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Linda Tharp's avatar

So interesting, and I'm very surprised that the bodhrán is such a recent instrument. I guess bones might be the older rhythm instrument, so I wonder if the rhythm patterns are similar.

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Francesco Turrisi's avatar

Most things in Irish music are actually recent. If you really wanna go back a few hundreds of years all you will find is the harp and Sean nos singing…everything else is myth

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Linda Tharp's avatar

I once went to an artist talk by Irish artist Helen O'Leary (whose work I love). One of her touchstones is sean-nós singing, so she played some recordings. One was a field recording of an elderly woman repeatedly chanting the names of her children who had died. It was one of the rawest things I've ever heard, and unforgettable.

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