Music is an integral part of being a bard, and musicians have been a part of bardic tradition since ancient times. Traditional Irish folk music has enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in modern times, as well. Traditional instruments in folk music give it a unique and recognizable sound. What would Celtic music be without the fiddle, the bodhran, the tin whistle, and the bagpipes? Well, as it turns out, none of these instruments were played in ancient Ireland!
While early scholarship clouds and confuses the reality of ancient Irish music and musicians, modern scholars generally list nine types of musicians from that time: cruitre (harper), timpanach (timpanist), buinnire (flutist), cornaire (horn player), cuisleannach (bagpiper), fedanach (fife player), graice (horn player) stocaire (trumpeter), and pipaire (piper). Harpers played two types of harps. Cruits were smaller harps with six strings. These harps were held in the lap or placed on a tabletop, much like a zither, and either plucked or played with a bow. The clairseach was a larger harp with anywhere from thirty to sixty strings. The timpan was not, as it might sound to modern ears, a drum. It was a small stringed instrument with three to eight strings. It was played with a bow or plectrum. The buinne is generally categorized as a primitive oboe, but some authorities liken it more to what would now be called a recorder. This instrument was typically used to accompany a vocalist. Horn players played any number of types of horns—hornpipes, liltpipes, jigpipes, trumpets, cornets, and bassoons, just to name a few. Fifes, in particular, are attributed in the oldest manuscripts of ancient Ireland. Bagpipes, on the other hand, are fairly recent on the scene. They are mentioned in the Brehon laws of the fifth century, but did not become common until the eleventh century. Both Irish and Scottish bagpipes, then, are actually medieval instruments, rather than ancient. And what about the bodhran, that quintessential Irish drum? Its history is also confused. Some scholars date it as late as the mid-19th Century, but even the earliest attribution possible seems to be in 17th Century.
As you can see, while modern instruments are clearly later versions of many of these ancient instruments, what we consider to be “traditional” instruments of Irish music are actually very modern. Ancient Irish music would very likely not be all that recognizable to our modern ears!
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Works Cited
Flood, William H. Grattan. A History of Irish Music. http://www.libraryireland.com/IrishMusic/III.php
Ó Bharáin, Liam. Bodhrán: Its Origin, Meaning and History. http://comhaltas.ie/music/treoir/detail/bodhran_its_origin_meaning_and_history/
