The eighteenth century was a particularly interesting time for the Irish harping tradition. It bore witness to a number of important events and historical figures, such as the numerous harping festivals (culminating with the Belfast Harp Festival of 1792), Edward Bunting’s important work, and the array of tunes composed by the great Turlough O’Carolan. But of equal importance is the decline of the tradition throughout this period; and the harp in the context of patriotism in Ireland at this time. As well as this, the instrument itself became increasingly complex in comparison to previous centuries, which will be discussed.
The Belfast harp festival was one of extreme benefit for the harp, although it failed at its original purpose of ensuring the continuation of the instrument. Thanks to the work of Edward Bunting, a great deal was done to preserve the tunes and character of the ten Irishmen and single Welshman in attendance. It signalled the end of the decaying harping tradition, which had “continued unbroken for two thousand years”.
However, prior to the Belfast Harp Festival and the work of Edward Bunting, there were a series of other attempts to sustain the harping tradition in the latter half of the eighteenth century, known as the Granard Festivals, held in 1781, 1782 and 1785. Described as ‘balls’ by Arthur O’Neill in his Memoirs (1840), they offered prizemoney for the top three players, and in the final one, every participant was rewarded. There were seven harpers in attendance for the first year of the festival, which increased to eleven by the final year. Unfortunately, as the same three harpers won the competition on each year, there was a general feeling of upset amongst the competitors. When the organiser James Dungan attended the final festival, he was said to be so disgusted by the unpleasantness that he would not sponsor anymore festivals. This was a great shame, as the number of harpers attending, and the number of listeners were increasing, with upwards of 1000 listeners during the last event.
The Belfast Harp Festival was a four-day-long event, and far more elaborate than the Granard Festivals. There were a number of similarities between the two festivals: prizes would be awarded to top competitors with every participant receiving a reward, and travel expenses paid for all. An advertisement which appeared in the Belfast Newsletter in 1792 states that: ‘it is hoped that no performer will decline on account of his having been unsuccessful on any former occasion’. This shows the fragility of the harping community; by acknowledging the failures of the Granard festivals gives a sense of just how small and delicate the world of the harpers was at this time.
The festival also had a distinctly patriotic aura surrounding it, with figures such as Theobold Wolfe Tone and James Russell in attendance. The image of the harp was recognised as a symbol of Gaelic culture, with the image of a gold harp on a green background becoming the flag of the movement. Although the harping tradition was dying, its image already represented a long and rich history of Gaelic culture which had begun to be yearned for in the late 18th century patriotic figures. The United Irishmen began to use the Irish harp to unite “all classes, sects, and creeds in Irish society”. However, Wolfe Tone was less than impressed with the music of the harpers, sounding quite weary of them in his diary entry from the final day of the festival: “Generally in low spirits…the harpers again, strum, strum, strum and be changed”.
Edward Bunting was born in 1773 in Armagh, and was 19 at the time of the Belfast Harp Festival. He was a classically trained organist, and his first real experience with Irish traditional music was at the Harp festival. During the festival, he was employed to notate the songs, tunes, and the style of performance of the eleven harpers. As Thomas Moore writes in his 1840 collection: ‘There can be no doubt that to the zeal and industry of Mr Bunting her country is indebted for the preservation of her old national airs’.
It was the notes taken of the performance that proved to be of greatest value from a historical standpoint, as without them the harpers today would have no idea of what the older style was. Bunting recorded the playing techniques, ornamentation, and the names of the fingerings and various parts of the harp. He also described the tuning of the instrument, and the various modes used in the music. He acquired the majority of this information through Hempson and O’Neill, and his own observations. Bunting moved around them, taking down the music in his little notebooks, diligently collected some of the best airs in Irish traditional music.
As a consequence of the aforementioned fact that Bunting was classically trained, an element of caution should be utilised when reading the transcriptions published of the Belfast Harp Festival in his first book A General Collection of The Ancient Irish Music, published in 1796. Bunting struggled to take down the bass and melody at the same time, and only certain tunes have even a fragmented bass line. Another major element missing is that Bunting did not write down the repeats of tunes, thus losing the variations in ornamentation. He was quoted as saying that: “Although the words of songs may change, the music never changes”. Bunting seemed to have become unsure of his memory in some cases as well. These characteristics are reflected in his collections, and taint his work as well as our deeper understanding on how the music was performed.
A number of tunes published in Edward Bunting’s first collection in 1796 were accredited to Turlough O’Carolan, a prolific composer at the beginning of the century. O’Carolan was born in 1670 in Nobber, Co. Meath. However, at the age of 18 he moved with his family to Carrick-On-Shannon, and lost his sight at the age of 18 due to smallpox. He later died in 1738 after his health declined. After becoming blind, he spent three years learning the harp off a harper by the name of MacDermott-Roe. After this period, he set off as an itinerant harper.
During his harping career he composed a repertoire of about 200 items, ranging from 12 to 50 bars in length. However, it is more than likely that with a working life of at least 45 years, the pieces which survived are only a portion of his complete works. Gráinne Yeats describes his as ‘Ireland’s only true national composer’, an inspiring descriptor. These songs were predominantly dedicated to patrons, and only a handful bared a type of tune in its name. However, perhaps the most notable caveat of Carolan’s tunes were that they imitated art music popular at the time, ‘crossing the bridge’ between traditional music and art music. This ‘mixture of Irishness and non-Irishness’ proved to be a success with the patrons of the time. Carolan was undoubtedly greatly inspired by Baroque music and composers of his time, such as Vivaldi and Verdi. This is illustrated in the tune known as ‘Carolan’s Concerto’, through its use of sequences, blended into a more traditional sounding reel in a very fluid manner. However, although in possession of a great ear, the use of sequences confuses the melody of the tune, and highlights the lack of ‘musical knowledge’ he had received in the subject.
Figure 1: Sequences in Carolan's Concerto
Little is known about the accompaniment used by Carolan during his playing, however, it is thought that he used traditional harping techniques in which he had been trained.
The harp itself had evolved greatly over the centuries before it, and also during the 18th century itself. Evolving from small, low-headed harps similar to the Brian Ború Harp (circa 14th century) to large high-headed harps by the 18th century, with a number of older styled low-headed harps still being played, such as Denis Hempson at the Belfast Harp Festival.
Withal, as the music the harps were intended to play developed, this old music had become largely forgotten, thus making the harps obsolete. The harps of the 18th century differed from previous iterations, and can be distinctly characterised by the upswept neck. This made the bass strings far longer than the treble strings when compared to the older low-headed harps. They were played in much the same fashion, and had a large solid soundbox. Harps at this time were made using willow for all parts of the frame, with the exception of Carolan, who used a harp with a sycamore soundbox, and these harps weren’t exquisitely decorated in the style of older harps, reflecting their life as instruments of itinerant musicians, travelling from house to house much like Carolan. The tuning of the harps at this time was more similar to the older generations than their European equivalents, being tuned diatonically and often described to be five octaves. There were around 35-40 stings on the harp, with Arthur O’Neill stating that: ‘thirty-five in general being considered enough’.
I am of the opinion that the 18th century was a very important one in the context of the Irish harp. There are a number of key events which have helped Irish traditional music greatly in the following years, even if the harp itself went extinct. Thanks to the immeasurable work done by those such as Bunting and Carolan, they have ensured that the music passed down through the generations of harpers is not all lost to us today, facilitated by the various festivals held at the end of the century, and the receding aristocratic interest in the music of the harpers at the beginning of the century. The idea that the symbol of the harp had become so ingrained with the image of Ireland by the end of the eighteenth century, but that the skill was lost at the same time is an interesting one, and shows the importance of the harp itself for the eighteenth century in one sense.