I dont think many would argue that we are going through what must be considered the golden age of Uilleann piping.There are more brilliant pipers ,and great pipemakers now,than there has ever been before.
So if you were to name one person who you think was instrumental in the (post Leo Rowsome) modern revival in Uilleann piping who would you think that is ?
I tend to agree with alot of the experts who have been around long enough to know ,and say that without Micheal Flatley alot of people would not got into piping.The membership of NPU shot up in the years after Riverdance as this was their first exposure to Irish culture and then one thing lead to another.
I can only speak for myself but… Michael Flatley and his riverdance had no impact on me taking up the pipes what so ever. Honestly I can’t say I’ve ever watched a single one of his performances so I don’t even really know a whole lot about him and what he does other than maybe riverdancing? It was actually a Chieftains cd (The Best of the Chieftains) that first shed light on the uilleann pipes for me. Later finally discovering Seamus Ennis is what really clinched it for me.
But like I said this is how I got started, I’m not speaking for everyone else.
My vote (post Leo Rowsome) would have to be a toss up between Paddy Moloney and Liam O’Flynn
I have to second the Paddy Moloney. I found a chieftains 1 record in my basement, and that record is responsible for getting me started on pipes, whistle and flute. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen riverdance (and from what I’ve heard I don’t think I want to )
I would have to third the Chieftains vote, followed quickly by Bothy Band and Planxty as major introducers and promoters of the instrument.
Far more significant in the timing of the boom that NPU witnessed would more likely be the Internet. I had no idea where to go or who to contact about pipes all through the 70s and 80s. There were no sessions here, and the Irish community here was (and remains) very much closed-door. But I could go on the internet and find news groups and forums and web sites with all kinds of information, and even if it meant going to someone far out-of-town, I at least had some contacts where I had none before.
I don’t know about in Ireland, but I can’t see the dreck that passes for MF’s music, and New Age pap in general, being a major source of new interest in playing UPs. It seems more likely that just being able to now get information and contacts, and be able to order CDs from overseas, are the biggest contributors to the new UP popularity IMHO, and that is all because of the Internet.
Van Morrison got me there, believe it or not. I guess if you’re going to say Flatley, you might as well say Spillane, but I had no knowledge of him or Riverdance until welll after the whole craze had fizzled out.
People dont think they have been influenced by Micheal Flatley Per say ,but you have to take into account the butterfly effect.Without the increased interest in Irish culture the whole back up that now exists for Uilleann pipers might not be there !!
I doubt it very much. I know people who were also led to UPs by listening to U2 and the Pogues. I suspect MF is very much a non-starter as a source of interest in UPs.
[quote=“rorybbellows”]
So if you were to name one person who you think was instrumental in the (post Leo Rowsome) modern revival in Uilleann piping who would you think that is ?
I would have to give my vote to Paddy Moloney as I think The Chieftains brought the uilleann pipes to a world wide audience, who would not otherwise have known about them.
These things are slow burners. The foundations for the current revival were laid in the 60’s and 70’s.
Also, IMO, things like economic upturn in the Irish economy in the 90’s played a bit part, otherwise the native Irish market would not have supported home-grown pipemakers, and the continued flood of emigration would have been a drain on the ‘home’ musical community. That’s not to downplay the role of the diaspora, but I think the current revival needs not only a strong diaspora/outreach but continuity with the music’s cultural sources as well. (Of course, on that topic, economic success may also contain the seeds of destruction of those same sources, but that’s another story…)
That’s similar to my experience - The Chieftains and the Bothy Band. I would have taken up the pipes 30 years ago if I had access. A few years I had a slow day at work at searched the web and that got me started.
I suffered for a few months without much help then the pipes stayed in their case for a few years until I changed jobs and got hooked into the tionol thing.
The Internet and the piping community were prerequisites to getting me started and then actually making progress. Not sure where MF fits.
For me it was Jerry O’Sullivan. Heard him playing pipes on the Sally Gardens while driving in the boonies of southwestern Colorado. I was listening to a public radio show that was playing some folk music. I had never heard the Irish pipes before (well, maybe I had, like in Braveheart, but I didn’t know it!). I was immediately taken by the sound. I will never forget it! I went out and bought one the CD Jerry was playing on, and kept going from there.
While the bands like the Cheiftains, Planxty and the Bothy Band made the music popular to younger audiences and introduced the pipes more and more people it was the likes of Brendan Breathnach that organised classes for people to learn how to play the thing.
Others to deserve a mention should be Brian Vallely, Dave Hegarty for publishing his reed making books and Dan O’Dowd for teaching countless modern pipemakers to make pipes.
I just edited my previous post to say “60’s and 70’s” and also bring up the importance of economic conditions (in this case, downturn of the '80s followed by upswing). Some would credit O’Riada with starting the impetus that led eventually to the Chieftains, then on to Planxty and the Bothy Band, provided one ascribes to a sort of theory of momentum (which I think is reasonable).
I would claim that the general availability of ethnic communities and their recordings to larger publics has been most influential in spreading ‘other’ types of music to the rest of the world - uilleann piping included. People hear something that interests them on the radio, television or at friends houses, and they’re caught in wanting to learn how to play THAT sound - or live in the world that the music seems to represent. Certainly, the Chieftains and Riverdance are part of this, but it is more than just them.
That’s if I look at what influenced myself, anyway, but then I was caught a bit before either of the above media phenomena were prominent. I listened to Irish local radio programs in the San Francisco bay area in the late 1960s, and got started first on whistle, then later pipes. A 1960s Topic recording of Festy Conlan playing whistle in a London pub was the main initiative, followed closely with pipe and whistle recordings by young Finbar Furey and an older Willie Clancy. Once I’d gotten hooked onto the sound, I started searching out the communities these performers ‘belonged’ to - trying to learn about what their music meant in a larger context, and trying to understand how these musicians did what they did. After awhile, that meant learning from local Bay Area performers like Chris Caswell, Denis Brooks, Sean Folsom, Gerry O’Loughlin and Joe Murtagh, among many others…
Pat Sky
David Quinn
David Daye
Seth Gallagher (plus the other good pipe makers)
Paddy Keenan
Paddy Maloney
Liam O’Flynn
And the current crop of great players and the upcoming youngsters.
I’ve been traveling and talking to some very popular pipers and makers over the last 6 years - the name that comes up again and again is Liam O’Flynn and Planxty. Also Bothy Band. You cannot underestimate the electricity that made the pipes much more popular.
I would have to disagree with the “Golden Age” of piping though. There are a few things to consider:
The late 60’s and early 70’s were an enormously popular time for piping - lots of influences here from none less than Leo Rowsome and Seamus Ennis, Brendàn Breathnach, Sean Reid, Willie Clancy, Dan O’Dowd, Pat Mitchell, and I’m really just scratching the surface there (apologies for leaning too Dublin centric!!).
Pipes have become a popular possession and in the right hands they have become quite spectacularly played and made. That does not mean that the popularity of the uilleann pipes have made better players. And in fact you would be arguing with the best makers with the opinion that today’s pipes supersede yesterday’s makers. Benedict Koehler still bows to Leo Rowsome and his genius.
The globalization of the uilleann pipes has been impressive over the last 20 years, no doubt. Gay McKeon figures in a few years that the number of sets out there will top 5 figures! Again, this does not mean that the overall quality of pipe playing is comparatively better today than 30 years ago - or 80 years ago (or ever, frankly!).
I think what we have realized is a neo-renaissance of Irish music and the uilleann pipes. Though maybe it could be argued that popularity may be waning now, and that what I describe as a neo-renaissance is actually a neo-neo-popularization that may or may not have legs for another 40 years - who knows?
Speaking of traveling, I’m in the Miami airport waiting for a connector to New Orleans. I have a photo shoot for a few days so I may not be able to read replies!
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