Lectures
The following events can be booked through Carnyx & Co:
Mouthpiece of The Gods
A solo lecture recital by John Kenny, illustrating related instruments from all over the ancient world including didgeridoo, Polynesian conch horn, bronze age Irish horns, the carnyx, Tibetan trumpet, Alphorn, sackbuts and trombones.
Although often thought of primarily as instruments of war, for every culture that has developed lip reed instruments they have also been used in sacred ritual - to communicate with the "otherworld", to instil awe and reverence, and to represent the voice of the Gods - a super voice.
To illustrate his presentation, John Kenny presents music of many cultures and epochs, including Byzantine, Ambrosian, and Gregorian Chant, items from the Inchcolm Antifer, Palestrina, Gabrielli, Schutz, Mozart, Beethoven, Berlioz, Mahler, and Berio, Xenakis, and his own music. This is an exploration not only of the sounds and techniques of playing and writing for lip reed instruments from the earliest cultural echoes to the present day; it is also an attempt to trace common threads of inspiration in the use of those instruments from the dawn of time to the culture of the 20th Century.
A Cry of Prayer
From the fearsome Iron Age carnyx to music hidden within an ancient stone carving, John Purser introduces the often haunting sounds which make up Scotland’s diverse musical and spiritual tradition. Mystical allusions, legends, poetry and history inform this journey through a rich landscape of expression. There’s music based on birdsong, a chant to stop a hailshower, unearthly harmonic singing and even music so serene it caused men to swoon and die.
John Purser is not only Scotland’s most eminent musicologist, he is also a poet, playwright and composer, and the author and presenter of the award winning 30 hour BBC radio documentary series Scotland’s Music. It was from this platform that he became the driving force behind the reconstruction of the Deskford Carnyx. A Cry of Prayer was given as the 1994 Sabhal Mor Ostaig lecture, televised by Scottish Television.
Recreation of the Carnyx
John Creed, silversmith, artist and for many years a lecturer at Glasgow’s School of Art and Design, offers a lecture on the techniques used to recreate the carnyx, and places these in the context of both ancient technology and the contemporary silversmith’s art.
Reconstructing The Deskford Carnyx
Fraser Hunter is the archaeologist in charge of the National Museums of Scotland’s ongoing research into the regional and international implications of the Deskford Carnyx in our understanding of the culture, technology and environment of the Bronze and Iron age peoples who made carnyces throughout Europe. Exhaustive archaeological surveys of the find site in north east Scotland have revealed a votive site used for ritual depositions over a long period.
There is much still to be learned about the Celtic or proto-Pictish inhabitants of Scotland - but research inspired by the Carnyx reconstruction is leading us to new insights as to the trading and cultural activities of these people. This lecture, which is particularly rich in pictorial illustration, was first presented at the 9th International Symposium of the Study Group on Music Archaeology, held at Foundation Kloster Michaelstein, Blankenburg, Germany in May 1998.