No UP-learners in Germany any more?

Uilleann Pipes
1

Hi,
I was going to reply to the „Do they understand“ or to the „I hear it, but she don´t“ threads cause I see strong parallels but decided to start a new thread in the end.

An example: I gave a copy of the „Kitty Lie Over“ – CD to a friend of mine (he plays Franconian music, Irish music is not the „vernacular“ at his place), his little 3-year-young daughter heard it playing and spontaneously decided: „Daddy, I want to learn Doodlesack“ (not knowing of course that those are UPs).

I think this should explain a lot. But concidering my topic now: At several tionols over here I noticed and was made aware (or got emails) that nobody wants to start learning the UPs any more (while there are many learners of other ITM-instruments). Andreas says that he has plenty of orders from abroad, but nearly none from Germany. I think this an awkward tendency especialy in view of the fact that you can buy very fine instruments from him nowadays (nearly „round the corner“) and get tuition from the DUPG (German Uilleann Pipers´ Association).

I am going to write something about this for the DUPG and would like to read about your opinions before. I have some theories for the (newer German) lack of interest in pipes: As you can imagine, acquisition and learning conditions were very different from today when we started in the 70s. Folk-music (in Northern-Germany at least) had died out completely (in the 60s people over here associated Bob Dylan with folk-music rather, there were just songs and no dancetunes at all). When the Dubliners came over and a little later Eddie and Finbar or Planxty, Irish music filled the gap to a vast extent. A few years later people started „diggin out“ lost German dancetunes, but there never has been such a lively tradition that could compare to the Irish in any way.

Now, Bill Haneman´s thoughts about the difference between a professional and a traditional musician were very helpful. Over here all the (very few) people came „in contact“ with UPs via professional (global) players and records but definitely not via a tradition. I guess this might be the same with „her that does not know what is meant“. Hearing ITM in the house is not the usual thing (well – perhaps not in Ireland either, but at least not like over here completely unusual) and especially pipes. In a „non traditional area“ you can but only get influenced by professional players.

Unlike a record player, radio or any other traditional instrument you can´t get more quiet while playing pipes. What you can do, however, is set up the reed beforehand.
Pipes in „non traditional areas“ do have a very negative image and I guess this is due to the pipers to a vast extent. You can „tear open““ the reeds that it sounds like a starting F-16 or you can set it up that the cat comes purring or the baby falls asleep. Pipers can do a lot to abolish this negative image and I guess that it doesn´t have to do that much with the standard of playing. Even when just a constant single note is played, a set of pipes can be very charming. In my opinion, the audience a piper might „aim at“ should not be the settled traditional player (that much) but the little unbiased child or the wife/husband. If you can´t charm those, you might ask yourself whether something is wrong with the setup of your set.

Best,
Hans

2

You seem to be drawing many different issues together to try to make a case for a decrease in beginners. Are you saying that people don’t want to learn UPs because of difficulties with tuning? - with concerns about loudness?

How about lack of presence of UPs in the public conscious? If people are rarely exposed to ITM, and if their ITM exposure is only to bands with no UPs, then wouldn’t it be more helpful to increase exposure of the public to UPs? This could be done with more concerts from international level professional pipers, but it could also be done by local pipers just getting out and playing in public more often.

djm

3

I’ve just started about 3 months ago, and I live in Basel, so near Germany :>
Nobody in my neighbourhood complained about the “noise”. I do try to practice with the windows closed and not at 10 pm. The small children from next door make a bigger racket than I do… But I wouldn’t have started if I hadn’t found a teacher near me.

4

Hm. The lacking of young people wanting to learn UP directly correlates with the lacking of young people dealing with “folk” music in general. The opportunities to hear great UP music and to get hold of a good set have never been better than today. This holds true for Germany as well as for any Western country. It is just that this kind of music just does not happen in the media. As for “living tradition”, the “folk” venues, where you could hear and meet local trad musicians die out here due to severe cuts in public grants supporting culture in general and folk music in particular. I see this happen with the folk club I am involved in here. For a couple of years we have been on the edge of throwing in the towel. The audience is more or less the same generation who started “rolling the ball” in the late 60’s. Nevertheless, there are young people interested in trad and eager to learn to play instruments like UPs. I, for instance, have an 18 year old girl as a pupil on UP, and I know of quite a few others. But, of course, those are the exception to the rule. Nowadays young people are most likely to be attracted to pipe music by German bands like In Extremo, Schandmaul, Corvus Corax or Subway to Sally, who mix medieval pipe + drum with heavy metal and Halloween masquerade :roll: But who knows where those young Gothic folkies will move on once they get older? I, for my part, came to Irish music via the likes of Mr. Mike Oldfield… :blush:
In my tin whistle classes there are people of all ages, from 16 years to 70. So there will always be some people interested in trad or ITM. Alas, the days of Waldeck are gone for good.