Essays and Such
Irish Cultural Society
of San Antonio Texas
Promoting Awareness of Irish Culture
Secret of Irish Bronze Age Horns Discovered
Secret of Irish Bronze Age Horns Discovered
Secret of Irish Bronze Age Horns Discovered A traditional Irish musician, a British professor, and a British sculptor have solved the mystery of how to play large, curved metal horns dating from Ireland's Late Bronze Age (1200 B.C.200 B.C.).
One pair of the Drumbest horns, which date to the Irish Bronze Age,
is shown above. The end-blow horn (top) emits a drone and the
side-blow horn plays melodies when the horns are played like
didjerydoos. The horns are in the Ulster Museum in Belfast, which
kindly granted Ducas permission to use copyrighted photographs.
For more than 200 years, scientists and scholars had tried, without
success, to discover whether these horns are, as suspected, musical
instruments.
The horns, which can be as long as 4.5 feet, seem impossible to play
because of their very large end or side holes. Most experts had
concluded that a wood or bone mouthpiece must have been necessary
to play the horns, but no such pieces have ever been found.
The discovery of the horns' secret began when Prof. Peter Holmes,
conducting a metallurgical study of Bronze Age castings, wondered
whether the Irish horns might be played like the Aborigine
didjerydoo of Australia.
The oldest known instrument on earth, the didjerydoo is a simple
wooden pipe, varying in length from three to nine feet, with a
large open mouthpiece (about 1.5 inches across). By using a
technique called circular breathing - where a player breathes
in through the nose while simultaneously blowing out through the
mouth - the didjerydoo produces a continuous tone.
When Irish traditional musician Siomon 0 Duibhir learned of
Holmes' theory, he was intrigued, because one of the instruments
he plays is the didjerydoo. (The instrument is starting to be
used on the Irish traditional music scene for bass and rhythm.)
0 Duibhir contacted Holmes, and when sculptor John Summerville
agreed to cast replicas, Holmes' theory was ready to be
tested.
There are two types of horns, those with an opening on the end
("endblow") and those with an oval opening on the side near the
closed end ("side blow"). The original side-blow horns were cast
in one piece, but the endblow horns were most often in two or
three pieces which could be fitted together. The horns, more
than
100 of which have been unearthed, are almost always found
together, though the end-blow horn was always missing the section
with the mouthpiece. A group of four found in Armagh, however,
called the Drumbest horns, were intact because the end-blow horns
had been cast in a single piece.
With the approval of the Ulster Museum in Belfast, where the horns
are kept, 0 Duibhir, Holmes, and Summerville made molds from two
of the Drumbest horns. 0 Duibhir also briefly played these ancient
horns - successfully - as didjerydoos.
While waiting for Summerville to cast bronze replicas of the
Drumbest horns, 0 Duibhir experimented with a plastic copy he made
of the side-blow horn. After learning that it would not hold a
note continuously, he discovered that he could actually play two
full octaves in concert G pitch by using circular breathing and
by controlling how hard he blew and how much he tightened his lips.
He could even learn songs on the instrument.
In June, 1988, 0 Duibhir went to London to pick up the side-blow
horn Summerville had finished casting. The sculptor had
experienced a great deal of difficulty because he was trying to
match the extremely high craftsmanship attained by the prehistoric
Irish bronzesmiths. 0 Duibhir was delighted with the horn's
concert G pitch and with the concert E pitch of the end-blow horn,
which he picked up two months later.
By experimenting with both horns, 0 Duibhir has found that they
were meant to be played together, a fact that may explain why
they are often found in pairs. The end-blow plays exactly like
a didjerydoo, emitting a drone in E with a high D relative, and
the side-blow plays the melody from a fully chromatic, nearly
three-octave range. 0 Duibhir describes the sound of the horns
as "full and haunting."
We have no idea what music Irish Bronze Age musicians played
on these horns or what other instruments they used, but at
last we know the secret of how the horns are played, and
their stirring sounds are no longer lost in antiquity.
Ducas explores the cultural heritage of
Irish Americans and it serves as a link
between the chapters and members of the
Irish American Cultural Institute. Its
name comes from an ancient Irish word
implying a sense of heritage illuminating
all aspects of one's life. Readers'
comments and contributions are always
welcome. Articles can be reprinted with
the following acknowledgement: "Reprinted
from Ducas, the newsletter of the Irish
American Cultural Institute, St. Paul,
Minnesota. "
Editor James Bohen
"Reprinted from Ducas,
the newsletter of
the Irish American Cultural Institute
IMI. XVIII, Uimh. 1
Vol. XVIII, No. 1
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