great. This next part I think my memory must be exaggerating; did we REALLY have 30 highland pipers playing together in a church basement? Would anyone seriously have thought that was wise? That is my recollection, though, and I remember enjoying it. There were more than ten, I'm sure of it. As you say, it was not to everyone's taste, but I don't remember having my eardrums blasted out.
Patrick: "Leather Bikers & Bagpipes" sounds like a good title for a book or movie! ;-) I'm surprised you have and hearing left with that many pipes in a small room.
What is so unique about the uilleann pipes, besides the regulator is that they have a two octave range (+) whilst the Irish War Pipes, Highland Pipes & Scottish Small pipes have about nine notes total. To get into the higher octave, one has to squeeze the air bag harder. ( I realize there is a wonderful double entendre in that last sentence but, I am not going anywhere near that today. ) ;-)
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