Orfeo

58. 2005. 'Ancient European lyres: excavated finds
and experimental performance today.'

[93-120 in S. Hagel & C. Harrauer (Hrsg.) Ancient Greek Music in
Performance.]

Depictions and descriptions of musical activity in ancient art and
literature are the raw materials from which scholars have
traditionally sought to recreate the milieux and character of ancient
musical performance. However, detailed inspection of excavated
finds of musical instruments shows just how dangerous reliance on
such sources may be, and highlights the urgent need to prioritise
the search for hard archaeological corroboration. The first part of
the paper takes, as an illustrative example, pictures and excavated
remains of lyres and lyre-players in Europe, between the fifth and
eleventh centuries of our era: a period in which there is an
increasing amount of archaeological evidence with which to test
our theories. It shows how the two kinds of evidence -
representational and material - complement eachother; but it also
reveals important discrepancies between artistic representation
and actual practice. The second part of the paper shows how,
armed with these new archaeological insights, we can begin to
recreate early medieval lyre techniques on a sounder basis, and to
attempt to realise their full musical potential both as solo
instrumental expression and as the quintessential accompaniment
to heroic verse. Similarities between these lyres and their Classical
precursors invite us to consider their implications for still earlier
performance practice.

52. 2001a. 'Musical relics [from Fast Castle,
Berwickshire]'

[114-116 in K. Mitchell, K.R. Murdoch & J.R. Ward, Fast Castle: Excavations
1971-86.]

Between 1971 and 1986 the Edinburgh Archaeological Field
Society conducted excavations at Fast Castle, a remote, ruined
coastal fortification near Coldingham, Berwickshire, Scotland.
During the later Middle Ages the site was in the possession of the
Home family, who built the present castle at the end of the 15th
century. By 1703 it had already fallen into ruins. Two musical finds
are amongst the material recovered which reveal aspects of life in
the post-medieval phase: a 'Jew's harp' and a coil of Cu- (copper-)
alloy wire. The Jew's harp is identified from radiography of a small
Fe (iron) concretion. The wire's musical identification is suggested
by the care with which it has been coiled: not bundled or twisted
but spooled in large, even, circular loops and turned over at the
ends, as in modern practice. Favourable soil conditions have
enabled its preservation and resulted in its bright, brassy
colouration. Parallels are drawn with other finds of spooled musical
wire in Scotland and in Scandinavia, where musical identity is
further supported by the presence of tuning pegs.

60. 2005. 'XIV Wooden objects: A musical pipe
[from King Street, Norwich].'

[156-7 and Fig. 90 in A. Shelley, Dragon Hall, King Street, Norwich: excavation
and survey of a late medieval merchant's trading complex.]

Amongst the finds from recent excavations on King Street,
Norwich, England, is part of a small, polished, lathe-turned tube of
boxwood. With its surviving end flared like a trumpet bell and a
series of drilled perforations distributed along its length it has a
distinctly musical appearance. The report considers whether its
shape and size and the forms and spacings of its holes are
compatible with a musical purpose. In view of its very small size
and the absence of any close musical parallels it is suggested that
the object was probably not a fully functional, traditional instrument
but could nevertheless be part of a child's musical toy, of perhaps
the 18th or the 19th century.

59. 2005. 'Tuning and Tradition: the earliest
Northumbrian bagpipes and their relationship to
finds from archaeological excavation.'

[Archaeologia Aeliana, 5th Series, 34, 101-114. Society of Antiquaries of
Newcastle upon Tyne.]

Amongst the uniquely important historical collections housed in
the Bagpipe Museum at Morpeth, Northumberland, England, is the
W. A. Cocks Collection of bagpipes, belonging to the Society of
Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. These remarkable
instruments and their documentation are of interest not only to
practitioners of traditional musics but also to students of the
antiquity of music in Britain. Several of them are clearly ancient,
maybe from as early as the sixteenth century; but because none
has yet been dated scientifically the origins of the tradition remain
a mystery. Archaeology in the North East of England has yet to
furnish any relevant material corroboration. Nevertheless, finds of
wood and bone from further south reveal a preference for
reed-voiced pipes of similar length and narrow bore in everyday use
during the Middle Ages, the Anglo-Saxon period and even Roman
times. How these relate to Northumbrian tradition is not yet clear
but they are capable of producing strikingly similar sounds. Close
inspection of the forms and placements of the finger-holes and
finger-hole margins of some finds reveals traces which indicate
deliberate tuning. Such purpose seems reflected in some
remarkable features of the tunings of the Morpeth pipes. Although
their original makers have drilled all finger-holes with precision,
more-or-less equal in diameter and spacing, subsequent reworking
by other, evidently less skilled hands has resulted in drastic
modification to many. The paper identifies this as a historically
significant phenomenon, inviting questions as to the nature of
traditional tunings in Britain at the end of the Middle Ages and as
to the meaning of the changes they subsequently underwent. A
parallel is drawn with transformations evidenced in the 19th and
20th centuries by the tunings of the Norwegian fretted stringed
instrument the langeleik discussed by Reidar Sevåg.