Dord (instrument)

Bronze Age horns in the Irish Museum. The largest in this image is long, with the second largest at 6 feet (1.8 m).

The dord is a bronze horn native to Ireland, with excavated examples dating back as far as 1000 BC, during the Bronze Age. 104 original dords are known to exist, although replicas have been built since the late 20th century.

Though the musical tradition of the dord has been lost, modern performers such as Rolf Harris and Alan Dargin believe it was played in a manner similar to the didgeridoo and apply that technique (including circular breathing and shifts in timbre) accordingly for modern fusion music. The Irish musician Simon O'Dwyer recreates historically accurate dords.

See also

• Carnyx, another type of Celtic trumpet which has been revived

References and sources

Notes

Sources

• Dirk Schellberg. Didgeridoo: ritual origins and playing techniques. Binkey Kok, 1994. ISBN 90-74597-13-0

External links

• Treasures of early Irish art, 1500 B.C. to 1500 A.D., an exhibition catalogue from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on dords (cat. no. 22)