Rowan is 110% correct. The first didjeridu's ('Top End' spelling in English from Aboriginal) seen south of the Tropic of Capricorn were brought there by WHITE explorers and missionaries - the 19th Century 'tourists' of Australia. This is why it always amuses me to see Heritage Events in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth etc which have a cultural association with the indigenous Aboriginal populations of the region, opened by Aboriginals playing the Didjeridu - - - their ancestors had never SEEN one let alone played one! Same for 'Returning Boomerangs'. The first ones brought to southern Australia were brought back by the same people who 'imported' the Didjeridu's. The returning boomerang (or to put it in the modern Aboriginal 'English/Aboriginal' dialect - the 'Comeback Boomerang' (the 'double 'o' being pronouned the way it is in 'good') - was used in wide, open spaces in Central and Northern Australia. South-eastern/Eastern Australia was too heaqvily forested to make it effective.

As for the other specious arguments put forward by 'Guest'-Dick - WHERE the hell do you get your information?


"...The Irish say the Harp is their National Instrument.
However, if they were so proud of it as a nation, why did they almost allow it die out altogether, in the C18th!..?"

Very simple answer - For the same reason that the speaking of Gaelic, the 'Wearing of the Green' and the singing of folk and Nationalist songs in public (and private - when it could be enforced) - the doing so would land the 'culprit' in prison and then either transported or hanged. The 17th and 18th Century Uprisings by the Irish almost led to their cultural extinction. Same thing happened in Scotland after Culloden - the wearing of the plaid, speaking Gaelic, playing the pipes and the singing of traditional songs was also banned under threat of death.
They didn't ALLOW it to die out - it was savagely removed from them.


"...Interestingly, as far as I can gather, doesn't the smart money these days say that there is strong evidence to say that the Brian Boru Harp was most probably made in the Western Isles of Scotland! Wouldn't that be interesting, if it were true?..."

It probably IS true. After all the nation we know today as Scotland grew from the Celtic Kingdom of Dalriada in Western Scotland - a kingdom founded by settlers from eastern and north-eastern Ireland!"



"...Anyway, didn't the Egyptians lay a much earlier claim to the Harp as their national instrument, a few thousand years ago...?"

As do almost every other Ancient Race - the Romans, Greeks (Danaans), Persians, Celts, Sumerians, and so on - - - ALL had their own version of a "harp" - a simple wooden frame housing four (Egypt) or more (Rome) strings. The important factor here is that the Celts - the founders of both Irish and Scottish origins had their own version of that instrument.


"...At the end of the day, we all know the Irish didn't invent the Harp, so surely if the Irish had a National instrument, wouldn't it make more sense if they were to choose the Uilleann Pipes, an instrument they can say is born & bred Irish? OK OK an adaptation, but a very fine one..."

Why an 'adaptation? As far as I am aware from my own studies in history, the Uillean Pipes are the form of the original Celtic Instrument.


Interestingly, most people in Ireland actually listen to Irish Country Music, so if you asked them they'd probably vote for the Geetar!

Why? And why do you say MOST Irish listen to Irish Country Music? Slight generalisation there, wot? Same as most Aussies don't listen to Australian Bush Music etc -- most Americans don't listen to Country & Western music - and by the way; the geetar, as you so charmingly put it is a 'guitar' and is used by all three nations I just listed in their National music - why? Because it is very adaptable. However, if we HAD to name an origin for the modern guitar, most experts would place it in southern Europe - possibly Spain!!! Does that, then, make the guitar and not the castanets the Spanish National Instrument?


"...In Scotland too, I've no doubt the Great Highland Bagpipe is regarded as Scotland's National Instrument, but were the Scots actually responsible for creating this much loved & much disliked instrument?
Clearly not, although, were they perhaps the ones to first add the third drone? ..."

Finally you get one 'sort of correct' The Scots (originating and radiating from Dalriada DID, in fact attach the third drone. Thus making a 'new' instrument - in much the same way as dulcimers, organs and harpsichords are different versions (or 'new' versions) of the pianoforte - or vice versa (I can't remember, nor do I care which one was the original 'key' instrument.
However, as stated above - the original form of the pipes was taken to Scotland by migrating Celts from 'Albion' and later Ireland ('Scotia') BY that Culture so they were, in fact, responsible for creating the pipes as they are played in Scotland today.


"...However, surely more people play Fiddles than Bagpipes in Scotland these days, so if we had to have these silly tokens, my vote would be for the Fiddle to be Scotland's Nat. Instr. but of course the Italians would have a far more realistic claim to the Violin..."

What the hell? I grew up in a Scottish family with Scottish influencesall around me - and I have visited "home" - and the only place I have seen the 'fiddle' played is in the odd pub or club where pipes would simply blow your eardrums. If you see buskers on Scottish Streets (and I saw hundreds) NOT ONE of them played the fiddle - they were all pipers (with more than a few, strangely enough, playing Bodhrans as well!)



"...So for a country to adopt an instrument as their national instrument, wouldn't it make more sense if we were to insist that they actually invented the darn thing in the first place?..."

Why - Australia's national floral emblem is the Golden Wattle - but the Wattle, or Acacia, has two to three times the number of species (including several VERY similar to the Golden Wattle) which are native to Africa! Sth Africa and Australia BOTH wear green and gold as their National Colours for the same reason - which is the more justified. Personal;ly - I'd prefer green and red as the most common flowering colours of the Eucalypt - but several of these have bright golden flowers too!
Simply put, an instrument which is evocative of a particular culture can legitimately used to symbolise that nation's traditional music. If the opposite were true NO nation could claim your 'geetar' because it could be argued that the guitar evolved from movable-fretted instruments like the Italian-style lutes which evolved from earlier lute-like instruments.

Music is a universal language and as such one's national sound should be allowed to be symbolised by any given instrument which evokes it.

Muttley

Short answer - - - learn your history outsdide of music