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Bronze age horn

The prehistoric theme continues and so too does the instrument making theme. After discussing didgeridoo playing at the Dundee harp class the Saturday before last, I read up again on the prehistoric Irish horns and trumpets. While a bronze casting is a bit beyond me at present, either technically to make one or financially to purchase, I thought I could manage to make one out of horn. The result is rather fine-looking. I followed the visual cues of the bronze side-blown horns and made the “knop” at the small end. There is subtle incised decoration on the knop; I had considered lines and zigzags round the mouth but I am not sure yet.

Now I only have to learn the circular breathing style of playing, necessary to get the most out of it…

These horns seem characteristic of the bronze age in Ireland. I think it is just plausible to think of a late bronze age horn and an early iron age lyre going together.

Lyre bridge from Uamh an Ard Achaidh

AOC Archaeology have released a laser scan rendering of the lyre bridge from Uamh an Ard Achadh (High Pasture Cave) on Skye. I had already been very interested in this fragment of a musical instrument from the iron age (the original interim report suggests a date of 450 to 550 BC).

Using the rendering, and scaling from the photo in the interim report, I have made a copy or reconstruction of the bridge. As you can see from the photos, the excavated bridge is burnt and broken, with perhaps 1/4 missing from one end. It seems clear to me that the four triangular spikes along the top edge are complete – the gap between the second and third is centered over the carved arch on the underside of the bridge. I confirmed this by cutting out profile views and trying different alignments. This suggests to me that the bridge was for an instrument with three or five strings.

For my bridge I used a piece of sycamore or maple which I had to hand. I made it entirely with hand tools (knives), and finished it by scraping and then sealed the surface with beeswax. Because it is hand carved from a slightly curious piece of wood with some tight flame in the grain, and also because I was only working from the laser scan screenshots not from proper dimensioned plans, it is not an exact replica, but I tried to get it fairly close.

As you can see it works just perfectly. The lyre has six strings, so I just ran the last two together and this does not seem to be a problem. The strings are further apart at the bridge than on other lyres I have seen. The backwards slant of the bridge is curious – unless I am misunderstanding the laser scan, I wonder if it is designed for a much sharper break angle than I am using?

I’ll be playing this lyre at my cathedral concert in the ruins of St Andrews cathedral on Tuesday 5th June at 12.45pm. The music will however be medieval, not iron age!

Trumpet mouthpiece

I have ordered a copy of a 17th century English mouthpiece from Egger in Switzerland. Here it is installed on the trumpet:

It is a very high quality piece of brassware and makes a big difference to the instrument. I don’t feel there is a mismatch installing this on a rather wobbly instrument – the mouthpiece is very much the most important part of the trumpet, so much better to have a top quality mouthpiece on a cheap trumpet, than get an expensive trumpet and use a modern or otherwise dodgy mouthpiece. I suppose it is similar to my fiddle, an anonymous mass produced instrument, fitted with the best handmade natural gut strings.

Swallow Theatre, Whithorn

Last night I was at the Swallow Theatre for a concert with a difference – the organisers suggested more talking and explanation than I usually include, so I performed with a slide show of images connected to the old Gaelic harp traditions, and included more and longer anecdotes about the old harpers and music. The venue was very pleasant and atmospheric, the organisers were very efficient and welcoming, and the audience was enthusiastic and engaged. And I managed to stop at Whithorn Priory and walk into the ruins of St Ninian’s church on the way through.

Medieval art & the Queen Mary harp

I have been thinking for some years about the decoration on the Queen Mary harp, ever since medieval academics at the 2008 Leeds International Medieval Congress suggested that while the pillar is clearly 15th century West Highland, the box and neck look earlier.

Today I was down at the cathedral here in St Andrews and I took some photos of 12th century designs on the Cathedral stonework, to compare with the designs on the harp.

Left & right: replica Queen Mary harp soundbox designs; Centre: Outside of chancel end wall at St Andrews cathedral. (I understand this is a consecration cross. There is another, damaged, on the end wall of the south transept).

Above: arcade inside the South transept at St Andrews cathedral. Below: replica Queen Mary harp neck design.

Craftsmen & crafts


In Dundee on Saturday I picked up an interesting and pretty book at a charity street bookstall. It is Fifteen Craftsmen on their Crafts edited by John Farleigh, published by the Sylvan Press in 1945.

I was interested in the general ambience of the book as well as some of the more specific comments in it. It reminds me of other craftsmanship books from the earlier part of the 20th century, and I wonder if this is like the tail end of the original Arts & Crafts movement. There is a kind of straightness and openness about the attitudes that I do not see very often today.

Farleigh in his introduction talks about tradition, technique and personality being a “creative yet conservative force”. I was interested to see Carl Dolmetsch’s essay on “Music and Craftsmanship” was the least conservative – when discussing modern manufacture of historical instruments, he delights in “improvements” and repeatedly describes Arnold Dolmetsch’s designs and mechanisms as better than those of the historical masters.

There is even a brief mention of A.D.’s work on the medieval Welsh music: “The harps were simple, … but the crwth … required much research and all the skill of the violin maker”. It is interesting to see this dismissal of the craftsmanship and design in the old harps. Perhaps it is significant that the harps made by Dolmetsch in the 1930s are not rated nowadays either as musical instruments or as art objects, in contrast with his beautiful and high quality harpsichords.

Ecce Fulget

Today at the Harp Class in Dundee, as it is St Patrick’s day, we looked at a medieval hymn to St Patrick from Trinity College Dublin ms.80.

Ecce fulget clarissima
Behold, flashes brightly

Patricii sollempnitas
Patrick’s festival,

in qua carne deposita
whereby the body he has abandoned,

felix transcendit sidera.
happily he passes through the stars.

Recording of me singing it

Recording of me playing it on the harp