Greetings Chiffy Pipering People…
I am a lowly player of shuttle pipes. I love the little things and have more fun playing them than a person SHOULD have with an instrument, before police agencies become involved. But I have the lust in my heart… oh my. I am very aware of the dangers of uilleanndom, oh yes.. but I care not. I grow more reckless with age.
In a perfect world I could afford a set of pastoral pipes, as they would fill my need quite nicely… but I am afraid that I have not yet found a spare $2500 lying around the back yard yet (“Well yeah honey, we do need a new roof on the porch but damn.. these are PASTORAL pipes..honey? hmm..honey?”). I understand the historical progression to be pastoral begat union whom didst begat uilleann (although I have never quite figured out the difference twinxt union and uilleann). So I have toyed with the idea of trying to make a half set on my own. I have built three harps, a clavichord, a harpsichord, barrels of fancy furniture and a small house so the tools needed are not really a problem. I was wondering if anyone here has any thoughts about A. Ginsberg’s “Rowsome” plans (are they so complicated they leave of trail of hopefuls babbling in the corner and twiddling their lower lip?), and more importantly: Is there evidence of closed chanters on 18th century pipes? Am I remembering correctly that there was a post a long time ago about an Egan set c. 1760? Does this ring a bell with anyone? Many thanks in advance.
Robert
www.wireharp.com
Geoghean published his pastoral pipes tutor in 1746, the chanter was “closed” (that is, foot joint removed) sometime thereafter, it’s hard to tell exactly when. O’Farrell’s tutor of 1803 describes a keyless Union pipes chanter (no foot-joint) and four drones/1 regulator; he says most players only use two drones at a time and Geoff Wooff wrote that the drones of early pipes are a bit too loud for the chanter. This may indicate that the drones of these sets were originally made to be used with a pastoral chanter, which since it was played constantly off-the-knee would be a bit louder than the Union pipes chanter.
“Uilleann” was declared the correct name for the pipes about 100 years ago, in the early years of the Gaelic League. It never occurs in print before then, and is wholly fanciful. Union pipes was first used ca. 1770.
Ginsberg’s plans are a bit simplified, you can make better working chanters than the simple conical bores he describes. I have a C set copied from his plans and don’t much like it at all, the bass drone in particular is quite bad (requires a stump of a reed, very tricky to make - a shorter bore uses a longer reed which will be less touchy).
Pipemaking is quite an undertaking. I’d stick to blowpipes and simple chanters for the time being, not to mention reeds. At least you’ve actually built something, lots of people want to build full sets and the only thing they’ve made in their life are Winamp playlists…
Hi WireHarp
Have a look here.
http://www.uilleann.us/kevinscott/lowband.htm
You might get some ideas about to go forward.
Pastoral chanters are fun (but bloody frustrating as well).
David