General correspondence from uilleann pipers, other musicians, academic researchers and Irish music enthusiasts from Ireland, United Kingdom, Denmark, France, The Netherlands, Australia and the United States of America. Many of the correspondents request information on membership to Na Píobairí Uilleann, they look for information about piping classes, about where they can buy uilleann pipes and about pipe and reed making classes. Letter writers also requests to buy the society’s publications including tutor books, the journals Ceol & An Píobaire and request to purchase cane, hemp and reeds. They also look for information on contemporary and historical uilleann pipers, sound recordings and sheet music and seek answers to technical questions about chanter and reed making. Many letters contain information about uilleann pipes, pipers, reed making and pipe manufacturing. Some letters compliment Breandán Breathnach on his publications. Regular correspondents include Tom Busby, Martin Cooney, Wilbert Garvin, Robbie Hannan, Robert McMahon, Pat McNulty, Bill Ochs, Theodor Podnos, Ronnie Wathen. There are also some letters relating to the early years of the Willie Clancy Summer School in Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare. Undated letters are filed at the end of the series.
Draft and original correspondence between Helen Hickey, Museum Curator, Fermanagh County Museum, Enniskillen to Breandán Breathnach; exhibition catalogue ‘Pipes and piping: an exhibition at the Fermanagh County Museum August 15 – October 4 1977’; and ‘Fermanagh County Museum Spring and Summer Programme 1977’. Correspondence relating to the mounting of the piping exhibition in Fermanagh County Museum, Breandán Breathnach agrees to ‘compile a tape of pipe music’ for the exhibition. Helen Hickey writes on 15 Nov 1977 that she was ‘very pleased with the response here to your exhibition. We had an attendance of over 600 people, many of whom had come long distances especially to see the exhibits.’
Included in an envelope marked, ‘Féis Cheoil piping comptn’, are draft & original correspondence between Turlough [Terry] Moylan, honorary secretary of Na Píobairí Uilleann and two members of the Feis Ceoil committee, Mrs M. E. Atock and Miss J. Hunter; a letter from Terry Moylan to Breandán Breathnach; and a copy of the Feis Ceoil ‘Syllabus of prize competitions … 1971.’ The correspondence relates to a request by Na Píobairí Uilleann for the ‘re-inclusion of piping competitions in the 1972 Feis Ceoil’ (22 Jul 1971). Na Píobairí Uilleann’s suggestion ‘received very favourable consideration’ at the Feis Ceoil committee meeting (17 Sep 1971) the issue of who would provide and finance prizes and adjudicators is raised; Na Píobairí Uilleann offer to provide plaques and three adjudicators ‘at no expense’ (30 Sep 1971); there is a disagreement about the number of adjudicators needed, the Feis Ceoil committee comment that ‘in all Feis Ceoil competitions only one adjudicator is employed … this condition must be complied with in the piping classes’ (12 Nov 1971); Na Píobairí Uilleann is ‘taken aback at the unyielding attitude’ displayed by the Feis Ceoil committee, Na Píobairí Uilleann feel they are the ‘best judges’ as to how a piping competition should be conducted and accordingly ‘they cannot accede’ to the Feis Ceoil request (18 Jan 1972).
Correspondence, catalogues, instruction manuals and receipts relating to the purchase of a music typewriter from the Music Print Corporation, New York by Na Píobairí Uilleann. Also included is a letter to Mr P. Glackin (Glackin, Paddy), Traditional Music Officer, Arts Council, [Dublin] relating to grants awarded to Na Píobairí Uilleann & the Folk Music Society for the ‘cost of the musicwriter’ and ‘cost of laying out the Goodman mss’ and the ‘cost of preparing the Petrie mss for printers.’ (5 May 1981)
Cnuasacht Iomlán den Cheol Damhsa, CICD for short, is Breandán Breathnach’s own title for this resource. CICD is a melodic card index written on 6544 large index cards, each 5 X 8 inches in size. These cards contain full handwritten and printed tunes.
This is the melodic tune index that Breandán Breathnach used during his professional life as a civil servant with responsibility for music. Clár na bPort Gaelach (CPG) is written on 6545 index cards, each 3 x 5 inches in size.
This series is made up of three Thematic Indexes to Irish Dance Music which was compiled on index cards by Breandán Breathnach over a period of thirty years. The index controls about five or six thousand dance tunes in manuscripts, books and on sound recordings. It provides names for tunes without titles, gives the printed history of the tunes, and lists the appearance of tunes in various sources.
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