A Blast from the Past

Simon O'Dwyer has been studying and reconstructing the pre historic musical instruments of Ireland since the late eighties after an experimental reconstruction of a bronze age horn turned out to be a huge success. After years of intense study and research he has now become one of the leading authorities on prehistoric Irish music. Besides making replicas of some of Irelands most enigmatic archaeological instruments such as the Loughnashade Horn, he has aslo combined the playing of these replicas with instruments from cultures as far away as Australia and incorporated them into many different types of music from the orchestral to jazz. He has appeared on television several times presenting his work, has lectured at universities all over the world and in 1998 was invited to make a presentation at the world conference of music archaeology in Germany, returning to the conference three times since. Seanchán asked him a few questions to get an insight into an area of our history that is anything but common knowledge.

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How did you actually become interested in this area of Irish music and history?
I was fortunate in that studies that I was making in the mid 1980s into the rhythm aspects of traditional Irish music coincided with an introduction to the prehistoric instruments of Ireland by Dr. Eamon Kelly. It was fascinating to be challenged by the idea of remaking instruments and sounds that hadn't been heard for thousands of years.

You are probably the leading authority on the subject of Prehistoric Irish music, It must have been a lengthy road to become so knowledgeable on the subject. Did it take you long to get to the level you are at now both in your knowledge and craftsmanship?
Our research into bronze horns began in 1987. At first the main obstacle was organising to create a perfect reproduction. To this end we were able to call on the expertise and support of Dr. Peter Holmes. He secured permission to copy a pair of horns from the Ulster Museum. From then it was a matter of experimentation and continued reproduction. Some instruments, such as the Loughnashade trumpa presented particular problems as the very high level of metal fabrication expertise required a world leading metal smith to reproduce them. This meant that a new trumpa may take months to make and will be very expensive. Over the years we have perfected the casting of Bronze Age horns and have been able to supply instruments to musicians and institutions around the World.

How different do you think the music of early Ireland was to the present day traditional music that we now consider to be quintessentially Irish?
It is quite impossible to make any comparison between early Irish music and that of today. We are talking about such a long time span with changing traditions and practices. The Wicklow pipes point to a complex melody sound at the end of the Stone Age. The Bronze Age horns suggest religion and ceremony. The fact that they are all tuned below middle C might point to the possibility that they were played along with male singers. The Iron Age trumpas introduce a melody performance and war display function from Northern Europe while the Early Medieval horns and pipes are associated with Early Christianity. We can never know what was played on any of the prehistoric instruments. We can hear their voices and use them to play with present day disciplines and in entirely new music.

You have written before that over a third of all metal prehistoric instruments found in the world are Irish in origin. This would suggest that the society and people from which these instruments came held music in the highest regard, how important a part do you think music played in the lives of the early Irish?
The fact that forty percent of the surviving metal prehistoric instruments are Irish is really quite amazing. Clearly music has always played a vital role in Irish society. We only have to look to the perfect designers and superlative bronze casting and sheet work that went into every surviving instrument to appreciate the great importance they were given in society.

Do you think music played a big part in ritual or ceremony in early Ireland?
There can be no doubt that many of the prehistoric instruments were used ritualistically or ceremonially. The Bronze Age horns appear to be definitely designed to facilitate the production of harmonic and overtone colours on a continuous fundamental. Thus flowing, ever changing, mesmeric music can be played and the more horns together the more powerful the sound. We have a clear reference from the story 'Táin Bó Fraoch' in the Iron Age, of trumpas being played as a part of a healing ceremony. (see 'Prehistoric Music of Ireland'). The River Erne (8th Century AD) horn was found in the proximity of two monasteries and is also shown being played with a group of musicians in the Early Medieval book called the Canterbury Psalter. We are particularly fortunate that complete instruments survive. The fine bronze casting from 2,800 years ago challenges bronze casters today. We are also able to know the exact original fundamental note of each one and ongoing study is revealing complex musical relationships between horns from different parts and ages of Ireland.

One recent find that is of particular interest is the set of wooden pipes discovered in Wicklow in December of 2003, what I find remarkable (as most people would) is the fact that these pipes are 4134 years old, 1800 years older than the next oldest organ found in the world which is of Alexandrian origin. How important is this find?
One of the most important music archaeology finds for the last 50 years was the recovery of the Wicklow pipes two years ago. Not only were six pipes found complete and presented together but they had survived in remarkably fine condition. However, an extra piece which would have fitted onto a socket on each pipe was not present. Clearly there had to be a mechanism that would generate the tones. Currently experiments are being conducted using the first reproduction set to establish the most likely answer. Three possibilities are fipples (as in low whistles), horizontal mouth holes (pan pipes) or reeds (bagpipes/organ). So far, the favoured option is a simple pan pipe arrangement. Yet the really amazing fact coming from the Wicklow pipes is that we can establish intervals in a scale that was being played in Ireland at the end of the Stone Age.

Another fascinating instrument is the Loughnashade Trumpa, creating a reproduction must give a unique insight into the level of skill employed in it's crafting?
The Iron Age trumpas which include the Loughnashade trumpa and the Ard Brinn trumpa are both superb examples of instruments which were being used throughout Celtic Europe in the centuries before the Roman conquests. It is curious to note that the European examples of these trumpas are made using welding to seal the joins whereas in Ireland a fine delicate form of riveting was preferred. If the superior metal work and the musical occurrence of these trumpas is to be seen as a pinnacle of achievement from 100 BC, then the same accuracy level was not achieved in Europe again until 1500 AD.

There is a lot of speculation regarding the age and origin of the Bodhran, what is your opinion on the history of the instrument? Would you consider it to date back to ancient times?
I find the whole idea of the bodhran particularly fascinating, probably because it is my favourite instrument. Clearly the drum itself (frame drum) is common around the World and could have developed in Ireland or could have been introduced at any time. Yet the sideways playing technique appears to be uniquely Irish. This controlled swinging of the hand is also manifested in bones or spoons playing. It would seem odd if such a distinctive style and rhythm which is a definitive part of Irish music did not originate in our ancient past. Perhaps a rock carving will turn up showing someone playing a bodhran to finally answer the question positively.

Although we can never truly know how they where played originally, is there much skill in the playing of them today as you yourself play them?
We can never know the music of the Bronze or Iron Age, but we know that the instruments were designed and made so that beautiful musical sounds could be played on them. Our research merely scratches the surface of a rich and complex story.

Do you think you are close to figuring out all there is to the complete playing methods and techniques of these instruments?
The full potential of the great horns and trumpas can be realised if there are ample instruments and lots of players having the opportunity to practice and learn over many years. Gradually as the numbers of reproductions increase we are able to undertake more experiments involving multiple combinations of sounds.

I've read that you would love to conduct an orchestra of about twenty Iron age horns, are you any closer to this?
We are presently investigating the possibility of bringing together twenty six Bronze Age horns that were reproduced for musicians around the World over the last fifteen years. The event would celebrate the Dowris hoard from Offally, the largest collection of Bronze Age horns ever recovered anywhere. The Dowris hoard is particularly interesting in that the twenty six horns came from all over Ireland. Maybe they were part of an early National Orchestra.

And finally, you seem to be an avid music lover, are there any modern groups or bands that are too your liking?
Before I became interested in playing music I was moved along with many of my generation by the advent of The Beatles, The Stones, Cream, Pink Floyd, Yes, Led Zeplin, The Who and all those great bands who changed the World between 1963 and 1973. I haven't seen anything particularly new since, excepting the advent of techno and related dance music. It is also probably fair to say that the music composed for, recorded and played on musical instruments designed in prehistory and silent until now, may also be classed as new.



Simon's Book "Prehistoric Music of Ireland" is available to buy online here as are CD's of his recordings.

Photos: Astrid Neumann

The importance of the learner in revival of Gaeilge.

It's a sad fact, to which I can attest first hand, that there is a widely held perception that the language revival movement is elitist and exclusive. I can count myself firmly among the ranks of the under-confident learner, unsure of my own fluency and reluctant to look like a gobshite in front of fluent speakers, stuttering and taking too long hunting for vocabulary or the correct grammar in the auld memory banks. This obstacle of confidence is among the most difficult to overcome regardless of what language you may be learning.

When we started Craobh Chrua, there was a niggling in the back of my mind about being a mere learner of Gaeilge preaching and ranting about cultural awareness and individual responsibility etc etc and I often worried about how our efforts to join the language revival movement would be received given the fact that I could just about hold a basic conversation in the language!!
I was worried that whatever we decided to do would be met with a "sure how can you go on about a language that you can't even speak fluently yourself?!" attitude but thankfully I'm beyond giving a rats arse about whether that sort of opinion is out there or not!

In time I came to realise that the perception of the language movement being exclusive is, in most cases, nonsense and derives more often than not from ones own feelings of inadequacy as an English speaking Irish person. However, I do have personal experience of being brow-beaten and derided for my lack of fluency by a few fluent speakers but that has more to do with those people being arrogant and self-important than it has with them having the language.

More power to the beginner!
The role of the learner is of the utmost importance in the revival of the language as the learner is coming from an English speaking background and an English speaking social circle. This has the great effect where the learner acts as a channel for other English speakers in his or her own family or circle of friends to be able to come into contact with the language without any of the above obstacles.

The language really benefits from being spread and promoted, strangely enough, by people who don't necessarily speak it fluently but who are openly enthusiastic and who encourage their friends and family to use it in everyday conversation. It allows people to converse and enjoy Gaeilge without the pressure of fluency. The learner is, in my opinion, the key to the success of the language revival but more often than not this importance is overlooked. Not least by the state whose lack of imagination has done more damage to the language than anyone could have imagined.

Our Humble Efforts.
Anyway, it was around this time last year that we finally decided to take the plunge and throw our two cents into the language movement for better or worse. We'd talked and talked about how learners such as ourselves could encourage people to learn the language and we finally struck upon the idea of a "Teach Yourself" course that wouldn't need us to be teaching anybody. We'd be simply providing the means for people to learn freely and they'd be teaching themselves. To be honest, the teach-yourself approach is how I've always preferred to learn anything.

The first thing we had to do was to get 'legitimate' in order to get funding and trust me when I tell you that support and information for non-profit organisations in Ireland is disgracefully low (so much for active citizenship eh!!). We needed to be able to get our hands on some state funding if we were to do anything so we wrote ourselves a constitution, formally stating our charitable intentions, and opened a bank account. After a lengthy application process, with it's fair share of set-backs along the way, the funds came in from Foras na Gaeilge and we could finally put the cash to good use and buy dictionaries, workbooks, grammar books and the like to send out free to the first 25 people who applied for a course pack.

Now I know that 25 learners seems a paltry figure given the scale of the language issue but, as proof of the importance and the effect that learners can have on the language, I've already got emails from people who have received the course packs only two or three days ago telling me that their family members are getting on board too. So, 25 becomes 50 becomes 100 and so on and so on. Being now firmly of the opinion that Irish language education and support should be completely free and geared, first and foremost, toward the absolute beginner we will most certainly be seeking funding for more of the same in the near future.

Lastly, and by no means least, the very best of luck to all who are teaching themselves and encouraging others to learn by virtue of their own enthusiasm. Fair play t'ye. You don't need Gaeilge to love Gaeilge.

Balor goes to Rome

Among the most familiar symbols of Ireland, besides the harp or shamrock, it is reasonable enough to think of the Celtic Cross as quintessential. To many it brings to mind the early Christian Ireland with her saints and holy hermits finding the divine in nature as did their pagan forbears before them, a time of transition where the new faith, at war with a long held paganism, was being coloured uniquely by it's enemy. The end product of this conflict was a Christianity that in many ways compromised in order to convert and, in doing so, took on a distinctly pagan outlook.

The Celtic Cross is a perfect example of this compromise whereby an ancient pagan symbol is assimilated into the symbology of Christianity and used as a means to convert the native beliefs while at the same time paganising the interloping Christianity. A hint at this process is evidenced in the fanciful belief that the cross was invented by Saint Patrick whereby he combined the pagan symbol of the sun to the cross to impress the notion that the power of the cross was like that of the life giving sun. This is an echo of the fact that the cross was already a solar symbol to us sun worshipping pagan Irish as well as to most of the pagan world, marking out the seasonal festivals and it was employed in the Christianisation of the island.

As a pagan symbol, It gave rise to the symbolism of the wheel and the sun-god as a great chariot rider coursing the heavens and descending into the underworld at night. Many of the great kings of Irish mythology are in fact expressions of the sun with names like Eochaid, meaning Horseman, being among the most popular in the royal lines. A fine example of a the Solar God-King can be seen in Fearghus Mac Róich whose name translates as 'Male Vigour, son of Great Horse'. Such a widespread symbol, that no doubt loomed large in the minds of the whole society, was a perfect means to facilitate their conversion to the beliefs of the church.

The colour that pagan Europe actually lent to the church is still very much in evidence today and some fairly impressive solar symbolism can actually be found at the very heart of the Catholic church, St. Peter's Square in the Vatican, which takes the form of a great solar wheel intersected by eight spokes. This is all topped off by an obelisk, a phallic solar symbol, at the centre of the wheel! Fairly heathen stuff for auld Pope Benny and his bishops eh? What next... human sacrifice? Oh no hang on a minute, haven't they done that already with the witch hunts and the burning of heretics? Yes, I thought so. My mistake.

Anyway, here's a picture of the temple of the sun in Rome... Sorry, I mean St. Peter's square, Vatican City.