FAQ
Questions:
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Answers:
Do you (still) live at home?
Yes I do. I think that you will find that many people live at home, actually – try consulting a dictionary definition …
What does uilleann mean?
I don’t think anyone knows. The best guess would be a variant spelling of the ablative declension, uillin, of the Irish Gaelic for elbow
, uille.
Apparently, the term originated at the beginning of the 20th century as a new name for the union pipes, or Irish pipes. Uilleann pipes (AKA the complicator’s woodwind instrument) are a bellows-driven type of bagpipe, characterised by a mellow sound, the ability to play staccato, and a range of two octaves. In addition to the standard drones, they typically also possess regulators
, special keyed pipes for playing accompanying chords, making them especially complex to build and play. The bellows go under the arm, hence the name.
Contrary to the assumption made by everyone who does recognise the term, I am not a piper; I simply happened to like the sound of the instrument, while others describe it at best as a dirge
! Telcontar
was actually my first choice of Internet name (in 2000), which is Quenya (Elvish) for Strider
, a nickname of Aragorn the Ranger in The Lord of the Rings (something I found while looking in the Guide to Middle Earth for a name to use). Uillean
(which I misspelt at the time) and then Ghiraddje
(Xirnann for The Ranger
) were my subsequent choices when I found that the name Telcontar
was not as obscure as I had imagined, and nor was uillean(n). And they’re all overly pretentious as is commonplace with Internet names.
For a fascinating insight into the instrument, see the Tools of the Trade interview with renowned piper Liam O’Flynn.
How do you pronounce …
Some confusion arises as to the pronunciation of my various Internet handles. The pronunciations are: Ghiraddje — uilleann — Telcontar.