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Bodhrán
The bodhrán (/ˈbaʊrɑːn, baʊˈrɑːn, ˈbɔːrɑːn, ˈbɔːrən/, Irish: [ˈbˠəuɾˠaːnˠ]; plural bodhráin) is a frame drum used in Irish music ranging from 25 to 65 cm (10–26 in) in diameter, with most drums measuring 35–45 cm (14–18 in). The sides of the drum are 9–20 cm (3+1⁄2–8 in) deep. A goatskin hide is tacked to one side (synthetic heads or other animal skins are sometimes used). The other side is open-ended for one hand to be placed against the inside of the drum head to control the pitch and timbre.
One or two crossbars, sometimes removable, may be inside the frame, but this is increasingly rare on modern instruments[citation needed]. Some professional modern bodhráns integrate mechanical tuning systems similar to those used on drums found in drum kits. It is usually with a hex key that the bodhrán skins are tightened or loosened depending on the atmospheric conditions.
Some notable music acts and people who have made use of the bodhrán include Christy Moore, Planxty, Moving Hearts, The Chieftains, The Boys of the Lough, The Pogues, Hothouse Flowers, Stockton's Wing, De Dannan, The Saw Doctors, Great Big Sea, Flogging Molly, Imelda May, John Joe Kelly and Ruairi Glasheen.
Composer Seán Ó Riada declared the bodhrán to be the native drum of the ancient Celts (as did bodhrán maker Paraic McNeela), suggesting that it was possibly used originally for winnowing or wool dying, with a musical history that predated Christianity, native to southwest Ireland.
According to one authoritative observer, the Irish bodhrán was derived from the "riddle", an agricultural tool used for sifting coarse material from harvested grain: "most [bodhráns] were made out of sieves and riddles, you know, for riddling corn, they just removed the wire, and used the frame. "As a "riddle drum", the instrument is also known from Dorset and Wiltshire in England. A book on English agricultural hand tools depicts a riddle with a beech frame 28 inches in diameter from Leicestershire, England, and Scotsman Osgood Mackenzie stated that he "never saw a wire riddle for riddling corn or meal in the old days; they were all made of stretched sheep-skins with holes perforated in them by a big red-hot needle", suggesting a cosmopolitan origin for the musical instrument.
However, according to musician Ronan Nolan, former editor of Irish Music magazine, the bodhrán evolved in the mid-19th century from the tambourine, which can be heard on some Irish music recordings dating back to the 1920s. A large oil painting on canvas from 1833 by Daniel Maclise (1806–1870) depicts a Halloween house party where a tambourine-style bodhrán features clearly. It is in a group of musicians with union pipes, a fiddle, and a fife. The bodhrán is struck with the back of the player's hand, as is sometimes still done, rather than with a cipín, also known in English as a "tipper.” In remote parts of the south-west, the "poor man's tambourine" – made from farm implements and without the jingles – was in popular use among mummers, or wren boys. In the early 20th century, home-made frame drums were constructed using willow branches as frames, leather as drumheads, and pennies as jingles. Photographs and a short film taken by folklorist Kevin Danaher in Athea, County Limerick in 1946 show bodhráns with jingles being played with a ’'cipín" in a style that is relatable to that of contemporary bodhrán playing.
The Gaelic word shared by Scots and Irish bodhrán (plural bodhráin), indicating a drum, is first mentioned in the Rosa Anglica, "a manuscript that was written no earlier than the 15th and no later than the 16th century, or very early in the 17th century."
Third-generation bodhrán maker Caramel Tobin suggests that the name bodhrán means "skin tray". He also suggests a link with the Irish word bodhar, meaning, among other things, a drum or a dull sound (it also means deaf). A relatively new introduction to Irish music, the bodhrán without jingles has largely supplanted its predecessor.
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Bodhrán
The bodhrán (/ˈbaʊrɑːn, baʊˈrɑːn, ˈbɔːrɑːn, ˈbɔːrən/, Irish: [ˈbˠəuɾˠaːnˠ]; plural bodhráin) is a frame drum used in Irish music ranging from 25 to 65 cm (10–26 in) in diameter, with most drums measuring 35–45 cm (14–18 in). The sides of the drum are 9–20 cm (3+1⁄2–8 in) deep. A goatskin hide is tacked to one side (synthetic heads or other animal skins are sometimes used). The other side is open-ended for one hand to be placed against the inside of the drum head to control the pitch and timbre.
One or two crossbars, sometimes removable, may be inside the frame, but this is increasingly rare on modern instruments[citation needed]. Some professional modern bodhráns integrate mechanical tuning systems similar to those used on drums found in drum kits. It is usually with a hex key that the bodhrán skins are tightened or loosened depending on the atmospheric conditions.
Some notable music acts and people who have made use of the bodhrán include Christy Moore, Planxty, Moving Hearts, The Chieftains, The Boys of the Lough, The Pogues, Hothouse Flowers, Stockton's Wing, De Dannan, The Saw Doctors, Great Big Sea, Flogging Molly, Imelda May, John Joe Kelly and Ruairi Glasheen.
Composer Seán Ó Riada declared the bodhrán to be the native drum of the ancient Celts (as did bodhrán maker Paraic McNeela), suggesting that it was possibly used originally for winnowing or wool dying, with a musical history that predated Christianity, native to southwest Ireland.
According to one authoritative observer, the Irish bodhrán was derived from the "riddle", an agricultural tool used for sifting coarse material from harvested grain: "most [bodhráns] were made out of sieves and riddles, you know, for riddling corn, they just removed the wire, and used the frame. "As a "riddle drum", the instrument is also known from Dorset and Wiltshire in England. A book on English agricultural hand tools depicts a riddle with a beech frame 28 inches in diameter from Leicestershire, England, and Scotsman Osgood Mackenzie stated that he "never saw a wire riddle for riddling corn or meal in the old days; they were all made of stretched sheep-skins with holes perforated in them by a big red-hot needle", suggesting a cosmopolitan origin for the musical instrument.
However, according to musician Ronan Nolan, former editor of Irish Music magazine, the bodhrán evolved in the mid-19th century from the tambourine, which can be heard on some Irish music recordings dating back to the 1920s. A large oil painting on canvas from 1833 by Daniel Maclise (1806–1870) depicts a Halloween house party where a tambourine-style bodhrán features clearly. It is in a group of musicians with union pipes, a fiddle, and a fife. The bodhrán is struck with the back of the player's hand, as is sometimes still done, rather than with a cipín, also known in English as a "tipper.” In remote parts of the south-west, the "poor man's tambourine" – made from farm implements and without the jingles – was in popular use among mummers, or wren boys. In the early 20th century, home-made frame drums were constructed using willow branches as frames, leather as drumheads, and pennies as jingles. Photographs and a short film taken by folklorist Kevin Danaher in Athea, County Limerick in 1946 show bodhráns with jingles being played with a ’'cipín" in a style that is relatable to that of contemporary bodhrán playing.
The Gaelic word shared by Scots and Irish bodhrán (plural bodhráin), indicating a drum, is first mentioned in the Rosa Anglica, "a manuscript that was written no earlier than the 15th and no later than the 16th century, or very early in the 17th century."
Third-generation bodhrán maker Caramel Tobin suggests that the name bodhrán means "skin tray". He also suggests a link with the Irish word bodhar, meaning, among other things, a drum or a dull sound (it also means deaf). A relatively new introduction to Irish music, the bodhrán without jingles has largely supplanted its predecessor.