Music - Instruments - Repertory - Listen - Video - CD

My music is based on my special collection of unusual ancient instruments. Many of them are handcrafted replicas of historical musical instruments preserved in museums.

I love these ancient instruments because their sounds and the musical systems designed into them are foreign to the modern ear; yet because they lie at the roots of present day traditions, they also seem intriguingly familiar.

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My main discipline is Gaelic harp, also known as early clarsach or early Irish harp. This is a high status musical instrument which flourished in medieval Ireland and Scotland right through until the18th century in Scotland and the 19th in Ireland. Several beautiful and striking examples survive. My other website, Early Gaelic Harp Info, provides much information about the historical Gaelic harp traditions.

Medieval Scottish harp: made by Davy Patton, this is a unique copy of one of Scotland's national treasures: the medieval Gaelic harp said to have belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots.
Read more...

Baroque Irish harp: Made by David Kortier. This is one of the HHSI Student Downhill harps, copied from an instrument made by Cormac O'Kelly in 1702. This instrument is perfect for the 18th century Irish music of Carolan or Lyons. This instrument is not always here - it goes off on rental with my students and has adventures!

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To complement my main study, of early Gaelic music, I cast my net wider to seek out other ancient oral traditions. The Scandinavian bowed lyre traditions seem very ancient, but survived as living traditions into the 20th century, meaning we have audio recordings to listen to! This is related to Welsh crwth and Shetland gue.

Jouhikko or bowed lyre, made by myself in 2008, copying a 19th century Karelian instrument in the National Museum of Finland. Fitted with two horsehair strings. read more...

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Lyres have fascinated me for a long time. Despite appearances, they are not really primitive or ancestral harps, but have a heritage and music all of their own. The northern lyre tradition stretches right back into pre-Christian times, and died out around a thousand years ago.

Germanic lyre, with horsehair strings, made by Davy Patton, this instrument is copied from the lyre excavated from a 6th century pagan warrior grave in Trossingen, Germany.

Irish lyre, with iron, brass and silver wire strings, made by Michael King. This is a speculative reconstruction based on early medieval Irish myths, and stone carvings on Irish high crosses.

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