this weekSaints and Singers  March 16, 2005  Mouth Music  Music
without instruments  Guest Article by Jackie Chappell  When I
was young, my Dad had a record featuring songs and comedy
sketches by the comedian Peter Sellers (formerly of “The Goon
Show”). I loved to listen to it so much that even today, I can
recite nearly the entire album from memory. One sketch in
particular sprung to mind when I sat down to write this article.
Sellers plays a German folk music aficionado, who is rather
stiffly introducing his field recordings. “Ziss recordink is of
Scottish mouth music.” He pauses. “Played on ze mouth.”
Actually, what followed wasn’t mouth music at all, but a drunk
Scotsman singing on a street before getting run over by a bus,
but it was the first time I had ever heard the term. I didn’t
hear real mouth music—or puirt-a-beul in Gaelic—until many years
later.  Isn’t That Just Singing? Surely music “played on the
mouth” is just what most people refer to as singing? Well, yes
and no. Genuine puirt-a-beul (prono