Brief, concise uilleann info

[Mr.Gumby]

Just saw on the 17.30 RTE Nuacht that the Tulla Pipeband will be marching in the New York parade on march 17. Just saying..

[TheSilverSpear]

There are GHB pipe bands all over the world now. Including Ireland. And I think an Irish one won the World Pipe Band competition last year, but that is neither here nor there.

I just think it's vaguely interesting, from the point of view of a history, human geography, and the social construction of traditions, how something that was invented as a Scottish tradition in the second half of the nineteenth century (remember, the Victorians made it up) was co-opted as Irish on the other side of the Atlantic. Not that there are pipe bands *now* in Ireland, but that historically, the descendants of Irish immigrants in places like NYC have adopted the Highland pipe band as a meaningful symbol of their Irish culture heritage.

[tommykleen]

All this is pointing to a thing I've been putting off for years, but whose time has clearly come: the marching uilleann pipe band. Oh, can't you just see it: a dozen or so guys in suits (or gals in big victorian dresses) marching along, with three-legged stools strapped to their behinds, all a bobbing to and fro. At the command of Pipe Major Harrison (whose fedora is slightly more splendid than the other fedoras in the group), everyone halts and plops onto their attached stools. Then, they all launch into The Bucks, but, of course, they all have different versions and different tempos.

[Nanohedron]

Since uilleann pipering is considered to be first a solo art, I think that rather than forming a band for parades there should instead be a Great Panjandrum of Uilleann Pipers - just one, selected for that year by vote, graft, or death match - to play tunes while being carried about on a palanquin, as designated representative of the genre.

This sort of conveyance would be da bomb:



Very Dr. Seuss, don't you think?

[An Draighean]

This sort of conveyance would be da bomb:

As long as it came with the hat also!

[Nanohedron]

They would talk about you for years.

[MTGuru]

Very Dr. Seuss, don't you think?

I will not pipe upon this thing,
I will not hoot or toot or sing.
I will not ride an uilleann chair,
I will not ride it anywhere.
A hat upon my head so crass,
A giant wheel below my as-
pirations for each man and maid
To hear me pipe in a parade.
A chair to bear my Irish soul,
But all it does is rock and roll,
And bump and thump, and turn and tilt,
Exposing what's beneath my kilt.
Saint Pat's or not, I do not care.
I will not ride an uilleann chair.

[Nanohedron]

I dunno. I rather like the idea of being schlepped around in splendor by sweating lackeys.

[oleorezinator]

Speaking of tradition.
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/journalism/ ... dition.pdf

[TheSilverSpear]

A couple of those papers are cited in my thesis, the Trevor-Roper one and the Hobsbawm one.

I always reckoned if the uilleann pipe band sat in office chairs and found lackeys to push them, it would work okay.

When I was doing my MA at Durham University, I was asked by the guy in charge of the college I stayed at, who heard I played the pipes, to pipe in the haggis for Burns Night. I said, "Does this involve walking?" He answered, "Er, well, yes." I explained that I would be happy to do it if I could be pushed along in a wheelchair. He didn't find it as funny as I did and got a hold of a Highland piper.

[tommykleen]

Oh yeah, I've had The Talk with wedding couples after they express their desire for me to lead the wedding party down the aisle. Now, at the very first contact about a wedding gig, I make sure that they want an uilleann piper and not a GHBer. I've gotten my GHB buddies some good gigs this way .