Knock Knock

n                            The bodhrán is an Irish framendrum, with a skin (often goatskin) stretched across one face of a shallownwooden cylinder, the other face is open, allowing the player to use a hand toncontrol pitch and timbre. There may also be one or two bracing bars inside thenframe of the drum.

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nBodhráin, (or bodhráns), are relatively new instruments,neven though frame drums have been used in Ireland for centuries, and the namenitself is also quite new, although an Irish translation of John of Gaddesden’s medical treatise Rosa Angelica (c.1314) mentions ‘re bhualadh marnthimpan no mar bhodhrán…’ (on being struck, like a timpan or like a bodhrán…),nin an entry on tympanitis. Some people have tried to link the word to variousnCeltic words for ‘deaf’; Gaelic – bodhar, Manx – bouyr (the silent Gaelic ‘d‘ is not written in Manx orthography), Cornish – bodhar ornbothar, Welsh – byddar, and by extension to deafening sounds, stunning, tumultnor (in English) bother, with the Irish being bodhradh. Earlier Gaelicndictionaries give druma or tiompan as the words for drums – druma with the samenroot as drum, tiompan cognate with tabor, tambourine and tympani. 

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nThe bodhránnis held vertically on the thigh (interestingly, bòdhan is Gaelic for ham ornthigh), and struck by, sometimes, the open fingers and thumb, or, much morenusually, a beater – known also as a tipper or cipin. 

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nThe supporting hand isnplaced inside the bodhrán, and the finger(s) are used to alter the timbre ofnthe skin’s sound. There are two main kinds of playing; the Kerry style, whichnuses both ends of the tipper, and the West Limerick style, which uses only onenend of a slightly longer tipper. Over the years players have introduced otherneffects, using brushes or playing off the rim. 

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nI bought this small bodhrán innClonmel, at the 2003 Fleadh Cheoil there. It’s a nice sound but it’s more of ansouvenir than a proper instrument. 

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nThe larger bodhrán has a much richer soundnand also has a nice decorative painting on the skin, making it a pleasant itemnjust to look at.

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