Irish Tunes for the Warpipes, 1911

Subject: RE: Irish Tunes for the Warpipes, 1911
From: Jack Campin
Date: 20 Apr 14 - 07:28 AM

That was rather a long time before the Walsh/Glen book and is quite irrelevant to the question of whether the music in that book appealed to Orangemen enough to make them want to buy it.

From a page on the Orange Order's own website, http://www.grandorangelodge.co.uk/twelfth2013, we find:

Also participating will be Glenageeragh Pipe Band, who will provide a distinctive sound as one of only three existing Brian Boru pipe bands in Northern Ireland today.

Here's another one (I don't recognize the tunes):

Plumbridge Brian Boru Pipe Band

It isn't hard to find a genre of music on the web if you don't tell yourself in advance that it couldn't possibly exist.

It always struck me as a bit weird that in their more political music, Orangemen mostly used Irish music and the Republicans used British (mainly Lowland Scottish) song tunes. (I used to live in an Orange-flute-band-marching area of Glasgow and have been to quite a few Republican gatherings over the years - I am not making this up).

Subject: RE: Irish Tunes for the Warpipes, 1911
From: Thompson
Date: 20 Apr 14 - 04:39 AM

Orange, hmm? Eamonn Ceannt played the uileann pipes before the Pope; Thomas Ashe was also a famous piper, Thomas MacDonagh played the pipes (and clarinet, and various other instruments)…

Subject: RE: Irish Tunes for the Warpipes, 1911
From: Jack Campin
Date: 19 Apr 14 - 06:44 PM

Hey! Kate! Where have you been hiding all these years?

Anent the key signatures: that's a David-Glen-ism and he explains it in his Edinburgh Collection. The idea is that if you aren't playing the tunes on something with a Highland pipe chanter scale, you might be better using a different key signature, so he tells you what it is (he mainly had the piano in mind). Highland pipers are going to ignore it anyway, so they aren't any worse off, except for having the music squashed into a quarter of an inch less horizontal space on each line.

Gimme a shout if you're coming to Edinburgh sometime?

Subject: RE: Irish Tunes for the Warpipes, 1911
From: GUEST,Kate Dunlay
Date: 19 Apr 14 - 06:02 PM

Píob Mhór (apologies to my Gaelic teachers)

Subject: RE: Irish Tunes for the Warpipes, 1911
From: GUEST,Kate Dunlay
Date: 19 Apr 14 - 04:08 PM

(I forgot to include my name.)

Subject: RE: Irish Tunes for the Warpipes, 1911
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Apr 14 - 04:06 PM

I agree that this is not session music but I don't think that this book originally had Orange associations. It has tunes in it like The Home Rule Jig, The Land League, The Wearin' of the Green, and Brian Boru's March. And the next major Irish Warpipe publication, "McCullough's Irish Warpipe Tutor & Tune Book" (Belfast and Dublin: 1924/6) was published by an Irish Nationalist. The Cork Volunteers had a Warpipe Band around 1914-16, and the Gaelic League promoted the 2-drone Piob Mor. http://www.scottishtartans.org/irish_kilts.htm mentions IRA pipe band competitions. See Dave Gallagher's site, http://st.louis.irish.tripod.com/irishwarpipe/index.html for some interesting reading and lots of photos of Irish warpipe bands, including in both World Wars -- Definitely not Orange: http://st.louis.irish.tripod.com/irishwarpipe/id3.html, The Pope and the Warpipes.

Another interesting thing about the Walsh book is that the tunes are written with varied key signatures. This leads me to think that the author expected some players of the Brian Boru pipes (patented 1908) to use the collection.

Subject: RE: Irish Tunes for the Warpipes, 1911
From: GUEST,Jack Campin
Date: 06 Feb 14 - 10:38 AM

You'd be better finding a normal flute arrangement of the tunes. That book is specifically for the Highland pipes, using standard military-style bagpipe ornamentation (which does not work on the flute), the key changed to two sharps (since G major doesn't work on the pipes), and folding bits of the tunes into the nine-note range (which you don't need to do on a flute).

That book probably had its greatest influence on the Orange musical culture of northern Ireland, and may have been compiled with that in mind.

You will not get a very positive response playing those versions of the tunes in an Irish tune session.

Subject: RE: Irish Tunes for the Warpipes, 1911
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 06 Feb 14 - 10:16 AM

Thanks very much, Mrs. Deadlyhen. I plan to try them out on my flute in D.

Subject: Irish Tunes for the Warpipes, 1911
From: MrsDeadlyhen
Date: 06 Feb 14 - 09:47 AM

Hi All,

Take a look at the latest digitised book from the Irish Traditional Music Archive here

Irish tunes for the Scottish and Irish war-pipes / compiled by William Walsh, Chicago ; arranged by David Glen, Edinburgh

Regards,
M.