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Lip-Blown Instruments of Ireland Before the Norman Invasion

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Lip-Blown Instruments of Ireland Before the Norman Invasion DOWNEY 75 LIP-BLOWN INSTRUMENTS OF IRELAND BEFORE THE NORMAN INVASION Peter Downey t is generally assumed that metal lip-blown instruments were introduced into Europe by the Arabs and Moors during the Middle Ages as the result of the Crusades and other Ibelligerent contacts. This assumption requires subscribing to the belief that, with the fall of the Roman Empire, all knowledge of the manufacture and use of lip-blown instruments, such as the Roman tuba and comu or the Gallic carnyx, was lost in the turmoil and destruction of the Dark Ages. Serious doubts have been cast on the concept recently, most notably by Don Smithers.1 The arguments have been presented in a quite persuasive manner. However, what has been missing to date is "test-case" evidence from a part of Europe in which there can be shown a continuity of manufacture and use of lip-blown instruments throughout the period under scrutiny, and whose history shows that: 1) they remained outside the Roman Empire; 2) they were cushioned from the events of the Dark Ages that followed the fall of that empire in the west; 3) they did not participate in the early confrontations between Christian and Muslim. One such example is actually to be found on the fringe of Western Europe, namely, Ireland. Aspects of Ireland's testimony have been mentioned briefly in various texts, but much misunderstanding and misrepresentation has accompanied and clouded the clarity of that evidence. What follows is the first stage of an attempt to dispel some of those clouds by bringing into clearer focus the material riches preserved in Ireland from its long-lasting cultural independence.2 Because many readers may be unfamiliar with Ireland's prehistory and early history, short overviews of the historical situation are also included as appropriate to provide a contact for the instruments described. 1. THE LATE BRONZE AGE Ireland has been inhabited since the arrival of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, ca. 7000 BC. Farming became established ca. 4000 BC during the Irish Neolithic period, and the construction of the massive megalithic tombs at Newgrange, Knowth, Dowth (all in County Meath) and elsewhere attests to the emergence of a powerful ruling class and surplus wealth ca. 3000 BC. The advent of the Bronze Age ca. 2500 BC brought with it much technological and societal change that is reflected in the surviving artifacts and in the archeological evidence of ancient settlements, land-use patterns, and ritual centers. The boglands began to expand at this time, and these have played an important role in preserving much of the evidence. It is during the Irish Late Bronze Age (1000 - 300 BC) that the earliest metal lip- blown instruments appear. They are made of bronze, but both their shape and aspects of their decoration point to antecedents made of organic materials. As most of the instruments 76 HISTORIC BRASS SOCIETY JOURNAL are either entirely conical or mainly conical they will be considered as horns, following a convenient modern convention. A remarkable number of bronze horns survive. At least ninety complete or fragmentary instruments are preserved out of a total of more than 120 reported discoveries. The earliest recorded find was made in 1698 at a burial mound near Carrickfergus, County Antrim:3 many of the finds were made during the eighteenth century, and were published in journals and books which showed and antiquarian interest in what had by then become an all-but- destroyed Celtic culture. Because the horns were considered collector's items, many were placed in private collections and have subsequently found their way into modern museum collections. Comparison of the early descriptions with surviving instruments shows a consistent and impressive degree ofaccuracy and allows reports ofnow-lost horns to be taken into consideration also. The horns were usually found in hoards, occasionally associated with other artifacts. The Dowris, County Offaly, hoard was discovered in 1832 and is the largest of these. It included twenty-eight horns as well as axes, swords, spearheads, crotals, and hammered bronze buckets and cauldrons. This hoards may date from the seventh century BC. Another hoard found and Booleybrien, County Clare, which also included a horn, seems to have been deposited slightly earlier. On the other hand, a horn fragment found at Lough Gara, County Sligo, may date from as late as 300-200 BC. This indicates a long period of use for the instruments. Ritual deposition seems to be the rule, perhaps associated with a cult of bull worship, and the hoards tend to be located near burial mound and ancient earthworks or under lakes and bogland that was formerly under water. John Coles listed the Irish horns and classified them according to their geographic location in his important study of 1963, which forms the basis of much of the following.4 There are two types of horn: "Class I" and "Class II." Class I horns are found in the northeast of the country and Class II instruments are concentrated in the southwest. Both classes of horn were found at Downs, in the center of the country.5 Each class is divisible into two groups, side-blown horns and end-blown horns, according to the placement of the mouth- opening on the instruments. The forms of these horns and also the decorations on them betray their origins in organic precursors of which the two-dimensional curved horn of the bos longsfrons is the most important factor. The body of a Class I side-blown horn may be either plain or ribbed. The bell also may be plain, or may have ribs, grooves, zigzags, domes, spikes, or even rope-moulding. The narrow closed end may be flat or knobbed. Two loops are usually found, one on the closed end and the other near it, and a few of the loops have rings cast within them (Figure 1, top). The body of a Class II side-blown horn is plain. The bell usually includes cast conical projections and sometimes four holes. The narrow closed end is in the shape of a stepped pyramid. Two loops are found, one on the closed end and the other near it, and most of these carry cast rings (Figure 2). The two classes of side-blown horn share many common features. In particular, the oval mouth-opening is always made so that the instrument is played either with the bell pointing upward and to the left or downward and to the right, even when horns are paired . Detailed DOWNEY 77 Figure 1 Drumbest Class I side-blown horn (top) and Phase III Class I end-blown horn (bottom) (Photograph reproduced with kind permission of the Trustees of the Ulster Museum) W C 5.5C. FIGURE 2 Chute Hall Class II side-blown horn (Engraving from R. Day, "Irish Bronze War Trumpets," Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Associa- tion of Ireland, 4th series, 3 [Dublin, 1875], fig. 1) investigation of the two identical Drumbest, County Antrim, Class I side-blown horns indicates that the latter mode of performance is more likely.6 The Drumbest side-blown horns are among the largest side-blown instruments, being 73 cm along the convex surface; other horns range between 60 and 100 cm in length. The outer diameter at the bell of the Drumbest horn is 7 cm and the tube narrows to an outer diameter of 2.9 cm at the closed end. (The metal thickness is of the order of 0.2 cm.) The axes of the oval mouth-opening are 4.7 by 2.5 cm. It is usually stated that some organic insert must have been included, but the smoothness of the edges of the mouth-openings, the presence of slightly raised rims on three of the other horns, and "hands-on" practical experience all indicate that no other aid is required. 78 HISTORIC BRASS SOCIETY JOURNAL Little connection between the two classes of end-blown horns is found, apart from a common organic precursor. A developmental process for the Class I end-blown horns may well be indicated, according to the following parameters: 1) their physical appearance, 2) the decoration found on their outer surface, 3) the degree of sophistication of their manufacture. However, in the absence of specific dates for the instruments, this proposal must remain speculative in nature. In the earliest phase, Phase I, the instrument survives as an expanding bell section shaped like the letter L, in which the change from the curve to the straight part is often marked by a ribbed decoration? The body may be plain or it may include ribs, domes and one or two loops. The bell may be plain or may be decorated with ribs, grooves, zigzags, domes, or spikes. The arrow end includes an inserting flange. The bell section of a now- destroyed, but representative, horn from the Downs hoard expanded from 2.5 cm at the narrow end to 6.2 cm at the bell over a concave length of 54 cm, ignoring the inserting flange at the narrow end (Figure 3). FIGURE 3 Dowris hoard phase I Class I end-blown horn (destroyed) (Engraving from J.M. Kemble, Horae Ferales [London, 1863], pl. XIII, fig. 5) That the inserting flange of the Phase I, Class I end-blown horn may have been placed inside a short cylindrical mouth-tube made of organic material is indicated by the instruments of the proposed second phase of development. In these Phase II horns, the short mouth-tube is made of bronze. It is cylindrical and approximately 16 cm long, excluding the enclosing flanges found at both ends. Four metal mouth-tubes survive, although not in association with any particular surviving bell section.
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