The Irish Harp

THE GUT STRUNG IRISH HARP: The development of the harp and its players, in Ireland, from c.1819 to the present day

Oona Linnett

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts

University of Wales, Bangor 30th September, 2003

1

SUMMARY From the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Irish harp removed itself from all the associations of its wire strung predecessor, becoming transformed into a drawing room instrument for genteel ladies, like the pedal harp on which its design was based. It came to represent a Romantic, sentimental form of nationalism, as depicted, for example, in Moore’s Irish Melodies. Throughout this time its symbolic importance increased inversely to its actual usage as a musical instrument, but it began to be promoted again as a result of a cultural renewal at the turn of the twentieth century, being taught by nuns and lay teachers in convent schools, for about the next 70 years. Around the 1950s, as Ireland was undergoing social and economic change, the tourist industry was boosted, and the Irish harp became part of the scenario of cabarets and ‘banquets’. With the aim of raising the status of the instrument, the organisation Cáirde Na Cruite1 was formed in 1960, by individuals with a background influenced by western art music. Harp players, however, did not receive recognition by the general body of traditional musicians until around the 1970s. At this time Ireland was immersed in a folk music revival, and harp players were inspired to explore the ‘traditional’ possibilities of their instruments in terms of playing dance tunes, which have become the most popular form of music to be played on the Irish harp today, particularly by young people. There are many more teachers and summer schools available compared to 30 years ago when this form of harp playing was in its infancy, and techniques and repertoire are being passed on. However, while the instrument has proved its viability as a traditional instrument, it has many years of stereotyping to overcome before it is embraced fully in that role.

1

‘Friends of the Irish harp’.

2

CONTENTS Page List of accompanying material

5

Contents of audio CD

6

List of illustrations

8

Acknowledgements

10

Author’s declaration

11

Introduction

12

Preliminary notes

14

Chapter One: John Egan’s ‘Portable’ Harp

16

Chapter Two: Nationalism and Thomas Moore

20

Chapter Three: Cultural renewal

30

Chapter Four: The convent schools

38

Chapter Five: The celebrity harpists and the tourist industry

44

Chapter Six: The folk and traditional music revivals

48

Chapter Seven: Cáirde Na Cruite: the early years

53

Chapter Eight: The Irish Harp as a High Art Concert Instrument 62 Chapter Nine: The emergence of the ‘traditional’ Irish harp

74

Chapter Ten: Style and technique: Máire Ní Chathasaigh

79 3

Chapter Eleven: Style and technique: Janet Harbison

90

Chapter Twelve: The response from the established musical organisations

97

Chapter Thirteen: A meeting of minds

104

Chapter Fourteen: Promotion by Comhaltas

111

Chapter Fifteen: How valid is the Irish harp as a traditional instrument?

116

Conclusion

126

Appendix I: The wire strung harp

127

Appendix II: Small harp makers in the early twentieth century 136 Appendix III: The Irish harp’s contribution to the 2003 Feis Ceoil

142

Appendix IV: Two examination systems

147

Bibliography

149

Discography

155

Videography

157

Internet websites consulted

158

4

ACCOMPANYING MATERIAL 1. Audio CD containing musical examples. 2. DVD containing two extracts from Celtic Harpestry: Live from Lismore Castle, Ireland (Polygram Video, 1998: 440 079 319-3).

5

CONTENTS OF AUDIO CD (denoted in the text by the symbol ♫) (Unless otherwise stated, these examples are extracts from complete musical items) 1. O’Hara, Mary: ‘Silent, O Moyle’ 2. O’Hara, Mary: ‘Seoladh Na Ngamhna’ 3. ‘The Chieftains’: ‘An Ghéagus an Grá Geal’ 4. ‘The Chieftains’: ‘Boil the Breakfast Early’ 5. ‘The Chieftains’: ‘Ceol Bhriotánach’ 6. O’Farrell, Anne-Marie: ‘My Lagan Love’ 7. O’Farrell, Anne-Marie: ‘Peter Street’ 8. O’Farrell, Anne-Marie: Thomas’s Bugeilio’r Gwenith Gwyn 9. ‘Planxty’: ‘The Fisherman’s Hornpipe’ 10. ‘Planxty’: ‘The Well Below the Valley’ 11. Stivell, Alan: ‘Port Ui Mhuirgheasa’ 12. ‘Planxty’: ‘The Humours of Ballyloughlin’ (extract 1) 13. Ní Chathasaigh, Máire: ‘The Humours of Ballyloughlin’ (extract 1) 14. Ní Chathasaigh, Máire: ‘The Humours of Ballyloughlin’ (extract 2) 15. Ní Chathasaigh, Máire: ‘The Humours of Ballyloughlin’ (extract 3) 16. ‘Planxty’: ‘The Humours of Ballyloughlin’ (extract 2) 17. Ní Chathasaigh, Máire: ‘The Humours of Ballyloughlin’ (complete) 18. Ní Chathasaigh, Máire, and Newman, Chris: ‘Paddy Whack’ 19. Belfast Harp Orchestra/ ‘The Chieftains’: ‘MacAllistrum’s March’ 20. Harbison, Janet: ‘Harling’s Jig’ (extract 1) 21. Harbison, Janet: ‘Harling’s Jig’ (extract 2) 22. Harbison, Janet: ‘O’Neill’s Calvacade’ 23. Hambly, Gráinne: ‘The Rectory Reel’ 6

24. Hambly, Gráinne: ‘Martin Hardiman’s’ 25. Hambly, Gráinne: ‘Celia Connellan’ 26. Ní Bheaglaoich, Seosaimhín and Harbison, Janet: ‘Bean Dubh an Ghleanna’ 27. Comhaltas Tour Group: ‘The Steeplechase’ 28. Hambly, Róisín: ‘The Gold Ring’ 29. McCarton, Fearghal: The Mason’s Apron (complete)

7

ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1: The ‘Portable’ harp by John Egan, dated 1819. Figure 2: Extract from Moore’s ‘Silent, O Moyle! Be the roar of thy water’. Figure 3: Daniel Maclise’s illustration for ‘The Harp that Once through Tara’s Halls’, from Moore’s Irish Melodies, 1846 edition. Figure 4: Daniel Maclise’s illustration for ‘Erin, the Tear and the Smile in Thine Eyes’, from Moore’s Irish melodies, 1846 edition. Figure 5: Daniel Maclise’s illustration for ‘The Minstrel Boy’, from Moore’s Irish Melodies, 1846 edition. Figure 6: The melody of Moore’s ‘Come, Rest in this Bosom’, arranged by Mother Attracta Coffey. Figure 7: Moore’s ‘Come, Rest in this Bosom’. Figure 8: Prize winners in the Feis Ceoil in the small Irish harp category, from 1900 to 1911. Figure 9: ‘Study No. 1’ from Larchet-Cuthbert’s The Irish Harp Book. Figure 10: ‘Family tree’ of harp teachers at Loreto Abbey and Sion Hill convent schools, and their ‘descendants’. Figure 11: Mary O’Hara in 1954. Figure 12: Arr. McGrath: ‘The Parting of Friends’. Figure 13: Arr. Larchet Cuthbert: ‘Carolan’s Farewell to Music’. Figure 14: Bodley: ‘Duet Scintillae’ (extract). Figure 15: T. C. Kelly: ‘Interlude’ (extract). Figure 16: O’Farrell: Prelude for Irish Harp (extract). Figure 17: Thomas: Bugeilio’r Gwenith Gwyn (extract). Figure 18: Godefroid: Etude de Concert (extract). Figure 19: Harp by Daniel Quinn of Dublin. Figure 20: Transcription of the first section of ‘The Humours of Ballyloughlin’, played by piper Liam O’Flynn. Figure 21: Transcription of the first section of ‘The Humours of Ballyloughlin’, played by Máire Ní Chathasaigh.

8

Figure 22: Transcription of Máire Ní Chathasaigh’s performance of the repeat of the first section of ‘The Humours of Ballyloughlin’, with variations indicated. Figure 23: Arr. Ní Chathasaigh: ‘The Pullet’ (extract), with her suggested accented notes indicated. Figure 24: Arr. Ní Chathasaigh: ‘Walsh’s Hornpipe’ Figure 25: Arr. Ní Chathasaigh: Carolan’s ‘Eleanor Plunkett’ Figure 26: Classical technique hand and finger position. Figure 27: Harbison’s alternative hand and finger position for playing traditional music. Figure 28: Harbison’s playing of ‘Harling’s Jig’ (extract). Figure 29: Maps indicating the numbers of centres for Irish harp tuition in 1986, compared to today. Figure 30 : Photograph in ‘Brú Ború’’s promotional leaflet. Figure 31: Picture from ‘Brú Ború’’s promotional leaflet. Figure 32: Photograph from the front of the Comhaltas tour (2000) cassette tape. Figure 33: ‘Father Dollard’s Favorite’. Figure 34: Arr. Kim Fleming: ‘Garret Barry’s Jig’. Figure 35: Trinity College Harp, fourteenth century (small, lowheaded) Figure 36: Otway Harp, seventeenth century (large, low-headed) Figure 37: O’Neill Harp, eighteenth century (large, high-headed) Figure 38: Advertisement by McFall, 1904 Figure 39: McFall ‘Tara Harp’, dated 1902 Figure 40: Clark’s ‘Irish Harp’, early twentieth century Figure 41: Arr. Ní Chathasaigh: Carolan’s ‘Lord Inchiquin’. Figure 42: Arr. Calthorpe: ‘Túirne Mháire’.

9

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Acknowledgements are made to the following: The Irish Traditional Music Archive The National Library of Ireland For interviews: Máire Ní Chathasaigh, Gráinne Yeats, Anne-Marie O’Farrell, Aibhlín McCrann, Aine Ní Dhuill, Cormac de Barra, Kathleen Loughnane, Tracey Fleming, Sheila Larchet-Cuthbert, Janet Harbison, Kim Fleming, Fionnuala Rooney, Séamus MacMathuna, Fearghal McCarton, Sister Carmel Warde, Colm O’Meachair, Patricia Daly. The Royal Irish Academy of Music, for their examination syllabus. The Feis Ceoil Association, for the copy of the 2003 festival programme. Simon Chadwick, for the copy of James MacFall’s advertisement. Sister Carmel Warde, for the photograph of Mary O’Hara, from Sion Hill School’s archives. Cormac Bowell, for Irish translations.

10

AUTHOR’S DECLARATION DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed……………………………………………………………… Date………………………………………………………………… STATEMENT 1 This dissertation is being submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. ……………………………………………………………………… Signed……………………………………………………………….. Date………………………………………………………………….. STATEMENT 2 This dissertation is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references. A bibliography is appended. Signed………………………………………………………………. Date…………………………………………………………………. STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my dissertation, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed……………………………………………………………… Date…………………………………………………………………

11

INTRODUCTION In 1999 Máire Ní Chathasaigh wrote of the Irish harp: No other instrument symbolises both the continuities and discontinuities of the Irish music tradition so thoroughly. It is the oldest instrument within it, having been played here for more than a thousand years, and therefore the one which appears to have changed the most.2 Although there were some changes in size and shape between the tenth and eighteenth centuries (see Appendix I), by far the most dramatic change in the history of the Irish harp occurred in the early nineteenth century. Until then the instrument was wire strung, played with the fingernails3 with a complex regime of damping, and rested on the left shoulder. The strings were tuned diatonically, but were not equally tempered. Until the seventeenth century, it was an aristocratic, male dominated tradition, the harper commanding a privileged place in Gaelic society. This study concerns the development of the modern, gut or nylon strung Irish harp, which shares none of the above features.4 The circumstances surrounding its birth at the beginning of the nineteenth century will be explored, as will the aspects of political and social change in Ireland during this time that were linked to its development. The changed role of the instrument will be examined, and the writer will consider the effect of the cultural renewal in Ireland at the turn of the twentieth century. The study will then focus on the role of convent schools in promoting of the instrument in the first half of the century, the ‘celebrity’ harpists produced by these schools in the 1950s and the subsequent establishment of Cáirde Na Cruite which aimed to raise 2

Ní Chathasaigh, Máire: Ed.Vallely, Fintan: ‘Harp’, The Companion to Irish Traditional Music, (Cork, 1999), 173. 3 This practice began to die out in the seventeenth century. 4 A brief account is given in Appendix I of the decline of the wire strung harp and the efforts of individuals to revive and preserve it.

12

the cultural status of the instrument and its player. The influence of the general traditional music revival which began in the 1960s will be explored, and how it led to a dramatic change in the repertoire and image of the Irish harp player from the 1970s onwards. Present day trends will be examined in detail, and finally the writer will consider the instrument’s position within Irish traditional music as a whole.

13

PRELIMINARY NOTES For the evaluation of the Irish harp’s current status, fieldwork was undertaken as follows: -Participation in workshop given by Máire Ní Chathasaigh at Chethams School, Manchester (16th February, 2003) -Telephone interview with Sr. Carmel Warde, Sion Hill Convent (19th April, 2003). -Observation and filming of workshop given by Janet Harbison at her Harp Centre in Limerick (23rd April 2003). -Attendance at Granard Harp Festival (Co. Longford): Participation in workshop. Filmed interview with Kim Fleming (24th April 2003). -Attendance as a ‘listener’ at the Cáirde Na Cruite Harp Festival, Termonfeckin, Co. Louth (29th June-4th July, 2003): Observation of classes and workshops. Informal conversations with participants. Recorded interview with one participant. Recorded interviews with the following teachers: Máire Ní Chathasaigh, Gráinne Yeats, Anne-Marie O’Farrell, Aibhlín McCrann, Aine Ní Dhuill, Cormac de Barra, Kathleen Loughnane, Tracey Fleming. Unrecorded interview with Sheila Larchet-Cuthbert. Note: the writer was not permitted to film or record any of the workshops or concerts during this course.

-Visit to the workshop of Colm O’Meachair. Unrecorded interview (4th July, 2003).

14

-Attendance at Ulster Fleadh, Warrenpoint (26th-27th July, 2003): Observation of Irish harp competitions. Observation of the Irish harp in the pub session situation. Recorded interview with Fionnuala Rooney. -Recorded interview with Patricia Daly (28th July, 2003). -Recorded interview with Janet Harbison (31st July, 2003). -Attendance at Traditional Music Festival, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny (1st August, 2003). -Recorded interview with Séamus Mac Mathuna (8th August, 2003).

Unless otherwise stated, all quotations in the dissertation originate from the writer’s recorded interviews while undertaking the above fieldwork.

15

CHAPTER ONE John Egan’s ‘Portable’ Harp John Egan was a successful Dublin instrument maker who manufactured harps between about 1800 to 1840.5 Initially he specialised in single-action pedal harps, as well as the small wire strung models which were supplied to the second Belfast Harp Society (see Appendix I).6 In London in 1810, the French manufacturer Sebastian Erard marketed the first double-action pedal harp. In a probable attempt to compete with Erard’s revolutionary design, in 1819 Egan produced his ‘Portable’ harp and offered it to customers who purchased the full-sized instrument (see figure 17).8 Designed to be played by pedal harpists, it had similar string tension and spacing, and required the same playing technique with the ‘thumbs up, fingers down’ hand positioning. The ‘Portable’ harp was about three feet high, gut strung, and also similar to the pedal harp in the shape of the neck and soundbox, which was made from two pieces of wood, with a rounded back and flat soundboard. The forepillar was not straight like the pedal harp, however, but was made with varying degrees of curvature, imitating the wire strung instrument. Egan made over 2,000 ‘Portable’ harps, supplying them with black, blue or green paint finishes, often decorated with gold shamrocks. A stabilising rod was incorporated inside the bottom of the soundbox, which pulled out to raise the instrument to an appropriate playing position. Like the single-action pedal harp, it was tuned in the key of E flat. The model currently in the possession of the Historical Harp Society which has recently undergone a cosmetic restoration and is housed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has 32 strings, from E

5

Hayward, Richard: The Story of the Irish Harp, (Dublin, 1954). Armstrong, Robert Bruce: The Irish and Highland Harps (Edinburgh, 1904), 105. 7 Photograph from Rimmer, Joan: The Irish Harp, (Dublin, 1977), 69. 8 Taylor, William: Traditional and Historical Scottish Harps, www.clarsach.net/Bill_Taylor/traditional.htm, consulted on 15.09.03. 6

16

Figure 1: The ‘Portable’ harp by John Egan, dated 1819

17

flat two octaves below middle C, to A flat three octaves above. Most of the harps had seven levers set into the forepillar, called ‘ditals’. They were connected to rods inside the forepillar, and when one of them was depressed it operated in a similar way to a pedal on a single-action harp, resulting in a change of key due to the rod turning small forked discs on the neck, next to the corresponding strings.9 After George IV’s visit to Ireland in 1821, Egan obtained the royal warrant and his harp became the ‘Royal Portable’. He was then able to advertise in 1922 as ‘Portable Harp maker to the King’.10 The instruments were mostly designed and marketed with the cultured but amateur nineteenth-century drawing-room in mind. Thomas Moore (see below) is believed to have owned one of these harps and to have used it to accompany himself in the performance of his Irish Melodies.11 In 1805 Lady Morgan12 purchased an Egan harp, but it is unclear whether it was wire strung or an early, experimental form of his ‘Portable’ harp13. She led a movement to make the Irish harp fashionable, especially the latter gut-strung version, which Egan supplied to many titled ladies, until about 1835. One of these ladies, the Marchioness of Abercorn, enthused, albeit rather patronisingly, in a letter to Lady Morgan: Your harp is arrived, and, for the honour of Ireland, I must tell you, it is very much admired and quite beautiful. Lady Aberdeen played on it for an hour, and thought it very good, almost as good as a French harp14…Pray tell poor Egan I shall show it off to the

9

Sources of information concerning Egan’s ‘Portable’ harp in Hurrell, Nancy: ‘A Harp from 19th Century Ireland: The Royal Portable Harp by John Egan’, Folk Harp Journal, No. 119, (Walton Creek, Spring, 2003), 52, and in Hayward, Richard: The Story of the Irish Harp, (Dublin, 1954). Hayward owned one of these harps, using it in his lectures in the 1950s. 10 Hurrell, Nancy: ‘A Harp from 19th Century Ireland: The Royal Portable Harp by John Egan’, Folk Harp Journal, No. 119, (Walton Creek, Spring 2003), 52. 11 Maher, Tom: The Harp’s a Wonder, (Mullingar, 1991), 96. 12 Lady Morgan: a novelist, who also published a small collection of Irish airs in 1806 (Flood, W. H. Grattan: The Story of the Harp (London, 1905), 148). 13 Ibid, 148. 14 Possibly a reference to Erard’s pedal harp.

18

best advantage, and I sincerely hope he will have many orders in consequence.15 Though a passing fashion, great importance is however attributed to the ‘Portable’ harp in this study. The modern folk harp played today, both in Ireland and Scotland, evolved from Egan’s design.

15

Flood, W. H. Grattan: The Story of the Harp (London, 1905), 151.

19

CHAPTER TWO Nationalism and Thomas Moore The political history of the Irish harp has…been conflated with its musical history and the harp limited to playing a silent role as a dominant symbol within nationalism. This has resulted in the loss of its own particular historical musical voice.16

In 1791 a nationalist political movement based in Belfast was established: the Society of United Irishmen. Members were wealthy Ulster Presbyterians who had been, like Catholics, subject to the penal laws and excluded from public life. Although this law was changed in 1780 as far as Protestant dissenters were concerned, much anger and resentment remained due to what they considered to be the injustices on which the whole system of the Protestant ascendancy was built. Their radical aim was to unite with mainstream Protestants, and indeed Catholics, to overthrow the Anglican ascendancy and create a united Ireland, independent from Britain.17 The Society, which had some connections with the Belfast Society for Promoting Knowledge (see Appendix 1), used the arts and the growing antiquarian interest in Ireland’s past, as a means of effecting social and political change, and its ethos, as a result, became imbued with a cultural nationalism. It adopted the harp, which it perceived as representing a golden age prior to English rule, as its insignia, with the motto ‘It is new-strung and shall be heard’.18 The Society was quashed when its more militant faction attempted to overthrow British rule in 1798. The movement failed to gain the support of the Protestant majority, even the less wealthy, for whom 16

Lanier, S. C.: ‘ “It is new-strung and shan’t be heard”: nationalism and memory in the Irish harp tradition’, British Journal of Ethnomusicology, vol. 8, (Milton Keynes, 2000), 21. 17 Beckett, J. C.: A Short History of Ireland, 7th ed., (London, 1986), 95-117. 18 Boydell, Barra: ‘The Female Harp: The Irish Harp in 18th- and Early- 19thCentury Romantic Nationalism’, RidIM/RCMI Newsletter XX/1 (National University of Ireland, Maynooth College, Spring 1995), 11.

20

difference in religion was a greater issue than social injustice. In 1801 Westminster passed the ‘Act of Union’, uniting the British and Irish parliaments and making the link between the two countries stronger than ever. A new kind of nationalism emerged in the nineteenth century, this time basically Catholic in nature. This was instigated by Daniel O’Connell, who in 1829 was instrumental in bringing about ‘Catholic emancipation’. Catholics were now allowed to vote and have seats in parliament. However, injustices were still perceived, for instance in land ownership and in the fact that the Catholic peasantry was still forced to pay tithes to the Anglican Church. After an unsuccessful repeal of the union in the 1840s the militant Young Ireland movement emerged to challenge these issues. From then to the present, nationalism in Ireland has been strongly associated with Catholicism.19 How did these events affect music in Ireland in the early nineteenth century, the harp in particular? The interest in Irish antiquarianism still persisted, but the cultural nationalism of the late eighteenth century did not. This may account partly for the difficulty in funding the harp societies. In other words, Protestants may have perceived them to be representative of an alien and Catholic form of nationalism. This situation has a parallel in the present day, illustrated by the recent difficulty in the funding of the Belfast Harp Orchestra.20 One of the main aims of its founder, Janet Harbison, was to bring together the two communities to celebrate what is essentially a shared heritage. However, the general perception is still that Irish culture (music, language, literature and art) is inextricably linked with Catholicism. Furthermore, two distinct musical traditions existed in Ireland in the nineteenth century: rural and urban. The rural, native Irish tradition comprised mainly of Gaelic song, fiddle and pipe music. On the other hand there was the sophisticated tradition of the mainly urban 19

Ibid, 119-131. http://www.belfastharps.com/janetharbison/biographical.htm, consulted on 10.04.03. 20

21

Anglo-Irish, who favoured art music imported from the European mainland.21 Public concerts featured some well-known virtuosi, for example Paganini, who performed in Dublin and Belfast in 1831.22 The influence of visiting pedal harpists, such as Bochsa and Labarre (1821 and 1829 respectively),23 no doubt contributed to the increasing popularity of that instrument, along with the piano, for drawing-room entertainment. The middle and upper classes also professed an interest in folk music. This interest was of an antiquarian kind and gave rise to several volumes of collections throughout the century. One of these was Edward Bunting (1773-1843) (see Appendix I), and two other important figures were George Petrie (1789-1866) and P. W. Joyce (1827-1914).24 However, the music they collected would have been considered too raw and naïve in its natural form for the polite and cultivated Anglo-Irish drawing room. Modal tunes were forced into the major and minor tonality of Western art music, with often unsympathetic and elaborate piano arrangements, and what emerged has often been criticised as an artificial, sanitised version of the native music.25 The poet Thomas Moore (1779-1852) used these often inaccurate transcriptions for his own verses (Irish Melodies, 1808-1834), borrowing extensively from Bunting. The ten volumes of his songs attained great popularity throughout the nineteenth century, in Ireland and England. The music was arranged by the fashionable composer John Stevenson (1762-1833), but suffered considerable condemnation for its elaborate and chromatic treatment. The contemporary critic Gamble remarked, on the arrangements of both Stevenson and Bunting:

21

Doris, Cliona: The Irish Harp Tradition, 1792-1903: Revival and Preservation (D.Mus. dissertation, Indiana University School of Music, Bloomington, 1997). 22 Hogan, Ita: Anglo-Irish Music, 1780-1830, (Cork, 1966), 223. 23 Ibid, 218, 221. 24 O’Boyle, Sean: The Irish Song Tradition, (Sherries, 1976), 12. 25 Ibid, 13.

22

They have both built on an entirely wrong foundation. It is wonderful indeed how any men who have hearts in their bosoms should be so far misled by the ear as not to perceive that native Irish music would lose its charm the instant that it was shackled by the symphony and accompaniment of modern art. It is like taking the lark from the forest and bidding it pour forth its ‘wood notes wild’ in a cage.26 For example, note the chromatic piano introduction to Moore’s ‘Silent, O Moyle! Be the roar of thy water’, and the use of the sharpened seventh in the melody which was probably absent in the original, which was likely to have been modal (see figure 2 27).28 An alternative view of Moore is held by Janet Harbison, who asserts that the description of this invented kind of parlour music as a ‘folk’ or ‘traditional’ genre in its own right, is quite valid. In criticism of Breandán Breathnach’s view in Folk Music and Dances of Ireland,29 she comments: Breathnach’s definition of ‘folk’ is apparently limited to the labouring native classes, as he obviously considers any aspect of music…associated with the aristocracy to be unacceptable. In this regard, I pose the question: despite the often aristocratic origins of a tradition, does it only qualify as ‘folk’ when it has filtered through the social classes to the lowest orders? It seems that the spokespeople for Irish music are class restrictive.30

26

Gamble: Society and Manners in the North of Ireland, quoted in Hogan, Ita: Anglo-Irish Music, 1780-1830, (Cork, 1966), 95. Hogan does not provide the date of the quotation. 27 Extract from Ed. Glover, J. W.: Moore’s Irish Melodies, (Dublin, 1859), 92-93. 28 Ciarán Carson quotes Percy Granger, who collected folk songs in England at the turn of the twentieth century, and found that singers used ‘one single loosely-knit modal folk-song scale’, in which the third and seventh intervals were ‘mutable and vague’. Carson notes: ‘This applies equally well to Irish singing’ (Carson, Ciarán: Pocket Guide to Irish Traditional Music (Belfast, 1986), 61). 29 Breathnach, Breandán: Folk Music and Dances of Ireland, (Dublin, 1971). 30 Harbison, Janet: ‘Harpists, Harpers or Harpees?’, Crosbhealach An Cheoil: Tradition and Change in Irish Traditional Music, a paper presented at the Crossroads Conference, 1996, Coleraine University.

23

Figure 2: Extract from Moore’s ‘Silent O Moyle! Be the Roar of thy Water’

24

Harbison has accompanied the tenor James W. Flannery on the Irish harp, in a recent recording of a selection of Moore’s Irish Melodies.31 Moore’s verses were of a sentimental, nostalgic nature, in keeping with the Anglo-Irish disposition, of which a self-indulgent languishing in a ‘Celtic’ golden age was a characteristic feature, in an idealised version of actual history. As Walter Scott did for Scotland, Moore made Ireland romantic, and on one level the songs are also patriotic. His use of the harp as a symbol, either to represent Ireland itself or Ireland’s ‘glorious’ past prior to England’s rule, is very common. The following stanza, for instance, is well-known: The harp that once through Tara’s halls The soul of music shed, Now hangs as mute on Tara’s walls, As if that soul were fled. So sleeps the pride of former lays, So glory’s thrill is o’er, And hearts, that once beat high for praise, Now feel that pulse no more.32 Moore produced an illustrated version of his Irish Melodies in 1846, with engravings by the artist Daniel Maclise.33 The artwork is flowery and ornate, with much symbolic use of the harp. For instance in ‘The Harp that Once through Tara’s Halls’ a bard is depicted in an idyllic ‘Celtic’ setting (figure 334). ‘Erin, the Tear and the Smile in Thine Eyes’, is illustrated with another common nineteenth-century image, the Maid of Erin, languishing sadly over her harp. The instrument is in chains, representing Ireland under foreign domination (figure 435). In the illustration that accompanies

31

Flannery, James W. and Harbison, Janet: Dear Harp of my Country; the Irish Melodies of Thomas Moore, (ESS.A.Y Recordings, CD1057/58). 32 Ed. J.W. Glover: Moore’s Irish Melodies, (Dublin, 1859), 21-2. 33 Boydell, Barra: ‘The Female Harp: The Irish Harp in 18th- and Early 19th-Century Romantic Nationalism’, RidIM/RCMI Newsletter XX/1, (National University of Ireland, Maynooth College, Spring 1995). 34 Illustration from Moore, Thomas: Irish Melodies, illustrated by D. Maclise, ‘New Edition’, (London, 1866), 13. 35 Ibid, 5.

25

Figure 3: Daniel Maclise’s illustration for ‘The Harp that Once through Tara’s Hall’, from Moore’s Irish Melodies, 1846 edition

26

Figure 4: Daniel Maclise’s illustration for ‘Erin, the Tear and the Smile in Thine Eyes’, from Moore’s Irish Melodies, 1846 edition

27

‘The Minstrel Boy’, a battle is depicted, the boy clutching a harp with broken strings (figure 536). There are many more examples with similar imagery. Moore’s popularity with the Anglo-Irish, given the nationalist content of his songs and the fact that he himself was a Catholic, seems somewhat paradoxical in the light of the political situation described above. It must be emphasised, however, that the nationalism was of a completely different character to that of either the United Irishmen or the Young Irelanders. A third, romantic, sentimental form of nationalism was emerging, acceptable to the polite tastes of the drawing-room. There was nothing in Moore’s verses to threaten the status quo. On the contrary, quite the opposite occurred. Far from bolstering a Catholic nationalist cause, his Irish Melodies, due to their popularity with the English and Anglo-Irish, were (and still are) associated by many with colonial oppression.37 Whatever the musical, ethical or political judgements of Moore’s Irish Melodies, they are highly relevant to the study of the Irish harp. Although the instrument had a small role in the nineteenth century in terms of its actual use, Moore succeeded in raising it to iconic status through its romantic portrayal in his publications. This sentimental, nostalgic and often feminine image of the Irish harp persisted well into the twentieth century. The instrument was certainly kept in high profile in people’s minds at least. Whether or not the nature of this profile is helpful to modern-day performers of the instrument is another issue, which will be addressed later in the dissertation.

36

Ibid, 100. See Flannery, James W: ‘Dear Harp of My Country’: The Irish Melodies of Thomas Moore (Nashville, 1997). 37

28

Figure 5: Daniel Maclise’s illustration for ‘The Minstrel Boy’, from Moore’s Irish Melodies, 1846 edition

29

CHAPTER THREE Cultural renewal The famine in Ireland reached its height between 1845 and 1849. It had a devastating effect on all aspects of Irish society, especially rural. Two and a half million people were lost to starvation, disease or emigration during this period, and in the next decade the emigration figures rose to almost thirty percent.38 In the 1890s, when the country finally began the long process of recovery, a cultural renaissance was born. The Gaelic League was established by Douglas Hyde and Eoin McNeill in 1893, and aimed to promote the Irish language as well as instrumental music, song and dance, and in 1903 the Irish Folk Song Society was formed. In the first two decades of the twentieth century several scholarly works raising the awareness of the Irish harp were published, specifically Armstrong’s The Irish and Highland Harps (1904), Flood’s The Story of the Harp (1905), Milligan Fox’s Annals of the Irish Harpers (1911) and O’Neill’s Irish Minstrels and Musicians (1913). What characterised these works was a move away from the sentimental and romantic portrayal of Irish music (the harp in particular) in the nineteenth century, to scholarship of a more serious and substantial nature. The Gaelic League established the Oireachtas39 in Dublin in 1897. The programme for the first of these festivals consisted of competitions (mostly of a literary nature) interspersed with musical items on the pipes and the Irish harp. The four harp solos are listed as ‘selected’ melodies, performed by Mrs. Kenny, Fantasia on Irish Airs, ‘especially written for the Oireachtas’, performed by Mr. Owen Lloyd, Love in Secret from the Bunting collection and The Kissing Match (a Munster jig), again by Mrs. Kenny, and finally, Brian

38

Ó hAllmhuráin, Gearóid: A Pocket History of Irish Traditional Music, (Dublin, 1998), 83-84. 39 ‘Irish literary festival’

30

Boroihme’s March, ‘illustrating the advance and retirement of a troop of warriors’,40 played by Mr. Owen Lloyd.41 In 1903 the cultural revival was also felt in Belfast. Members of the Linen Hall Library, the venue of the Harp Festival of 1792, were prompted to organise a centenary celebration, which was actually held on a date to mark the library’s move to new premises. Memorabilia of the 1792 festival were on display, including the harps of O’Neill and Hempson, and there was also an exhibition of harps by the contemporary Belfast maker, James McFall (see Appendix II). Each evening for a week concerts were given, and although well attended, only six harpists performed. They were Owen Lloyd (one of the performers at the first Oireachtas described above), Malachy McFall, the Misses Davis, Kerin and Maguire, and Mrs. Toner.42 The writer has been unable to find information concerning their repertoire. In 1897 the Feis Ceoil (‘music festival’, modelled on the Welsh Eisteddfod) was founded by Dr A. W. Patterson,43 to promote and foster both art and traditional music. From the beginning competitions have been held for pedal harp. The early programmes list test pieces for the instrument, such as Autumn, by John Thomas. The first Feis Ceoil included a ‘special prize’ for the ‘performance of old Irish airs on the harp’, but the kind of harp used was not specified. An interesting class was offered, during the first year, in the section for ‘Competitions of Archeological Interest’: a class for ‘the Irish Wire Strung Harp, any size’. Prizewinners’ names for each competition were always published in the following year’s programme, but in this case no prize-winner is mentioned, presumably either because there were no entries or because the standard was not high enough to merit a prize. In any event, the class was not offered again. 40

Probably Brian Ború’s March, from the Bunting collection. Programme for the Oireachtas, or Irish Literary Festival, held in the Round Room, Rotunda, Dublin, on Monday 17th May, 1897. 42 Magee, John: The Heritage of the Harp, (Belfast, 1992), 28. 43 Ibid, 81-82. 41

31

In the following year (1898) the ‘Small Irish Harp’ (gut-strung) is mentioned for the first time. However, it is not until 1901 that prizewinners are listed. At first competitors were stipulated to choose their own pieces, which had to be ‘Irish in character’, but from 1904 requirements were more formalised. Studies and pieces were specified from particular publications by Mother Attracta Coffey:44 27 Studies and Melodies for Irish Harp, and this was the case until at least 1912. Flood gives an example of one of Mother Attracta’s arrangements: a version for small harp of Moore’s song ‘Come, Rest in this Bosom’ (see figure 645), and it is an indication of what might have been played at the Feis Ceoil. If this arrangement is compared to the original in Moore’s Irish Melodies (figure 746), a good example is provided of how an Irish harp player at this time may have adapted a melody from one of the many nineteenth-century collections that would have been available. Moore’s arrangement is quite sparse in texture with quite busy continuous quavers, but the harp version’s full, lush crotchet chords, many of which would have probably been arpeggiated in imitation of Romantic pedal harp music, are very idiomatic to the instrument. Also, assuming that the harp had semitone-levers (see section below on harp makers), the two C# accidentals could be managed quite easily. Figure 8 shows the prize-winners in the Feis Ceoil in the small Irish harp category, from 1900 to 1911.47 It will be noticed that one of the 44

An accomplished harpist and Mistress of Music at Loreto Abbey, Rathfarnham. See Larchet-Cuthbert, Sheila: The Irish Harp Book, (Cork and Dublin, 1975), 239. 45 Extract from Flood, W. H. Grattan: The Story of the Harp (London, 1905), 154155. Sheila Larchet-Cuthbert notes in The Irish Harp Book (Cork and Dublin 1975), 239, that Mother Attracta’s melodies were also printed as piano arrangements. Flood is likely to have obtained the extract from one of these publications, as it states ‘Piano’ next to the stave. However, it still appears very much to be a harp arrangement as some of the chords have too wide a spread to be played comfortably on the piano, but would be quite possible on the harp. 46 Extract from Ed. Glover, J. W.: Moore’s Irish Melodies, (Dublin, 1859), 313-4. 47 The writer was able to gain access to the programme for the first Oireachtas and to the programmes for the Feis Ceoil from 1897-1912. These programmes have provided the source of all information written above, relating to these events during this period.

32

Figure 6: The melody of Moore’s ‘Come, Rest in this Bosom’, arranged by Mother Attracta Coffey

33

Figure 7: Moore’s ‘Come Rest in this Bosom’

34

Figure 8: Prize winners in the Feis Ceoil in the small Irish harp category, from 1900 to 1911

35

prize-winners in 1905, Malachi McFall, also performed at the Belfast Harp Festival two years previously. It is also interesting to note the predominance of female names. If the wire strung tradition had been a largely male domain, this list certainly appears to be an early indication of the gut strung instrument’s appropriation by the female gender. This is perhaps not surprising considering the instrument was originally developed primarily for amateur drawing-room entertainment and, like the pedal harp, popular with cultured ladies. Concerning the Irish harp competitions held at the Oireachtas and Feis Ceoil, the contemporary author Flood remarked: …the feeling is irresistibly borne on the impartial observer that, save as a matter of sentiment, the Irish harp has been ousted in popular circles by the pianoforte and violin.48 Similarly, O’Neill noted: Accepting the decree that the piano has permanently supplanted the harp in popular favor, the promoters [of the revival] have wisely directed their energies in other channels.49

Charlotte Milligan Fox noted that the turn of the century historian, the Rev. Monsignor O’Laverty of Holywood, was a principal force behind the making of Irish harps in Belfast at this time, and ‘boldly advocated the introduction of the instrument into National Schools, instead of the squeaky harmonium and tinkling pianos so often found’.50 She continues: Through his enterprise and advocacy, and the support of the Gaelic League and Feis Ceoil 48

Flood, W. H. Grattan: The Story of the Harp, (London, 1905), 153. O’Neill, Capt. Francis: Irish Minstrels and Musicians, (Cork and Dublin, 1987), reprint of original 1913 edition, 476. 50 Milligan Fox, Charlotte: Annals of the Irish Harpers, (London, 1911), 59. 49

36

Committees, the Irish hand harp is not obsolete, and even in London it is occasionally heard as an accompaniment to song at the concerts of the Folk Song and Irish Literary Societies.51 These remarks are indicative of the situation which pertained throughout the first half of the twentieth century. The Irish harp was being revived, in its new, gut-strung form, and was gaining popularity (see Appendix II for a description of Irish harps being made at that time). However, its use was still limited to a circle of enthusiasts, whose main role was one of preservation, of saving the harp from extinction, rather than instigating a true revival.

51

Ibid, 60.

37

CHAPTER FOUR The Convent Schools The cultural renewal at the turn of the century generally had a positive impact on traditional music, albeit in urban Ireland.52 Supported by a short period of economic stability, the Gaelic League established branches throughout the country as well as in Irish communities in Britain. The first formalised ensembles were created, where music was provided for Gaelic League gatherings, dance halls and religious festivals. There were also media advances in radio, cylinder recordings and 78 rpm records, so that musicians such as Sligo fiddler Michael Coleman, who emigrated to New York in 1914, often thought to be the most influential Irish musician of the twentieth century, could reach wide audiences.53 Events in 1916 were pivotal in their influence on Irish traditional music. The political party Sinn Féin54 launched an armed rebellion, known as the ‘Easter Rising’, leading to the War of Independence in 1919, involving the Irish Republican Army. A truce was reached in 1921 when the Anglo-Irish treaty was signed. Under its terms, twenty-six counties achieved independence (known as the ‘Irish Free State’), leaving six counties in Ulster with a predominantly Protestant population, part of the United Kingdom. A civil war followed, resulting in great social and economic instability in much of Ireland. This persisted for about the next 30 years, and had a devastating effect on Irish traditional music. Firstly, many more musicians were lost through emigration. Secondly, those people who remained in Ireland were encouraged by Eamon de Valera,55 as a means of surviving the poverty, not to hanker after material wealth but 52

Ó hAllmhuráin notes that the status of traditional music in rural areas of Ireland at this time was in decline, due to poverty and emigration (Ó hAllmhuráin, Gearóid: A Pocket History of Irish Traditional Music, (Dublin, 1998), 97). 53 See Ó hAllmhuráin, Gearóid: A Pocket History of Irish Traditional Music, (Dublin, 1998), 106-109. 54 This organisation, whose name literally translates as ‘ourselves alone’, opposed Ireland’s union with Great Britain. 55 Irish political leader in power from 1932 to 1948.

38

…[be] satisfied with frugal comfort and [devote their] leisure time to the things of the spirit.56 This puritanical notion was readily taken up and enforced by the Catholic Church. Whether or not one considers this philosophy to be laudible, the fact is that trying to control public morality in this way did lead to an erosion of culture. Any form of ‘unsupervised’ dancing was officially banned in 1935, only allowed to continue in Dance Halls at which one was charged an entrance fee, a percentage paid to the government. Jazz music, literature, art and modern cinema were also subject to strict censorship. How did the Irish harp fit into this scenario in which Irish people were becoming increasingly ashamed of their culture, and in which many musicians had developed a low self-image? The simple answer lies in the fact that the instrument, due to its long association with aristocracy and nineteenth-century drawing rooms, was not considered a folk instrument. This perception of the Irish harp still persists in some circles today, to the chagrin of many modern exponents of the instrument,57 but it is this very separation from other traditional instruments that may have ultimately saved it from extinction in the early twentieth century. At the turn of the century, convent schools played a leading role in the renewed interest in Irish culture, language and heritage fostered by the Gaelic League. The most important of these were Sion Hill Convent and Loreto Abbey, both in Dublin, where both the Irish harp and pedal harp were taught. It has already been noted that Mother Attracta Coffey, mistress of music at Loreto Abbey, had an active involvement in the syllabus for Irish harp in the Feis Ceoil, and an example of one of her arrangements has been given (figure 6). She also published an Irish Harp Tutor and 27 Studies, of which the latter 56

Quoted in Ó hAllmhuráin, Gearóid: A Pocket History of Irish Traditional Music, (Dublin, 1998), 111. 57 For instance, Janet Harbison berated what she considered to be the prejudices against the Irish harp by well-known authorities such as Sean O’Riada and Breandán Breathnach, in ‘Harpists, Harpers or Harpees’, The Crossroads Conference: ‘Tradition and Change in Irish Traditional Music’, Ed. Fintan, Vallely, Hammy Hamilton, Eithne Vallely and Liz Doherty, (Dublin, 1996), 98-99.

39

include studies and exercises adapted from similar publications for piano, for example by Czerny and Viner, or from pedal harpists such as Naderman and Bochsa.58 In 1975 these studies were incorporated into Larchet-Cuthbert’s The Irish Harp Book: a Tutor and Companion. The exercise shown in figure 9 adapted from Viner, based on scale and arpeggio patterns, is a typical example.59 From the 1920s, therefore, when Irish traditional music was sinking into decline, the Irish harp had already had a long association with the convent school.60 Unhindered by the Catholic Church, the instrument continued to have great importance in these schools, for about the next seventy years. It is remarkable to note that it would be possible for most of the leading Irish harp players of today to trace their ‘ancestry’ back to key figures from these two convents. The ‘family tree’ in figure 10 shows these harp teachers and their students, all of whom are noted in this dissertation.61 At Loreto Abbey, Mother Alphonsus O’Connor succeeded Mother Attracta, teaching both the pedal and Irish harp during the 1930s and 1940s. Her charismatic personality was described recently in a book of reminiscences, by pianist and former pupil, Jeannie Reddin: I still feel her spirit. She was big in stature and big in mind. Her personality was just phenomenal and I feel her spirit to this day.62

58

Larchet-Cuthbert, Sheila: The Irish Harp Book: a Tutor and Companion, (Cork and Dublin, 1975), 239. 59 From Larchet-Cuthbert, Sheila: The Irish Harp Book: a Tutor and Companion, (Cork and Dublin, 1975), 27. 60 McFall’s advertisement from the early twentieth century, shown in Appendix II, states that his harps are ‘in use in all the leading Convents throughout the world’. 61 Máire Ní Chathasaigh is a notable exception. Where known, dates are included in the ‘family trees’. 62 Dempsey, Anne: The Abbey:An Appreciation of Loreto Abbey, Rathfarnham, (Dublin, 1999).

40

Figure 9: ‘Study No. 1’, from Larchet-Cuthbert’s The Irish Harp Book

41

Loreto Abbey Mother Attracta Coffey ( - 1920)

Mother Alphonsus O’Connor

Nancy Calthorpe (1914 - 1998)

Aibhlín McCrann (1956 - )

Sheila Larchet-Cuthbert

Anne-Marie O’Farrell (1966 - )

Derek Bell (1935 – 2002)

Sion Hill Mairín Ní Shé

Mary O’Hara (1935 - ) (1955 - )

Laoise Kelly (1973 - )

Janet Harbison

Gráinne Hambly (1975 - ) Fionnuala Rooney (1980 - )

Michael Rooney (1975 - )

Aonghus Rooney (1982 - )

Figure 10: ‘Family tree’ of harp teachers (indicated in red) at Loreto Abbey and Sion Hill Convent Schools, and their ‘descendants’

42

Roisín Hambly (1983 - )

Another former harp student of Mother Alphonsus, of great importance to this study as a founding member of Cáirde na Cruite, was Sheila Larchet-Cuthbert. In an interview with the writer she remarked that both the Irish and pedal harps were given ‘great importance and time’ at Loreto Abbey.

43

CHAPTER FIVE The celebrity harpists and the tourist industry A former member of the teaching staff at Sion Hill Convent, Sister Carmel Warde, now manages the school archives, and has provided some of her recollections of the Sion Hill Harp School. An adult harp student herself, Sister Carmel recounts that the formal teaching of the Irish harp began in 1949 by Máirín Ferriter (née Ní Shé). Ní Shé had come from a background of influence by parents who had an intense interest in Irish music, literature and language, having been active members of the Gaelic League. She was one of the performers, with her three sisters, at the 150th anniversary of the Belfast Harp Festival at Collins Barracks, Dublin, 1942. 63 In 1951, four young pupils of Máirín Ferriter, Mary O’Hara, Kathleen Watkins, Deirdre O’Callaghan and Deirdre Flynn,64 travelled to London to perform for a BBC television programme. Sister Carmel related how this event triggered a nationwide popularity for the Irish harp: Looking back over the 1950s and 1960s I recall very happy busy days preparing for Jury’s65 Cabaret...A troop of Sion Hill Harpists, maybe twenty girls in all would entertain the guests for two hours. Christmas time was another highlight for our Harp School… charity concerts were given in various hospitals and nursing homes throughout the city and far beyond. Before the Summer holidays we awaited invitations from Bunratty Castle, Co. Limerick,66 Killarney Hotels, Dublin Hotels and the Hilton Hotel, London for our harpists to entertain guests for a week or two…These were great days when the Sion Hill Harp School flourished.

63

See Maher, Tom: The Harp’s a Wonder (Mullingar, 1991), 101. Now president of the Feis Ceoil Association. 65 A Dublin hotel popular with tourists. 66 ‘ Medieval’ banquets involving musicians and singers are held here. They are primarily aimed at tourists. 64

44

The photograph of Mary O’Hara in figure 11 was taken in 1954.67 Performers in this genre were primarily singers who accompanied themselves in a simple, chordal style. No published arrangements existed at that time, and their repertoire consisted largely of songs taken from collections such as ‘Moore’s Irish Melodies’ or the Petrie Collection, with adapted accompaniments. Present-day performer and authority on the Irish harp, Janet Harbison, was a pupil at Sion Hill Convent where she studied the Irish harp with Máirín Ferriter in the 1960s. She relates that her teacher: taught the harp players of Sion Hill by ear. She could not read music and those of us, her harp students, who also learned piano, were often called upon to sound the music she had in books…The tradition we inherited came directly from the drawing rooms of the nineteenth century.68

Mary O’Hara was the foremost exponent in this genre. It is interesting to note that while her vocal style derived in many ways from western art music, her early arrangements were usually simple and modal. For instance, her version of ‘Silent, O Moyle’(♫ 1)69 is entirely sung and played in the Aeolian mode, in contrast to John Stevenson’s elaborate piano arrangement (figure 2). Another example of a simple, unpretentious accompaniment can be heard in ‘Seoladh Na Ngamhna’(♫ 2),70 which consists of arpeggios and sparse open fifths. Given that her harp was equipped with semitone levers and therefore capable of performing accidentals such as sharpened sevenths in a minor scale, one could conclude that her choice of arrangement was due to an aversion to over-romanticising the music in the way that Stevenson and others had in the nineteenth century. 67

Copy of photograph supplied to the writer by Sister Carmel Warde, from the School’s archives. 68 ‘Harpists, Harpers or Harpees’, The Crossroads Conference: ‘Tradition and Change in Irish Traditional Music’, Ed. Fintan, Vallely, Hammy Hamilton, Eithne Vallely and Liz Doherty, (Dublin, 1996), 95. 69 From O’Hara, Mary: Irish Magic (Cedar: GFS369). 70 Ibid. Translated as ‘Driving the Calves’.

45

Figure 11: Mary O’Hara in 1954

46

A simple style of arranging by other performers in this genre could possibly be explained by the fact that they were first and foremost singers, and consequently less proficient on the instrument had they been primarily harpists. Indeed, according to Gráinne Yeats, 71 the overall standard of Irish harp-playing was very low at this time. She is disparaging of the image that was portrayed in general by these performers: What you had, basically, were beautiful young girls singing sweet folk songs, playing little chords, and they weren’t really playing the instrument. They were using it solely as an embellishment of the song… Mary [O’Hara] was the best, and she sang beautifully, but you did have a lot of terribly inefficient ones.

The activities of the Sion Hill harp School described above reflect the significant social and economic changes taking place in Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s. The television performance by the four Sion Hill harpists was part of the School’s involvement in the government initiative to promote the tourist industry in Ireland, known as An Tostal.72 An economic plan devised by Irish politicians, Sean Lemass and Thomas Whitaker in the late 1950s,73 with an emphasis on free trade, led to greatly increased prosperity and a more consumerist society compared to the austerity of the 1930s and 1940s. Many Irish emigrants returned, and Ireland became a desirable holiday destination. Furthermore, a new liberalism was developing in the Catholic church, culminating with the Second Vatican Council74 in 1963: the Irish harp was emerging from its cosseted convent environment, into the realms of the tourist cabaret.

71

Born in 1925, Yeats has had a distinguished career as a singer, performer of the Irish harp, teacher and scholar. 72 Literally, ‘gathering’. 73 See J. C. Beckett: A Short History of Ireland (London, 1986), 169-170. 74 http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/index.htm, consulted on 0.07.03.

47

CHAPTER SIX The folk and traditional music revivals Another product of this changing Irish society (or perhaps partly a cause) was the phenomenon of the so-called ‘Ballad Boom’,75 which coincided with a more widespread popular folk revival and ‘hippie’ revolution occurring in the USA and Britain. In particular, the returning emigrants ‘The Clancy Brothers’ and Tommy Makem were highly successful in the 1950s and 1960s, with their exuberant style, guitar accompaniment and often sentimental and nostalgic thematic material. As with the cabaret harpists, popularity was the key criterion of these ballad singers, and this, according to some commentators, greatly compromised quality and style. For instance, the author on Irish traditional music Breandán Breathnach commented: We are now informed in all seriousness that the lighter commercial ballad personified by the guitar as the basic accompanying instrument must be regarded as coming within the definition of Irish traditional music…The effect of this policy must be wholly pernicious, as the adulteration of [radio] programmes purporting to consist of traditional material confuses an ill-informed public and debases the general taste.76

Another development in the 1950s was the advent of the pub ‘session’.77 These first began in London by Irish immigrants working for building companies on the post-war reconstruction of the city, and gained popularity in Ireland in the 1960s. What began, however, as an occasion for spontaneous music-making, was soon marketed by both the tourist and drinks industry, and the subsequent packaging tended to compromise this spontaneity. Furthermore, dancing was not normally permitted at these sessions, a fact which perhaps 75

See Ó hAllmhuráin, Gearóid: A Pocket History of Irish Traditional Music, (Dublin, 1998), 128-129. 76 Breathnach, Breandán: Folk Music and Dances of Ireland (Cork and Dublin, 1971), 125. 77 An informal gathering of musicians.

48

encouraged the separation of music and dance in Irish music. In addition, the focus on the often loud and fast playing of tunes, reels in particular, resulted in the neglect of other genres such as songs, slow airs or historical harp tunes.78 The pub session has, however, become the main focus of the social life of today’s traditional musician. Other developments in the 1950s did prevent Irish traditional music deteriorating into trite and bland commercialism. Small sub-cultures had remained in rural areas despite the years of repression by the Catholic church, and one of the first factors to contribute to the beginnings of a revival of the true tradition was the radio broadcasts by piper and collector Séamus Ennis (from 1947-1951), in which the music of these rural pockets could be heard in cities. Equally significantly, the musicians of different regions heard each other, often for the first time, which gave rise to the exchange of ideas and techniques. Purists such as Breathnach were cautious in their praise of such radio programmes, maintaining that they would lead to a blurring of regional styles,79 but they undoubtably did much to raise the morale of traditional musicians and encourage them to be positive about their own heritage. The formation of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann80 by members of the Dublin Piper’s Club to promote Irish traditional music in 1952 was also a constructive step in this direction. Comhaltas instigated the annual Fleadh Cheoil,81 a competitive festival providing a platform to perform for appreciative audiences, and a forum for the exchange of styles, repertoire and techniques. The pub session has now become an important fringe event at the Fleadh. Additionally, Comhaltas has developed an educational programme which it 78

Harp tunes had not previously been the exclusive domain of harp players. For instance, 75 Carolan compositions were included in O’Neill’s Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies, first published in 1903 and mainly aimed at fiddle players. 79 See Breathnach, Breandán: Folk Music and Dances of Ireland (Cork and Dublin, 1971), 124. 80 ‘Society of Irish musicians’. Throughout the remainder of the study, in accordance with common usage the organisation will be referred to as ‘Comhaltas’. 81 ‘music festival’.

49

delivers through its 400 branches in Ireland and abroad, in particular the Scoil Éigse,82 an summer school of traditional music which includes workshops and lectures, held in Dublin. Throughout its early years, however, Comhaltas had a negative view of the Irish harp due to the image of the instrument described above, as explained by Aibhlín McCrann, the current secretary of Cáirde Na Cruite: Comhaltas did the harp no favours in the 1950s, because they just totally ignored it, and kind of neatly put it into a little box and said: ‘Ah, you’re fine for cabaret and the American circuit: “the Colleen behind the harp”’. [Their attitude] was understandable in some ways, because what they were hearing wasn’t their perception of what Irish music should be.

The lack of recognition of the Irish harp as a traditional instrument by Comhaltas at this time was confirmed by Séamus MacMathuna, a long-term collector and researcher for the organisation: I suppose we would generally be perceived as being conservative. We would see ourselves as custodians of the old, if you like, and what’s been seen through the generations as being important…The harp was looked at as a bit of a sacred cow in the early years [of Comhaltas]. It was something that you paid lipservice to…Probably with Comhaltas it got off to a bad start.

In the 1960s, the Irish composer Séan O’Riada (1931-1971) came to the public eye through his film scores, particularly Mise Eire (‘I am Ireland’), about the War of Independence, incorporating traditional melodies into the score. In 1960 he formed ‘Ceoltóirí Cualann’ (later to become ‘The Chieftains’) and raised the respectability of Irish music by introducing dress-suits and classical-style arrangements, whilst retaining a traditional style of playing. Most importantly, it 82

‘summer school’.

50

was music to be listened to, rather than to be danced to. O’Riada had a deep interest in the music of the harpers recorded in manuscripts such as Bunting’s, asserting in a 1962 radio series entitled ‘Our Musical Heritage’, that ‘the harp in former times was our outstanding glory in music’.83 However, he believed that the instrument had completely died out by the middle of the nineteenth century with the last of the wire-strung harpers, and was dismissive of the gut-strung instrument which replaced it, and of the current ‘parlour’ style of harp-playing: To revive the true harping tradition was impossible: instead, a style of harping was developed which was based mainly on Welsh harping,84 quite different from the Irish style…I think it is a pity we do not try to reconstruct a style closer to the traditional style, instead of propagating an invented style which has nothing to do with tradition.85

As there were no wire-strung harps being played in the 1960s, O’Riada chose to play the harpsichord in ‘Ceoltóirí Cualann’, believing it to be close in sound to the former instrument. His complete disregard for the gut-strung Irish harp was shown when O’Riada refused, when asked by Gráinne Yeats, to compose a piece of music for the instrument. In an interview with the writer, Yeats explained his reasons thus: I think he was depressed about the standard of harpplaying at the time, because it was very, very low… the little girl image, singing sweet songs, was not one that appealed to Séan. And he was right, I think. Because we’re talking here about a very old and beautiful tradition. 83

A book was later published based on this series, edited by Thomas Kinsella. See O’Riada, Sean: Our Musical Heritage (Portlaoise, 1982), 77. 84 The writer is unclear about what is meant by this comparison. It is perhaps a reference to the Romantic style of pedal harp playing emerging in Wales in the nineteenth century, as exemplified by John Thomas’s arrangements of Welsh folk songs. See Ellis, Osian: The Story of the Harp in Wales (Cardiff, 1980). 85 O’Riada, Sean: Our Musical Heritage (Portlaise, 1982), 78. Janet Harbison noted a contradiction in O’Riada’s point of view here, observing that his concept of an ensemble of musicians was not ‘traditional’ either. See Harbison, Janet: ‘Harpists, Harpers or Harpees’, The Crossroads Conference: ‘Tradition and Change in Irish Traditional Music’, Ed. Fintan, Vallely, Hammy Hamilton, Eithne Vallely and Liz Doherty, (Dublin, 1996), 98.

51

Throughout the first half of the century there had been a gradually increasing desire amongst the purists, probably culminating with O’Riada, to return to this ‘old and beautiful tradition’, and to move away from overly-sentimental representations of Irish music. In this regard the scholarly work of Donal O’Sullivan (1893-1973) was very important.86 His work, Carolan: the Life, Times and Music of an Irish Harper, published in London in 1958, was seminal and inspirational at a time when Irish traditional music was in the early stages of a major revival.

86

In his research on Bunting’s manuscripts, his main aim was to reunite melodies transcribed by Bunting with their original words (which were not included in the latter’s publications), and the results of his research appeared in the Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society between 1927 and 1939 (see O’Sullivan, Donal: ‘The Irish Folk Song Society’, Ed. Fleischmann, Aloys: Music in Ireland: A Symposium, (Cork, 1952), 297.

52

CHAPTER SEVEN Cáirde Na Cruite: the early years In 1953, Gráinne Yeats, then a classical singer and performer of unaccompanied Gaelic song, began to learn the Irish harp as an adult with Mercedes Garvey, the tutor for the pedal and Irish harp at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin. Her initial aim in this was to add variety to her performances.87 However, she explained that as a history graduate, she felt motivated to explore the history of the instrument and its music. Becoming familiar with all the scholarship available, she discovered the music in collections such as Bunting’s. The desire to raise the status of the Irish harp and dispel the ‘banquet ladies’ image associated with the instrument, motivated Yeats and five other like-minded individuals, including Sheila LarchetCuthbert and Mercedes Garvey to form, in 1960, Cáirde Na Cruite.88 The main objective was ‘to restore the Irish harp, symbol of ancient culture, to a place of honour and to make more widely known and appreciated all that had survived of the heritage of Irish harp music’.89 The founders of the society came largely from a background of classical training, and had an educated, Gaelic League-influenced approach to Irish culture. Furthermore, in order to break free of the commercialised image associated with the Irish harp and strongly perpetuated by the tourist industry, it was necessary for the founding members of Cáirde Na Cruite to be single-minded and determined. Aibhlín McCrann commented on the difficulties faced by these individuals: It was a struggle to achieve everything they had achieved…to fight to preserve what they felt was heritage, what was indigenous, what was native to 87

See Bell, Aidan: ‘Gráinne Yeats’, Sounding Strings Nos 7 & 8, (West Lothian, Summer/Autumn 1995), 2. 88 ‘Friends of the Irish harp’. 89 Maher, Tom: The Harp’s a Wonder, (Mullingar 1991), 103.

53

the country…It [was] an entirely different attitude of mind.

The methods by which they set out to achieve their objective of ‘restoring the Irish harp to its place of honour’ were described to the writer by Sheila Larchet-Cuthbert: 1. To teach and foster learning. 2. To hold public performances. 3. To preserve what was left of the treasury of Irish harp music in manuscripts. 4. To publish arrangements and a tutor (at this time there was no music in print suitable for playing on the Irish harp). 5. To encourage new compositions for the instrument. While the founders were well aware that in the ‘golden age’ of the harp in Ireland the instrument was strung with wire and played with a completely different technique to its gut-strung successor,90 they accepted the fact that the latter instrument had firmly entrenched itself as the new Irish harp. It was felt, explained Larchet-Cuthbert, that the situation was now irreversible: the new instrument with its classically-derived technique and semitone levers was ‘here to stay’.91 There were very few Irish harp makers during the 1950s and 1960s; George Morley in London made small gut-strung harps with levers, and the only maker in Ireland was Daniel Quinn. Nobody was interested in making the wire-strung harp instrument; indeed, Gráinne Yeats recounted to the writer that Quinn was absolutely incredulous when asked by her to make a wire-strung harp in the 1950s. As regards printed music, the founders of the society concentrated on publishing arrangements for the gut-strung Irish harp. The piece in figure 12,92 arranged by Mercedes McGrath,93 ‘The Parting of

90

See Appendix I: ‘The wire-strung harp’. See Appendix II: ‘Small harp makers at the turn of the twentieth century’. 92 From McGrath, Mercedes: My Gentle Harp (Dublin, 1992), 14. 93 Mercedes Garvey’s mother. 91

54

Figure 12: Arr. McGrath: ‘The Parting of Friends’

55

Friends’ from the Bunting Collection, is an example. The irregular phrasing and unpredictable nature of this piece, common qualities of many pieces in the historical harp tradition, would have been unfamiliar to the majority of banquet harpists with their repertoire of folk songs with simple harp accompaniment. Sheila Larchet-Cuthbert began the task of writing a tutor for Irish harp, compiling repertoire from the following sources: arrangements of music from the harper composers such as Carolan, arrangements of pieces from the nineteenth-century collections such as Petrie, and compositions by contemporary players and composers. Pieces in the tutor are arranged for solo harp, harp and voice, and harp ensemble. The example in figure 13 is from the first category, an arrangement by Larchet-Cuthbert of ‘Carolan’s Farewell to Music’.94 It is a fairly lavish but harmonically conventional arrangement using full, rich chords. In contrast, the extract in figure 14 is from an atonal work for two harps by Seóirse Bodley (1933- ).95 In this work the composer uses several special effects which by this time had become quite familiar to pedal harpists playing contemporary compositions, for example the use of harmonics, glissandi, the occasional plucking with the fingernails and près de la table.96 A popular repertoire piece from The Irish Harp Book, which has featured on the Feis Cheoil syllabus for Irish harp since the early years of Cáirde Na Cruite, is ‘Interlude’, by T.C. Kelly (1917-1985).97 Figure 15 shows an extract98 from this rather atmospheric piece, which relies for its effect largely on the use of added sevenths, ninths and elevenths.

94

From Larchet-Cuthbert, Sheila: The Irish Harp Book: a Tutor and Companion, (Cork and Dublin, 1975), 103. 95 From ibid., 211. 96 Playing near the soundboard. 97 Larchet-Cuthbert notes that Kelly was ‘influenced by Irish folk music and Anglo-Irish composers such as Stanford, Harty and Hughes’ (The Irish Harp Book: a Tutor and Companion, (Cork and Dublin, 1975), 241). 98 From Larchet-Cuthbert, Sheila: The Irish Harp Book: a Tutor and Companion, (Cork and Dublin, 1975), 116.

56

Figure 13: Arr. Larchet-Cuthbert: ‘Carolan’s Farewell to Music’

57

Figure 14: Bodley: ‘Duet Scintillae’ (extract)

58

Figure 15: T. C. Kelly: ‘Interlude’ (extract)

59

The section of the tutor which describes ‘the position of the hands’ is important, because it indicates that the advocated method of playing the Irish harp was directly taken from pedal harp technique: To obtain a full and beautiful tone, the thumbs should be placed high, without straining and the fingers extended, the wrist being slightly advanced towards the strings99…The manner of plucking the strings is of great importance. The finger, on releasing the string should travel inwards to the palm of the hand and make contact with it. This complete finger action is essential. The thumb travels to the side of the first finger and makes contact with it. The completed action of fingers and thumb is vital if the performer is to produce not only a full and beautiful tone but resonance as well.100

In a foreword to the tutor, published in 1975, Breandán Breathnach wrote that he expected Larchet-Cuthbert’s inclusion of works by ‘composers of the first rank in Ireland…whether by design or otherwise, [to] achieve a considerable advance towards breaching that barrier between “art” and folk-music in Ireland.’ Compositions of this nature demonstrated the potential of the Irish harp as a highart ‘concert’ instrument, and paved the way for other harpists to develop this concept. The most noteworthy in this field today is harpist and composer Anne-Marie O’Farrell, whose work will be explored later in the dissertation. It is interesting that Breathnach, like O’Riada, was hitherto dismissive of the gut-strung Irish harp, having ignored it altogether in the chapter on the harp in Folk Music and Dances of Ireland (1971), believing the harp tradition to have died out with the last of the wire-strung harpers.101 Four years later his opinion appears to 99

This results in the fingers pointing downwards. Larchet-Cuthbert, Sheila: The Irish Harp Book: a Tutor and Companion, (Cork and Dublin, 1975), 17-18. This is generally referred to amongst Irish harp players as the ‘classical’ technique. Throughout the study the use of this term will also be adopted. 101 Breathnach, Breandán: Folk Music and Dances of Ireland (Cork and Dublin, 1971), 65-9. 100

60

have changed, perhaps a testament to the efforts of Larchet-Cuthbert and other members of Cáirde Na Cruite to portray the instrument in a positive light. In the foreword to The Irish Harp Book, he acknowledges that: Any live tradition is no more than a body of practices and techniques which had a beginning at some point of time in the past and has been acted upon and moulded in its transmission to the present by a cohesive body of practitioners. The present cultivation of the Irish harp has been sustained too long to be dismissed as an ephemeral interest in things of the past. It is not too fanciful, then, to see in it a nucleus from which will develop a national school of harping with a distinctively national style...I look forward with confidence to the realisation of the author’s hopes that this work will inaugurate a new and exciting era for our national instrument.102

Indeed, in the next 30 years Breathnach’s prediction proved accurate, and the writer will explore this ‘national school of harping’ from chapter nine onwards. It must be emphasised, however, that the approach to the Irish harp by early members of Cáirde Na Cruite, such as Gráinne Yeats, Sheila Larchet-Cuthbert and Mercedes Garvey, was largely influenced by their western art music training, and had nothing in common with mainstream Irish musicians who practiced the oral tradition and favoured dance music such as jigs, reels and hornpipes. The established and accepted traditional instruments at this time, according to Séamus MacMathuna of Comhaltas, were the fiddle, flute, whistle, pipes, concertina and button accordian. As related to the writer by MacMathuna, even the repertoire of the old harping tradition, brought to the fore by O’Riada in the 1960s only created a ‘token acknowledgement’ amongst the general body of traditional musicians. In approximately the first fifteen years of Cáirde Na Cruite’s existence there was little or no communication between the two organisations. 102

Larchet-Cuthbert, Sheila: The Irish Harp Book: a Tutor and Companion, (Cork and Dublin, 1975), 8-9.

61

CHAPTER EIGHT The Irish Harp as a High Art Concert Instrument Though the role of the instrument and its repertoire ultimately deviated dramatically from Cáirde Na Cruite’s initial vision, a process which will be explored in the next chapter, a significant minority of harp players has continued, up to the present day, to promote the Irish harp as a high-art concert instrument. The means by which this has been achieved, and the music itself, will be the focus of this chapter. Now in its 107th year, the Feis Ceoil continues to provide a platform for the relatively small number having an interest in this aspect of the instrument’s repertoire. Interestingly, the festival has changed its focus since its inception, when it was designed to promote both art and traditional music. Now sponsored by the multinational company Siemens who have perhaps had an influence in the festival’s focus, the Feis Ceoil now describes itself as ‘Europe’s longest running classical music festival’.103 Certainly, the set pieces for the Irish harp competitions do tend to reflect an art music bias. The instrument’s contribution to the festival in 2003 is described more fully in Appendix III. A system of graded examinations exists to serve the requirements of those wishing to pursue the Irish harp as a concert instrument, by the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin. It has been in place since the current tutor of pedal and Irish harps, Aine Ní Dhuill, began teaching at this instutution in 1990, and was devised by her. The syllabus is described in greater detail in Appendix IV. Derek Bell, born in Belfast in 1935, was the most well known exponent of the art music genre of Irish harp playing. Already an accomplished pianist, oboist and composer, having studied at the Royal College of Music, he began learning the pedal harp at the age 103

See www.siemens.ie/feis (consulted on 05.08.03).

62

of 25, with Sheila Larchet-Cuthbert and Gwendolen Mason. Five years later he became principal harpist and oboist with the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra and subsequently professor of harp at the Belfast Academy of Music. From 1972 he became a member of ‘The Chieftains’, in which he played both gut and wire strung Irish harps. In 2000 he was awarded an M.B.E. ‘for composition and for services to traditional music’. He died in 2002.104 It has already been noted that ‘The Chieftains’, formed in 1963, helped to raise the status of Irish traditional music by introducing art music-influenced arrangements of dance tunes, slow airs and historical harp pieces, in concert-hall performances. Derek Bell’s harp, when in an accompanimental role within the ensemble, lent an orchestral quality to the sound, as can be heard in the recording ‘An Ghéagus an Grá Geal’ (♫ 3).105 On the whole, he did not contribute melodically to dance tunes, but provided chordal accompaniment. This, however, was not in the nature of what is generally termed as ‘vamping’,106 but was thoughtfully considered and had a significant role in the musical texture. For example, in the three-part reel ‘Boil the Breakfast Early’(♫ 4),107 the first playing of the first section of the tune is punctuated with emphatic single chords at the end of each phrase, and in the second playing, the second part ends with an effective short counter melody. Bell’s solo contributions as a member of ‘The Chieftains’ consisted of arrangements of harp tunes such as Carolan’s, or florid renditions of slow melodies, such as that entitled ‘Ceol Bhriotánach’(♫ 5),108 with an elaborate arpeggiated accompaniment.

104

Biographical material obtained from: Bell, Derek: ‘How I Came to the Harp or How the Harp and I Came to Each Other’, The American Harp Journal, Vol. 17, No. 4 (New York, Winter, 2000), 27-9, and Clark, Nora Joan and Stanffer, Sylvia: ‘Derek Bell, Harper-Composer’, Folk Harp Journal, no.119 (Walton Creek, Spring, 2003), 47 (originally published by North Creek Press, 2002). 105 ‘The Goose and Bright Love’. From ‘The Chieftains’: Chieftains 5, (Claddagh Records Limited: CC16). 106 A very simple form of accompaniment, mainly using primary triads, in a decidedly subsidiary role. 107 From ‘The Chieftains’: Chieftains 9: Boil the Breakfast Early (Claddagh Records Limited: CC30). 108 ‘Breton Music’. From ‘The Chieftains’: Chieftains 5, (Claddagh Records Limited: CC16).

63

Although, as noted above, the role of the Irish harp as a high art instrument in the past 30 years or so has been relatively small in terms of the number of people actually playing in this genre, Bell has done much to encourage this perception of the instrument due to his visibility as a member of such a high-profile group as ‘The Chieftains’. During this time, as a result of his celebrity status his name has become almost synonymous with the instrument. The only Irish harp player of a younger generation having a bias towards western art music and significantly coming to the fore in the present day, is Anne-Marie O’Farrell. Born in 1966, O’Farrell studied the Irish harp from age nine with Nancy Calthorpe, and the pedal harp from age 20 with Helen Davies, Sheila Larchet-Cuthbert and Mercedes Garvey, at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Her other studies were piano and singing, and also composition, in which field she obtained her first degree at University College Dublin. Subsequently she obtained an MA in composition with first class honours at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. O’Farrell is a musician with a wide range of interests, many of which are mutually influential. For instance, in interview she remarked: I found when I took up the pedal harp that my Irish harp playing was transformed, because I got a whole extra physical strength in the hands….I’ve noticed in some situations [that using amplification in performance] can become a substitute for tone production. The thing I like about classical training is that it teaches you to produce this tone yourself, and to project it, and to have a tonal palette from which you can select the sound you want. I don’t know if there’s enough of that shown in traditional music teaching. While the notion of projecting one’s sound is a concept which belongs largely to art music, it is a fact that since the beginning of the revival in the 1950s, traditional dance music has undergone a radical change in context. It is now rarely heard in its historical solo, monodic form solely to accompany dancing. In the writer’s opinion, 64

O’Farrell’s views are therefore highly relevant to the practice that has developed over the last 50 years of playing traditional music purely to be listened to, either solo or as part of a group, often at large venues. Different aspects of O’Farrell’s ‘tonal pallette’ are apparent in her recording of ‘My Lagan Love’ (♫ 6).109 It is a Romantic arrangement with lush arpeggios and occasional chromatic harmony, and with sensitive and musical use of phrasing and dynamics. O’Farrell’s renditions of dance tunes, for example the reel ‘Peter Street’(♫ 7),110 in its polish, smoothness and evenness of tone, the occasional playing of the melody in a different octave, and effects usually associated with the pedal harp such as glissandi and harmonics, are far removed from those produced by musicians with a traditional background. The result is an interpretation which sounds like a dance tune played by a musician with classical training. However, this is not to say it has no validity, provided that one recognises it as belonging to a genre in its own right. This is a pleasing and different rendition of the reel, with satisfying added-seventh harmonies adding to the light-heartedness and charm projected in the performance. O’Farrell’s broad musical education, especially her piano playing, have inspired her to extend the repertoire for the Irish harp, remarking that she was subject to considerable frustration in her early years of learning the harp: There’s such a vast difference between the great range of things that composers have said through the piano, as opposed to what’s been said through the Irish harp, or at least what I’d come across at that point. It was musically very limited….My knowledge of piano repertoire made me musically curious. While appreciating the current popularity of dance tunes being played on the Irish harp, she maintains that ‘a happier balance of folk, classical (e.g. baroque and early music) and twentieth century 109 110

From O’Farrell, Anne-Marie: My Lagan Love (CMR Records: CMCD 1075). Ibid.

65

music would contribute to young harpists becoming better musicians’.111 Certainly, there are many musicians who perform both traditional and art music successfully, but the writer would question whether this fact has any contribution to rendering them ‘better musicians’, and would suggest that their ability to perform convincingly in both genres stems from the different skills being learned in parallel, as it were, like two separate languages, from an early age. To continue the analogy, the simple fact that one is bilingual does not in itself necessarily enable a greater proficiency in either language. O’Farrell would go so far as to maintain that ‘the shortage of advanced repertoire for the non-pedal harp is a problem which, unless addressed, will ultimately hinder the development of the instrument’.112 As there is no shortage of tunes to play in the traditional musician’s repertoire, the problem is one which therefore has relevance only to those wishing to pursue the Irish harp as a concert instrument. O’Farrell has certainly made strides in addressing this issue, having dedicated considerable time and effort to the task of searching for music that is appropriate for transcription, and also working with contemporary composers113 and writing for the instrument herself. Her short and atmospheric work Prelude for Irish harp (figure 16114), composed in 1996 for one of her students, certainly demands a virtuosity not hitherto commonly expected of the non-pedal harpist. O’Farrell remarked, however, that composition for the Irish harp is an area to which she has devoted

111

O’Farrell, Anne-Marie: ‘Expanding the Repertoire’, Sounding Strings No.9 (West Lothian, Spring 1996), 29. 112 Ibid. 113 For example, she has collaborated with the composers Paul Hayes, Donal Hurley and Fergus Johnston in works for mezzo soprano, non-pedal harp and electronics, in a concert featuring electro-acoustic music (see O’Farrell, AnneMarie: ‘Expanding the Repertoire’, Sounding Strings No.9 (West Lothian, Spring 1996), 30). 114 Printed in Sounding Strings No. 14 (West Lothian, Spring 1998), 40-41.

66

Figure 16: O’Farrell: Prelude for Irish Harp (extract)

67

limited time, preferring to work on transcriptions of the considerable amount of appropriate material already available. O’Farrell has transcribed some works from the pedal harp repertoire, such as John Thomas’s Bugeilio’r Gwenith Gwyn,115 and Felix Godefroid’s Etude de Concert. An example of one of the challenging aspects of transcribing pedal harp repertoire occurs in both of these works, in which the harpist is required to use enharmonics (for example, B flat and A sharp on two adjacent strings) to achieve rapid unison notes. As this is not possible on the Irish harp, O’Farrell’s solution is to play one of the notes in question as a left hand harmonic, as in the opening passage of the former work (♫ 8) (see figure 17).116 O’Farrell’s treatment of the middle section of the Godefroid (figure 18117, bars 2-7) is more complex, the harmonics being played in the left hand either an octave or a 12th below, performed on whichever string is not already ‘in use’. Using harmonics in this way inevitably results in the left hand, in O’Farrell’s words, ‘jumping around madly’, and it is this type of practice, together with numerous lever changes (there are 69 in the Thomas118), that raises the question of whether anything is gained from transcribing these idiomatic pedal harp pieces. She remarked, however: Hand on heart, [they are] not in need of a transcription for Irish harp, but Irish harpists are in need of music to play…I [don’t do] it as a kind of circus trick…I’m simply looking for more music to play. In the writer’s opinion, of more value to the Irish harpist’s repertoire are the transcriptions that benefit from the particular qualities given

115

‘Watching the White Wheat’. Musical extract from O’Farrell, Anne-Marie: The Jig’s Up, (Anne-Marie O’Farrell: CD1903). Notated extract from the sheet music published by Adlais. 117 Notated extract from the sheet music published by Salvi. 118 See liner notes to O’Farrell, Anne-Marie: My Lagan Love (CMR Records: CMCD 1075). 116

68

Figure 17: Thomas: Bugeilio’r Gwenith Gwyn (extract)

69

Figure 18: Godefroid: Etude de Concert (extract)

70

to it by that instrument. For instance, O’Farrell has transcribed much of the Baroque lute and keyboard repertoire for the Irish harp. She particularly favours J.S. Bach, for the following reasons: A lot of Bach’s music is similar in range to the Irish harp, and you could be utterly faithful to the original, and it’s a nice extra that Bach was very much in favour of having his music transcribed for other instruments…Also, the thickness of the strings would be closer to the type of harp which would have been played at the time, and would give, not the same sound, but certainly closer to it than the pedal harp…When pedal harpists play Bach, often they play transcriptions by people like Marcel Grandjany, and they have a very nineteenth-century, big, whooshy flavour, which quite transforms the character…On the Irish harp you can do it more faithfully.

Interestingly, on occasion O’Farrell has found works that are more practicable, in harpistic terms, to transcribe for the Irish harp than the pedal instrument. For instance, the Irish harp has the capacity to sharpen or flatten a string in one octave but not in another, whereas a pedal mechanism causes all the strings of the same note name to alter, throughout the range of the instrument. O’Farrell found this a very desirable attribute of the Irish harp when transcribing Bach’s Italian Concerto for keyboard, whose second movement contains B flats and B naturals played consecutively in different octaves. As the use of levers becomes highly relevant in the playing of music with a complex harmonic language, O’Farrell has developed some innovative techniques in this area which she hopes will eventually become standard. These include multiple lever changes, where two or more levers are changed at the same time with different fingers (either in the same or in opposite directions), the changing of a lever with a knuckle while a finger of the same hand plays a string, and the use of the right hand to change a lever, reaching over the harmonic curve of the harp. O’Farrell used all these techniques in a 71

performance of her own contemporary arrangement of Carolan’s ‘Farewell to Music’, containing much jazz-derived chromatic harmony, at the 2003 Cáirde Na Cruite course. The writer did, however, feel that the considerable amount of visual activity of the hands constantly changing levers distracted somewhat from the music being performed. The impression was given of an instrument being forced into a musical language for which it was never designed. Equally, it could also be argued that the Irish harp in terms of development of lever technique is in its infancy; what appears to be a visually bizarre performance of a piece in today’s terms may in the future be accepted as one which is simply utilizing the standard technique of the instrument. In O’Farrell’s view, the type of non-pedal harp used by players wishing to exploit it as a concert instrument is of extreme importance: ‘You need an Irish harp with a big sound’. This generally implies a harp with greater stature, such as the 38-string119 instrument made by the Italian company Salvi which she plays herself. Furthermore, as the harpist will be using the semitone levers significantly more frequently than in performances of traditional music, she emphasises the need for levers that are easy to use: On different harps the level of comfort is very variable. If you’re practising for a few hours and if you’re at these levers all the time, it becomes a bit of an issue if they’re not comfortable to use, apart from the speed you need during the actual piece. In 1999 she began working as a consultant for Salvi’s non-pedal harp, mainly for the design of the lever mechanism. She explained to the writer how this aspect of Salvi’s design has altered due to her recommendations: What was clever about the Salvi mechanism was they managed to divorce pressure on the string from pressure on the finger, so you could change levers at speed and have multiple lever changes, without 119

This has a further two notes in the treble, and two in the bass, compared to what has become the standard 34-string Irish harp.

72

struggling and pressing against the mechanism… They’ve also revised the ‘paddle’ shape and have little silicone caps on the lever handle, so you have very good grip even when your hands are perspiring in a concert. Caps are coloured as well, so you can find your way around very fast.

The writer would agree with O’Farrell that the lack of suitable material is a problem for the Irish harpist who wishes to pursue a repertoire of art music. She has made significant strides in addressing this issue, and clearly has the musicianship and strength of personality for her views to be influential. However, it must be emphasised that as the only major harp player to hold these aspirations in a generation after the Cáirde Na Cruite founders, she is something of a lone voice. This is a fact that she recognises, and the writer agrees with her conviction that unless more contemporary composers are encouraged to write for the instrument, and unless harpists have more guidance in the skills of arranging suitable music and composing original works, ‘the problem of repertoire in its various elements and its implications for the instrument and its players will remain a serious one’.120

120

O’Farrell, Anne-Marie: ‘Expanding the Repertoire’, Sounding Strings No. 9 (West Lothian, Spring 1996), 30.

73

CHAPTER NINE The emergence of the ‘traditional’ Irish harp In the 1960s the harps used were almost invariably made by Daniel Quinn (see figure 19121), who, at the time, according to Gráinne Yeats, was the sole harp maker in Ireland. The general opinion of these players towards Quinn’s harps is negative. For instance, Janet Harbison (see chapter 11) commented that they were small in sound and only suited to simple vocal accompaniments, and also that they were somewhat fragile. Kathleen Loughnane122 felt that the spacing between the strings was uncomfortably small, and that string tension was too light. They were made of gut, and were constantly breaking and going out of tune. In addition, Máire Ní Chathasaigh (see chapter 10) remembered that the waiting list for Quinn’s harps was often as long as two years. All of these players, and several others,123 were dissatisfied with the scope of the Irish harp repertoire, with its often classically-influenced arrangements, and experimented with the playing of traditional dance tunes. However, any attempt to play this music on Quinn’s harps met with disappointment. They were simply not designed for this repertoire. Clearly there was a demand for a different design of harp. Interestingly, it was a Japanese company, Aoyama, that satisfied this demand. The following account of the origins of Aoyama’s small harp was related by Gráinne Yeats.124Already a pedal harp making company, in the 1950s Aoyama began making small instruments based on the design of the London harp-maker John Morley.125 121

Photograph of Quinn harp from Rimmer, Joan: The Irish Harp (Cork, 1969), 72. One of the tutors at the Cáirde Na Cruite harp course, Loughnane, born in 1949, formed the group Dordan with Dearbhaill Standun and Mary Bergin in 1990. 123 Notably Noreen Donaghue from Dublin, and Patricia Daly from Armagh. 124 The writer was unable to glean any information directly from the Aoyama company. However, Yeats has had a connection with the company due to her tour in Japan in the 1970s, during which Aoyama presented her with one of their Irish harps. 125 Rensch notes that this family business of pedal harp-makers flourished from 1817 to about 1923, at which time John Morley changed its focus, concentrating on ‘pedal harp repair, harp resale and the occasional production of a small nonpedal harp of 30 strings.’ (Rensch, Roslyn: Harps and Harpists, (London, 1989), 216. 122

74

Figure 19: Harp by Daniel Quinn of Dublin

75

During the 1960s Aoyama introduced several significant changes to the design. Nylon strings were introduced instead of gut. The range of the instrument increased to 34 strings, adding a further two notes at the bottom of the instrument, and two at the top. The design of the semitone levers was also changed. In 1962, the American company Lyon and Healy was the first to introduce levers on their small harps that moved up and down, instead of twisting sideways.126 Consequently, lever changes could be made faster and more easily. The idea was copied by Aoyama. In the late 1960s, Aoyama’s harps were introduced to the Irish market. Janet Harbison, who also played classical piano and traditional flute and whistle, described a ‘dramatic visit of three Japanese gentlemen’ to the harp room at Sion Hill convent, where the students and teachers were invited to appraise the prototypes.127 In the interview with the writer she enthused: When the new prototypes were brought over, my father bought one for me immediately…I was thrilled with it. It was far and away the best harp out of any of the harps that I’d ever tried, and was very rewarding in terms of playing the [dance] tunes. They differed from other harps in that they were heavier and stronger, physically and in terms of tone quality. The strings were spaced further apart, and the nylon material gave a brighter, less mellow sound.128 Of great significance also was the addition of the two extra notes in the bass, the C and D two octaves below middle 126

Macmaster, Mary: ‘Harp V, 10(v): “Lever Harps”’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and musicians (London, 2001), 920. 127 Harbison, Janet: ‘Harpists, Harpers or Harpees’, The Crossroads Conference: ‘Tradition and Change in Irish Traditional Music’, Ed. Fintan, Vallely, Hammy Hamilton, Eithne Vallely and Liz Doherty, (Dublin, 1996), 95. 128 From many of the writer’s interviews it emerged that this attribute is generally favoured amongst harpers who play traditional dance music, largely due to the fact that the sound is less likely to be lost when playing with a group of musicians, such as in a session. The writer visited the workshop of Colm O’ Meachair in Dublin on 04.07.03. This harp maker testified to the large number of harp players currently requiring this ‘bright’ tone from their instrument. He now deliberately produces harps to this specification, and achieves the required tone by increasing the string tension. In addition, he uses a particular kind of nylon string called ‘composite’, a material that produces a particularly bright tone.

76

C. This enabled the player to play satisfying left-hand accompaniments to traditional tunes, which are usually in the keys of G and D. The new harp appeared to have a dramatically liberating effect: The much improved sound of the Japanese harp was a boon to me and my harp room colleagues. I was happy to exploit all the new instrumental possibilities, accompany or arrange for my friends and indulge in the vast dance music repertoire which all my traditional musician friends outside school were playing nightly.129 Shortly after Aoyama’s visit to Sion Hill, their Irish harp became available at McCullagh Pigott’s music shop in Dublin. Máire Ní Chathasaigh of Cork, at the time aged approximately thirteen, also obtained a model. In the interview with the writer she also attested to the revolutionary effect of the Japanese instrument. She is convinced that: If that instrument hadn’t been there, I probably wouldn’t have pursued it. Sometimes the technical means to do something has to be there before it sparks an artistic response. Otherwise, I probably would have directed my artistic energies into some other instrument completely.

In the early 1970s Irish traditional music was being influenced by the energy of the American folk music revival, exemplified by Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. This contributed to the emergence of what became known as the Irish ‘supergroups’, notably ‘Planxty’, ‘The Bothy Band’ and ‘De Dannan’. ‘Planxty’, the first of these, began the vogue for playing other stringed instruments not hitherto perceived as traditional by mainstream Irish musicians. On their second album, The Well Below the Valley, produced in 1973, the bouzouki and mandolin were introduced for the first time in Irish traditional music. The bouzouki blends well with the pipes, the two instruments 129

Harbison, Janet: ‘Harpists, Harpers or Harpees’, The Crossroads Conference: ‘Tradition and Change in Irish Traditional Music’, Ed. Fintan, Vallely, Hammy Hamilton, Eithne Vallely and Liz Doherty, (Dublin, 1996), 96.

77

playing in unison many times on this recording, for instance in ‘The Fisherman’s Hornpipe’ (♫ 9).130 Both the mandolin and bouzouki contribute to an exotic flavour in ‘The Well Below the Valley’ (♫ 10).131 The album undoubtedly encouraged harpers in the 1970s, in a sense giving them ‘permission’ to explore the potential of yet another stringed instrument as a vehicle for Irish traditional music. In addition to ‘Planxty’, the influence of the Breton harper Alan Stivell in the 1970s should not be underestimated. Though a performer of the wire-strung harp and instigator of an awakening of interest in that instrument in the 1970s, he was also inspirational to many gut-strung harpers and other musicians. Performing with a rock-based band in tours of Europe and America, and using the harp in a solo and group context, where it had hitherto mainly been used only to accompany the voice in solo singing in a completely different musical genre, he created an awareness of the harp amongst young people, many of whom may have not seen a harp before.132 On his album The Rennaissance of the Celtic Harp,133 there is a medley entitled ‘Gaeltacht’, described by Stivell as ‘folk themes, dedicated to Sean O’Riada’, which includes various Irish and Scottish dance tunes performed on the harp. Unfortunately, his renditions of the tunes are rhythmically uneven, stilted, mechanical and lacking in style, for example the Irish jig ‘Port Ui Mhuirgheasa’ (♫ 11).134 However, Stivell’s willingness to experiment undoubtedly encouraged other harpers who were attempting to push the boundaries of the instrument.

130

From ‘Planxty’: The Well below the Valley (Shanachie Records: SH 79010). Ibid. 132 Macmaster, Mary: ‘Harp V, 10(i): “The Celtic Revival”’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and musicians (London, 2001), 925. 133 First released in 1971, in 1973 the album was nominated in the USA for a Grammy Award for the ‘Best Ethnic or Traditional Rock Recording’. 134 From Stivell, Alan: Renaissance of the Celtic Harp (Philips: 818 007-2). 131

78

CHAPTER 10 Style and technique: Máire Ní Chathasaigh Born in Cork in1956, Ní Chathasaigh began the Irish harp at the age of 11, at that time already playing the piano, fiddle and singing. Dissatisfied with the available repertoire of the harp, she began experimenting with the playing of dance tunes on the instrument, leading to successes in many competitions in the 1970s and early 1980s. In contrast to Alan Stivell, Ní Chathasaigh aimed to create, as it were, an authentically traditional style. She wished to ‘re-integrate the harp into the oral tradition- to make it sound like it had always been used in that way’. Born into a family of singers, growing up bilingually in an area of Ireland strong in traditional music, by the time she began the harp the stylistic elements of the genre were deeply ingrained. Her years spent developing techniques appropriate to the instrument, within the language of the Irish music tradition, culminated in her first solo recording in 1985: The New Strung Harp. Though other harp players were exploring the potential of the instrument in similar ways throughout the 1970s, this recording was the first of its kind. By this time her techniques were fairly well developed and thought out, and the recording provided an inspiration to many. At present living in Yorkshire, her musical activities are generally performance related, with worldwide concert tours in collaboration with the guitarist Chris Newman. Her main teaching commitment is at the Cáirde Na Cruite annual harp course, where she is tutor for the advanced class. The writer is choosing to focus a chapter on the style and technique of this particular harp player because of her high level of virtuosity, and her considerable influence on young traditional harp players, especially in terms of her recordings and published arrangements.

79

Two of the tunes on Ní Chathasaigh’s recording The New Strung Harp had appeared on ‘Planxty’’s The Well Below the Valley, the four-part jig ‘The Humours of Ballyloughlin’, referred to above, and ‘The Fisherman’s Hornpipe’, testament to that album’s influence. The writer found it interesting to compare the two versions of the former tune on each album, to ascertain how Ní Chathasaigh has chosen to interpret the music on the harp. Piper Liam O’Flynn’s highly ornamented playing with abundant cuts, rolls and crans135 is flowing, yet rhythmically pronounced (♫ 12) (see transcription, figure 20).136 A legato effect is difficult to produce on the gut or nylon strung harp, owing to the fact that from the moment a note is articulated, the sound begins to decay. Therefore, this highly decorated piping style would be inappropriate on the harp and would result in a confused, cluttered and unrhythmical melodic line. The ornaments are therefore much sparser in Ní Chathasaigh’s version (♫ 13) (see transcription, figure 21).137 A type of roll known as a ‘triplet roll’138 in bars 6 and 8 has replaced the more complicated cut-and-tip roll and cran of the piping version. All the ornaments are played very lightly, at times almost inaudibly, so as not to detract from the main melody notes. In the repeat of the first section of the tune Ní Chathasaigh introduces variations in the ornamentation and the melody, a feature highly idiomatic of traditional dance music (♫ 14) (see figure 22). 135

Musical ornaments intrinsic to Irish traditional music. A ‘cut’ is an upper grace note played very lightly and quickly before the main melody note. Similar to this is a ‘tip’, which uses a lower note as the grace note. This is much less common and is generally only used in fiddle playing. A ‘roll’ consists of a note being ornamented in the following way: the main note, a cut, the main note again, a tip, and finally the main note again, all in rapid succession (see bar 6 of the pipes transcription above). It may occur at the beginning of a shorter note, or towards the end of a longer note. A ‘cran’ is a note ornamented by two or more cuts (see pipes transcription in figure 22, bars 2, 7 and 8) and is idiomatic to pipe music, though some players have introduced it on the flute and whistle. It usually occurs on the bottom note of the chanter (D), to add colour to the note, on which it is impossible to perform a roll in the usual way. 136 From ‘Planxty’: The Well below the Valley (Shanachie Records: SH 79010). 137 From Ní Chathasaigh, Máire: The New Strung Harp (Temple Records: COMD 2019). 138 This is not to be confused with the triplet of conventional notation, in which all three notes have equal value. In traditional music the meaning of a triplet is simply three unison notes played in rapid succession. It is occasionally known as a ‘treble’.

80

Figure 20: Transcription of the first section of ‘The Humours of Ballyloughlin’, played by piper Liam O’Flynn

Figure 21: Transcription of the first section of ‘The Humours of Ballyloughlin’, played by Máire Ní Chathasaigh

Figure 22: Transcription of Máire Ní Chathasaigh’s performance of the repeat of the first section of ‘The Humours of Ballyloughlin’, with variations indicated

81

The variations occur in bars 1, 3,5,6 and 7. The melodic variation in bar 6 is particularly interesting, and acts as a focal point. It is a kind of ornament which is particularly idiomatic to fiddle-playing139 (though it also occurs in O’Flynn’s piping version), in which the note which would normally be accented at the beginning of the bar is delayed by placing the emphasis on the note below. The arrangement of the tune is uncomplicated, in accordance with the Irish traditional dance music practice in which the melody has prime importance. The left hand almost entirely throughout imitates the pipe drone, except in the third part of the jig (♫ 15) where the simple harmony reflects the use of the regulators in the corresponding part of the piping version (♫ 16). Ní Chathasaigh plays the four-part jig twice on the recording, and the result is a convincing and imaginative performance. However, because the whole is virtually at the same dynamic level, the rhythm, and what is often known as the ‘lift’ in Irish traditional dance music, are not always maintained (♫ 17). Although dynamics in traditional music are not used in the same way as in western art music, where they define whole phrases,140 the use of accents within the bar is quite common. These are much more pronounced in Ní Chathasaigh’s later performances, for example in the jig ‘Paddy Whack’ from her most recent recording Dialogues,141 in collaboration with the guitarist Chris Newman (♫ 18). This treatment of the tune greatly facilitates the flow of the music and gives it more meaning. In Ní Chathasaigh’s advanced harp class at the Cáirde Na Cruite festival attended by the writer, she put great emphasis on achieving this aspect of musical style in the reel ‘The Pullet’. She described 139

Source: interview with harper and fiddle player Fionnuala Rooney (see chapter 15). 140 See Carson, Ciarán: Pocket Guide to Irish Traditional Music (Belfast, 1986), 10-11, and Breathnach, Breandán: Folk Music and Dances of Ireland (Cork and Dublin, 1971), 89-90. 141 Ní Chathasaigh, Máire, and Newman, Chris: Dialogues (Old Bridge Music OBMCD14).

82

what she wanted to hear from her students as a ‘shifting, rolling effect in the rhythm’, using accents on certain notes to take the emphasis off the melodic ornamentation, which should be played very lightly. The students were working from Ní Chathasaigh’s own notated arrangement, part of which is given in figure 23,142 with some of her suggested accented notes indicated. The syncopation achieved between the end of the first bar and the beginning of the second, emphasised by the absence of a note in the left hand on the first beat of the second bar, sounded particularly effective. Ní Chathasaigh partly attributes her success when developing ways of playing dance music on the harp, to the fact that she had very clear artistic ideas about what she wanted to achieve: You hear a sound in your head and you try to get as close to what you hear in your head…if you’re not clear about it in your head, it’ll never come out in your fingers. However, as a young teenager playing dance music in competitions, she related to the writer that very often she would break down in the middle of a performance, a fact which she now attributes to poor technique: ‘My artistic ideas were far in advance of my technical ability.’ At the age of twenty she embarked on two years of pedal harp training with Denise Kelly at the Cork School of Music, and she believes that this gave her a solid grounding and enabled her playing to have much greater security. In the attached extract of the video Celtic Harpestry,143 her classically influenced technique is evident. The harp is placed high on her shoulder, the thumb is high and 142

Source: NíChathasaigh, Máire: The Irish Harper, Volume one (Ilkley, 1991), 26. In accordance with common practice for a reel, it is written in common time, but it should be noted that it was actually being played as if in 12/8 time, thus:

143

Celtic Harpestry: Live from Lismore Castle, Ireland, Polygram Video 440 079 319-3, 1998.

83

Figure 23: Arr. Ní Chathasaigh: ‘The Pullet’ (extract), with her suggested accented notes indicated

84

articulated fully except when used for ornamentation (see below), and the fingers make contact with the palm after pulling the string. The hands are bent slightly at the wrist, the fingers point downwards and the elbows are extended. While Ní Chathasaigh’s technique is largely derived from the pedal harp, she has modified it somewhat in relation to Irish traditional music ornamentation. As noted above in the extract on technique from Larchet-Cuthbert’s Irish Harp Book, a rounded tone is produced by pulling the fingers into the palm, and by relaxing the thumb onto the side of the index finger after the string has been played. However, Ní Chathasaigh has devised a way of playing a cut in Irish traditional music (invariably played with the thumb) with a technique which she describes as ‘half-action’: The cut serves a rhythmic function in Irish music. It must not ‘jump out’ in a manner which causes it to attract undue attention to itself. A contrast in tone between the cut and the note which is being decorated is necessary in order to create the right effect…the thumb when drawn across does not make contact with the side of the index finger in the usual manner but stops short of it, resulting in the production of a somewhat dead tone. If the finger which plays the note which is being decorated is pulled right back the whole way into the palm, the resultant rich tone will contrast well with that produced by the thumb.144 Not all Irish harp players employ this technique, however. Aine Ní Dhuill, the tutor for pedal and Irish harps at the Royal Irish Academy of music in Dublin, explained that her strong background of classical technique makes it difficult not to fully articulate the thumb. She simply plays the cut more quietly than the note being decorated. However, the writer would agree with Ní Chathasaigh that a ‘halfaction’ produces a note in which the upper harmonics are absent, and this dryer tone, lacking in resonance, has a more authentically traditional sound. After all, a cut performed on a fiddle or flute, for 144

Ní Chathasaigh, Máire: The Irish Harper, Volume one (Ilkley, 1991), 3.

85

example, does not ring out after it has been played. On the harp it is not a question of simply playing the note quieter. Consideration should also be given to tone quality and resonance. The execution of a triplet roll has also come under scrutiny by Ní Chathasaigh. This ornament, a distinguishing feature of Donegal fiddling,145 has also become very idiomatic to traditional dance music played on the harp. A favourite fingering for many contemporary players is 4,3,2,146 performed as a ‘flick’ of the fingers. Ní Chathasaigh favours instead the use of 2,1,2, the damping by the thumb in the middle of the ornamentation resulting in a sound akin to the occasional ‘stuttering’ effect produced by the pipes, for example in the above extract by Liam O’Flynn (figure 20, bar 5). The writer attended a workshop given by Ní Chathasaigh at Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester to pedal harp students, with the aim of introducing them to a different harp tradition. They were advanced students who were unfamiliar with the traditional Irish music idiom. All of them had great difficulty in the correct stylistic execution of a cut, and considerable time was spent on achieving the difference in tone quality and dynamic between the cut and the note being decorated, as described above, in the tune ‘Walsh’s Hornpipe’(figure 24147). Similar difficulty was found in achieving the elusive, subtle, almost inaudible qualities of the ornaments in bars 10 and 11 in Ní Chathasaigh’s arrangement of Carolan’s ‘Eleanor Plunkett’(figure 25148). This emphasised to the writer that while a solid grounding in classical technique is recommended by many Irish harp players, it can never serve the needs of the music entirely. Ní Chathasaigh does believe, however, that players should

145

See Breathnach, Breandán: Folk Music and Dances of Ireland (Cork and Dublin, 1971), 92. 146 Fingering on the harp is the same as on the piano, ie. the thumb is represented as 1, forefinger 2 and so on. 147 Extract from Ní Chathasaigh, Máire: The Irish Harper, Volume one (Ilkley, 1991), 8. 148 Extract from Ní Chathasaigh, Máire: The Irish Harper, Volume two (Ilkley, 2001), 38.

86

Figure 24: Arr. Ní Chathasaigh: ‘Walsh’s Hornpipe’

87

Figure 25: Arr. Ní Chathasaigh: Carolan’s ‘Eleanor Plunkett’

88

have a good understanding of correct classical technique before attempting to adapt it.

89

CHAPTER ELEVEN Style and technique: Janet Harbison Harbison was born in Dublin in 1955. In 1966 the Irish harp became the main focus of her interest, leading to successes in major competitions throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, including the Feis Ceoil and the All-Ireland Fleadh. Teaching was also a significant part of her life. She established summer schools for the Irish harp, holding the first in 1982, and also formed Cláirseóirí na hÉireann149 in 1984 in Dublin, for the support of traditional harp players. In the same year she moved to Belfast, developed her teaching in Northern Ireland and continued to visit Dublin once a month for sessions at Cláirseóirí na hÉireann. In 1992 the Belfast Harp Orchestra was founded by Harbison, as a result of the bicentennial celebrations of the Belfast Harp Festival of 1792. It was a group of young, mainly Northern Irish, instrumentalists, singers and dancers, 20 of whom were harp players, with many doubling on other instruments. Their repertoire was varied, and consisted of Harbison’s own arrangements of traditional Irish tunes and songs, together with her own compositions. Massed harps used in this way produce a rich, dramatic sound, as can be heard in the recording of ‘MacAllistrum’s March’ (♫ 19).150 In 1993 Harbison developed an examination system for Irish harp (described in Appendix IV), followed later by a teachers’ course. In early 2003 she moved to Limerick, where she established ‘The Irish Harp Centre’, a base for her extensive regular teaching and summer schools. She still directs a harp ensemble (‘The Irish Harp Orchestra’), though its membership is different from the original Belfast Harp Orchestra, as the musicians in the latter group are now 149

‘The Irish Harpers’ Association’. This was held at the same premises in Dublin as Na Píobairí Uilleann (‘pipers’ club), established for the support, teaching and promotion of the uilleann pipes by Brendan Breathnach in 1968. 150 From ‘The Chieftains’: The Celtic Harp: A Tribute to Edward Bunting with the Belfast Harp Orchestra (RCA Victor: 09026 61490 2). This album received a Grammy Award.

90

in their twenties and early thirties, and many are now established performers and teachers in their own right. Harbison has been chosen by the writer for particular focus in this chapter due to her considerable importance and influence as a teacher, and for developing a distinctive and innovative technique of playing the Irish harp that has been widely adopted by many young players. It was noted above that Janet Harbison began playing dance music on the harp at around the same time as Máire Ní Chathasaigh. However, she developed a style of playing which owes very little, if anything, to classical technique. The tuition she received from Máirín Ní Shé at Sion Hill did not include any technical guidance, though she did gain ample creative encouragement which she believes stood her in good stead, not only in terms of arranging and composing music, but also in daring to question the accepted ‘correct’ classical technique when being applied to Irish traditional music. However, the process by which Harbison arrived at this point of confidently challenging the norm was not a painless one. While a music undergraduate at Trinity College, Dublin, she embarked on a year’s tuition with pedal harpists Catríona Yeats151 and Mercedes Garvey.152 She explained: I had no idea. At this stage I thought the classical technique was the one that was going to teach me everything…I thought I’d better learn how to do it right. [Catríona Yeats] spent a tortured four or five months with me: getting my elbows up, getting my thumbs up, turning my hands from this way [as if holding a paper cup] to that way [thumbs up, fingers down]…I’d say it was a real trial for her…at this stage I thought I was the most appalling player on earth.

151 152

Gráinne Yeats’ daughter. A founder member of Cáirde Na Cruite.

91

Her confidence was restored somewhat under the tuition of Mercedes Garvey, who expressed an interest in the music Harbison was already playing, and suggested that she simply take from the classical technique that which would enhance it. At the end of this year Harbison reached the conclusion that the classical technique had very little, if anything, to offer traditional music: The year taught me two things: number one, that the classical technique does it differently, and number two, no way with the classical technique could you ever hope, or expect, to play traditional music…I made the conscious decision not to go with the new technique that I had learned. She explained the reasoning behind her adamant stance to the writer, as follows. The classical technique requires the harp player’s fingers to be pointing downwards, with collapsed last joints, as shown in figure 26. As already noted, after playing the string the finger is pulled back into the palm of the hand. Harbison believes that these features of the technique, which use muscles and tendons in the arm and only minimally in the fingers, are not appropriate to the playing of traditional music: Everything in traditional music is in fingerwork and in precision, and in finger muscles…To play with collapsed last joints means that there’s no control whatsoever in the musculature in the tip of the finger. Classical technique- the weight is back. You’re pulling, you’re not actually articulating the finger muscles…You can’t get the kind of finesse that you need if you’re pulling your fingers into the back of your hand all the time…the fine articulation that you would require to play ornamentation absolutely does not happen. Using the muscles in the fingers necessitates a completely different hand position and shape to that required by the classical technique.

92

Figure 26: Classical technique hand and finger position

Figure 27: Harbison’s alternative hand and finger position for playing traditional music

93

The difference is most pronounced in the right hand, which normally plays the tune: fingers are curved inwards and the wrist straight, as shown in figure 27.153 Furthermore, because the elbows are not extended, the harp is placed much lower on the shoulder. These different elements of Harbison’s technique can clearly be seen in the attached extract of the video recording Celtic Harpestry.154 It also shows that the same techniques are evident in her students in the Belfast Harp Orchestra. Harbison’s style of playing is more ornamented than Máire Ní Chathasaigh’s, as exemplified by her rendition of the three-part ‘Harling’s Jig’ (♫ 20) (see figure 28).155 This is particularly evident in the third part of the tune, where many quavers falling on a weak beat are preceded with rapid, three-note descending runs. A similar figure, in an ascending version, can be heard in the second part of the tune, bar 2. In this jig, Harbison gives careful attention to very light execution of the ornaments, and to the considered choice of accented melody notes; this ensures that the tune does not remain at one dynamic level throughout. The use of a syncopated left-hand accompaniment adds energy and impetus. These qualities prevent the arrangement from becoming cluttered. However, at times the left hand becomes too prominent and detracts from the melody. There is also a confusing moment towards the end, where the syncopation and melodic variation become over-complicated (♫ 21). In the writer’s opinion, there is an extrovert, even rumbustious quality to Harbison’s style at times, which does not enhance the performance and is often at the expense of clarity and accuracy in

153

The writer’s hand demonstrates the two hand positions in figures 26 and 27. Celtic Harpestry: Live from Lismore Castle, Ireland, Polygram Video 440 079 319-3, 1998. 155 From Harbison, Janet: O’Neill’s Harper (BHO: CD002). 154

94

Figure 28: Transcription of Harbison’s playing of ‘Harling’s Jig’ (extract)

95

the melody. This can be heard in ‘O’Neill’s Cavalcade’ (♫ 22).156 It would be tempting to attribute this to Harbison’s alternative technique. However, by her own admission to the writer, she has not devoted a large amount of time to achieving precision and accuracy in fast tunes, rather having directed her energies to her many teaching and compositional projects. Nevertheless, many successful young performers on the Irish harp today are graduates of Janet Harbison’s teaching, all individuals who have adopted the same distinctive non-classical technique. Gráinne Hambly is an excellent example. A former member of the Belfast Harp Orchestra and now an eminent performer and teacher in her own right, her playing has subtlety, beauty and precision. Her lefthand accompaniments, while imaginative and occasionally syncopated, lend support to, and do not cloud the melody, which always retains prime importance. These qualities can be heard in her performances of ‘The Rectory Reel’ (♫ 23) and ‘Martin Hardiman’s’ (♫ 24).157

156

Ibid. Both from Hambly, Gráinne: Golden Lights and Green Shadows (Klang Welten Records: CD 20019). 157

96

CHAPTER TWELVE The response from the established musical organisations In the 1970s, the early exponents of traditional dance music on the harp inevitably provoked comment. It is interesting to compare the reactions at this time of the two musical establishments referred to previously in the study: Cáirde Na Cruite and Comhaltas. Máire Ní Chathasaigh’s experience at the Pan-Celtic Festival in Killarney in 1971 illustrates one aspect of this. Gráinne Yeats, a founder member of Cáirde Na Cruite, was the adjudicator for the Irish harp competition at the festival. Ní Chathasaigh played her first tentative renditions of dance tunes, and was awarded first prize, despite breaking down in the tunes due to an insecure technique. She recounted: Gráinne was incredibly encouraging of what I was trying to do…I was the first person to do this. That’s why she gave me first prize, because it was new. At this time Ní Chathasaigh was urged to gain a grounding in the classical technique. Having followed this advice, she remarked in the sleeve notes of The New Strung Harp, produced in 1985, that Yeats had provided ‘unfailing kindness, advice and encouragement’. She has been teaching traditional dance music on the Cáirde Na Cruite summer school since its inception in 1986. In her interview she commented: When I was growing up, there were people in Dublin who played the harp,158 but they were completely separate from the oral tradition, which is what I grew up in…they were two different worlds, and they never met. Part of what I wanted to do was to bring them together, to create a bridge.

Janet Harbison, however, spoke to the writer of overt disapproval by the Cáirde Na Cruite at this time. In the light of Ní Chathasaigh’s 158

ie, Cáirde Na Cruite.

97

positive experience, it cannot be assumed that members of the organisation were opposed to the playing of traditional dance music on the Irish harp per se. Indeed, Gráinne Yeats has remarked: I think that anything the Irish harpist wants to play is alright by me. The more you extend your repertoire, the better. And it’s certainly true of the old harpers, that they tried to extend their repertoire, because that was what their patrons wanted. Two other factors were also involved, which eventually resulted in Harbison forging a career and embarking on activities which remain both separate from, and parallel to those of Cáirde Na Cruite to this day. The first factor was Harbison’s refusal to conform to the conventions of the classical technique. In some ways Cáirde Na Cruite’s disapproval of her alternative technique was understandable. They were promoting a technique based on teaching and methodologies employed by harpists for nearly two hundred years. They perhaps perceived it as an arrogance that an individual should wish to advocate such unorthodox methods.159 However the success of Harbison’s students who compete in Fleadhanna, and of so many contemporary young performers and teachers of the Irish harp, all of whom are graduates of Harbison’s methods, speaks for itself. As regards technique, the conclusion reached by the writer is as follows. Janet Harbison’s belief that traditional music cannot be played successfully by anyone using a classical technique, has little basis; there are many harp players who play this genre of music with a classical technique. Máire Ní Chathasaigh is a resounding example. However, the last thirty years have provided evidence that Harbison’s different but considered technique is an eminently valid alternative for the successful playing of traditional music on the Irish harp. Due to her importance and considerable influence as a teacher 159

Indeed, the writer, who has been receiving lessons on the pedal harp for only four years, was instinctively suspicious while researching for this study, of the suggestion that a different technique may be valid.

98

(compared to Ní Chathasaigh who has only seasonal teaching commitments and, indeed, no longer lives in Ireland), it is very likely that Harbison’s methods are the ones which will persist into the next generations of traditional Irish harp players. The other factor which proved contentious with Cáirde Na Cruite was Harbison’s insistence on practising the oral tradition in her teaching. As noted previously, the organisation was founded by individuals having a background of western art music, to whom expanding and publishing a repertoire for an instrument where none had existed was an important objective. Máire Ní Chathasaigh’s practice was and still is, as a tutor on the Cáirde Na Cruite course, to use her own notated arrangements in her teaching. She published two volumes of her own arrangements in 1991 and 2001 respectively, and some of the individual items in her books date from as early as 1974.160 On the other hand, Harbison, although receiving a western art music education and playing the piano to a high standard, wished to play the Irish harp as a traditional instrument, and to play and teach it in accordance with the methods commonly used to teach other traditional instruments. She went a step further, believing that it was insufficient to learn a tune by rote, even by ear. In the interview with the writer she made a comparison with learning a language: It’s all very well to learn pieces of poetry in a foreign language, and go and perform them, and they’re the most convincing pieces of native literature, and the natives will probably understand, but if somebody came up to the performer afterwards, they wouldn’t have a clue, because they wouldn’t be able to speak back in the language. They don’t understand the actual modus operandi of the language. To me, parroting, learning by rote either by ear or notation, is no different. It’s a copy of something else with no understanding.

160

In the preliminary notes to the first volume she states: ‘a number [of these arrangements] have been circulating in manuscript form for quite some time’.

99

There is truth in the fact that the oral tradition is not defined merely by the lack of musical notation. Indeed, the writer has participated in harp workshops that were fully or partly conducted without the use of printed music. Instructions such as ‘put your thumb, second and third fingers on B, A and G. Play the G and the A, but before you play the B with your thumb place your third finger on the C’ were quite common. This was obviously no less learning by rote than if the notation had been used. Indeed, it would have been much clearer and more helpful if one had had access to the printed music, on which fingering and placing brackets were marked. There is also a danger that an over-reliance on learning a tune in sections according to the placing of fingers will result in unevenness of phrasing and rhythm. It is part of harp technique (both classical and that taught by Janet Harbison) that fingers should be placed and prepared on the strings in groups, not individually. In an ascending passage, a finger is often passed under the thumb, and the whole hand is then moved up ready to place the fingers in a group again. The same principle applies to a descending passage, where the thumb passes over the fingers. It is inevitable that this passing under with the finger or over with the thumb will not always coincide with the beginning of a phrase or group of notes. It is vital therefore that this action must be carried out as smoothly as possible, and the harp player must gain a sense of the whole phrase. The visual notated representation of the musical phrase may help in this, as will having an internal knowledge of the tune before attempting to play it. As Máire Ní Chathasaigh remarked to the writer: ‘If you can’t hear it in your head, it won’t come out in your hands’. Janet Harbison makes a valid point in stressing the importance of learning the ‘language’ of the music in the teaching of any traditional instrument. Several well-known performers, including Alan Stivell, may play technically accurate renditions of Irish tunes, but with a lack of real understanding of the musical language, and the result is shallow and characterless. Furthermore, even assuming the harp 100

player is of a good standard both technically and in terms of musicianship, this does not guarantee that he or she will be able to perform traditional music well. This was emphasised to the writer at the Cáirde Na Cruite harp course, when a participant, an American professional pedal harpist, asked Máire Ní Chathasaigh, who was teaching the advanced class, to explain the difference between a reel and a hornpipe, which are both notated with the time signature 4/4. Obviously it is not sufficient to state that a reel is faster and hornpipe is played as if in 12/8 time, since slow reels and fast hornpipes exist, and a reel can often share the 12/8 rhythm of a hornpipe. Ní Chathasaigh explained that the hornpipe has an intrinsic character,161 with a rhythm described by as ‘precise’ and ‘four-square’, and that the cadences are often marked with the rhythmic motif:

. The

American harpist remarked after the class that he was still very unclear as to the distinction. The writer would suggest that the difference is difficult to explain in simple terms, but certainly a person who has been immersed in the tradition and who has developed fluency in the musical language, would have an instinctive understanding of the differences in character and style between a reel and a hornpipe. Therefore, it seems that rote learning versus learning the language of the music is the issue, not the use of notation. Providing one uses notation only as a guide, and learns to ornament, vary and arrange the music stylistically and instinctively by oneself, through the gaining of an overall traditional music education, it should not have a detrimental effect on one’s playing. As regards the reaction of Comhaltas to the playing of traditional music on the Irish harp in the 1970s, it is interesting that Máire Ní Chathasaigh and Janet Harbison both testified to considerable support from that organisation. Ní Chathasaigh commented: 161

See also Breathnach, Breandán: Folk Music and Dances of Ireland (Dublin and Cork, 1971), 59-63.

101

I couldn’t have got more attention or encouragement from the Irish music establishment at the time. There was no resistance at all; people were very excited about this new thing…People said they never knew the harp could do that or could sound like that. It opened up the possibilities to them of what a harp could do. The Comhaltas summer school, the Scoil Éigse, began in 1973. In 1976 the Irish harp was taught on the course for the first time, by Máire Ní Chathasaigh. Séamus MacMathuna related the following memory to the writer: I can remember, because I had known Máire Ní Chathasaigh as a young girl, and she was doing wonderful things. I remember the first year the harp was included in the Scoil Éigse. We would normally have recitals at some stage. There wasn’t an expectant hush for the harp, because people hadn’t heard Máire playing. But mind you, once she started! Within that week, a whole lot of young people changed their attitude to the harpers…A whole lot of people just accepted it straight away. There were things happening on the harp! Comhaltas have a group of young musicians, with the object of promoting Irish traditional music through tours of Ireland, Britain and the USA. The first harp player on a Comhaltas tour was Janet Harbison in 1983, and MacMathuna related to the writer that since then many major harp players have toured with the group, such as Máire Ní Chathasaigh, Michael Rooney and Gráinne Hambly. The acceptance by Comhaltas of the ‘traditional’ Irish harp indicates that though their approach is purist, they are not so much concerned with the type of instrument being played as to the kind of music being played on it, and in the style of the performance.162 As observed by Ciarán Carson:

162

MacMathuna related that the piano accordian and the banjo were going through a similar process of acceptance in the 1970s.

102

There is no such thing as a traditional instrument. An instrument is only the means to an end; in this case, the production of traditional music.163

163

Carson, Ciarán: Pocket Guide to Irish Traditional Music (Belfast, 1986), 11.

103

CHAPTER THIRTEEN A meeting of minds It has been established in this study that significant changes have taken place in world of the Irish harp since Cáirde Na Cruite’s formation in 1960, both in terms of the instrument itself and in its repertoire and manner of performance. This chapter will explore the extent to which values and practices of the principal promoters of the Irish harp have merged in the present day, with particular reference to how these changes have manifested themselves in the summer school attended by the writer. One of Aibhlín McCrann’s main objectives in her 11-year history as organiser of the Cáirde Na Cruite harp course has been to promote the instrument’s status in mainstream Irish traditional music. For example, one evening concert was given by 11 members of the Armagh Pipers’ Club and their sister organisation the Armagh Harpers’ Association, together with the latter’s founder Patricia Daly and the fiddler Gerry O’Connor. This was followed by an informal session in which all these individuals participated, many playing on second or third instruments such as fiddle, flute and whistle. McCrann observed: 18 years ago you wouldn’t have had a night like that here. You wouldn’t have had a night where traditional musicians were prepared to come into town and play, and be part of it. That has been a major turnabout, and that has been engineered deliberately. It has been part of the policy and approach that I take….18 years ago the people who were spearheading the initiative…would have had a different focus, by virtue of the fact that they were the harp players of the ’fifties, ’sixties and early ’seventies, who just had a different style of playing.

It is noteworthy that Cáirde Na Cruite is no longer as fixed in its views regarding technique as it was at the organisation’s inception. Over the last several years, former students of Janet Harbison, now 104

in their twenties, have made themselves very visible through their own performing and teaching activities. In fact three of them, Gráinne Hambly, Laoise Kelly and Fionnuala Rooney, played in evening concerts at the Cáirde Na Cruite course attended by the writer. In addition, students of these individuals, inheriting Janet Harbison’s technique, now participate in the course. Aibhlín McCrann remarked: Different people have evolved their own way of playing the music, and that’s fine….You don’t want to change something if it’s sounding good, if it’s working for them….Why would you try to inhibit something if it’s working?…I don’t think we should be hung up on classical technique for the sake of classical technique; it’s what we can take from that technique which is going to improve our rendition of Irish music…I wouldn’t be dogmatic about it…at the end of the day what we want to get across is the music. On observing the different classes at the harp course, the writer was surprised at the apparent lack of focus on technique at all, and the fact that obviously undesirable practices were not being corrected. For example, the writer observed one girl whose thumb was too low, and the fingers were being placed individually instead of being prepared in advance. However, the writer did subsequently learn that the girl was moved into a less advanced class for the remainder of the course, the tutor, Cormac DeBarra, having been well aware of the problems with the girl’s technique. He also explained to the writer that he is flexible in his teaching, and that if a student is obviously struggling with memorising a tune, for instance, he would temporarily delay addressing problems with technique. Another reason for the priority of tunes over technique, is that nowadays many more students have a regular teacher. In 1986, the year of the first Cáirde Na Cruite summer school, fewer teachers existed, and in many cases Cáirde’s summer school and that provided by Janet Harbison constituted the only week of tuition in a 105

whole year. The maps in figure 29 indicate the main centres of harp tuition in 1986 compared to today.164 In terms of technique, the focus has now changed at the Cáirde Na Cruite course. While it is still considered important (though not necessarily obviously so), the balance is in favour of broadening repertoire and knowledge, playing in an appropriate style and making music together. In the current climate of varying but equally valid techniques, the writer would consider these priorities to be relevant. Cáirde Na Cruite are now also much more flexible in their views regarding the use of notation. It is left to the discretion of individual tutors at the summer school; some use it all the time, some in part, and some not at all. Many students bring tape recorders to aid their memory of the tunes. Aibhlín McCrann expressed a positive view of the use of notated music: I firmly believe that it’s important to cultivate a good ear, but also to read music, because harpers have to arrange their own music. If you want to arrange something that you like the sound of and you want to perpetuate it, you may as well be able to chord it and arrange it, and put something creative together, and write it down. Furthermore, McCrann observed that much printed music for the harp exists in old manuscripts, such as Bunting’s, and that this is another good reason for musical literacy: ‘What is the point in playing the harp if you can’t fit it within the context of appreciation of what the harper’s tradition was? I don’t believe it’s just dance music’.

164

The data on the maps was obtained from: Interviews with Janet Harbison, Aibhlín McCrann, Patricia Daly, Kim Fleming and Fionnuala Rooney. Websites: www.belfastharps.com, www.irishharpcentre.com, www.armaghharpers.com. Maher, Tom: The Harp’s a Wonder (Mullingar, 1991), 107-110.

106

1986

2003

Garvagh Glencolmcille

Belfast

Belfast

Armagh Sligo Keadue

Granard Termonfeckin Mullingar

Monaghan Granard

Nobber

Claremorris

Termonfeckin Mullingar Dublin

Dublin

Castleconnell Wexford

summer schools regular tuition

Figure 29: Maps indicating the numbers of centres for Irish harp tuition in 1986, compared to today

107

In terms of using the oral tradition on the course as advocated by Janet Harbison, that is, learning by language and not merely by rote, there was little evidence. As regards arranging harp tunes as opposed to playing fixed arrangements, there was one workshop for all participants in which some guidelines were given, and another on appropriate harp accompaniment for singing. The writer felt that a specific arranging course for advanced students would have been beneficial. Máire Ní Chathasaigh’s guidance on appropriate stylistic playing in terms of ornamentation and accents was excellent, but generally on the course music was learnt by rote, with or without notation. However, the writer acknowledges that the oral tradition is an ongoing process and a language cannot be learnt in five days. The real benefit of this method of education can only be realized through regular teaching. As reflected in the internet advertisement for the harp course,165 the aim is to offer tuition in all the various strands of the Irish harp tradition, including music of the harpers, dance music, singing to harp accompaniment and the wire strung harp. In reality, the programme of classes and events in such a course will in part inevitably represent the musical tastes of the participants, for example, the lack of a wire-strung harp class, for which there was no demand. However, all tutors are eager to promote music from the harping tradition, despite a general lack of enthusiasm, especially from the younger generation. Patricia Daly, whose daughter participated in the harp course, attested to this outlook: Nearly all my life I avoided playing music out of the harping tradition. I only wanted to play dance music. Now a lot of young harpers coming up are doing exactly the same thing as me: they’re avoiding those. And really, there’s a deep, deep well of beautiful tunes written for the harp, that when they’re nicely arranged can be very, very beautiful. 165

http://www.harp.net/CnaC/CnaCfest.htm, consulted on 15.07.03.

108

Similarly, Tracey Fleming enthused: I think we have to keep the broader picture in mind. Some of the harp music is just incredible music. It has to be played. It’s just crying out to be played. While it is true that these pieces originate in the wire harp tradition, the writer would agree that this instrument need not have exclusive ownership of the repertoire. Modern Irish harp players, and indeed other musicians, should not be denied exposure to this genre of music; a balanced programme of tuition should include it, so that the student will at least be made aware of its existence and have the opportunity to broaden his or her repertoire and knowledge of the history of the Irish harp. Sympathetic arrangements are possible, for example Gráinne Hambly’s version of ‘Celia Connellan’ by the seventeenth century harper-composer Thomas Connellan.166 Hambly has avoided an elaborate, Romantic arrangement, and interest is created in the piece by irregular accenting and phrasing contained within a regular framework of two eight-bar sections (♫ 25). At the Cáirde Na Cruite course, no class existed at any level for the genre inspired by western art music, for example classical arrangements of Irish tunes, transcriptions of art music repertoire as favoured by Anne-Marie O’Farrell, or contemporary pieces such as T. C. Kelly’s ‘Interlude’ (figure 15). Informal conversations with adult participants, however, did reveal an interest in this kind of repertoire, and the lack of classes suggests that Cáirde Na Cruite does not wish to promote it. If this is so, it is another indication of the significant change in the values of the organisation since its formation in 1960. The writer would suggest that an evaluation questionnaire at the end of the week for participants to give their views about this or other aspects of the course, may be something for Cáirde Na Cruite to consider in the future.

166

From the recording Hambly, Gráinne: Golden Lights and Green Shadows (Klang Welten: CD 20019). The liner notes state that this piece was notated by Bunting at the Belfast Harp Festival in 1792 and published as a piano arrangement in his 1840 collection.

109

A low demand for singing with harp accompaniment resulted in only five students receiving individual lessons from Gráinne Yeats. Yeats’ interest lies both in songs from the harping tradition such as ‘Sgarúint na gCompánach’167 by Carolan, and in songs from the Séan-Nos168 tradition with harp accompaniment. She expressed her disappointment to the writer that the upsurge in interest in the playing of dance music on the harp has resulted in these songs being neglected. However, she believes the current state of affairs regarding musical tastes to be a fashion, and that ‘the pendulum will swing back again, and people will sing to the harp’.

Similarly, Séamus MacMathuna from Comhaltas regrets the current unpopularity of Gaelic singing. He acknowledges that Séan-Nos is an unaccompanied tradition, but would nevertheless have no objection to harp accompaniment for these songs if it would encourage more people to sing and listen to them. This can be heard to excellent effect in the singing of Seosaimhín Ní Bheaglaoich, the Kerry Séan-Nos singer, in the performance of the love song ‘Bean Dubh an Ghleanna’, with sympathetic and understated arpeggio harp accompaniment from Janet Harbison (♫ 26).169 The most important fact discovered by the writer, however, is that the course reflects a significant interest in the playing of traditional dance music by the younger generation. It was taught from intermediate level upwards, and six out of seven advanced students on the course were young ‘tune players’.170 This is a telling indication of the current direction of the pendulum, and a possible glimpse into the future for the instrument.

167

‘The Parting of Friends’. Literally translated as ‘old style’, a form of unaccompanied singing in the Irish language. 169 From Ní Bheaglaoich, Seosaimhín: Taobh na Gréine/Under the Sun (Gael-Linn CEFCD 170). 170 This is a term often used by harp players to signify those whose main interest is in playing traditional dance music. 168

110

CHAPTER FOURTEEN Promotion by Comhaltas The fact that the Irish harp has been taught on the Scoil Éigse since 1976, and also on a regular basis at several Comhaltas branches, has already been noted. While a dramatic increase in harp activities in the last 20 years is obvious, it is important to view this in perspective, in the context of the status of the more established traditional instruments. The fiddle provides a useful comparison, having been used to play dance music in Ireland since at least the eighteenth century,171 and its current status as the mainstay of Irish traditional music was emphasised to the writer by the fact that it was by far the most commonly played instrument in all of the nine pub sessions attended when researching this study.172 Séamus MacMathuna provided the writer with approximate figures relating to the numbers attending the Scoil Éigse. At present about 600 pupils participate overall, with an average of only 20 Irish harp students (about 3.5%). This is in marked contrast to the fiddle classes, which usually attract about 150 participants (about 25%). MacMathuna believes this to be indicative of the overall numbers learning the Irish harp compared to other traditional instruments at Comhaltas branches throughout Ireland. As regards the competitions at the Fleadh Cheoil Na hÉireann,173 the difference in numbers between the harp and other instruments is not so marked. For instance, the total number competing in each of the four age groups for the harp in 2003 was 48, while the number for fiddle was 56.174 The list of entrants for each competition consists of the first and second place prizewinners from regional Fleadhanna in 171

Breathnach, Breandán: Folk Music and Dances of Ireland (Cork and Dublin, 1971), 80. 172 Three of the sessions were at the Ulster Fleadh in Warrenpoint, Co. Down, 26.07.03, and the remaining six were at the Traditional Irish Music Weekend in Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, 01.08.03. 173 All-Ireland Fleadh. 174 Source: Programme of the 2003 Fleadh Cheoil Na hÉireann (Dublin, 2003).

111

Ireland and abroad (mainly Britain and the USA). While it is important that the harp competitions have reached near full capacity,175 the significance of this fact should not be exaggerated, as the figures do not take into account the numbers competing at regional and provincial level. Statistics of relevance are scarce, but the number of competitors for harp at the 2003 Ulster Fleadh, attended by the writer was 22, compared to 65 for fiddle. In addition, this does not take into account the separate class for fiddle slow air. In view of Séamus MacMathuna’s comments regarding the relative numbers of harp pupils to more established traditional instruments, it can generally be assumed that competitors for the latter are significantly more numerous at provincial and regional Fleadhanna, and that therefore competition is much fiercer. There is no recognition by Comhaltas of the broader repertoire of the Irish harper in terms of historical harp tunes, in the Fleadhanna. The requirements are the same as for other instruments, that is, to play from the following list (depending on age group): a jig, a reel, a hornpipe and a slow air; the instrument’s broader repertoire is not acknowledged. No competitive classes exist either for the Irish harp’s role as an accompanying instrument, either for the voice or as part of an ensemble. Furthermore, Janet Harbison claims that in her experience, competitors do not generally receive credit for the quality of original harmonic arrangements (obviously an issue which does not concern most other instruments), and suggests that adjudicators are more concerned with a polished performance. The same problems exist concerning the Comhaltas syllabus of traditional music examinations. The organisation has granted ‘traditional’ status to the Irish harp, in that it can follow the same syllabus as, say, the fiddle or flute, but it has failed to acknowledge the qualities particular to that instrument in regard to repertoire and ability to produce harmonic arrangements.

175

Janet Harbison related that when she competed in the 1970s, there were very few entrants per class.

112

Other Comhaltas activities which involve the harp include performances by the traditional music entertainment group ‘Brú Ború’,176 and the group of young touring musicians previously mentioned. The profile of the instrument in these ensembles is somewhat paradoxical. For example, the writer attended a concert given by ‘Brú Ború’ in August, 2002. The harp player was placed on a raised platform in the middle of the stage, surrounded by the other musicians, as illustrated in a promotional leaflet (figure 30). In terms of appearance, the instrument therefore seemed to have considerable importance. On the front of another leaflet a photograph of a harp has been chosen to represent the group (see figure 31). However, as regards the music played, the harp clearly receded into the background. Its primary function was to produce chordal accompaniment to the tunes being played, but even that could hardly be heard. The writer’s impression was that the harp’s function was a purely visual one. As regards the music played by the group of young musicians on Comhaltas tours, the evidence provided by the cassette tape produced as a result of their North American Tour in 2000 suggests a similar role for the harp. It has a high visual profile, in that a photograph of Róisín Hambly177 is used for the front of the liner to represent the whole group (see figure 32). As regards the music on the tape, however, the harp’s role is decidedly subsidiary, with the exception of one solo item. Nowhere on the tape does the harp play the tune when it is part of a group. Unlike in ‘Brú Ború’ though, some effort is made on this recording to allow chordal accompaniments to be heard. They are quite often imaginative in terms of syncopated rhythm and the choice of harmony, but unfortunately the harp is slightly out of tune with the other

176

This group performs in concerts of instrumental music, song and dance in a purpose-built theatre in Cashel, Co. Tipperary, mainly for the tourist market. The musicians also tour worldwide. 177 Gráinne Hambly’s younger sister, and a student of Janet Harbison. She was the winner of the 15-18 age group in the harp solo class of the All-Ireland Fleadh in 1998, and at the time of the Comhaltas tour recording was aged 17.

113

Figure 30: Front of ‘Brú Ború’’s promotional leaflet

Figure 31: Photograph from ‘Brú Ború’’s promotional leaflet

Figure 32: Photograph from the front of the Comhaltas tour (2000) cassette tape

114

instruments, for example in the reel ‘The Steeplechase’ (♫ 27)178, where it is used to accompany the fiddle and accordian. This serves to highlight an important problem that relates more to the harp than any other traditional instrument: considerable time and effort is needed to ensure it is not only in tune with itself but also with the rest of the group. For the single solo item on the tape, it is significant that a dance tune is used to represent the harp’s modern-day contribution to Irish music. In the jig ‘The Gold Ring’, Hambly incorporates features intrinsic to the genre that would be employed on other traditional instruments, for example cuts, triplet rolls and melodic variation, in a lively and rhythmic performance (♫ 28).179 Moreover, the accented chords in the left hand are well placed, and are never obtrusive. In the interview with the writer, Séamus MacMathuna remarked that until the 1970s Comhaltas did not recognise the harp’s status as a traditional instrument, and merely paid lip-service to it. From the writer’s observations, however, this would in many ways appear to be still the case. The playing of dance music is encouraged, but only to a point, as its function is to provide accompaniment when part of an ensemble. Moreover, the repertoire of historical harp tunes is ignored, as is the instrument’s role in vocal accompaniment. At present Comhaltas would seem to be more interested in the Irish harp in terms of its use as an emblem and in providing visual impact, than in its musical possibilities. This perception of the instrument has echoes of the nineteenth century, when its relevance as a symbol was greater than its importance as a musical instrument.

178

From Comhaltas Tour Group: We are the Musicmakers (Comhaltas Ceóiltoirí Éireann: CL-56). 179 Ibid.

115

CHAPTER FIFTEEN How valid is the Irish harp as a traditional instrument? Ciarán Carson is disparaging of the Irish harp’s appropriation of ‘traditional’ status: The harp is not regarded as a traditional instrument by traditional musicians; it was hardly a folk instrument anyway, since in its heyday it depended on an elaborate system of patronage.180 Furthermore, he is remarkably dismissive of the many modern harp players who perform dance music, alleging that the result is ‘“confused and disordered” to many ears’. This phrase is a quotation of the twelfth-century commentator Giraldus Cambrensis181 who applied it to the way in which the uneducated heard the music played by the harpers. The writer is unclear as to the reason Carson uses this phrase to describe dance music played on the harp today, as his implication seems to be that it is ‘confused and disordered’ per se, regardless of the musicality of the listener. However, he concludes the section on the harp with the following remark: If the harp is a symbol of Ireland, it is an Ireland that finds itself uncomfortably balancing between two stools. One of Carson’s main objections to the modern gut-strung Irish harp is that its players have ‘invented’ a tradition which bears no relation to the historical wire-strung instrument. The writer would counter this argument on the grounds that every tradition begins somewhere, even that of the oldest instruments. Admittedly, however, there are some problems faced by harp players choosing to follow the ‘traditional’ path, and this chapter will seek explore these and to discover the validity of the Irish harp as a traditional instrument.

180

Carson, Ciarán: Pocket Guide to Irish Traditional Music (Belfast, 1986), 37. The full passage of Cambrensis’ writings on the Irish harp is quoted on page 35 in the above book. 181

116

Two ways in which the Irish harp differs from most other traditional instruments were highlighted by Patricia Daly. They are concerned with the physical nature of the instrument itself and the implications of its playing technique. Firstly, Daly argues that not every tune is suitable for the harp, particularly those containing wide intervals. Certainly, the intervals in some tunes would cause the hand to ‘jump’, thereby interrupting the flow of the music, for example in the jig ‘Father Dollard’s Favorite (figure 33182). ‘Garret Barry’s Jig’ (figure 34183) is an example of a tune which lies more comfortably under the fingers. However, in the writer’s opinion it is difficult to find a tune in which the problem cannot be solved, either by considering different fingering and placing combinations, or by simply altering the group of notes, for instance by playing them in a different octave. This is perfectly acceptable practice, and one that is followed by other traditional musicians, for instance by a flute or whistle player performing a tune that contains notes below the range of their instrument. The other difference between the Irish harp and most other traditional instruments, as noted by Patricia Daly, is the fact that the former does not lend itself easily to spontaneous ornamentation and variation. This is because of the particular technique in harp playing of preparing fingers in advance on the strings, which makes it necessary, not merely to consider the ornament or variation on its own, but also the fingering of the notes leading into or out of the decoration. This requires a little more ‘thinking ahead’ than with most other instruments, as Daly describes: You really need to work out a bag of ornamentation or variations, so you can pull an ornament or variation out that has a fingering system sorted, set that into your tune and rearrange the fingering leading into and out of it. It’s like ‘cut and paste’, you know!…Other instruments just flow into it, but 182

From ed. Capt. Francis O’Neill: O’ Neill’s Music of Ireland (Pacific, date unknown), Mel Bay Publications, 140 (facsimile of original 1903 edition). 183 Arr. Fleming, Kim: ‘Garret Barry’s Jig’, Sounding Harps, book three (Dublin, 1994), 21.

117

Figure 33: ‘Father Dollard’s Favorite’

Figure 34: Arr. Kim Fleming: ‘Garret Barry’s Jig’

118

with the harp you have to prepare in advance and then have them stored in your mind.

The other differences between the Irish harp and other instruments are largely connected with the way in which it is perceived, by both musicians (whether harp players or not), and non-musicians. The instrument has always had a rarefied image, due firstly to its aristocratic place in society historically, but also, more recently and perhaps more relevantly, because of its portrayal by the ‘celebrity’ convent harpists such as Mary O’Hara who achieved veritable iconic status, and the subsequent efforts of the early Cáirde Na Cruite to raise the intellectual and cultural importance of the Irish harp. To a degree the traditional Irish harp player has had to struggle against the perception of the instrument as being different or in some way special, and because of this it has often been sidelined. Though Comhaltas has promoted the instrument somewhat, it could also be argued that their treatment of the harp as described above, in exploiting its visual impact at the expense of the music actually played on it, contributes to the problem, and hinders its development and acceptance by the general body of traditional musicians. One obvious aspect that immediately sets the Irish harp apart from other traditional instruments is the simple fact that the majority of its players are female. As has already been noted, the feminine image was already in place over 100 years ago as a result of the harp’s role in the nineteenth-century drawing room, and it was certainly consolidated throughout the twentieth century by the instrument’s promotion by convent schools. Equally, Irish traditional music generally has historically been male-dominated, with relatively few female players coming to the fore for most of the twentieth century. Even today the writer would suggest that a greater recognition is

119

given to male traditional musicians, particularly by the older generation.184 Clearly, for today’s traditional Irish harper there are many years of accumulated attitudes, beliefs and practices to contend with, not least in terms of gender. The fact that the instrument is perceived to be ‘feminine’ undoubtedly raises issues of acceptance and recognition by the general body of traditional musicians. Male harpers may carve their niche in the Irish music establishment with greater ease, but boys are less likely to be inclined or encouraged to begin learning the instrument from the outset, unless other harp players exist in the family. This was the case with Cormac De Barra, who is now a respected and successful performer and teacher.185 However, in the interview with the writer he admitted that despite encouragement from his family, while at school he kept the fact that he played the harp a secret, due to fears of taunting by peers. The writer would suggest that determination and strength of personality are especially important attributes for the male harp player today. These qualities were evident in 15-year-old Fearghal McCarton, interviewed at the Cáirde Na Cruite course. His dedication to playing the harp is remarkable. Living in Newcastle, co. Down, he travels to harp lessons from Gráinne Hambly, in Claremorris, Co. Mayo, a distance of about 175 miles, staying in youth hostels. This has occurred every school holiday and long weekend for the past year, the time between spent regularly practising, with the assistance of previously tape-recorded lessons. The high standard of his playing after only five years of learning the 184

For example, when the writer initially contacted Séamus MacMathuna by telephone in order to arrange an interview, he mentioned the names of two harpplayers who he suggested should also be interviewed. It was very interesting that despite the fact that the majority of the most important and influential harp players today are female, the harp players whose name MacMathuna gave were male: Michael Rooney and Cormac De Barra. 185 De Barra was born in 1972, into a family of traditional and classical musicians, including harp players. He was taught by his grandmother Róisín NíShe, and for about the last ten years has played dance music due to the influence of Janet Harbison and her students, and Máire Ní Chathasaigh. A former Feis Ceoil winner, he, and was the adjudicator for the Irish harp competitions at the Ulster Fleadh attended by the writer.

120

harp, with mostly irregular or non-existent tuition, is evidence of his strong self-motivation. This is demonstrated in the writer’s recording of a performance of his own arrangement of the reel The Mason’s Apron (♫ 29), which has flair and sparkle. Ornaments are mostly well-executed, and attention to detail in terms of variation is also observed. McCarton’s single-mindedness is also evident in his dismissive, almost defiant attitude towards ridicule from peers, as shown by the following remark: It doesn’t bother me at all. Some of them laugh at me a bit, but then when they hear me playing the harp they’re like ‘Oh, gosh, he CAN play! I never knew he was that good’. So then they just give over and don’t bother me again.

As well as matters of gender, the Irish harp also raises issues of social class. The instrument tends to be associated with the higher socio-economic groups, simply because of its expense. This may contribute to an alienation from other traditional players, as historically Irish traditional music has been associated with rural areas, for instance small farming communities.186 Janet Harbison has made efforts to improve the accessibility of the Irish harp by raising money, for instance at Cláirseóirí na hÉireann sessions, to purchase harps for the use of those who cannot afford to buy their own. This kind of excellent initiative is, unfortunately, rare, and Irish harp playing does still remain a largely middle-class phenomenon. Some light was shed on the issue of acceptance of the Irish harper by the general body of traditional musicians, in an interview with Monaghan harp player Fionnuala Rooney, representative of the latest generation of harp players in this genre. Born in 1980, she was taught initially by her older brother Michael Rooney, now an established and successful traditional musician in his own right. Both 186

However, as Aibhlín McCrann observed in the interview with the writer, this is less the case today, since in urban areas especially, it has become fashionable for the middle classes to seek to discover their ‘roots’ and search for a cultural identity.

121

are former students of Janet Harbison. Fionnuala Rooney is now a promising young performer and teacher, having received a masters degree in traditional music performance at the University of Limerick, and achieved first place in the recent (2003) All-Ireland Fleadh Irish harp competition. She explained how she began learning the Irish harp at the age of seven: It was just another instrument, d’you know? At that stage I was learning the whistle, fiddle, and piano, and it was just like, ‘Here’s your next instrument’. It just seemed like a natural step, because Michael was doing it as well. So it was grand. I just got on with it. She remarked that during the time she was being taught by her brother, he was also playing several other instruments himself. Her younger brother Aonghus subsequently came to the instrument in the same way, viewing it as merely another vehicle for playing traditional music. She explained how her harp playing and general musicianship are enhanced by playing and listening to a variety of instruments: [While at Limerick], two or three of us would play together all the time, a piper and a concertina player. Literally, every day we played tunes. We played in sessions, came into college and taught each other tunes, so I’m hearing so much of the piping ornamentation, and the concertina ornamentation… Fiddle music is definitely the biggest influence in my playing, of all the instruments. I try and phrase tunes as a fiddle player would phrase them, because I feel the harp can get so ‘notey’…and I think it’s dynamics as well. Just subtle dynamics, to give a phrase a feeling, you know? Similarly, Aibhlín McCrann is quite categoric in her opinion of the benefits of playing other instruments: Because it’s so difficult to learn the techniques on the harp I don’t think it’s possible for you to be successful as a harper without playing another traditional instrument. You have an opportunity maybe with more facility, to play tunes and naturally ornament things because they’re in the whistle tunes 122

or they’re in the fiddle tunes, and you really have to work quite hard to get the same effect upon the harp. Technically it’s quite difficult to play a roll or cut. On a whistle it’s quite easy.187 Indeed, the writer would suggest that this all-inclusive approach by harp-players is crucial in helping to dispel the perception of the Irish harp as an elite instrument, or one that sits ‘between two stools’. As Fionnuala Rooney observes: ‘I always try and emphasise this: our family are not harp-players. We play Irish music’. As the session is so central to the life of traditional musicians, another means by which an instrument can establish its ‘traditional’ viability is its potential for being a part of this scenario. There was mixed opinion on this issue by the harp players interviewed. Patricia Daly perceives the harp as a solo instrument or suited to small ensembles, in intimate venues: Harp music I think is geared towards a listening market. The audience comes to listen. If you’re in a session [the sound] is sort of lost a wee bit. It trickles through. Cormac De Barra feels more comfortable playing in a session at home with his family rather than in a pub, due to the size of the instrument and space needed for it, and also the fact that transporting it in a car means that he cannot drink alcohol. Furthermore, he shares Daly’s opinion that the harp cannot be heard above the noise of a busy pub. He did, however, make the observation that harp players who play a variety of instruments, such as Fionnuala Rooney and her brothers, are likely to participate in sessions more often, and to play the harp at some or all of them. Again, this lends support to the argument of multi-instrumentalism dissipating the harp’s elitist image. In a pub session in Warrenpoint during the Ulster Fleadh, Aonghus Rooney was one of three harp players. It was interesting to observe 187

Bell, Alison: ‘Interview: Aibhlín McCrann’, Sounding Strings, No.14 (West Lothian, Spring 1998), 40.

123

their roles within the group, which was quite large (three harps, two fiddles, flute, banjo, pipes, concertina, guitar and bodhran). Two of the harp players generally played a chordal accompaniment to the tunes. However, Aonghus Rooney, the more proficient of the three, almost invariably played the tune, not the accompaniment. Contrary to the writer’s expectations, his playing was quite audible, particularly in the middle range of the instrument, and caused the writer to question the argument that the harp is an unsuitable session instrument due to the quality of its sound. Fionnuala Rooney, who was playing the fiddle at this session, felt considerable frustration due to the balance of instruments being less than ideal, with so many in the group playing accompaniments: I can’t stand a couple of harps at the one time [in a session], or three harps, all doing different things. It becomes more about the fact that there’s a harp there than the tune, that’s meant to be heard. There were a couple of stages where maybe myself and one of the other melody players were playing the tune, and there might have been three people backing, so that doesn’t make any sense…So that’s my attitude: it’s all about the tune. It has to be about the tune. As a result of the dissatisfaction felt, four of the musicians had subsequently moved to a different pub later in the evening: Fionnuala (fiddle), Aonghus (harp), the banjo player and the piper. Fionnuala considers a smaller group in a session to be more desirable, not only because it is more ideal for the harp player, but also because it provides an opportunity for greater musical satisfaction for all concerned: My ideal session is no more than five musicians. I love to see the harp, a fiddle, concertina, pipes, and maybe a button accordian. Maybe a flute. And really slow. Just listening; listening to every note, playing every note. Not rushing on: ‘What’s the next tune? What are we going to play next?’; playing each tune four or five times, and slow.

124

These conditions of Fionnuala Rooney’s ideal session were certainly not encountered by the writer when visiting six different pubs at the Thomastown Traditional Music Festival in Co. Kilkenny, 1st August, 2003. Between seven and twelve musicians were playing in each group, and remarkably, the writer heard no type of tune except reels, which were played very fast. The fact that no harps were seen may lead one simply to assume that no harp players were present at any of the sessions. However, it is of relevance that Aonghus Rooney was in fact a member of one of the groups, but playing the tin whistle. It may be supposed that he chose not to play the harp due to the fact that he considered it inappropriate for this kind of session. In conclusion, there has been a certain amount of progress, largely because of the efforts of individual harp players, in removing the instrument’s elitist image, and carving a niche in the mainstream traditional musician’s world. It should also be observed that this role for the Irish harp, compared to most other traditional instruments, is in its infancy. More time is required for prejudices to be removed, and for the harp to be embraced completely. More effort is needed especially by other traditional musicians, as it were, to ‘meet halfway’, and to recognise the instrument’s many-stranded identity: music of the historical harp tradition, singing with the harp, slow airs, as well as dance music. There is no reason why any of these types of music should not be part of a session. The writer is convinced that by exploring many facets of Irish traditional music, not merely concentrating on the genre of dance music (the reel in particular), and by keeping the group of musicians small enough to encourage more thoughtful and sensitive playing, the traditional musician’s experience will be greatly enhanced. The Irish harp, if it is so allowed, will have an important role in this enrichment.

125

CONCLUSION

The Irish harp was certainly transformed from the beginning of the nineteenth century, in terms of its appearance, sound, manner of playing and social and musical roles. Based on pedal harp design, and influenced by the image and manner of playing of that instrument, its role as a drawing room instrument for genteel ladies became firmly established during this century. Due to the Irish harp’s promotion by convent schools, it retained this image throughout the first half of the twentieth, to become somewhat diluted in the 1950s when it became associated with the tourist cabaret. It has been shown that other significant changes occurred in the 1970s, linked to a traditional music revival, in which musicians were inspired to explore the possibilities of instruments hitherto regarded as ‘untraditional’. Since this time the image of the Irish harp as a traditional instrument, particularly for the playing of dance tunes, has become increasingly relevant. However, while the Irish harp has proved its viability as a traditional instrument, it has many years of stereotyping to overcome. It is still in its infancy, and the acceptance will occur only with the cooperation of other musicians, and also with greater tolerance of differences between harp players and organisations, working together towards the common goal of achieving respect and recognition for the instrument’s many-stranded identity.

126

APPENDIX I: The wire strung harp Categories Rimmer divides the historical wire-strung harp into three categories.188 The first is the medieval ‘small, low-headed Irish harp’.189 An example is the fourteenth-century instrument known as the Trinity College harp. It had 30 brass strings and stands about 28 inches high (Figure 35190). Rimmer refers to the second category as the ‘large, low-headed’ harp, which dates from the early seventeenth century, with strings numbering from 40 to 43.191 The Otway harp is an example (figure 36192). Finally, itinerant harpers in the eighteenth century such as O’Carolan would have used a ‘large, high-headed’ instrument. By now the shape had changed considerably, with the neck dramatically sweeping upwards to meet the top of the pillar. Unlike medieval harps, eighteenth-century wire-strung harps were not elaborately decorated. O’Neill’s harp is representative of this type of instrument (figure 37193).

188

Rimmer, Joan: The Irish Harp, (Cork, 1977). Ibid, 35. 190 Ibid, 32. 191 Ibid, 46, 49, 53-4. 192 Ibid, 50. 193 Ibid, 59. 189

127

Figure 35: Trinity College Harp, fourteenth century (small, lowheaded)

128

Figure 36: Otway Harp, seventeenth century (large, low-headed)

129

Figure 37: O’Neill Harp (large, high-headed)

130

The wire strung harp: decline and preservation From the seventeenth century the wire strung harp began a slow process of decline. There were several reasons for this. The most important was political, with the disintegration of Gaelic society and the onset of anglicisation.194 Thus the harper gradually lost his privileged position, his profession being transformed to that of a travelling musician, patronised by the aristocracy. In addition, the degeneration of the tradition was connected to musical tastes of the time, with the rise of chromaticism and gradual abandonment of the modes.195 Naturally, the diatonically tuned wire strung harp was not designed for music of this style. Experiments to chromaticise the instrument were unsuccessful,196 as any attempt to perform the new, fashionable music resulted in clashing tonalities, due to the long resonance of the wire strings and consequent damping difficulties. The strident sound of the wire strung harp (especially played with the fingernails), in common with other historical instruments, was also falling from favour.197 Towards the end of the eighteenth century an effort was made to revive the dying tradition. In 1792, the Belfast Society for Promoting Knowledge, led by Dr. James MacDonnell, organised a Harp festival in the city. The Society, being ‘solicitous to preserve from oblivion the few fragments [of music] which have been permitted to remain as monuments of the refined taste and genius of their ancestors’,198 employed the young organist Edward Bunting to transcribe the music being performed by the harpers. Although only eleven harpers attended, mostly blind and with an average age of 58,199 only one using fingernails, the event proved to be one of the most significant in the history of Irish music. Bunting’s work at the 1792 Harp Festival, and subsequent visits to participants and rural 194

Sanger, Keith and Kinnaird, Alison: Tree of Strings, (Midlothian, 1992), 153. Billinge, Michael and Shaljean, Bonnie: ‘The Dalway or Fitzgerald Harp (1621)’, Early Music, Vol XV No. 2, (London, May1987), 187. 196 Ibid. 197 Ibid, 184. 198 From a handbill circulated by the Society in Belfast, 1791, quoted in Killen, John: A History of the Linen Hall Library, (Belfast, 1990), 173. 199 Yeats, Gráinne: The Harp of Ireland, (Belfast, 1992), 14. 195

131

singers,200 resulted in three published collections of pieces,201 with arrangements for the piano. The many pieces and songs noted by Bunting which are so familiar to traditional Irish musicians today (not only to harpists), such as ‘An Cúilín’, ‘Brian Ború’s March’, ‘Tabhair dom do lámh’, ‘Eibhlín a Rún’, ‘Roisín Dubh’, ‘Fanny Power’, and ‘Carolan’s Concerto’,202 would probably have disappeared into oblivion, had it not been for his efforts. However, Bunting only transcribed the actual melody lines played by the harpers, not the basses. He then arranged the pieces for the piano, with increasing elaboration and chromatic harmony in each subsequent collection. Bunting has been severely criticised for his treatment of the harpers’ music in several scholarly works.203 In his defence it could be argued that since the harp was in steep decline, the only way to ensure the commercial viability of the publications was to arrange the music for the piano, an instrument attaining great popularity in the drawing rooms of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The ears of the gentry and rising urban classes had absorbed the influences of European art music, and thus Bunting used the chromatic harmonic idiom of the time in his arrangements. His publications are given considerable weight here due to the wealth of material his work has made available to many performers of the Irish harp today, for example Máire Ní Chathasaigh, Derek Bell and Janet Harbison.204 Derek Bell has paid Bunting the following generous tribute: I am most grateful to Bunting for collecting, preserving and saving these wonderful tunes from total extinction; and for at least occasionally trying to write down what the harpers actually played, however fragmentary it all was; and since a little 200

Milligan Fox, Charlotte: Annals of the Irish Harpers, (London, 1911), 212. Bunting, Edward: Ancient Irish Music, (London, 1796), Ancient Music of Ireland, (London, 1809), The Ancient Music of Ireland, (Dublin, 1840). They were reissued in one volume by Walton’s, Dublin, in 1969. 202 Yeats, Gráinne: The Harp of Ireland, (Belfast, 1992), 19, and Maher, Tom: The Harp’s a Wonder, (Mullingar, 1991), 5. 203 For example, Hayward, Richard: The Story of the Irish Harp, (Dublin, 1954). 204 Ní Chathasaigh, Máire and Chris Newman: The Carolan Albums (Old Bridge Music: OBMCD06), The Chieftains: The Celtic Harp- A Tribute to Edward Bunting, with the Belfast Harp Orchestra (RCA Victor 09026 614902). 201

132

intelligence, knowledge and discretion can enable any sensible musician to get rid of Bunting’s musical errors of judgement, I readily forgive him most of these.205

The early nineteenth-century harp societies In the early nineteenth century, three Harp Societies were founded, all of which eventually failed due to difficulty obtaining subscriptions. Their aim was to ‘revive the harp and the ancient music of Ireland’,206 with the additional charitable object of preparing mostly poor and blind children for careers as harpers. The writer believes that wire-strung harps were used in these societies, and a justification for this belief is provided below. The Societies were based in Belfast (1808-13 and 1819-39), Dublin (1809-1812) and Drogheda (1842-48). Edward Bunting was a founding member of and subscriber to the Belfast Societies. Two participants from the Belfast Harp Festival, Arthur O’Neill and Patrick Quin, were the tutors for the first phase of the Belfast Society, and the Dublin Society respectively. Their students undertook this role in the later Belfast and Drogheda societies.207 Scholarship is confused and ambiguous as to whether or not the harps used in these Societies were wire or gut strung. In the little documentation which exists, for example in the minute books of the Belfast Harp Society, there is scant detail on the subject.208 Joan Rimmer suggested that John Egan supplied both kinds.209 Robert Armstrong Bruce alleged that it was only the wire strung instrument,210 and Nancy Hurrell of the Historical Harp Society

205

Quoted in Magee, John: The Heritage of the Harp, (Belfast, 1992), 24. From a Belfast Harp Society handbill, 1819, illustrated in Killen, John: A History of the Linen Hall Library, (Belfast, 1990), 187. 207 Flood, W. H. Grattan: The Story of the Harp, (London, 1905), 147-152. 208 Rimmer: Joan, The Irish Harp, (London, 1980), 67. 209 For example, Flood found that ‘harps were supplied by White, McClenaghan, and McCabe, Of Belfast, at a cost of ten guineas each’. (Flood, W. H. Grattan: The Story of the Harp, (London, 1905), 148). 210 Armstrong, Robert Bruce: The Irish and Highland Harps, (Edinburgh, 1904), 100-107. 206

133

asserts that it was Egan’s gut strung instrument that was used by the second Belfast Harp Society.211 However, the writer believes that it is unlikely that Egan’s gutstrung ‘Portable Harp’ was used at all in any of the Harp Societies. As it was first manufactured in 1819,212 it was naturally not available to the first phase of the Belfast Society and the Dublin Society in any case. Even if gut strung harps had been available before this time, (perhaps trial models made by Egan), they would not have been used as the tutors, O’Neill and Quin, played and taught the wire strung instrument. Admittedly they were not using fingernails, but the technique of playing a gut-strung harp would still have radically deviated from that with which they were familiar. The older, wire-strung models were designed to rest on the left shoulder, not the right, and the shape of the hands was also very different. The fingers were curved and close together to facilitate damping of individual strings, and also to avoid the strings jarring with one another. Egan’s gut strung ‘Portable’ harp required the ‘thumbs up, fingers down’ hand position of the pedal harp, as gut strings have greater tension and less resonance than wire, and therefore require greater ‘leverage’. In addition, as has already been stated, O’Neill and Quin taught their successors who took over their role in the later Societies, and it would logically be expected that techniques appropriate to the wire-strung, not the gut-strung instrument would have been transmitted to them, and indeed to any harper originating from the Societies. Finally, it must be mentioned that although Egan’s wire-strung harps superficially resembled historical models in their basic shape, they were much more lightly constructed, with soundboxes made in

211

Hurrell, Nancy: ‘A Harp from 19th Century Ireland: The Royal Portable Harp by John Egan’, Folk Harp Journal, No.119, (Walton Creek, Spring 2003), 52. 212 Macmaster, Mary: ‘Harp V, 10(i): “The Celtic Revival”’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London, 2001), 924.

134

two pieces like the pedal harp. They are described by Rimmer as ‘nightmare parodies of the old Irish harp’.213

213

Rimmer, Joan: The Irish Harp, (Cork, 1977), 67.

135

APPENDIX II Small harp makers at the turn of the twentieth century There do not appear to be any records of gut-strung Irish harps being manufactured or played for about fifty years after Egan’s ‘Portable’. The famine may have partly contributed to this, and may also have been due to the fact that Lady Morgan, who was largely responsible for promoting the instrument in Ireland, moved to London later in her life, where she died in 1859.214 Sanger and Kinnaird state that small gut-strung harps were made by Morley of London for the Irish market since 1890.215 Flood, writing in 1905, mentions two harp factories in Belfast at this time, and he describes the instruments as ‘really very fine, especially those made by Mr. James McFall’. The advertisement shown in figure 38 appeared in the Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, vol. 1, No. 1. April 1904.216 As stated in the advertisement, McFall made the ‘Tara Harp’ in 1902 for Cardinal Logue (see figure 39217). This harp is somewhat of a hybrid. The shape of the neck resembles Egan’s portable harp, but the upward-sweeping shape of the head is similar to the large highheaded wire strung harp of the eighteenth century. The pillar’s ornate carving is copied from the medieval low-headed harp, while the rounded back is shaped like that on a pedal harp. Complete with elaborate decoration on the soundboard, Rimmer describes the instrument as ‘in all, a charming piece of antiquarian art nouveau’.218 Flood gives a description of a typical ‘modern Irish harp’ at the time of his writing in 1905:

214

Source of biographical information on Lady Morgan: www.db.mcmail.com/owensons.htm 215 Sanger, Keith and Kinnaird, Alison: Tree of Strings, (Midlothian, 1992), 209. 216 Copy of the advertisement supplied to the writer by Simon Chadwick, editor of www.clarsach.net, the website for the wire branch of the Clarsach Society. 217 Photograph from Flood, W. H. Grattan: The Story of the Harp, (London, 1905). 218 Rimmer, Joan: The Irish Harp (Dublin, 1977), 70.

136

Figure 38: Advertisement by MacFall, 1904

137

Figure 39: MacFall ‘Tara Harp’, dated 1902

138

The compass of the Irish harp is about four octaves, from C to G in alt, and the strings are of catgut- the C’s being coloured red, and the F’s blue. It is tuned by fifths and octaves, and the performers can prove the tuning by other consonant intervals. Though mostly tuned in the key of C, some harpists prefer that of E flat [as on Egan’s ‘Portable’ harp]. Each string can be raised a semitone by turning a peg, a quarter turn being sufficient for the purpose, and thus, in the key of G major, it is only necessary to raise the pegs of the F string.219 It can therefore be assumed that the practice of colouring the C and F strings on small harps dates from at least this time, as can the use of ‘pegs’ placed near the top of each string on the left hand side of the neck, which alter the pitch of the note by a semitone when turned. The latter design was invented in Austria in the late seventeenth century, where U-shaped hooks, which could be turned either way, were placed between strings on the neck, usually only about three per octave and usually only in the middle octaves. Unlike the hookharp, however, the Irish harp had a hook for every string, and only turned in one direction. Mention should also be made of gut-strung small harps being made in Scotland around this time, given the mutual influence between the two countries in terms of harp-playing throughout the twentieth century. In 1892 the National Mod, similar to the Feis Ceoil, was established in Scotland. Lord Archibald Campbell wished to encourage the playing of the small harp (known in Scotland as the Clarsach) at the Mod, and commissioned six to be made by Buchanan, a piano dealer in Glasgow. These instruments were similar to the low-headed medieval harps in shape, but had gut strings, rounded backs based on pedal harp design, and semitone blades at the top of each string.220 Melville Clark, a New York harp maker, marketed his ‘Irish Harp’ from 1912, and the design was very influential on subsequent makers 219 220

Flood, W. H. Grattan: The Story of the Harp (London, 1905), 153-4. Sanger, Keith and Kinnaird, Alison: Tree of Strings (Midlothian, 1992), 208-9.

139

throughout the twentieth century (see figure 40221). Very similar in shape to Egan’s ‘Portable’, Clark’s Irish harp was well-made, stood about 52 inches high (including the stand), had 31 strings from first octave G to sixth octave E in the bass, mostly gut except the lower octave which were of wound wire. It was usually tuned in E flat, and had semitone turning-blades for each string, shaped rather like small butter-knives. In many of these features Clark could be said to have set the standard for about the next fifty years.222

221

Photograph from Rensch, Roslyn: Harps and Harpists (London, 1989), 146. Ibid, 145.

222

140

Figure 40: Clark’s ‘Irish Harp’, early twentieth century

141

APENDIX III The Irish harp’s contribution to the 2003 Feis Ceoil According to the festival programme,223 18 harpists took part across the three junior age groups, and the requirement was to play two test pieces. These were predominantly arrangements of historical harp tunes and Carolan compositions, by Gráinne Yeats and Máire Ní Chathasaigh. For example, the latter’s arrangement of Carolan’s ‘Lord Inchiquin’ was a test piece for the 12 to 15 age group (see figure 41224). The only exception to this was T.C. Kelly’s ‘Interlude’ (see figure 15), a test piece for the 15 to 18 age group, evidence that Sheila Larchet-Cuthbert’s The Irish Harp Book is still a popular resource for this genre. The senior Irish harp competition, the Corn Úi Chearbhalláin,225 presented by Gráinne Yeats, required the eight participants to perform ‘a recital of not more than fifteen minutes duration. Works to include one in classical style, one contemporary, and one Irish’.226 The winner, Clare McCague from Co. Monaghan, performed ‘Variations sur un Theme de Mozart’ (anon.), an arrangement of the Mexican composer Lara’s (1897-1970) ‘Granada’, and an arrangement of the traditional Irish air ‘Mná na hÉireann’.227 The Irish contribution from six out of seven of the remaining competitors consisted of arrangements of Carolan pieces. A notable exception was Helen Lyons from Dublin, who achieved second place, and performed her own arrangement of two traditional reels. This was the only occasion on which any of the participants in the Feis Ceoil Irish harp competitions played traditional dance music. There were two competitions for voice and Irish harp in the 2003 Feis Ceoil: the Mairín Ní Shé228 Prize, in which the two competitors

223

107th Feis Ceoil Programme (Dublin, 2003), 130, 165-6, 168. From Ní Chathasaigh, Máire: The Irish Harper, Volume Two (Ilkley, 2001), 12. 225 ‘The O’Carolan Prize’. 226 107th Feis Ceoil Programme (Dublin, 2003), 168. 227 ‘Women of Ireland’. 228 Already noted as the Irish harp tutor at Sion Hill convent school who taught Mary O’Hara and Janet Harbison. 224

142

Figure 41: Arr. Ní Chathasaigh: Carolan’s ‘Lord Inchiquin’.

143

were required to sing ‘four songs in Irish to own harp accompaniment: two ‘great’ songs and two light songs’, and the Nancy Calthorpe Memorial Prize. Calthorpe (1914-1998) was a tutor for Irish harp at both Loreto Abbey and Sion Hill convents, and was noted for her published arrangements for harp and voice in the 1960s and 1970s. The songs, which are in both the English and Irish languages, were obtained from various sources such the nineteenthcentury collections of Moore, Petrie, Joyce and Bunting, and three of her arrangements were awarded an Oireachtas Prize in 1966.229 The three competitors in the Calthorpe Memorial Prize, 2003, were required to perform the following: (a) A song in English or Irish arranged by Nancy Calthorpe. (b) A harp solo arranged by Nancy Calthorpe. (c) A song in Irish or English arranged by the competitor. (d) A setting of a Carolan tune arranged by the competitor.230 One of the competitors, Christine O’Mahoney, performed ‘Túirne Mháire’,231 (figure 42232) a traditional spinning song, one of Calthorpe’s arrangements which had received the Oireachtas award. The harp accompaniment is light in texture, simple and unobtrusive, becoming more rhythmic and lively in the chorus section. The fact that there were only five competitors in total for voice and harp is an indication of this genre’s current lack of popularity compared to the solo harp competitions, which had a total of 26 entrants.

229

Larchet-Cuthbert, Sheila: ‘The Irish Harp Book’ (Cork and Dublin), 238. 107th Feis Ceoil Programme (Dublin, 2003), 130. 231 ‘Mary’s Spinning Wheel’. 232 From Calthorpe, Nancy: ‘The Calthorpe Collection: Songs and Airs Arranged for the Irish Harp’ (Dublin, 1974), 64-5. 230

144

Figure 42: Arr. Calthorpe: ‘Túirne Mháire’ (page 1)

145

Figure 42: Arr. Calthorpe: ‘Túirne Mháire’ (page 2)

146

APPENDIX IV Two examination systems Royal Irish Academy of Music Each grade, from one to eight, is designed to be of equivalent difficulty to the corresponding grades in examinations from such centres as the Associated Board or Trinity College. Two pieces are required: from list ‘A’, a piece from the historical harp tradition, and from list ‘B’, a piece from the western art music tradition. The majority of the pieces are taken from Cáirde Na Cruite’s publications: ‘The Irish Harp Book’ and the four books in the ‘Sounding Harps’ series, published between 1990 and 1998. As an alternative to the art music piece in list ‘B’ the candidate may perform ‘an Irish traditional tune of suitable standard’. Aine Ní Dhuill remarked that this is to make the syllabus more accessible to those with a traditional music background. However, it is noteworthy that a study is also required (from list ‘C’) in each grade, many of which are taken from the classical pedal harp repertoire of, for example Naderman or Grossi. Furthermore, the sight-reading requirement obviously requires musical literacy. The Harp Foundation (Ireland) Ltd: Certificate of Achievement This syllabus was devised by Janet Harbison in 1993, and caters for many strands of the Irish harp tradition. There are four levels: Novice, Elementary, Intermediate and Competent (these levels are approximately equivalent in difficulty to Preliminary Grade to Grade Seven in other examination boards). As well as history and general knowledge requirements, performance repertoire at these levels include dance tunes, Carolan pieces, set dances and slow airs. After ‘Competent’ level, the candidate is required to choose a specialist area from the following list (equivalent to Grade Eight): Historical Repertoire, Lamentations and Slow Airs, Classical Period Repertoire, The Romantic Repertoire, Background Music Repertoire, 147

Dance Music Repertoire, Song and Harp Accompaniment, Religious Music, Healing (Passive Therapeutic) Harp Music, Composition, Arrangement, Accompaniment. On the successful completion of six specialist areas, the harp player achieves ‘Master Harper’ status, equivalent to a Performer’s Diploma.

148

Bibliography Armstrong, Robert Bruce: The Irish and Highland Harps, (Edinburgh, 1904), Praeger. Beckett, J. C.: A Short History of Ireland, 7th ed., (London, 1986), The Cressnet Library. Bell, Aidan: ‘Gráinne Yeats’, Sounding Strings 7 & 8, (West Lothian, 1995). Bell, Alison: ‘Interview: Aibhlín McCrann’, Sounding Strings 14, (Spring, 1998). Bell, Derek: ‘How I Came to the Harp or How the Harp and I Came to Each Other’, The American Harp Journal, Vol. 17, No.4, (New York, Winter 2000). Billinge, Michael and Shaljean, Bonnie: ‘The Dalway or Fitzgerald Harp (1621)’, Early Music Journal Vol XV No 2, (London, May 1987), OUP. Boydell, Barra: ‘The Female Harp: The Irish Harp in 18th- and Early19th-Century Romantic Nationalism’, RidIM/RCMI Newsletter XX/1, (Maynooth College, Spring 1995), National University of Ireland. Boydell, Brian: Four Centuries of Music in Ireland, (London, 1979), BBC. Breathnach, Breandán: ‘Ireland: Folk Music’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Cyf./Vol. 9, (London, 1980), 316-324, OUP. Breathnach, Breandán: Folk Music and Dances of Ireland, (Dublin, 1971), Ossian Publications. Bunting, Edward: A Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland, (Dublin, 1840), Hodges and Smith. 149

Bunting, Edward: Ancient Irish Music (1797), Ancient Music of Ireland (1809), The Ancient Music of Ireland (1840), (Dublin, 1969), Waltons. Calthorpe, Nancy: The Calthorpe Collection, (Dublin, 1974), Waltons. Carson, Ciarán: Pocket Guide to Irish Traditional Music, (Belfast, 1986), Apple Tree Press. Clark, Joan: ‘Melville Clark and the Clark Irish Harp’, Folk Harp Journal, No. 96, (Walton Creek, Summer, 1997), International Society of Folk Harpers and Craftsmen, INC. Clark, Nora Joan and Stanffer, Sylvia: ‘Derek Bell, HarperComposer’, Folk Harp Journal, No. 119, (Walton Creek, Spring 2003), International Society of Folk Harpers and Craftsmen, INC. Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann: Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann (AllIreland Fleadh) 2003 Programme, (Dublin, 2003), CCE. Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann: Fleadh Uladh (Ulster Fleadh) 2003 Programme, (Dublin, 2003), CCE. Cowdery, James R.: The Melodic Tradition of Ireland, (Kent, Ohio and London, 1990), The Kent State University Press. Dempsey, Anne: The Abbey: An Appreciation of Loreto Abbey, Rathfarnham, (Dublin, 1999), Loreto Abbey. Doris, Cliona: ‘The Irish Harp Tradition, 1792-1903: Revival and Preservation’, (D. Mus dissertation, Indiana School of Music, 1997). Ellis, Osian: The Story of the Harp in Wales, (Cardiff, 1980), University of Wales Press. Feis Ceoil Assoc.: Feis Ceoil: Irish Music Festival – Syllabus of Prize Competitions and report of the executive committee, (Dublin 150

1897-1912). Feis Ceoil Assoc.: Feis Ceoil: 107th Music Festival – Programme, (Dublin, 2003). Fleming, Kim (Arr.): ‘Garret Barry’s Jig’, Sounding Harps Book 3, Cáirde Na Cruite. Flood, W. H. Grattan: The Story of the Harp, (London, 1905), The Walter Scott Publishing Co. Ltd. Gaelic League, The: Programme of Oireachtas, (Dublin, 1897). Glover, J. W. (Ed.): Moore’s Irish Melodies, (Dublin, 1859), James Duffy. Godefroid, Felix: Etude de Concert, Salvi Publications. Harbison, Janet: ‘Harpists, Harpers or Harpees?’, Crosbhealach An Cheoil: Tradition and Change in Irish Traditional Music- The Crossroads Conference, 1996, Ed. F. Vallely, H. Hamilton, E. Vallely and L. Doherty, (Dublin, 1996), Whinstone Music. Hayward, Richard: The Story of the Irish Harp, (Dublin, 1954), Arthur Guinness and Son Ltd. Hewett, Margaret: The Small Harp, (London, 1982), Margaret Hewett Publications. Hogan, Ita: Anglo-Irish Music, 1780-1830, (Cork, 1966), Cork University Press. Hurrell, Nancy: ‘A Harp from 19th Century Ireland: The Royal Portable Harp by John Egan’, Folk Harp Journal, No. 119, (Walton Creek, Spring 2003), International Society of Folk Harpers and Craftsmen, INC. Killen, John: A History of the Linen Hall Library, (Belfast, 1990), The Linen Hall Library. 151

Lanier, S. C.: ‘ “It is new-strung and shan’t be heard”: nationalism and memory in the Irish Harp tradition’, British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 8, (Milton Keynes, 2000), British Forum of Ethnomusicolgy. Larchet-Cuthbert, Sheila: The Irish Harp Book, (Cork and Dublin, 1975), The Mercier Press Ltd. McGrath, Mercedes: My Gentle Harp, (Dublin, 1992), Cáirde Na Cruite. Macmaster, Mary: ‘Harp V, 10(i): “The Celtic Revival”’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, (London, 2001), OUP. Magee, John: The Heritage of the Harp, (Belfast, 1992), The Linen Hall Library. Maher, Tom: The Harp’s a Wonder, (Mullingar, 1991), Uisneach Press. Milligan Fox, Charlotte: Annals of the Irish Harpers, (London, 1911), Smith, Elder and Co. Moore, Thomas: Irish Melodies, illus. D. Maclise, ‘New Edition’, (London, 1866), Longmans, Green and Co. Ní Chathasaigh, Máire: The Irish Harper, Volume 1, (Ilkley, 1991), Old Bridge Music. Ní Chathasaigh, Máire: The Irish Harper, Volume 2, (Ilkley, 2001), Old Bridge Music. Ó hAllmhuráin, Gearóid: A Pocket History of Irish Traditional Music, (Dublin, 1998), The O’Brien Press. O’Boyle, Sean: The Irish Song Tradition, (Sherries, 1976), Gilbert Dalton. O’Farrell, Anne-Marie: ‘Expanding the Repertoire’, Sounding 152

Strings, No. 9, (West Lothian, Spring 1996). O’Farrell, Anne-Marie: ‘Prelude for Irish Harp’, Sounding Strings, No. 14, (West Lothian, Spring 1998). O’Neill, Capt. Francis: Irish Minstrels and Musicians, (Cork and Dublin, 1987), (reprint of the original 1913 edition), The Mercier Press Ltd. O’Neill, Capt. Francis: O’Neill’s Music of Ireland, (Pacific, date not noted), (reprint of the original 1903 edition), Mel Bay Publications, Inc. O’Riada, Sean: Our Musical Heritage, ed. Kinsella, Thomas, (Portlaoise, 1982), Dolmen Press. O’Sullivan, Donal: ‘The Irish Folk Song Society’, Ed. Fleischmann, Aloys: Music in Ireland: A Symposium, (Cork, 1952), Cork University Press. O’Sullivan, Donal: Irish Folk Music and Song, (Dublin, 1952), The Cultural Relations Committee of Ireland. Oldham, Edith: The Eisteddfod and the Feis Ceoil, (Dublin, 1898), Feis Ceoil Assoc. Rensch, Roslyn: Harps and Harpists, (London, 1989), Gerald Duckworth and Co. Ltd. Rimmer, Joan: ‘Irish Harp’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Cyf./Vol. 9, (London, 1980), 328-9, OUP. Rimmer, Joan: The Irish Harp, (Cork, 1977), The Government of Ireland. Sanger, Keith and Kinnaird, Alison: Tree of Strings, (Midlothian, 1992), Kinmor Music. Thomas, John: Bugeilio’r Gwenith Gwyn, Adlais. 153

Underwood, Anne: ‘The Harp: An Instrument for All Seasons’, An Gael Magazine, (New York, February, 1983). Ed. Vallely, Fintan: The Companion to Irish Traditional Music, (Cork, 1999), Cork University Press. Warren, Christopher: ‘The Harp that Once- Could it Again?’, Ireland of the Welcomes, Vol. 22, No.1, (Dublin, May-June, 1973), Bord Failte. Yeats, Gráinne: The Harp of Ireland, (Belfast, 1992), Belfast Harpers’ Bicentenary Ltd.

154

Discography ‘Chieftains, The’: Chieftains 5 (Claddagh Records Limited, 1975: CC16).

‘Chieftains, The’: Chieftains 9: Boil the Breakfast Early (Claddagh Records Limited, 1979: CC30).

‘Chieftains, The’: The Celtic Harp, (RCA Victor, 1993: 09026 61490 2). Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann: We are the Musicmakers (CCE, 2000: CL-56). Flannery, James W. and Harbison, Janet: Dear Harp of my Country; the Irish Melodies of Thomas Moore, (ESS.A.Y Recordings, 1995: CD 1057/58). Hambly, Gráinne: Golden Lights and Green Shadows (Klang Welten, 2003: CD 20019). Harbison, Janet: O’Neill’s Harper (Janet Harbison, 1994: BHO CD002). Ní Bheaglaoich, Seosaimhín: Taobh na Gréine/ Under the Sun (Gael-Linn, 1994: CEFCD 170). Ní Chathasaigh, Máire and Newman, Chris: Dialogues: Agallaimh (Old Bridge Music, 2001: OBMCD14). Ní Chathasaigh, Máire and Newman, Chris: The Carolan Albums, (Old Bridge Music, 1994: OBMCD06). Ní Chathasaigh, Máire and Newman, Chris: The New Strung Harp (Temple Records, 1997: COMD 2019). 155

O’Farrell, Anne-Marie: My Lagan Love (CMR Records, 2001: CMD 1075). O’Farrell, Anne-Marie: The Jig’s Up (Anne-Marie O’Farrell, 1997: CD1903). O’Hara, Mary: Irish Magic (Cedar, 2001: GF369). ‘Planxty’: The Well Below the Valley (Shanachie, 1988: 79010). Stivell, Alan: Renaissance of the Celtic Harp (Philips, 1990: 818007-2).

156

Videography Celtic Harpestry: Live from Lismore Castle, Ireland (Polygram Video, 1998: 440 079 319-3).

157

Internet Websites Consulted Cáirde Na Cruite: Annual Festival for Irish Harp, http://www.harp.net/cnac/cnacfest.htm Chadwick, Simon: Some highlights in small harp history since 1800, www.simon-s.net/harp/LeverHarp8.html Contemporary Music Centre of Ireland: Anne-Marie O’Farrell, http://www.cmc.ie/composers/composer.cfm?composerID=93 Daly, Patricia: Armagh Harper’s Association, http://www.armaghharpers.com/ Harbison, Janet: Biographical, www.belfastharps.com/janetharbison/biographical.htm Harbison, Janet: Irish Harp Centre, http://www.irishharpcentre.com/ Owenson, George: Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan), www.db.mcmail.com/owensons.htm Siemens Ltd: The 107th Feis Ceoil, http://www.siemens.ie/feis/ Taylor, William: Traditional and Historical Scottish Harps, www.clarsach.net/Bill_Taylor/traditional.htm Vatican Council: Documents of the II Vatican Council, http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/inde x.htm

158