Pastoral pipes
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| Other names | Union pipes |
|---|---|
| Classification | |
| Playing range | |
| 2 octaves | |
| Related instruments | |
The Pastoral Pipe (also known as the Scottish Pastoral pipes, Hybrid Union pipes, Organ pipe and Union pipe) was a bellows-blown bagpipe, widely recognised as the forerunner and ancestor of the 19th-century Union pipes, which became the Uilleann Pipes of today. Similar in design and construction, it had a foot joint in order to play a low leading note and plays a two octave chromatic scale. There is a tutor for the "Pastoral or New Bagpipe" by J. Geoghegan, published in London in 1745. It had been considered that Geoghegan had overstated the capabilities of the instrument, but a study on surviving instruments has shown that it did indeed have the range and chromatic possibilities which he claimed.
This bagpipe was commonly played in the Lowlands of Scotland, the Borders, and Ireland from the mid-18th until the early 20th century. It was a precursor of what are now known as Uilleann pipes, and there were several well-known makers over a large geographic area, including London, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dublin, and Newcastle upon Tyne. Therefore, it is difficult to say which country the pastoral pipe and its later adapted Union Pipe specifically come from although the earliest known piping tunebook - "Geoghegan's Compleat Tutor" - refers to a maker in London in 1746. As the pastoral pipe was modified it developed into the Union pipe in the period 1770-1830, makers in all three countries contributed ideas and design improvements. [1] [2]. Both pipes were played by gentlemen pipers of the period in Scotland, England and the Anglo-Irish Protestants in Ireland, people in society who could afford an expensive hand made set of pipes.
The term “New bagpipe” refers to the expanded compass and improvements to the instrument. Although the term Pastoral is not historically found outside Geoghegan's London context, it is evocative of a style of music played at the time. Originally the label “Pastoral” may refer to the “ancient Pastoral airs" played on the instrument composed in a "gentle, very sweet, easy manner in the immolation of those airs which Shepard’s are supposed to play" This style would suit the sweet tone of the Pastoral pipes Union/Uilleann pipes of the late 18th century, when literature, art and music romanticized rural life. In the 19th century oboes were being marketed in London as “Pastoral” to fit the music styles of the times. The pastoral bagpipe may have been the invention of an expert instrument maker who was aiming at the Romantic market. The Pastoral pipes and later Union pipes were certainly a favourite of the upper classes in Scotland, Ireland and the North-East of England and were fashionable for a time in formal social settings, where the term Union pipes may originate.
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