Jimmy O'Brien-Moran
The material for my dissertation research centred around the collected repertoire of Paddy Conneely (d September 11, 1851), a blind professional piper from Galway. He was probably the first folk musician to have had his engraved likeness adorn the cover of a widely read journal, "The Irish Penny Journal", in the 1840s. Penny journals were the popular medium of the period. The engraving, based on a watercolour portrait by Frederic William Burton, was accompanied by a three-page article, by George Petrie, on the piper's life and character. This media exposure resulted in an unprecedented level of national fame for any folk musician and, as a result, Conneely was sought out by patrons, musicians and collectors of Irish music such as piper Lord Rossmore, the Hudson brothers and William Forde.
The greatest number of tunes was collected from Conneely by Henry Hudson (1798-1889) whose music manuscripts are housed in three libraries, The National Library in Ireland, The Boston Public Library and the library of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Conneely entertained both high and low and was particularly popular with the gentry. Perhaps his greatest patron was James Hardiman, the historian of Galway, later the first librarian of the new university there (c.1845), who presented Conneely with his pipes. The period during which Conneely lived makes for fascinating study as does the emerging character of Paddy himself. One can only speculate as to the possible outcome of his new-found fame which might have been realised but for the advent of the Great Famine.
The work draws on several disciplines but centres around Irish music studies.
Setting the work of the collectors in a socio-historical context, the study compares their methodologies and varied motivation and traces the cultural and artistic bias in their collecting work. His relationship with Petrie and Hudson is documented as is his offering of context-specific repertoire according to his perception of his auditors. The study involves some editing of music manuscripts which contain transcriptions of Conneely's playing and singing, and the correlation of different versions of his tunes and songs. Drawing on the surviving musical texts Conneely's piping style is hypothetically reconstructed. Based on the evidence of that reconstruction, albeit tenuous, comparing modern playing techniques, repertoire and other elements of style, the innate conservatism of piping emerges suggesting little change in the tradition over the past 150 years. The thesis was submitted in February 2006 and the degree awarded in September of that year.
As with many postgraduate students at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance I play Irish music. My instrument is the uilleann or union pipes. Although I played in Scullion many years ago I am sometimes regarded as a purist which, in my view, confines my interest to good music! On a more serious note, I prefer to hear solo players or small ensembles where the individual can still be heard and I still have not been completely won over to accompaniment (other than the regulators).
My recording experience began as one of seven contributors to The Piper’s Rock, an album of young pipers, a category which I have sadly left! As a member of Scullion I recorded on the first album. One or two guest appearances shall be allowed to gather dust although a track with James Kelly on his album The Ring Sessions was enjoyable. But in December 1996 I released a solo recording entitled Seán Reid's Favourite (which received expensive but favourable reviews) on which I play a selection of favourite tunes on two very old sets of pipes; one pitched in D and the other in B. The title comes from a tune named (by Willie Clancy) after Seán Reid (1907-1978) who very generously gave me the B set of Colgan pipes (which is my preferred set) on loan for life. I am in the process of recording a cd of the music of Paddy Conneely.
Apart from contributions to Fintan Vallely’s Companion to Irish Traditional Music (1999) and to Brian Lalor’s Encyclopaedia of Ireland (2003), I contributed a chapter for the ninth volume of Irish Musical Studies (Murphy and Smaczny, 2007).
I am currently working on two projects, the first of which is a book of Irish song translations made by piper and collector, Séamus Ennis. These translations were made by Séamus over a number of years, with publication in mind, for his friend, the American singer and actress, Robin Roberts. Robin kindly entrusted the task to me. The work involves searching for the original collected lyrics from which Seamus made his translations, as well as recordings of the singers from whom he collected them, and transcribing their melodies. Some of this work has been carried out in collaboration with Dr Ríonach Uí Ógáin of the Department of Folklore at UCD.
I was the recipient of a Fubright / Culture Ireland Award as Visiting Professor of Irish Studies at Boston College for the Spring semester in 2008. Apart from some lecturing and performing duties much of my time was spent editing and preparing manuscripts of the Hudson collection housed at the Boston Public Library and the library of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. This collection is the focus of my second project. Henry Hudson (1798-1889) was a member of a prominent Dublin professional family with strong nationalist sympathies. Robert Emmet is said to have been a friend of the father Edward Hudson. Another son, William Elliot Hudson (1796-1853), who also collected folk music, was a close friend of Thomas Davis and an associate of Daniel O’Connell, and gave generously of his time and money in support of various Irish language projects and worked closely with the great scholar John O’Donovan.
Having become fascinated with the uilleann pipes in the early 70's, mainly through Liam O'FIynn and Planxty, I began to study the pipes with Tommy Kearney and attended the Willie Clancy Summer School for a number of years, particularly benefiting from Pat Mitchell's tuition. I later taught the advanced uilleann pipes class at the Willie Clancy Summer School from 1977 to 1980 and sporadically after that. I have had the good fortune to be invited to teach, lecture and give concerts around the world and it is a privilege to be part of this piping community.
On completion of a B.A. in Music at Waterford Regional Technical College I began giving workshops, tutorials and lectures in Irish traditional music on the B.A. in Music course at W.R.T.C (now W.I.T.) in September 1992 and have continued to work there on a part-time basis. I have also lectured, for a number of semesters, here at the University of Limerick.
The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick is a wonderful community of musicians, singers and dancers of diverse genres. It facilitates both traditional and innovative creativity while offering a strong academic support. Irish music studies have begun to blossom worldwide and the IWAMD is making a unique and important contribution to this field.
Go marfaidh sé.
15th December, 2008
