The world’s oldest tune and pipe

A couple of weeks ago, I was in Sweden piping at the opening of the Archaeomusica exhibition. Most of the pipes in my case were reproductions of archaeological finds. In 2008, a 40,000-year-old vulture bone with 5 finger holes was unearthed in Hohle Fels cave, southwestern Germany. On 8 April this year, I made a reproduction from a Gyps fulvus radius bone kindly provided […]

Pibroch and poetry

The more I look into Gaelic poetry, the more convinced I become that this is the most valuable approach for anyone wanting to get inside the head of pibroch composers. It offers rich evidence of cultural context, shining light on things otherwise impossible to understand. Today I found the words ceol bec ∙i∙ cronan… i n-aith[fh]egad in moir (‘small music, that is, […]