← The Work9 July 2026

A pipe of elder and horn

A finished pibgorn on the bench — an elder pipe with a cow-horn mouthpiece at one end and a flared horn bell at the other

Not everything here has strings. The pibgorn — pib for pipe, corn for horn — is Wales's old hornpipe, a shepherd's instrument that had all but vanished by the eighteenth century. This one is turned from a length of elder, bored down the middle and drilled for the fingers, with a single reed set into a mouthpiece of cow horn at the top and a second horn flared out at the foot to throw the sound. It is a loud, reedy, carrying voice — made to be heard across a hillside, not a parlour. There is something honest about an instrument grown from a hedge and a cow: elder, horn, a sliver of reed, and breath.

Nesaf — next

Against the old ones
There are only a handful of old crwths left to measure yourself against — and even they are not perfect.
Four or five new players in the world
Three crwths on the bench at once — and a way of counting the work that has nothing to do with money.

A pipe of elder and horn

Against the old ones

Four or five new players in the world

Every instrument begins with a conversation.