The lower levels of the Filidh seem to have been considered to be Bards or performers, while the higher levels were known as Poets, Healers, Philosophers, seers and Druids. According to some authors, such Bards learned to play the pipes, the whistle, the harp, the lyre (cruit, ‘harp’), the flute (feadog), the sistrum (similar in function to a craebh ciuil, ‘musical branch’), and the bodhran, among other instruments. These authors go on to conjecture, that each particular instrument was used or selected based upon the specific mood and/or tone that the particular Bardic work required. Using such thoughts as a guide, I created the following table of possible Celtic instrumental correspondences:

Instruments and Elements

The Feadog – Breath and spirit
The Harp – Mind and Magick
The Bodhran – Flesh and Bones
The Craebh Ciuil – Brain and Head
The Pipes – Blood and Face
The Voice – Hair and skin

The music of these instruments was woven within the webs of the Filidh as they chanted forth their Filidecht. How was this music structured and determined? What was its source? How did the elements of the dúile relate to the tones and the sounds? How was the Magick accomplished? My own belief is that the Bards usually accompanied themselves with the harp as they recited their repertoire. The works of the higher levels of the Filidh (the Cli, the Anrad, and the Ollamh) were also performed by such Bards, while the Poets themselves directed or guided their chanting. Rarely would an Ollamh Chant him/herself. Upon such rare occasions, great things happened. Amergin’s chanting of “The Mystery” was just such a rare and Magical occasion. Another exception to the rule would have been the execution of the Glám Díceann (a satirical cursing of one king by the Filidh of another). This action required participation by all seven levels of Filidh and was considered to be a matter of life or death (a hawthorn tree was used to center and amplify the power of the chanting). Whosoever was true in the matter under dispute would survive the cursing.

Recalling that Ogham were used as keys to memory, with verses being linked by assonance and alliteration, I maintain that each Ogham had a unique tone or note associated with it on the harp. The tone or string for a particular fidh was vibrated as the Ogham sound was spoken or sung with at least two notes occurring per line. The beginning and ending notes served to connect individual lines of poetry to the next line in a continuing stream of verse and song. In the world of my imagination, I can hear the tones and words of the Bards echoing as they float upon a wave of melody across the room. The sounds I hear remind me of the chanting of monks within the plainsong of their own worship. Perhaps the chanting of Filidh was similar to the practices of modern Anglican or Roman Catholic monks? To better understand these matters let’s discuss two books, The Poets’ Secret by Sean ÓBoyle and Trees for Healing by Chase and Pawlik, that reinforce these impressions for me.

Poets and Bards carried ‘craebh ciuil,’ branches with bells and amulets attached to them. A beginner’s branch would be made of bronze, while journeymen carried a silver branch, and the Master Bards (Ollamh) carried a golden branch. The music of the bells would announce the Bard’s presence and perhaps an impending performance or ritual. In his book, Ogam, The Poets’ Secret, Sean ÓBoyle made a very convincing case for the first use of Ogham to be as a musical tabulature.

He showed how each Ogham had its own corresponding note on the Irish small harp. Much of ÓBoyle’s analysis is based upon the relative positions of tones and semi-tones (steps and half steps). He was able to successfully show a direct correspondence between the symbols of the Ogham alphabet and the tones and semi-tones,. He also explained how the relationship of the ‘tri foilcesta in ogaim,’ (‘three composite letters of the Ogham: Q, NG, and STR), accounts for inflections in the sequence of musical tones. These are the conclusions I draw from a review of his work:

1. The Ogham form known as Aradach Finn (Fionn’s Ladder) is a pictograph relating the strings of the Irish practice harp to musical scales. Full tones exist between the symbols having a distinct beginning sound. Semi-tones generally exist prior to the Ogham consonants that represent a muted sound of the preceding consonant (‘T’ and ‘D,’ ‘Q’ and ‘C,’ ‘NG’ and ‘G,’ ‘STR’ and ‘R’). The semi-tone existing in the Ogham vowel sequence is found at the dividing point between the vowels that are considered to be ‘broad’ (‘A,’ ‘O’ and ‘U’) and those that are ‘slender,’ (‘E’ and ‘I’).
2. These relationships are listed below for the Greek Dorian scale (which is the ‘characteristic octave in the ‘Greater Perfect system’ of Greek music’):