Pibgorn (Hornpipe)

Pibgorn (literally, pipe horn) is the name given in Welsh to the variety of hornpipe (the musical instrument, and not the dance) played there since the very earliest times. The first attested use is by Hywel Dda (died 949–50) in his law book - the earliest transcription of which dates from 1250. The last traditional player of the instrument was Meredith Morris, originally from Pembrokeshire, who died in 1921. Another name for the instrument is "cornicyll", meaning either 'hazel horn' or 'lapwing' ('capan cornicyll' is a nasturtium). The sound is generated by blowing a single-reed, cut from an Elder branch or Reed Cane, like that found in the drone of a Bagpipe. The body of the instrument has six small finger-holes and a thumb-hole giving a diatonic compass of an octave, and the modes given in historical instruments vary. No extant historical instrument plays a major scale. The body is traditionally carved from a single piece of wood or bone. Historically, the wood used was elder. The instrument is played either attached to a bag, or directly via the mouth. The sound is amplified at the foot of the chanter via a carved horn, usually of cow horn. A drone is sometimes attached to the bag. The pibgorn is the ancestor of the modern clarinet.

Articles

Instrumental Music in Medieval Wales. by Sally Harper. North American Journal of Welsh Studies, Vol. 3, no. 1. Flint, MI: North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History, 2004.

The Old British "Pibcorn" or "Hornpipe" and its affinities. By Henry Balfour, Esq., M.A., F.Z.S © 1891 Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.