[THE IRISH PIPES:]
THEIR HISTORY, DEVELOPMENT, AND DIVERGENCE FROM THE SIMPLE HIGHLAND TYPE
By W. H. Grattan Flood, Mus.D., K.S.G.
There is ample evidence that the bagpipe was used in pre-Christian Ireland, whence it was brought to Scotland. It is referred to in the Brehon Laws of the fifth century. Irish writers allude to it as Cuisle and as Piob mor—and this is the warlike instrument which was adopted by our Scottish brethren and became the national instrument of Scotland.
During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Irish pipers accompanied the Irish troops that fought in Gascony and Flanders under King Edward I. Strange, too, that Irish pipers were heard, in opposition to the Scots, at the battle of Falkirk (July 22, 1298), and it is surmised that the strident tones of the Irish piob mor suggested to the Scotch the employment of this warlike instrument in battle. At Creçy (August 26, 1346) the Irish pipes were also in evidence, and again at Harfleur (1418) and at Rouen (1419). Incidentally, it may be stated that there is no sound historical evidence for the Scotch bagpipes in battle at Harlaw (1411), but it would appear that they were employed at the battle of Inverlochy (1431). Irish pipers were heard to advantage in Henry VIII.'s Tournay campaign (1513) and also at the siege of Boulogne (1544). This association of Irish pipers leading the charge is strikingly pourtrayed in the Mask of Irishmen played before Queen Mary at the English Court, on April 25, 1557, in which there were six Irish Kerne and two Bagpipers.
Here is Stanihurst's description of the Irish piob mor, in 1575: "The Irish, likewise, instead of the trumpet, make use of a wooden pipe of the most ingenious structure, to which is joined a leather bag, very closely bound with bands. A pipe is inserted in the side of this skin, through which the piper, with his swollen neck and puffed-up cheeks, blows in the same manner as we do through a tube. The skin, being thus filled with air, begins to swell, and the player presses against it with his arm; thus a loud and shrill sound is produced through two wooden pipes of different lengths. In addition to these, there is yet a fourth pipe (the chanter), perforated in different places (having five or six holes), which the player so regulates by the dexterity of his fingers in the shutting and opening of the holes, that he can cause the upper pipes to send forth either a loud or a low sound at pleasure."
A few years after Stanihurst presented this description of the Irish piob mor, a new development of this instrument came into vogue, that is, about the year 1580, and almost immediately came into favour. This development was the Irish Uilleann (elbow) pipes, or domestic pipes, in which the wind was supplied by a bag blown by the elbow. Shakespearian commentators have been puzzled over the term "woollen" pipes in the Merchant of Venice (Act iv. Sc. 1); but the great bard of Avon, who derived much information regarding Ireland from Stanihurst and Dowland (if he did not actually visit Ireland at the close of the sixteenth century), used the Irish term Uilleann, equating it with "woollen"—a corruption which subsequently blossomed forth as "Union pipes." All during the seventeenth century the Uilleann pipes became immensely popular, and were used as an accompaniment for dancing, especially the Rinnce Fada (The Long Dance), the qualifying word Fada becoming Anglicised as "the Fading," also alluded to by Shakespeare (Winter's Tale, Act iv. Sc. 3). Subsequently keys or regulators were added, a feature that we also find in the Surdelina, or Neapolitan bagpipe, in 1625, as described by Père Mersenne. It is of interest to note that the great English composer, William Byrd, circâ 1590, wrote a piece of programme music called "Mr. Byrd's Battle," in which there are three movements; the Irish March, the Bagpipe, and the Drone. Thus the Irish bagpipe furnished the musical form known as "pedal point" or "drone bass."
When the Regiment of Irish Guards was formed in 1662, provision was made for a drum major, twenty-four drummers, and a piper to the King's Company. At the siege of Derry in 1689, the Jacobite regiments had each fourteen pipers and eighty-six drums.
Further improvements in the Uilleann pipes were effected between the years 1700 and 1720, and, in consequence, they were taken up by musical amateurs or "gentlemen pipers," of whom Larry Grogan, Parson Sterling, and Walter Jackson were famous.