12 Facts About Uilleann pipes

Uilleann pipes are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland.

Bag of the uilleann pipes is inflated by means of a small set of bellows strapped around the waist and the right arm.

The uilleann pipes are often played indoors, and are almost always played sitting down.

The Pastoral Uilleann pipes were bellows blown and played in either a seated or standing position.

The early Pastoral Uilleann pipes had two drones, and later examples had one regulator.

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The Pastoral and later flat set Union Uilleann pipes developed with ideas on the instrument being traded back-and-forth between Ireland, Scotland and England, around the 18th and early 19th century.

The Irish Uilleann pipes are far more elaborate in their design, and their development is likely to have occurred among the well-to-do.

The Uilleann pipes were often used by the Protestant clergy, who employed them as an alternative to the church organ.

Up to then, most Uilleann pipes were what would be termed as "flat sets" in other keys, such as C, C, B and B, tunings which were largely incompatible with playing with other instruments.

Such Uilleann pipes are a relatively recent invention pioneered by the Taylor brothers.

The Uilleann pipes are generally equipped with three drones: the tenor drone, as the highest sounding pipe, which is pitched the same as the lowest note of the chanter; the baritone drone pitched one octave below that; and the bass drone, as the lowest sounding pipe, two octaves below the bottom note of the chanter.

The Pastoral Uilleann pipes had four drones: these three plus one more that would play a harmony note at the fourth or fifth interval.