How old are the uilleann ('ill-en) pipes?
Native to Ireland, uilleann pipes date back approximately 300 years to the beginning of the 18th century and probably share some common ancestry with Scots lowland pipes and other bellows blown pipes of the region. The design of the pipes as we know them today, with three drones and three regulators, stabilized around the start of the 19th century. Yet they nearly became extinct, and were saved by the efforts of the Taylor brothers and Captain Francis O'Neill in Chicago in the early 20th century, and later in Ireland by Leo Rowsome,Séamus Ennis, Johnny Doran and Willie Clancy, and others who helped promote the instrument up through the 1960s. Today uilleann pipes are enjoying a continued revival in Ireland, America and Europe and are more popular than ever, yet they remain extremely rare when compared to other instruments.
Robbie Hannan's Kenna B set circa 1820
No. Uilleann pipes are normally no louder than a fiddle or accordion and sometimes much quieter, depending on the pitch, the style of the player (how the pipes are adjusted), and the particular instrument.
Technically, yes. But they have nothing in common with the famous Highland Bagpipes, or "bagpipe," which everyone associates with kilts and parades and all the paraphenalia. For example, uilleann pipers do not wear kilts. Nor do they parade. The Great Highland Bagpipes are a martial instrument meant strictly for the outdoors and have virtually no direct relation to uilleann pipes.
Brian MacNamara's Wooff set in C
(Patrick D'Arcy)
Highland Bagpipes are played standing, uilleann pipes are played sitting. Highland Bagpipes are for the outdoors, uilleann pipes are for indoor playing. Highland Bagpipes are a military instrument. Uilleann pipes are a social instrument. The Highland bagpipes are usually taught according to strict methods with standardized ornamentation and learned by rote from written music and judged in competitions. By contrast, uilleann pipes are free of such standardization and are played in a wide variety of styles; individual players create their own versions of tunes and their own use of ornamentation, which will vary from player to player. Finally, uilleann pipers don't normally learn from sheet music but learn by ear within their tradition.
Uilleann pipes are very difficult to play. The difficulties of learning the uilleann pipes are typically partly mechanical. They are a daunting musical challenge to master. Until recently, it was also difficult to obtain a set of uilleann pipes.
Uilleann pipes play two full octaves and are capable of all the half-steps in between (with the addition of keys), offering the widest range of notes of any form of bagpipe in the world. This is accomplished by the use of dry reeds. The bag is inflated with a bellows attached to one arm, thus the term uilleann, which means "elbow" in Irish. (Although the historically correct term may be Union Pipes, referring to the union of sounds.) Dry reeds respond differently than the wet reeds found in most forms of bagpipes where the player inflates the bag with breath. This allows a finer reed in the uilleann pipes, one capable of overblowing into the second octave. The second octave has a unique, very sweet tone which is part of the defining character of the instrument.
Seven, normally. The chanter plays the melody and is capable of two octaves. There are typically three drones, each an octave apart, which may be switched on or off using a switch key on the mainstock. A major distinction of uilleann pipes is the three pipes which overlay the drones and are somewhat equivalent to stopped organ pipes. These are called regulators and each one has 4 or 5 keys which play notes when pressed. These harmonize with the drones and chanter. This makes a total of seven pipes in a typical set. The regulators may be played singly or together to create chords for accompaniment to the melody played on the chanter. There are many traditional styles of uilleann piping and some favour regulator playing, while others play them infrequently or not at all. To learn more about the anatomy of the pipes, go to the Musikmuséet (museum of music) in Stockholm.
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