Beating Time

The bodhrán is a phenomenally popular instrument in Irish Traditional music, within which it and its playing techniques developed hugely in the latter half of the twentieth century. Now with many virtuosic players, and a fundamental role in bands, it is almost as representative of Ireland as the official national emblem, the harp—though it first became visible only in 1960. Yet it is typically assumed that it is the ancient, Irish percussion, despite the fact that there is no evidence of an historic drum on the island at all: the music is in fact melodic and vocal.  

However, there once was a well-documented device called ‘bodhran’- made from a skin stretched on a wooden hoop, a subsistence-era, household container and winnowing tool used all over Ireland. In the early 1800s this was occasionally improvised as a drum, mimicking the European tambourine that had been introduced to Ireland by commercial, popular music a century earlier. Actual tambourines were subsequently copied by rural Irish artisans, and those drums took over as a seasonal percussion on the rural Wren ritual each winter.  

Dramatist John B Keane brought this Irish tambourine to national attention in 1959 with his play Sive at the Abbey theatre, Dublin, following which, from 1960 on—described now as ‘bodhrán’, and with the characteristic jingles removed—it was promoted by the composer Seán Ó Riada in his radio ensemble Ceoltóirí Chualann. Inside just a few years it became almost a standard instrument in the music. 

Beating Time explores this fascinating story, suggesting that the bodhrán should not be regarded as the oldest Irish-music instrument—but the newest. And this has come about in such recent time that—remarkably—most of those who created the instrument’s modern styles and forms are still actively part of today’s Irish Traditional-music scene. 

In 380 large-format pages with several hundred illustrations and photographs, this book is the first publication to address the bodhrán thoroughly. It is fascinating reading not only for all who are interested in the promotion, teaching and playing of Irish music, but for musicians, folklorists, music historians and academics, and teachers and tutors in the field of Irish Studies.