Galway musician Simon O'Dwyer opened his lecture by drumming on a bodhran. He said that the bodhran is a musical instrument virtually unchanged since the Stone Age. We all coo. Then he throws a wrench in it: asks, or was it introduced in the 19th century?
No matter, Irish drumming is unique. The hand is used as a swing, not as a slap, like with a tambourine, and the circular unique beat is like a metronome with orchestration, or grace notes with thematic variations—which makes it one of the most complex drums in the world.
which in turn, suggests great antiquity. Not a modern invention. The idea is old. He talked about how some of the stones at Stonehenge if struck, sounded like a drum.
He introduced a copy of some Bronze Age silver pipes found in 1927, which are considered to be the oldest instrument made of metal in the world. They look like a tin-penny whistle. Or, rather, two penny-whistles as they’re played simultaneously, like panpipes; one was a drone with four holes and the other has three holes. Its sound was very much like a bagpipe tuned to E flat—similar to Sardinian music.
Then Simon showed us his cast Bronze Age horn replicas, from circa 1150 BC to 600 BC. He speculated that two volcanic eruptions: one in Iceland, and another in Japan, created a 20-year winter, where there was minimal growth during that time, and then he asked, did the twinned catastrophes cause a change in society? Increased warfare?
Simon explained that there was an explosion of weaponry, and huge fortifications burst upon the scene, so it was probably a period of extreme poverty, and starvation in Western Europe. There were also suddenly lots of horns on the cultural horizon—the largest single collection is in Denmark, and northern Germany had rich sites as well, replete with casting techniques so fine, we can't reproduce them today.
Simon mentioned working with colleague Peter Holmes, a former Rolls Royce mechanic, who became an aircraft engineer and geophysicist, took up the trumpet and turned into a music archaeologist. Peter is considered one of the world's leading experts on ancient lip-blown instruments. His Brass for Beginners is a groundbreaking classic. With his background in engineering, Peter was able to recreate ancient musical instruments literally from the ground up.
Simon said the Celtic horns were made in a two-part mold, held together by chaplets, then cast, with walls 2 mm thick, which means they are very thin. It was on the cutting edge of technology that focused on the rituals of war-making versus weaponry. All the support sciences were cutting edge as well. You needed charcoal and tin. Tin mining was documented in northeast Ireland—especially in Antrim.
Simon said the Celtic horns were made in a two-part mold, held together by chaplets, then cast, with walls 2 mm thick, which means they are very thin. It was on the cutting edge of technology that focused on the rituals of war-making versus weaponry. All the support sciences were cutting edge as well. You needed charcoal and tin. Tin mining was documented in northeast Ireland—especially in Antrim.
The first remanufactured Celtic horn Simon showed us was the first Celtic war horn played in Dingle at a parade, in 3000 years, and it sounded like a didgeridoo. It was similar to horns made 3000 years ago. He decided to make a new one, a replica,. “I made a new one to wake it up again,” and said, it's such a unique sound, Listen! And then he demonstrated it. It made the hairs on my arms stand on end.
Simon said that the Celtic horn design was a unique concept in Europe, yet it's similar to the horns of Africa. The didgeridoo wasn’t even introduced to Africa until 1965. According to Seán Ó Riorda, the two notes were used as a carrier, like a drone, and the mouth was used to change the sound.
The voice of the Celtic horn is very much like a conch sound, it uses vocce and overtones—like the circular breathing techniques of the Tuva people of Mongolia who also use circular breathing. They use voice-generated notes to split frequencies and create overtones—sometimes called a chorus of angels—resonating within your body, as well as within the diaphragm. Your body becomes a pump; in essence, a bagpipe, and you can pulse it too. You use your hands to alternate notes, to create harmonic change, and then there are pedal notes and bwerm notes. He blows raspberries. We laugh.
Horns are always found in pairs: One sideblow, one endblow, like cast cow horns, but more complex with a hyper aperature curve—a so-called invention of the 1800s—like french horns, but with more complex shapes, it creates certain harmonics attractive to the ear.
A question was raised were they battle instruments, or sacred instruments, or were they used for music—a more religious aspect, or meditative aspect.
Simon answered, In County Offaly, 26 horns were found, bells and cockles, a handbell that looked like a grenade, so it indicates religion or ceremonial aspects.
Not only England, but also Scotland also has sideblow horns, he shows us a drawing of one from Sussex. He said, In Ireland, it's at least a 9500-year-old tradition. Large horns from Kerry were found, but with no mouthpieces that survived. He speculated that perhaps they were destroyed to protect the instrument from being played again—like Irish pipes?
Because no mouth pipes survived into the modern age, Simon O'Dwyer had to invent an actual working mouthpiece, he played with many different types before he came up with one similar to an aboriginal tradition that still living as there is no living tradition within Ireland for the rhythm section or Bronze Age horns.
Simon launches into a story, In Tulsk, there is an ogham inscription about Ailil mac Medb in Rathcroghan, County Roscommon, about the Cruachán and the Cave of the Cats, Uaimh na gCat which is a vaulted cave where the three-headed cat lived. The portal to the Otherworld opens and the Morrígan emerges on Samhain. He said, this is from an older racial memory More than 3000 years old, which was visited by Celtic Ireland at the end of the Bronze Age. He said, we know this because suddenly the designs are different with the introduction of new ideas including Iron Age swords. This was the first use of sheet bronze which arrived with new technology, including the use of riveting, from circa 500 BC to the pre-Christian era.
In 400 BC, the Etruscans used sheet bronze to make horns, there are two surviving Horns in the British Museum. Peter Holmes compared these Etruscan horns to the Irish horns which are more finely made musical instruments. The Etruscan ones by comparison are crude, and made by craftsmen vs. artisans.
The evolvement of the horns in Ireland was not interrupted by invading Romans. The horns were probably introduced to Tuscany from Helvetia, or Celtic Switzerland. The trumpet-like trombone had a thousand rivets within ribs to hide them. The question was was it a circle, a half-circle, or was it like an S shape like the horns of Nepal? We don't know—it can go either way but of course, no record of it survives. It only survived in pieces so we don't know if it's like a carynx with a boar's head.
The Romans wrote of the Celts leading the armies into battle with their horns. Cuchulain in the Táin Bó Cuailgne, used Bronze Age horns derived from cowhorns, these fragments survived within the tale. Cattle wealth culture. The trumpets from this era. Four were found in a loch, and at Evan Mahha circa 60 BC, they were recovered in 1798. Three were lost, buried in Argyle, Scotland (this bit’s garbled, sorry. I couldn’t keep up with Simon).
The head of plate on the trumpet is done in repoussé style, it's called the Lotus design. There’s speculation that it's a design from the Middle East. The plate is a loudspeaker, it vibrates at a certain frequency, the wave links out can be heard, it's omnidirectional. The Ailill horn, like the one depicted on the Gundestrup Cauldron, played so beautifully, that soldiers died of rapture.
The shockwave wave pattern compresses and carries a couple of miles. A loud war parade would have a lot of fanfare and a trumpet craobh, there’s one in Dublin, not on display, about 8 feet long with artificial lips. A copy was made, computerized in Edinburg University.
In 400 BC, the Etruscans used sheet bronze to make horns, there are two surviving Horns in the British Museum. Peter Holmes compared these Etruscan horns to the Irish horns which are more finely made musical instruments. The Etruscan ones by comparison are crude, and made by craftsmen vs. artisans.
The evolvement of the horns in Ireland was not interrupted by invading Romans. The horns were probably introduced to Tuscany from Helvetia, or Celtic Switzerland. The trumpet-like trombone had a thousand rivets within ribs to hide them. The question was was it a circle, a half-circle, or was it like an S shape like the horns of Nepal? We don't know—it can go either way but of course, no record of it survives. It only survived in pieces so we don't know if it's like a carynx with a boar's head.
The Romans wrote of the Celts leading the armies into battle with their horns. Cuchulain in the Táin Bó Cuailgne, used Bronze Age horns derived from cowhorns, these fragments survived within the tale. Cattle wealth culture. The trumpets from this era. Four were found in a loch, and at Evan Mahha circa 60 BC, they were recovered in 1798. Three were lost, buried in Argyle, Scotland (this bit’s garbled, sorry. I couldn’t keep up with Simon).
The head of plate on the trumpet is done in repoussé style, it's called the Lotus design. There’s speculation that it's a design from the Middle East. The plate is a loudspeaker, it vibrates at a certain frequency, the wave links out can be heard, it's omnidirectional. The Ailill horn, like the one depicted on the Gundestrup Cauldron, played so beautifully, that soldiers died of rapture.
The shockwave wave pattern compresses and carries a couple of miles. A loud war parade would have a lot of fanfare and a trumpet craobh, there’s one in Dublin, not on display, about 8 feet long with artificial lips. A copy was made, computerized in Edinburg University.
An trumpa fada, the long trumpet had 1024 rivets. Only one rivet was missing, and it was 2000 years old. It was longer and heavier and was used on the ground, it was orchestral vs an instrument of war.
Another horn was found in Loch Erne, it was made of yew and bronze, and sounded like a full Gregorian chant.
The Mayophone was found in 1795, some 9 feet under in a bog in County Mayo, hence the name. The Mayophone looks like it was a double-reed instrument and it was made of willow which produced a softer sound. Possibly the earliest bassoon-chom family instrument in the world, it was 6 1/2 feet long, and the two halves of yew were carved out and bound together with bronze.
This is the first one it's ever been shown, or and even played. The next one will be up made of bog yew. It’s like a cornet it needs to be long to get those 17 notes. It’s the only example of a double reed instrument in the world. All the instruments were tuned into a common pitch: either G, C, low E, A, it had perfect pitch or tone. Africa has many similar instruments.
We got a chance to examine the instruments he played, and we even tried our hand—or lips
—to get a feel for them. I had a slight mishap with the longhorn as it was much heavier than it looked. It took me for a little sleigh ride, as I careened around the room beneath its weight, scaring both Simon and the audience. I was so embarrassed but also delighted to have attempted to play such an instrument.
Any errors in this transcript are solely mine, I was madly taking notes on something of which I knew nothing about, and I have little knowledge of wind instruments. My notes were nearly illegible and I despaired of ever transcribing this to an electronic format. There’s probably lots of articles that are more comprehensive, and more clearly written, but this was from a private lecture arranged by Dan Melia, and it was cutting edge scholarship for the time. Please visit Simon’s site to get it direct from the horse’s lips.
Any errors in this transcript are solely mine, I was madly taking notes on something of which I knew nothing about, and I have little knowledge of wind instruments. My notes were nearly illegible and I despaired of ever transcribing this to an electronic format. There’s probably lots of articles that are more comprehensive, and more clearly written, but this was from a private lecture arranged by Dan Melia, and it was cutting edge scholarship for the time. Please visit Simon’s site to get it direct from the horse’s lips.
