Welcome to all my friends who have just stopped by for a visit. I hope you like what I have included on this page. To those of you I don't know that are stopping by, I suppose I should introduce my self.
I am William S. Gority. No matter what I am doing at any given time, I would rather be indulging some aspect of my vocation by far. By that, I mean I would rather be doing something to do with bagpiping. At this point, I play (to some extent) nine forms of Bagpipes: Northumbrian Smallpipes; Scottish Smallpipes; Leicestershire Smallpipes; the English Great Pipes; the Biniou Kozh; the Great Highland Bagpipe; Cornish Pipes (Pybow Sagh Kernewek); the Flemish Pipes; and the Uilleann (Irish) Pipes. I also play the tinwhistles, saxophone, clarinet, flute, and oboe at varying levels of competence.
The bagpipes have become something of an obsession for me over the years, and I spend as much time as I can on the pipes, be it research into the history of the pipes, experimenting with making the pipes (with only marginal success to this point), practising my current pipes, collecting tunes for the pipes, building my collection of recorded pipes music, and collecting plans for as many types of pipes as I can lay hands on. I've also managed to collect a few sets over the years, but more on that later.
The project that has had most of my attention over the last couple of years has been the examination and reconstruction of a set of Uilleann Pipes in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Most of this set was made sometime around 1820-1830 by Robert Reid of North Shields, Northumberland. The double chanter is contemporaneous to the rest of the set, but was made by M. Dunn. (I haven't been able to find much information on him, so if anyone has anything they feel like sharing, e-mail me). I wrote the findings on this trip up for "The Irish Pipers' Review", published in Volume XIV, Number 3 (Summer 1995), page 21. During the course of examining this set, I made a full set of measurements, which I am slowly turning into technical drawings with the ultimate intention of reconstructing this set, but that's in the future.
I've mumbled and stumbled my way into a fascination with the role of the bagpipe in early music and have been incredibly inspired by such groups as The York Waites, Piffaro-The Rennaisance Wind Band, and Pan's Fancy. In pursuing this bizarre interest, I've turned a Hummelchen based on the drawings found in Michael Praetorius' Syntagma Musicum. The turnings came out pretty well, now all that needs done is finishing the reeds. One of these days, I intend to make a Grosser Bock (Great Bock) based on another drawing found in the same source. I'll keep everyone updated through this venue as the projects move along. Another little project that I have been working on for the last couple of years is putting together a Hurdy-Gurdy. (What can I say, I like drones!) It's been about 4 years in the making and is still not too far along, but it will get finished in this lifetime (I hope...and assuming I live to be 345 years old).
Comments on these pages, questions, ramblings, and electronic mail of
all types and descriptions can be sent to me at:
WGority@aol.com or gority@nb.net
You also have the option of trusting your snail-mail to the tender mercies of Uncle Sam and mail me at:
William Gority 1901 Grant Avenue Altoona, PA 16602-4527 USA
Bill's Favorite Places on the World Wide Web (It's just what the name implies)
The Bagpipe Gallery (Sort of like "The Night Gallery", but scarier)
The Reid Project (Measuring and Reconstructing a set of Uilleann Pipes in the Smithsonian Institution's Collections) Originally written for and published in Iris Na bPiobairi [The Irish Pipers' Review]; Volume XIV, Number 3, Summer 1995, Page 21
The 11th North American Northumbrian Pipers' Convention-Yes! It's on again for 1996, promising to be as big and wonderful as ever!!! Check out this link to for more information on this year's event. (Okay....so it's out of date...sue me.....but I really will update it this year)
Bill's Big List of Bagpipe Humor-It is what it claims.
Northumbrian Small Pipes Society of North America Spring Meeting -Information for those interested in the annual Spring Gathering of this group.
The Pipers' Rendezvous(The North American Northumbrian Pipers' Convention didn't happen for a variety of reasons in 1995, but an excellent event grew out of the void). This piece was originally written for Iris Na bPiobairi (The Irish Pipers' Review), and was published in the Fall 1995 issue (Volume XIV, Number 4, page 13).
To those with slow browsers or connections, the Gallery and Reid Project Pages each contain a number of largish graphics, so may take a while to fully load.
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