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Biography:Walker 'Piper' Jackson
Walker 'Piper' Jackson
| |
|---|---|
| Given name: | Walker |
| Middle name: | 'Piper' |
| Family name: | Jackson |
| Place of birth: | |
| Place of death: | Lisdaun, parish of Ballingarry, Aughrim, County Limerick |
| Year of birth: | 1716 |
| Year of death: | 1798 |
| Profile: | Composer, Musician |
| Source of information: | |
Biographical notes
Ferrar's History of Limerick to the year 1787 (A Watson & Co., Limerick, 1787), records that: "Walker Jackson is a native of the County of Limerick and a good musician, who has composed a number of excellent pieces of music, which are much admired for their harmony and expression. The most favoured of Mr. Jackson's compositions are: Jackson's Morning Brush: The Turret: The Humours of Castle Jackson: Jackson's Ramble: Roving Blade and the Cream of the Jest." His death notice also clarifies that his given name was 'Walker', not 'Walter', as is sometimes asserted. Jackson is unique among pipers, writes Brendan Breathnach, "in that he achieved publication of his own compositions." Dublin music publisher Edmund Lee issued a volume called Jackson's Celebrated Irish Tunes in 1790, containing thirteen pieces, although this seems to have been a republication of an earlier volume issued by his father, Samuel Lee.
There was another piper named Jackson, a contemporary of the Limerick Jackson, from Creeve, near Ballybay, County Monaghan, and Breathnach states the two have been conflated and confounded by various writers, including Bunting and O'Neill. The northern Jackson owned racehorses, named after parts of the pipes, whose prowess was recorded in local ballads.
For further details and a complete list of tunes attributed to him, see Brendan Breathnach's article "Piper Jackson," in Irish Folk Music Studies, 2, 41-57 (1974-5).
