bodhran

[eric marten]

Re: bodhran

Ole Bull (or John Dwyer)

I am certainly no expert on this particular percussion instrument, (my specialty being violin/fiddle), but , while browsing the internet I came across an interesting painting from 1801, Quebec, depicting a dance, to fiddle music, and including what looks very much like a bodhran, though referred to as a "tamboreen". The painting is by George Heriot (1759-1839). If I were more computer-literate, I would post the painting directly (maybe someone else can do that). The website is www.lewis-clark.org/content-article that is probably too long - I just google Cruzatte's fiddling. Cruzatte was a fiddler on the Lewis and Clark expedition a couple of years later than this painting. You can also scroll down, and click onto "That Tamboreen" for some more info.. it does, indeed, look like a bodhran, but, again, I'm no expert on that. Ignore the info on violin chinrest - it is not accurate, and not pictured correctly (in the supplementary text) - the violins in the painting have no chin rests. The painting is entitled "Dance in the Chateau St Louis Quebec "- George Heriot (1759-1839), and is easier to find by googling "Cruzatte's fiddlin', than by the link above. For another illustration , a detail from an 1842 painting of a flautist and bodhran/tambourine player, try www.bfs.org.uk - for an article entitled "1st Bodhran Was A Tambourine" - or google "tambourine without jingles" to see the painting.

[limner42]

Re: bodhran

I have played and studied the bodhran in the Chicago Irish Music community and work with my wife in authentic recreating 18th and 19th C music I have some comments on this subject. I agree that the word Bodhran is just another name for a tambourine or frame drum. Instruments sometimes have their name changed over time. The cittern in late 18th C in the British Isles was made with a deeper body and called an English Guitar. It would be easy to read Guitars being played and think they were the Spanish Guitar. Bodhran could mean tambourine in Gaelic for all I know. I have seen photos of Irish boys playing Bodhrans in the 1940's with jingles and listed as tambourines. There is a wax Edison celender that lists tambourine as the instrument being played but it sounds like a bodhran in tone and playing style.

Mike Kinney

[joewhitney]

Re: bodhran

The French word for drum is tambour (from the Arabic tunbur or Persian tambur), so tambourine means "little drum". Most likely, the word tambourine at some point in the 19th century became corrupted in Irish to tambodhran, and the "tam" dropped.

Now did drums the size of the modern bodhran and without the small cymbals exist somewhere on the planet during the Civil War period? Absolutely! (photo attached). Were they present among the armies of the North or South, or even among the civilian musicians of the country? It's possible, but not proven. Since the small drum with cymbals was deeply ingrained into the popular music of the period, it would've been a gross aberration of the existing tradition to not include the jangling "zils". Since only those with cymbals are documented, they are all that really should be seen at reenactments at this point.

Joe Whitney

[Silas]

Re: bodhran

I'm reviving this old thread because of a discussion I had with someone at a mainstream reenactment over the weekend. But first, a little background on the setting.

At the usual, big tent, reenactment dance, a group of excellent musicians plays their normal music. There were a couple minstrel tunes, a few wartime songs, but there was a much larger mix of old timey songs. The musicians are great people I've known for years. I consider them good friends. I wish I played as well as they do. They just don't play period instruments or play in a period manner. I've shown them some common minstrel and wartime songs, many with tabs, but these musicians are reluctant to move away from their personal standard tunes.

The group is generally composed of two guitars, a huge bass and a violin. Others are also invited to play and sing. Needing percussion, they invited me to play bones. I have many time sat in with them. My seat was in the outside chair reserved for the percussion instruments. Next to me was a banjo. He used his modern banjo because his more period banjo is cannot compete with the other modern strung, high pitched string instruments.

Afterwards, the banjoist and I spoke a little about the positions of the players. In the minstrel tradition, the interlocutor sits in the middle. He's the boss. He's the smart one. As you go farther away from the interlocutor, the players are not considered as smart. The dumbest players are the percussion players. That's where Bones and Tambo practice the art of being the funny men in roles later taken by Stanley Laurel, Lou Costello, Jerry Lewis and others. There's always a straight man and always a funny man. In the minstrel tradition, the players between the interlocutor and the percussion could play either the straight or comedy role depending upon whom they were speaking to.

What was becoming a good conversation was stopped dead in its tracks when banjo asked where the bodhran player sat. "There wasn't a space because bodhrans didn't exist," I told him, He couldn't accept that. He'd been learning to play with a small group of mainstream musicians which contained a bodhran player. Surely, that bodhran player and the many others he'd seen must be okay. It's a traditional Irish instrument, right? Right? In my lifetime, yes. In the lives of the people we attempt to portray, no.

In addition to reviewing this thread, I also pulled down a more recent one from the Minstrel Banjo forum : http://minstrelbanjo.ning.com/photo/...nstrel-players To my surprise, there's even a wiki on the bodhran. Seems like there's a wiki for everything. My greater surprise was that the definition closely resembles what is discussed here in the a/c and in the minstrel forum. This almost restores my faith in wikipedia.

I like the bodhran. It's a great idea. It's portable. It has a nice thump. It grabs your attention. It adds an extra sound layer to string bands. It works well in small string bands where the goal is producing a sound as inviting as a warm blanket by the fireplace on a cold winter's night. I just don't like hearing or seeing them at Civil War era reenactments.

[Scott Sheets]

Re: bodhran

Silas,
You do realize that not all popular music in the 1860's was minstrelsy right? While you are correct that the bodran as we know not now has no place in a Minstrel show the instrument has been around for centuries and was likely not out of place in some Irish settings. While the Irish folk revival of the 70's etc made the current style popular it certainly did not invent the instrument. When I get home from work I'll dig up some of my percussion history stuff from college. I knew majoring in percussion would come in handy one day.

[Silas]

Re: bodhran

Items dubbed as being traditional European don't get a pass when it comes to authenticity. There is the PEC test of plain, everyday and common.

Then, assuming bodhrans even existed in America during the Civil War, they certainly were as plain, everyday and common as leopard skin trousers. You might find an instance of something which might be one. When compared to the many other instances of other similar instruments out there, bodhrans would be few, rare or nonexistant. Today, bodhrans are ubiquitous at reenactments while tambos are rare.

There's a better argument for mandolins than there is for bodhrans. Mandolins as they are produced, strung, tuned and played today don't match the type of mandolins as they existed during the our Civil War. However, I'll save that argument for another thread.