This is the kind of question that’d probably get my old pipe major so ticked at me she’d have probably kicked me out of the band for asking it. Be that as it may, I’ve barely touched the highland pipes since I started trying to learn the uilleann almost a year ago and am so out of practice, yet I’m starting to get those “want to play Piobaireachd” type moods that I get in this time of year. Just wondered if anyone else has considered playing them on the uilleann pipes. (Also, how do you do a taurluath or a grip on the uilleanns? Whenever I try it just don’t sound right.)
Piobaireachd isn’t really suited for the Up’s… as you ponted out by your statement above: “Whenever I try it just don’t sound right.”
Pick up the old octopus, and her a squeeze if you are longing for Piobaireachd exercises… providing you still have an old octopus. I also recommend a shower and some ‘stop stink’ afterwards, octopi aren’t very nice smelling.
I occasionally play piobaireachd on the uilleann pipes. Just pick a great melody piece with no low G’s ( ghb low g’s) such as MacKintosh’s lament or The Old Woman’s lullaby. Forget highland fingering do yer own thing, play crans of various lengths in place of treblings, taorluaths and crunluaths.. It does work after all a good melody is a good melody.
Ummmm, no offense, but it wouldn’t be a true Piobaireachd without the fingering… not that you can’t do that… but why? Personally, I feel that exercise style or whatever you want to call it is better suited to the other pipes, play what the Union Pipes were designed for, their own music.
The total experience of piobaireachd comes from playing it on the piob mhór. There’s really no adequate substitute.
Shy of that there’s singing the canntaireachd, maybe doing so while accompanying yourself on bellows-blown smallpipes which has recently found a niche in the tradition.
One could theoretically just play the ground and any variations on the uilleann pipe that aren’t taorluath or crunluath variations. If you play a tune note for note, like say ‘The Groat’ since I’m working on that one, you could start half way up the chanter to get the low G and since it’s a fosgailte tune the taourluath variation is mostly tight triplets and the crunluath amounts to just an endari for which you could play a cran on E.
I’m w/JES. Why play it on UPs? You could get a set of smallpipes for that. I think the UPs are much more suited for playing the New Wave of British Heavy Metal songs like Iron Maiden’s “Wasted Years” provided you have a fiddle to play along w/you to get the harmonies right.
…or you could just play IRISH music, there’s sure as hell enough of it to go around
Iron Maiden on UPs!! This I gotta hear! I’ve heard “Thunderstruck” done on GHBs and loved it. I have a fetish for cover songs…especially when they’re done on trad instruments.
To post something relevant to the thread: pibroch(I’m not trying to spell the gaelic) is best suited to the instrument it’s written for. But, I agree with the other guy that a good melody is a good melody and that shouldn’t stop you. I play lots of pipe tunes on my whistles.
It seems to me (as an ex GHB player) that in the long run, why not?
Yes, pibroch is wonderful on GHB if you are in the mood. However, if it sounds musical and fulfilling to you why not play it on UP’s? I occasionally play the grounds of some tunes on my flute. . .which is obviously very different from GHB. If I were ever to play it as a performance, I’d probably just call the piece “A scottish lament” or something similar, and certainly not a “true pibroch,” but I can’t think of a really good reason not to do it.
YES, the instrument choice effects the music. That’s the point.
Just my radical’s 2 Cents
Or, you could take classes with Michael Newton or Margaret Bennett and learn to sing them in actual Scots Gaelic, with words and everything.
There are some who would argue that the UPs were developed so you could play Bach on the pipes. Appalachian tunes were built on a heritage of Scottish and Irish music. Whether either Bach or Appalachian music is a good idea on uilleann pipes is arguable.
I think you should play what you want on any instrument you want. I used to play a number of classical tunes on the GHB and I intend to get around to playing classical on the uilleann pipes.
My preference is to hear and play traditional Irish music on the uilleann pipes, but one should not be limited. You have a much better range to take advantage of than the GHBs.
Funny you should mention that. My first musical training was in singing (which I don’t usually admit in public. I’m actually a decent singer) and I’ve been trying off and on to learn Gaidhlig. Sounds like a logical direction to go in. Are Michael Newton and/or Margaret Bennet anywhere near Suffolk?
MIchael Newton lives in North Carolina (my neck of the woods). Margaret Bennett is from SKye, I believe, but I do not know what she’s up to now. The reason I mentioned her is because she is about as “traditional” as it gets - learned how to sing in Gaelic orally growing up. Anyways, I saw her sing what was essentially pibroch and, to this day, it is the only musical performance that was tear-inducing for me. She’s amazing.
Margaret Bennett’s son, the late Martyn Bennett, did an album of traditional and original tunes mixed with hardhouse beats and extensive sequencing called “Hardland” which features an uilleann piper by the name of Rory Pierce (anybody ever heard of this guy?) playing the ground of “An Daorach Mòr” (“The Little Spree”) on UPs. An interesting idea…The album as a whole worked far better than it had any right to.
An increasing amount of research into ceol mòr is revealing that quite a few tunes were based on songs, which really throws a big wrench into the number one piobaireachd credo of “get the song out of it”, as these songs rarely bare much similarity to piobaireachd played in the modern competition style. I’m really looking forward to reading Allan MacDonald’s Ph.D. dissertation on this which is scheduled to be published in book form in the near future, apparently.
Those interested in this kind of stuff should check out Allan MacDonald & Margaret Stewart’s two gorgeous albums “Fhuair Mi Pog” and “Colla Mo Rùn” and also Barnaby Brown’s new Scottish Gaelic/Sardinian early/trad. music ensemble Band-Rè (piobaireachd players will notice a pun here).
Veering back in the general direction of the topic, the grounds of a number of ceol mòr tunes would likely sound rather nice on uilleann pipes…I’ve tried this with one of my favorite tunes, “Fàilte Uilleam Dhuibh MhicCoinnich” (“The Earl of Seaforth’s Salute”) and it works alright. Most GHB ornamentation has to go out the window, though. I find it hard to imagine approximating the ornaments for the variations, though…contrived approximations on the fiddle sound bad enough.
You could in theory play ceol mòr with all the ornamentation and everything on a set of pastoral pipes, but barring the two or three people on this forum with pastoral pipes, that’s not really a practical option. Plus, I doubt the uilleann-sized stretch of the chanter would make crunluaths any more pleasant to play…
