The Story So Far
The reconstruction of the Deskford Carnyx was initiated by Dr. John Purser, and commenced in 1991 funded jointly by the Glenfiddich Living Scotland award and the National Museums of Scotland. In addition to John Purser as musicologist, the team comprised the archaeologist Fraser Hunter, silversmith John Creed, and trombonist John Kenny. After 2,000 years of silence the reconstructed Deskford Carnyx was unveiled at the National Museum of Scotland in April 1993. In the same year on BBC Radio Scotland, John Purser presented an hour long documentary, The Voice of The Carnyx, and Purser and Kenny joined forces to give illustrated lectures in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Nairn.
From 1994, as John Kenny continued to experiment with playing techniques for the carnyx, he has been able to incorporate the instrument into his solo recitals. In 1995 he composed a piece for 4 carnyces, multi-tracked in the great glass canopied hall of the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh; this became the title track of his solo CD The Voice of The Carnyx. In the same year Kenny recorded a solo carnyx improvisation featured on the CD Voyage Musicale d’Ecosse (AD056) on the French label AUDIVIS, and Ian Ritchie, artistic director of the newly established Highland Festival, proposed that a new piece for carnyx be commissioned from a major British composer. Nigel Osborne was approached, and with funding from United Distillers, in May 1996 his Forest~River~Ocean for carnyx & string quartet toured 10 venues in the Highlands in conjunction with a major educational project. At the end of this tour on June 6 1996, John Kenny and John Whiting recorded the carnyx in the giant Smoo Cave, a Viking hideaway near to Cape Wrath in north west Scotland. This recording appears on a CD entitled The Kilmartin Sessions: The Sounds of Ancient Scotland available from the Kilmartin House Museum.
It was after the success of the Highland Festival project that Ian Ritchie and John Kenny came together to form the company Carnyx & Co. In the meantime, at John Kenny’s request, United Distillers funded the commission of a second piece to explore the carnyx’s potential as a contemporary concert instrument. John Purser’s piece Throat for carnyx, voice and percussion was the result. Kenny joined forces with soprano Frances Lynch, sound projectionist John Whiting, and percussionist Bassam Abdul-Salam to form a new ensemble - The Gathering - and Throat was premiered at the Clan Donald Centre on the Isle of Skye in October 1997. The Gathering went on to tour over 30 venues throughout the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and also the Ilios Festival in Norway before disbanding in 1998. From 2000 a new ensemble Carnyx and Company was formed to carry on this work, performing in the UK, USA and Europe.
In June 1997 the German/Palestinian percussionist Bassam Abdul-Salam formed the group Nomad, featuring the carnyx in a dramatic environment with huge metal sound sculptures by artist Klaus Gundschen, jazz singer David Moss, and the Polarity Percussion Ensemble of Freiburg. Nomad gave its debut performance at the E-Werk theatre in Freiburg, Germany, concurrent with a lecture recital by John Kenny at the Freiburg Historical Museum. A CD was produced live from this concert.
In August 1997 Scottish composer Edward McGuire featured the carnyx in his Epopeé Celtique, performed to a huge audience at the Festival Interceltique de Lorient, Brittany. In November of the same year the Deskford Carnyx made its English debut in a recital given by John Kenny and John Whiting in the Duke’s Hall of the Royal Academy of Music in London. Ten days later the Highland Festival program, featuring Nigel Osborne’s Forest~River~Ocean played by John Kenny with the Yggdrasil String Quartet, was presented at the Cowdray Hall, Aberdeen, and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.
A second carnyx reconstruction was commissioned in the spring of 1998 by the National Museums of Scotland, supported with funds from the Hope Scot Trust. This instrument was unveiled at the Ilios Festival in Norway in January, used at the second performance of Nomad in Feldkirch, Germany, on April 1st, and then went on to tour the Highlands and Islands with The Gathering, whilst the first instrument was on display in Tokyo!
In recognition of the success of the projects being undertaken, United Distillers agreed to fund the recording of a CD of music composed for carnyx, and this became the inaugural project of Carnyx & Co. Forest~River~Ocean was released in May 1998, and within a week the quality and imagination of United Distillers support for the carnyx was affirmed with an Association of British Sponsorship of the Arts (ABSA) award for sponsorship of new work. Also in May 1998, the carnyx was presented to the International Symposium for Musical Archaeology of the Metal Ages at Kloster Michaelstein, Blankenburg, in Germany.
In the new millennium the carnyx has travelled to the USA and 16 European nations to date. It is recorded on seven CDs, sound track to the award-winning French film noir 'Nid de Gueppes', the BBC radio drama serial 'The Eagle of the Nineth' and the animated film 'Hela'r Twrch Trwyth'. In 2003 Kenny performed solo at the Stade de France, Paris to an audience in excess of 65,000. In 2004 John Kenny was commissioned by the Festival Interceltique de Lorient to compose a song cycle, 'Liadain' for carnyx, soprano voice, percussion and Bretton bombards. The carnyx continues to facinate audiences worldwide both as a musical instrument and as a symbol of timeless human creativity.