Simon Chadwick

The early Irish harp

he early Irish harp is one of the most recognized of all musical instruments, thanks to its use as a national symbol and a trademark for beer, yet it is almost never heard and is as rarely studied by musicologists and scholars. The last article in this journal devoted to the early Irish harp was in May 1987,1 and previous to that, there was one in January 1983;2 there were passing references in May 20003 and in June 2006.4 These, however, only reinforce that there is still much misunderstanding and confusion about this instrument. Firstly, it is useful to differentiate clearly between the early Irish harp and the neo-Irish harp. The latter was invented by John Egan in the early decades of the 19th century, and was rediscovered in the last decades of that century when the Gaelic revival demanded Romantic harps to accompany Gaelic singing in the parlours of Dublin and Edinburgh. Its ancestor is not the early Irish harp at all, but the orchestral pedal harp; John Egan was a pedal-harp maker, and his newly invented Portable Irish harp was equipped with the orchestral harps gut strings and mechanical semitone-fretting mechanisms, so that classically trained polite aristocratic ladies could easily play it.5 The early Irish harp, on the other hand, after a long decline, died out during the 19th century. The last of the indigenous players died in the years after 1800; students, from the charitable schools that were set up in a vain attempt to preserve the tradition, survived until the last decade of the 19th century, leaving no further students of their own.6 The origins of the early Irish harp are obscure; the first unambiguous depiction is dated to circa AD 1000.7 From the 8th to the 10th centuries, there survives a number of weathered stone sculptures in Ireland and Scotland, but there is a lack of agreement on what kinds of harps these depict, on whether
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they show harps or lyres, and even if, in fact, they are illustrations of instruments at all.8 This lack of evidence has not stopped many confident assertions about the date and location of the invention of the harp,9 and about the supposedly clear distinction between Gaelic and other European harps.10
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Terminology Terminology in this field is complex and ambiguous. I use early Irish harp to refer to the historical instrument of sturdy shape and with metal wire strings. Especially in the 17th century, it was known in Britain and on the Continent as the Irish harp.11 Since it was indigenous to the Highlands of Scotland as well as Ireland, a more inclusive modern terminology is Gaelic harp or, to avoid offending present-day Gaels who prefer the Victorian revival instrument, early Gaelic harp. Its name in Gaelic is clirseach (Irish) or clrsach (Scots). In Scotland, the name clarsach was used from the 13th century onwards to refer to the early Gaelic harp;12 since the Gaelic revival of the 1890s, clarsach has instead been used for the modern replacement, and I have been using the term early clrsach. Before the 13th century, the instrument seems to have been called cruit.13 That word is now used in modern Irish to refer to all kinds of harp.14 In the last few decades, the term wire-strung harp has gained ground as some harpists experiment with quasi-historical set-ups.15 Celtic is the more general term, being an outsiders description of a family of related languages spoken across Western Europe in the 1st millennium BC, and restricted for the last 1,000 years or more to the north-western fringes, including Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany. Gaelic is the indigenous term for one of its two main sub-divisions, referring to the language and people of Ireland and the
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Early Music, Vol. xxxvi, No. 4 The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. doi:10.1093/em/can122, available online at www.em.oxfordjournals.org

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1 Simon Chadwick with a replica of the Queen Mary harp, made by Davy Patton, Co. Roscommon, 20067. This instrument can be heard on Simon Chadwicks CD entitled Clrsach na Bnrighe (earlygaelicharp.info EGH1) (photo: Ealasaid Gilfillan)

2 The Queen Mary harp, made circa 15th century, perhaps in Argyll; supposedly presented to Beatrix Gardyn in the 16th century by Mary, Queen of Scots, now preserved at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh (The Trustees of the National Museum of Scotland)

Highlands and Islands of Scotland.16 Celtic is nowadays used extremely flexibly to the extent that it can mean almost anything: a magic bag, into which anything may be put, and out of which almost anything may come.17
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Extant instruments There are, to my knowledge, 16 early Irish harps surviving complete and two partially complete, from before 1800.18 Of these, seven are in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin; two are in the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh; two in Trinity College, Dublin; one each in the Ulster Museum, Belfast; the Guinness Storehouse Museum, Dublin; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and four are in private hands in Ireland. There are other instruments that were made in the 19th century as part of the vain
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attempt to preserve the tradition by teaching poor blind children to play the early Irish harp.19 None of the 18 instruments has been properly studied by scholars, the only detailed study being that of Robert Bruce Armstrong, published in 1904.20 Armstrong devotes a section to each of 14 instruments. The level of detail varies: he seems to have considered some instruments of less importance, and others he did not inspect but instead relied on photographs or observations sent to him by correspondents. His work is generally reliable and his photographs and technical drawings are to the highest standards. Sadly, the manuscript notes and drafts for this project appear to be lost.21 There is considerable ambiguity about the dating of the extant instruments. Threethe Queen
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3 The Lamont harp, made circa 15th century, perhaps in Argyll; supposedly brought to Perthshire by Lilias Lamont in 1460, now preserved in the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh (The Trustees of the National Museum of Scotland)

4 The Otway harp, made circa 16th century; owned and played by Patrick Quin (c.1745post 1809) (The Board of Trinity College Dublin)

Mary and Lamont (National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh) and the Trinity College (Trinity College, Dublin)are generally agreed to be medieval, perhaps from the 15th century. The Otway (Trinity College, Dublin) and the metal fittings from Ballinderry (National Museum of Ireland) may be assigned to the 16th century. The Cloyne fragments (National Museum of Ireland) bear extensive inscriptions, including the date 1621;22 the Kildare (National Museum of Ireland) is dated by inscription to 1672; the Downhill (Guinness Storehouse Museum) to 1702 and the Bunworth (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) to 1734; the other nine are usually considered to date from between c.1650 and 1800.23
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The extant instruments were divided by Joan Rimmer into three types;24 small low-headed, large low-headed and high-headed. There is some early justification for this, as Edward Buntings glossaries, collected from harpers in the early 19th century, include cinnard cruit: high-headed harp, and also crom-cruit: down-bending harp.25 However, having set out these clear types, Rimmer herself sometimes appears confused about the differences between large low-headed and high-headed harps.26 It seems that the clear division between the two types is the length of the bass strings: while high-headed harps have a scaling that allows monofilament brass strings to be used to the bottom of the range, the bass strings of large low-headed instruments are in the region of 20 per cent shorter.27 There are also
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6 The Kildare harp, made in 1672 for Robert Fitzgerald, 16th Earl of Kildare (Dublin, National Museum of Ireland, with permission) 5 Ann Heymann holding the Downhill harp, made in 1702 by Cormac OKelly; owned and played by Denis OHampsey (16951807) (Dublin, Guinness Storehouse Museum) (photo: Ann and Charlie Heymann)

structural differences: the low-headed harps have the neck running over the top of the pillar to the bass, while the more steeply curved, high-headed shape requires the neck to be morticed into the back of the pillar that forms the bass continuation. Structure Early Irish harps were typically made from only four pieces of timber, morticed together without the use of glue. The com, or soundbox, typically carved from a piece of willow, is hollowed from behind, with a separate back-board often of a harder timber; the corr, or neck, which bears the tuning pins, has a tenon to fit the top of the box; the lamhcrann, or forepillar, has a tenon at each end

to fit into the base of the box and the underside of the neck. A metal band is nailed on each side of the neck, through which the tuning pins pass; metal fittings (cr na d-tead) are nailed to the front of the box to protect the edges of the holes through which the strings enter the soundbox. The tension of the strings pulls the three mortice-and-tenon joints securely together; while the soundbox is bent up by the tension, the sides of the box grip the back-board tightly. High-headed harps have a slightly more complex structure, being a later adaptation of the traditional design. The truncated neck bears a tenon which fits into a mortice in the back of the pillar; as this joint is no longer pulled tight by string tension, it is often pegged. The joint is also secured by the metal cheek bands that run in one piece from treble to bass. A few of the high-headed harps do not have a onepiece soundbox;28 instead, planks are glued together to form a composite box, which nonetheless works
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7 Rose Mooneys harp (commonly known as the Carolan harp), made circa 18th century; owned and played by Rose Mooney (1740c.1798) (Dublin, National Museum of Ireland, with permission)

in the same way, since the longitudinal grain direction is maintained. Many instruments bear repairs and modifications, including nails, pegs and iron straps to hold their parts together, to add extra strings,29 or to repair cracks and splits. It is possible that some of the extant instruments are composite, as the three components make it possible to dismantle a harp and replace a damaged section, or, indeed, for an unscrupulous collector to assemble an instrument from spare parts.30
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Stringing and tuning None of the extant instruments which I have seen retains original strings; the harps are either unstrung or have late 19th- or 20th-century cosmetic strings of copper or brass wire. A late example retains strings which may date from its working life,31 but I do not know the current location of this instrument. Robert Evans found a tiny fragment of 0.7mm diameter red brass wire stuck
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to the tenth tuning pin from the bass of the Ballinderry harp fittings. It was analysed and found to be a simple alloy of copper and zinc with probably no more than 10% zinc. This corresponds closely to red brass as used on the basses of historical harpsichords.32 Apart from that, we are dependent on historical sources and practical experiment.33 Historical references are explicit that metallic wire was used exclusively on Gaelic harps, but have little, if anything, to say about materials and gauges. Present experiments use soft iron, yellow brass and red brass from harpsichord supply-houses, as well as custom-made copper-alloy, silver and gold.34 Edward Bunting wrote down tuning schemes from various Irish harpers in his pocket notebook in 1792.35 Only one of the schemes that he noted can be related to an extant instrument: the diagram on p.153, marked Hempsons Harp 1702.36 Denis OHampsey played the Downhill harp, which bears an inscription attributing it to the harp-maker, Cormac OKelly, in 1702. The harp is now owned by Guinness and is displayed in their Storehouse Museum in Dublin. It has 30 tuning pins and 32 string shoes, presumably to allow the lengths and angles of all the strings to be adjusted. Buntings charts indicate a diatonic scale of 30 notes, with all the Fs sharpened. However, there are two unusual features: there is only one string between D and G in the bass;37 and there are two adjacent strings tuned to g below middle C. The charts that descend below bass C (two octaves below middle C) also miss out the B below it. Buntings glossary indicates that the doubled g was called comhluighe, which translates as companions, or lying together, although the harpers used the English term the sisters, for politeness. They were the first strings to be tuned, and they appear to have been standard on early Irish harps from medieval times right down to the last players in the mid19th century.38 Bunting reports two main tunings, with the F strings either sharp or natural. Although he reported that the natural key was G with the F strings tuned to F , Ann Heymann argues that the earlier system was to tune the harp in G with natural F strings (a Mixolydian scale).39 As well as these two main tunings, others seem to have been used occasionally; on p.157 Bunting describes a scordatura tuning where only one C string is retuned to C
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est stringing configuration (missing out the top two string shoes), using Malcolm Roses yellow brass. Yet, the pitch could easily be lower with a weaker copper alloy, or higher using the higher string shoes to shorten the treble strings. The medieval small lowheaded instruments have shorter trebles; one current debate is whether these should be seen as descending only to cronan G, an octave below comhluighe, or whether they should include the low C, D and E, at a higher pitch standard. I use the former system, at a = 440, on my instruments.43 There is also an obvious connection between the Gaelic harp with comhluighe g, the lowest note as cronan G and scale of G with a flattened 7th, and the Gaelic bagpipe with drones on A and a, and a scale of A with flattened 7th (c and f ). Further investigation is needed.
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8 The ONeill harp, made circa 18th century ( Belfast, Collection Ulster Museum 2008; photograph reproduced by courtesy of the Trustees of National Museums Northern Ireland)

for certain pieces. Different pieces seem to have been customarily played in other tunings, but further research is needed.40 Pitch standard is something on which no work has yet been done. Bunting reports that comhluighe g was tuned to g on the violin.41 The treble scaling of an instrument places limits on the pitch produced by the treble strings, but without a clearer understanding of the exact alloys used or the notes expected from those strings, nothing further can be ascertained. We know the actual note names of the Downhill Harp,42 and replicas work very well at a = 440 with the longfn40 fn41

Playing technique All modern European harp techniques require the harp to be held to the right side of the body and played with the right hand in the treble and the left hand in the bass. Medieval pictures of harpists seem to show this orientation as well as its opposite, although orientation in pictures is notoriously difficult to interpret.44 In contrast, the early Gaelic harp was always held to the left of the body, with the left hand in the treble and the right in the bass.45 The modern Celtic harps of Ireland and Scotland, being innovations of the 19th century, follow the modern European practice of right-orientation. At the present time, early Gaelic harp specialists use both orientations, most preferring to conform to the modern right orientation46 while a few use the historical left orientation.47 The older tradition was to sound the strings using long fingernails, but from the 17th century onwards, there are reports of Irish harpers preferring to keep their nails short.48 This reflects a change across Europe, where medieval harps were played with the nails, while later harps were not.49 The use of nails may have lingered longer in Ireland and Scotland: Denis OHampsey had long nails, as did Echlin OKane who worked in the Hebrides at the end of the 18th century.50 All the other harpers whom Bunting interviewed, however, had short nails.51 Given the huge problems with trying to interpret detailed nuances from paintings and drawings, we
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are fortunate that photographs exist of a harper from the old Gaelic tradition: Patrick Byrne was photographed in Edinburgh c.1843 by Hill and Adamson.52 He can clearly be seen holding his high-headed harp against his left shoulder and holding his left hand in the treble and his right in the bass.53 His hands are held low and his fingers are at right angles to the strings. In one close-up, it is almost possible to see the detail of how he has trimmed his nails.54 Buntings published tables give detailed directions for left- and right-hand figures, with staff notation, fingering and verbal directions as well as Irish names.55 For the left (treble) hand, the figures appear to be mostly types of mordent and trill; for the right (bass) hand, they are two-note chords, and a few larger chords arpeggiated downwards. Much has been made of the lack of bass-clef settings in the field notebooks,56 but Heymann points out that a number of the draft settings include bass indications. She has reconstructed a way of playing the tunes without the lush chords that modern harpists expect but which sit uneasily on early Irish harp.57
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Repertory Three of the tunes which Bunting noted are tagged in the manuscripts as the first, second, third or fourth tunes taught to young harpers.58 Heymann bases her teaching curriculum on these tunes,59 and notes especially the importance of Burns March.60 With its short theme and progressive variations, it is related to other early Gaelic musical forms, such as pobaireachd, and also to the Welsh harp-playing techniques that were written down by Robert ap Huw in the early 17th century.61 The variations use a most ingenious interlocking of right- and left-hand patterns, which is more like African kora playing than modern Irish, Scottish or classical harp. No music written down by or for Gaelic harpers appears to survive, although there are references to literate harpers writing out tunes.62 The Gaelic harp tradition was an oral one, with music being composed, performed and transmitted directly from teacher to student.63 However, Gaelic harp repertory was written down by other musicians from the early 17th century onwards.64 Scottish lute players,
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mostly students, included a number of Gaelic harp tunes in their lute books in the 17th century. Written in tablature, these tunes seem to preserve idiomatic styles, harmonized in parallel octaves and with large melodic ranges.65 In the 18th century, a number of Gaelic harp tunes appear in printed collections in Scotland and Ireland. Often set with a bass line, these tunes are intended for domestic performance on flute or fiddle, with cello or harpsichord accompaniment. Some of them, though, seem to use Gaelic harp idioms, such as the melody line dropping into the bass for short sections,66 or harmonies that move in parallel with the melody, emphasizing the accented notes.67 At the end of the 18th century and into the 19th, Edward Bunting collected a large number of tunes directly from the last of the harpers and, crucially, the field notebooks into which he scribbled his draft impressions of the performances survive.68 The amount of tidying up to which Bunting subjected the tunes before publication is a warning of how to approach the earlier printed collectionsthough with the benefits of the manuscripts, one can still see Bunting attempting to capture elements of the Gaelic harp idiom in his piano settings.69 Since earliest times, the main role of the Gaelic harp was the accompaniment of song, but progress investigating this area has been slow.70 Bunting did not speak Irish, and although he employed Irishspeaking secretaries to collect the words of songs, they worked separately from him and the tunes he collected rarely match the words.71 Ann Heymann72 and Siobhn Armstrong73 have both recently recorded collaborations with Gaelic singers, which explore possible solutions. Another area of early Irish harp repertory that remains under-explored is non-Gaelic music. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Irish harps were played solo and in consort across Europe from England to Poland.74 Though the possibility that William Lawes composed his Harp Consorts75 for the chromatic early Irish harp has been discussed in this journal before,76 the problems of building and setting up a workable chromatic Irish harp remain.77 In any case, much continuo repertory is quite playable on a diatonic instrument.78 Further, the relationship between the Irish and Italian Baroque79 traditions is complicated by comments published by Vincenzo Galilei in 1581,
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where he implies that chromatic Italian harps were produced in imitation of earlier chromatic Irish harps.80 Irish harpers were still interested in foreign music into the 18th century, such as Echlin OKane who played Corelli, or Dominic Mungan who played Handel.81
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Conclusion While other early instrument traditions, such as harpsichord and lute, were revived during the early and mid-20th century, the early Irish harp remained neglected, and it was the 19th-century Romantic replacement that was revived instead.82 When interest did begin in historical reconstructions of early Irish harps, their so-called Celtic provenance gave them second-class status alongside the more familiar classical instruments. What work was done happened in isolation; the instrument was rediscovered a number of times, for example by Arnold Dolmetsch,83 Grinne Yeats84 and Derek Bell.85 Since the 1970s, Ann Heymann, who plays only the early Irish harp, has been the most important exponent in the field, and continues to lead new research and discoveries.86 As well as making acclaimed recordings,87 she has written the three definitive tutor books for the instrument.88 She is also responsible for most of the important new developments in the revival, including the study of key source texts, the interpretation of historical techniques and the development of working stringing regimes for replica instruments. None of the original instruments is in a state where it can be strung and played, but instrument makers have had little success in making good replicas. Indeed, since Armstrongs seminal work in 1904,89 there has been no significant study of the instruments, and colour photographs and technical drawings of many have never been published. Jay Witcher, working in America in the early 1970s, was the first maker to produce replica instruments
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based on study of the originals and without adapting them to modern harp-makers conventions. Other instrument makers who did important work in the 1980s and 1990s were Robert Evans in Wales, Tim Hobrough in Scotland and George Stevens in England. A worrying development, echoing the invention of the neo-Irish harp in the 19th century, is the widespread acceptance of small instruments of modern design. Prominently featuring elements drawn from the historical tradition, such as brass wire strings, one-piece carved soundboxes and no mechanical semitone devices, these instruments are, however, notably lacking in other important features such as comhluighe and cronan tuning, and their scaling and soundbox characteristics are very different from the extant historical instruments. Marketed by their makers as wire-strung harps, they sell well and in many historically aware circles are more popular than historical replicas. At present, two individuals are producing replica instruments which have impressed me: David Kortier, in Minnesota, and Davy Patton, in County Roscommon. There has been a significant boost to the whole field in the last few years with the founding of the Historical Harp Society of Ireland by Siobhn Armstrong in 2002.90 As well as organizing regular classes and other events, and commissioning a series of affordable early Irish harps, the HHSI runs Scoil na gClirseachSummer School of Early Irish Harp, which brings Ann Heymann over from America every year and provides a regular forum for interested parties to come together and share ideas. However, scholars such as Sen Donnelly and Keith Sanger, and performers such as Ann Heymann and Siobhn Armstrong, are still working independently; there is no institutional support anywhere and, indeed, in the wider academic and musical world, the early Irish harp remains an enigma, mostly ignored or otherwise misrepresented.
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Simon Chadwick has been working on the music and traditions of the early Irish harp, or early clrsach, since 1998. He runs an informational resource project, earlygaelicharp.info, and is Honorary Secretary of the Historical Harp Society of Ireland and Assistant Director of its annual early harp summer school, Scoil na gClirseach. His debut CD, Clrsach na Bnrighe, was released in 2008. simon@simonchadwick.net

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1 Early Music, xv/2 (May 1987), Plucked string issue, includes three articles entirely or largely about the early Irish harp: J. Rimmer, Patronage, style and structure in the music attributed to Turlough Carolan, pp.16474; M. Billinge and B. Shaljean, The Dalway or Fitzgerald harp, pp.17587; and P. Holman, The harp in Stuart England, pp.188203. All three of these were important studies that are still influential amongst early Irish harp scholars. 2 Early Music, xi/1 (1983) includes an article by R. Hadaway, A knot of harp strings, pp.658, covering the development of the early Irish harp and apparent chromatic experiments in the 17th century. 3 Early Music, xxvii/2 (2000), Early music of Ireland issue, includes two articles that touched very briefly on the early Irish harp: A. Buckley, Music and musicians in medieval Irish society, pp.16590; and J. Cosart, A. Mariani, C. Smith and D. Sattelman, Reconstructing the music of medieval Ireland, pp.27181. Concentrating on providing an overview of the entire national medieval scene, neither of these had anything new to say specifically about the early Irish harp. 4 Early Music, xxxv/2 (2007) includes an article by C. Macklin, Approaches to the use of iconography in historical reconstruction, and the curious case of Renaissance Welsh harp technique, pp.21323 which makes extensive reference to the early Irish harp though includes a number of errors. 5 John Egan advertisement, from Pigot & Co.s 1824 City of Dublin and Hibernian Provincial Directory, facsimile in United Kingdom Harp Association (February 2002), pp.1617. 6 A. McClelland, The Irish Harp Society, in Ulster Folklife, xxi (1975), pp.1524; also J. Magee, The heritage of the harp (Belfast, 1992). 7 The St Mogue Shrine, National Museum of Ireland, illustrated in Macklin, Approaches to the use of iconography, p.220. 8 A. Ross, Harps of Their Owne Sorte? A reassessment of Pictish chordophone depictions, Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies, xxxvi (Winter

1998), pp.3760; M. van Schaik, The harp in the Middle Ages: the symbolism of a musical instrument (Amsterdam, 2005). 9 For example, in K. Sanger and A. Kinnaird, Tree of strings (Kinmor, 1992). 10 For example, H. Myers, Harp, in A performers guide to medieval music, ed. R. Duffin (Bloomington, 2000), pp.33035, suggests on p.333 that the Irish harp was completely different from other medieval harps, was elegant in its own way, and was played with sharpened fingernails in contrast with the players of gut-strung harps who used the fleshy part of the fingersan anachronistic but surprisingly tenacious modern comparison. 11 For example, John Evelyns diary, 20 January 1654 and 14 November 1668 (W. Bray (ed.), The diary of John Evelyn (London, n.d.), pp.273 and 418); Frances Bacon, Sylva sylvarum (1627), items nos.146, 223 and 278 (James Spedding et al. (eds.), The works of Frances Bacon (London, 1859), ii, pp.399400, 420, 433; Michael Praetorius, Syntagma musicum ii (Wlfenbttel, 1618), ch. 32, p.56 (Irlandisch harff mit messinges saiten). 12 J. Bannermann, The clrsach and the clrsair, Scottish Studies, xxx/3 (1991), pp.117. 13 The early terminology is disputed, however. 14 For example, Cairde na Cruite, Friends of the Harp, the Irish society promoting the neo-Irish harp. www. cairdenacruite.com (accessed 18 July 2007). 15 For example, the Wire Branch of the Clarsach Society, a special interest group for wire strung harp enthusiasts within the Scottish organization which promotes the neo-clarsach. www. clarsachsociety.co.uk (accessed 18 July 2007). 16 S. James, The Atlantic Celts (London, 1999). 17 J. R. R. Tolkien, English and Welsh, in The monsters and the critics (London, 1983), pp. 16297.

18 S. Chadwick, Old harps (2004), www.earlygaelicharp.info/harps (accessed 18 July 2007). 19 I have yet fully to catalogue these late Society instruments. See S. Chadwick, Late 18th and early 19th century Gaelic harps (2005), www. earlygaelicharp.info/harps/others.htm (accessed 18 July 2007). 20 R. B. Armstrong, The Irish and Highland harps (Edinburgh, 1904). 21 The papers for his other work, The history of Liddesdale, are in the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh. 22 For text and translation of the inscriptions, see A. J. Fletcher, Drama and the performing arts in preCromwellian Ireland (Woodbridge, 2001), pp.210 and 525. 23 Unless otherwise stated all instrument details are referenced from Armstrong, The Irish and Highland harps. 24 J. Rimmer, The morphology of the Irish harp, Galpin Society Journal, xvii (February 1964), pp.3949; also The Irish harp (Dublin, 1969). 25 E. Bunting, The ancient music of Ireland (Dublin, 1840), pp.20 and 312. 26 For example, the Downhill and Kildare harps are clearly of the high-headed type but Rimmer suggests they are perhaps large low-headed. 27 S. Chadwick, Stringing a Gaelic harp (2006), www.earlygaelicharp. info/stringing/advice.htm (accessed 18 July 2007). 28 The Hollybrook and the two Malahide harps; possibly also Rose Mooneys. This may be a development of the later 18th century, though none of these instruments is even approximately dated. 29 The Queen Mary harp has added iron fittings for a 30th string in the bass; these are copied on my replica and I am currently experimenting with their use. 30 It has been suggested to me by various people that both the Trinity and Otway harps may be composites; I have never seen any real evidence in support of either case. Both have been

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heavily restored with plastic resin filler, however. 31 N. Carolan, Two Irish harps in Co. Dublin, Ceol, vii (December 1984), pp.405. 32 R. Evans, Brass wire, Newsletter of the Wire Branch of the Clarsach Society, iv (June 2001), pp.1113; also A copy of the Downhill harp, Galpin Society Journal, l (March 1997), pp. 11926. For harpsichord wire, see M. Goodway and J. S. Odell, The historical harpsichord, vol.ii: The metallurgy of 17th and 18th century music wire (New York, 1987). 33 S. Chadwick, Stringing (2004) www.earlygaelicharp.info/stringing (accessed 4 July 2007). 34 The original argument for silver and gold strings was made by A. and C. Heymann, Strings of gold, Journal of the Historical Harp Society, xiii/3 (2003), pp.915, reprinted online with emendations at www.annheymann. com/gold.htm (accessed 27 July 2007). 35 Queens University, Belfast MS 4/29, pp.150, 153, 155, 156, 157. They are transcribed in C. Moloney, The Irish music manuscripts of Edward Bunting (Dublin, 2000), p.69. 36 The same chart was published (without the OHampsey attribution) by Bunting, The ancient music of Ireland, p.23. 37 According to Bunting, the string between D and G was tuned to F if the harp was tuned with f s, or E if the harp was tuned with F s. Alasdair Codona (personal communication) says that some tunes seem to require f s with bass E, and so suggests that this may not always have been strictly followed. 38 A. and C. Heymann, The lore of the Irish Harp, ire-Ireland, xxvi/3 (1991), pp.847; W. Taylor, Sister strings, Sounding Strings, xv (Winter 1998), pp.1516; A. Heymann, Harp, construction of the clairseach, in The companion to Irish traditional music, ed. F. Vallely (Cork, 1999), pp.17581. 39 Personal communication. 40 A. Codona, Harp keys, www. calumcille.com/modhan/iuchraichean/ priomh.html (accessed 4 July 2007). 41 Bunting, Ancient music of Ireland.

42 30 strings, C D E G A B c d e f g g a b c' d' e' f g a b c d e f g a b c d (where c is middle C). 43 For Queen Mary and Trinity replicas with 29 strings, G A B c d e f g g a b c d e f g a b c d e f g a b c d e f. 44 Macklin attempts to grapple with this in his article Approaches to the use of iconography. See also J. C. Schuman, Reversed portatives and positives in early art, Galpin Society Journal, xxiv (July 1971), pp.1621. 45 Bunting, The ancient music of Ireland, p.24. 46 For example, Siobhn Armstrong, Bill Taylor and Javier Sinz. 47 For example, Ann Heymann, Violaine Mayor and Simon Chadwick. 48 Billinge and Shaljean, The Dalway or Fitzgerald harp, pp.1846, also S. Chadwick, Nails, www.earlygaelicharp. info/nails (accessed 3 March 2008). 49 There are references in Chaucers Troilus and Criseyde, book II, stanza 148, line 1034, The complete works of Geoffrey Chaucer, ed. W. W. Skeat (Oxford, 1894), ii, p.221. Also in King Horn: R. B. Herzman, G. Drake and E. Salisbury (eds.), King Horn, www.lib. rochester.edu/camelot/teams/hornfrm. htm line 2356 (accessed 4 July 2007). 50 C. Baoill, Some Irish harpers in Scotland, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, xlvii (197072). 51 Bunting, The ancient music of Ireland, p.73. 52 Copies of six calotypes are in the National Gallery of Scotland, reproduced in S. Stevenson, David Octavius Hill and Richard Adamson, a catalogue of their calotypes[18431847] (Edinburgh, 1981). Edinburgh Central Library holds four, including one which is not in Stevensons catalogue, cat. no. (12) pYTR 140 H B4 B99. There is also one photograph, possibly later and by a different photographer, reproduced in Ulster Journal of Archaeology, xvii (1911). See K. Sanger, Patrick Byrne (17941863), www.clarsach.net/ Patrick_Byrne.htm (accessed 4 July 2007), also at http://spanglefish.com/ Clarsach/documents/ARTICLES/ KEITH_SANGER/Patrick_Byrne.doc

(accessed 4 July 2007). Also see K. Sanger, Portraits of an Irish harper, Folk Harp Journal, xlv (June 1984), p.19. 53 One of the 19th-century Society harps referred to above. This instrument is currently lost but there are persistent rumours of its existence in Ireland. 54 Ann Heymann, personal communication. 55 Bunting, The ancient music of Ireland, pp. 248, published online at www.earlygaelicharp.info/Irish_Terms (accessed 27 July 2007). 56 For example, Moloney, The Irish music manuscripts of Edward Bunting, p.48; G. Yeats, The harp of Ireland (Belfast, 1992), p.26. 57 A. Heymann, Coupled hands for harpers (Minneapolis, 2001). 58 A. Codona, Burns March: progressive lessons, www.calumcille.com/faoidheall/ burnsmarch/7.html (accessed 4 July 2007). 59 A. Heymann, Secrets of the Gaelic harp (Minneapolis, 1988); Heymann, A Gaelic harpers first tunes (Minneapolis, 1998). 60 Queens University, Belfast MS 4/29, pp.301 (ff.14v15r); Heymann, Secrets of the Gaelic harp, pp.669; Heymann, A Gaelic harpers first tunes, pp.247; Simon Chadwick, Clrsach na Bnrighe, egh1, 2008, track 8. 61 F. Buisman, A parallel between Scottish pibroch and early Welsh harp music, Hanes cerddoriaeth Cymru / Welsh music history, vi (2004), pp.146. For the mythical Irish origins of Welsh harp music, see S. Harper, So how many Irishmen went to Glyn Achlach? Early accounts of the formation of cerdd dant, Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies, xlii (Winter 2001), pp.125. 62 For example, Cornelius Lyons and William McMurchy; see S. Chadwick, Written tradition, (2005), www. earlygaelicharp.info/tradition/written. htm (accessed 4 July 2007). Also Cormack MacDermott; see Holman, The harp in Stuart England, p.190. 63 For oral tradition in Welsh harp music, see P. Toivanen, The pencerdds toolkit: cognitive and musical hierarchies

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in medieval Welsh music, Jyvskyl Studies in the Arts 78 (Jyvskyl, 2001). 64 S. Chadwick, Sources http:// earlygaelicharp.info/sources (accessed 4 July 2007). 65 Sanger and Kinnaird, Tree of strings, pp.1747. 66 For example, J. Bowie, Collection of strathspey reels and country dances (Perth c.1789), p. 31 system 3. 67 For example, National Library of Ireland, lo1635, commonly known as The compositions of Carolan. 68 Queens University, Belfast MS 4/29. 69 E. Bunting, A general collection of the ancient Irish music (London, 1796); A general collection of the ancient music of Ireland (London, 1809); The ancient music of Ireland (Dublin, 1840). 70 B. Madagin, Irish vocal music of lament and syllabic verse, in The Celtic conciousness, ed. R. ODriscoll (Portlaoise, 1981), pp.31132, at p.327; T. P. McCaughey, The performing of Dn, Eriu, xxxv (1984), pp.3957, at p.43; J. Rimmer, Harp function in Irish eulogy and complaint, Galpin Society Journal, l (March 1997), pp.10918. 71 For a fairly successful attempt to match tunes and lyrics, see D. OSullivan, The Bunting collection of Irish folk music and songs, Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, xxiixxix (192739), and D. OSullivan with M. Silleabhin, Buntings ancient music of Ireland edited from the original manuscripts (Cork, 1983). These only cover the tunes in Buntings three published volumes; there is a lot more music and text in the manuscripts that remains unpublished and unstudied. 72 Ann Heymann, Cruit go nr, Clairseach cmcd0706 (2006). 73 Siobhn Armstrong, Clirseach na hireannThe Harp of Ireland, Maya mcd0401 (2005). 74 S. Donnelly, A Cork musician at the early Stuart court: Daniel Duff OCahill (c.1580c.1660), The Queens harper, Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, cv (2000), pp.126. 75 J. Achtman (ed.), William Lawes: the harp consorts, Viol Consort Series No.62A (Albany, 2007).

76 Holman, The harp in Stuart England. 77 Billinge and Shaljean, The Dalway or Fitzgerald harp; Hadaway, A knot of harp strings; Taylor, The Cloyne harp, Sounding Strings (Spring 1998), published online at www.clarsach.net/ Bill_Taylor/cloyne.htm (accessed 18 July 2007). 78 What did move you to play the harp? Interview with Andrew Lawrence-King, Harpa Internet Magazine, xxii (24 May 2004), www. harpa.com/harpahom000z3l5h4x9r7/ 02224.5.04/lawrence_king.htm (accessed 12 September 2006); also Siobhn Armstrong, personal communication after Aldeburgh 2007, Masque of Moments. 79 For the Italian Baroque harp tradition, see J. Rimmer, The morphology of the triple harp, Galpin Society Journal, xviii (March 1965), pp.90103; J. Rimmer, The morphology of the triple harp II: addendum on a late Italian example, Galpin Society Journal, xix (April 1966), pp.614; R. Hadaway, The recreation of an Italian renaissance harp, Early Music, viii/1 (1980), pp.5962; S. Capp, Historic harps: a makers eye view, in Aspects of the historical harp: proceedings of the international harp symposium, Utrecht 1992, ed. M. van Schaik (Utrecht, 1994), pp.99104. 80 V. Galilei, Dialogo della musica antica et della moderna (Florence, 1581), p.143. 81 S. Donnelly, The famousest man in the world for the Irish harp, Dublin Historical Record, lvii (Spring 2004), pp.3849. 82 www.earlygaelicharp.info/history/ 19th.htm (accessed 27 February 2008). 83 A. Dolmetsch, Translations from the Penllyn manuscript of ancient harp music (Llangefni, 1937), with three gramophone records. 84 Personal communication; she described visiting modern harp makers who were openly derisive about the idea of wanting an early Irish harp. 85 N. J. Clark and C. Stauffer, Derek Bell, harper-composer (Lynwood, 2002).

86 www.annheymann.com (accessed 27 February 2008). 87 Queen of Harps, Temple comd2057 (1996), and Cruit go nr, Clairseach cmcd0706 (2006). 88 Secrets of the Gaelic harp (1988); A Gaelic harpers first tunes (1998); Coupled hands for harpers (2001). 89 Armstrong, The Irish and Highland harps. 90 www.irishharp.org (accessed 3 September 2007).
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