Music instruments

The Celtic Music Instruments

The Celtic music has been created during the XIXth century. It gathers different traditional music types, coming from all the Celtic nations. But it is hard to talk about a common Celtic music when every Celtic traditional music has its own instruments, its own way of playing and its own way of combine all the instruments. So, this article will not focus on the instruments used in the Celtic music, but on instruments which are used in the traditional music from the Celtic nations.

The bagpipes

Considered by many as the most important Celtic instrument, the bagpipes. But, they have not been created by the Celtic people at all. Their origin is not known, but we know that they were existing during the Greco-Roman age. The first Celtic people who use them were the Scottish and they called their own the Great Highland bagpipe. This is the one you can see on the picture. It has become across the years the most know instrument of the British armies, and especially the Scottish one. It has been imported in all the British Isles, as in Ireland for example, where it became the Uilleann Pipes. And it crossed the Channel to reach Brittany in 1895, brought by Charles Le Goffic. Then, the Bretons created their own bagpipes: the Breton bagpipes (known as biniou in France).

The Bombard

The Bombard is a music instrument played especially in Bittany. Its history is linked to the oboe one, as the Bombard is derived from the classical music instrument. It is traditionally combined with the biniou and both music players are called the Two Soner. It arrived in Brittany at the XIXth century beginning.

The Bodhrán

The Bodhrán is a percussion music instrument mostly used in the Irish music. It is a drum on frame that must be beaten by a stick. The Bodhrán is probably derived from the Oriental daf and from the sieve, the agricultural tool. We can hear the Celtic music instrument since the 60s and the Celtic rebirth.

The Tin Whistle

The Tin Whistle (or penny whistle, English flageolet, Scottish penny whistle, tin flageolet, Irish whistle, Belfast hornpipe, feadóg stáin and Clarke London Flageolet) is a wind instrument mainly played in the British Isles.The Tin Whistle is part of the flute history. Flutes from the Middle Ages have been found in Ireland and England, but the first industrial tin whistles appeared in the XIXth century. Nowadays, the Tin Whistle is played in Irish and Scottish music.



We could talk of many others music instruments played in Celtic music, such as the violin, the Celtic harp or the accordion, but those are the main. But today, Celtic music is also played with more recent music instruments, so it has become normal to hear an electric guitar or drums in a Celtic music concert.
On the following video by Bernard Bareyt, you could watch and hear how the Celtic instruments are played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REtWQ55dVak.