Piping Styles

By Kevin Rietmann

These days, style in regard to playing the uilleann pipes is, almost without exception, a reflection of the player's tastes and early influences. Whereas in the past, most players would be taught to play in a very particular fashion by the piper they learned from. This phenomenon has survived in rare instances, such as a Paddy Keenan being taught by his father to play in the traveling style of southeast Ireland, but even he has added much to his personal style. The traveling pipers of the 19th century in that part of Ireland played in a very set and recognizable way, which might be said to be more "pure" than the playing of a Keenan or Spillane; who have, after all, heard players from all over the globe—never mind Ireland itself.

In this piece I will attempt to pass on what knowledge of regional styles I've been able to codge from random odd sources: books, liner notes, and articles in random publications. Caveat emptor: I am anything but a scholar or authority on this topic. However, I feel that my melange of suppositions and sketchy evidence will make for a more complete article than any I have come across to date. So!

Regional styles in the 19th century seem to have conformed roughly to the four provinces of Ireland, making for an easy way of classifying them. Of course, there could be an enormous amount of disparity from player to player in the various towns, but there were general characteristics to approach in each broad area, which are outlined as follows: Leinster-players seemed to favor open fingering, playing off the knee, and in general a zippy rolling style closely allied to flute playing. Early recorded players included Jem Byrne, Liam Walsh, Johnny Doran, and Leo Rowsome. You probably have an idea of what this style sounds like from your Keenan, Spillane, Martin Nolan, Jerry O'Sullivan, and so on, when contrasted with someone very different, like Liam O'Flynn. Early recorded pipers from Munster are scant. The Kerry piper Michael O'Sullivan seems to have been an inspiration for players such as Pat Mitchell and Padraig MacMathuna—lots of wailing notes, sliding, barking, heavy vibrato, and ghost D madness. In Leinster these devices were used to lend excitement and emphasis to the music, but here the goal seemed to be to astound the listener. Seamus Ennis's music had many of these qualities in it, which is probably the legacy of his father hearing old pipers coming to Co. Dublin early in the century to play at musical gatherings. Other players such as Kerry piper Billy Hanafin had a more direct, danceable style, similar to what we hear from later fiddlers such as Denis Murphy.

Connaught style playing was the dominant style in 19th and early 20th century America, and for that reason it is sometimes called the American style. It still has a few living exponents, one of whom, Tom Busby of Long Island, New York, is responsible for having preserved the bulk of the information concerning it, as well as much of its recorded music. This style involved always playing the chanter on the knee, combined with using closed, and much elaborate fingering and ornamentation. He used staccato and legato triplets, and closure of the chanter as well as using gracenotes for phrasing, and it gave a lovely rollicking bounce to the music. Modern fiddle players still seem to have this lilting rumpabump in their playing, due to the lasting influence of Sligo fiddlers from the 20’s and 30’s. Pipers seem to be much more conservative these days, and early players such as Tom Ennis, Mike Carney, and even Patsy Touhey don't seem to occupy people's attention as much. Modern players such as Mr. Busby, Andy Conroy, Joe Shannon, and Sean McKiernan are now in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, and younger disciples of this playing are very scarce.

Ulster-Belfast pipers R.L. O'Meally and Frank McFadden seemed to be very spare in playing rolls, which was also typical of fiddlers from the north. McFadden's playing was fairly simple, but O'Meally's was rife with triplets and much faster. He reminds me of the Donegal fiddler Nelli Boyle, more than anyone else. Robbie Hannon and Joe McGlaughlin are modern fans of this music, and they apparently have their share of disciples in northern Ireland.

As well as these broad general traits, players on 78s and wax cylinder recordings also displayed many unique facets to their playing. O'Meally, for instance, beat constant time on the regulators —a set with baritone, bass and double bass (F#, E, D, below the bass notes)— like Leo Rowsome, but using mostly single notes. Tunes also, perhaps, had regional distinction as well. Sean Reid once said the Star of Munster was the epitome of a Munster reel, which I imagine means those tunes like The Woman of the House whose phrases end on strange beats or bars. And, of course, there were scores of pipers who live on only in legend. Quirky pipers who only played harp tunes and classical pieces, for instance.

Commercial re-releases of the old records have been hopelessly infrequent, but rumor has it that the good guys at Rounder Records are set to release a CD or even double CD devoted to early 78s of Union pipes, so three cheers! If you're looking for someone novel to slavishly emulate, here's your chance to have a hero and a sense of historical purpose, too. These pipers could do anything we can do now, except perhaps play with a didgeridoo or a symphony orchestra, and pipe they did, with the ne plus ultra of drive, soul, and joyous abandon.

This article was originally published in Fall of 1996. For a complete PDF of the original Fall 1996 Pipers Review this article is from, click here.

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