Instrument Makers of The Pastoral and Union Pipes
Some of the oldest surviving instruments date from the 1770-1790s, notably James Kenna of Mullingar, Hugh Robertson of Edinburgh and later Robert Reid of North Shields. Pipemakers started to optimise the instrument for performance on the knee rather than off it, so that players could take advantage of the better dynamics this offered. It is possible that the performer community diverged for a while into ‘union’ pipers playing without the foot joint, and old style Pastoral pipers who retained it and could play in both styles. In any case, both "long" and "short” pastoral/union chanters were documented in both Scotland and Ireland until around World War One. The evolution of the Union and (Uilleann pipes a term originating in 1904 by Irish nationalists) was also driven by competition between makes; throughout the late 18th and early 19th century, pipemakers in Aberdeen, Dublin, Edinburgh and Newcastle competed and copied each others' ideas and innovations. It is now thought that the existence of regulators, already a common feature of the Pastoral pipes, a characteristic keyed stopped ended system, was the inspiration for the keyed Northumbrian smallpipes, probably first produced by John Dunn, who made both Pastoral and Northumbrian pipes in Newcastle upon Tyne.
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