Of love and lamentation: ancient harp music from Ireland

Said to have been composed in the early 17th century by the harper, Ruairí Dall Ó Cathaín, you will learn the story behind this beautiful melody in the memoirs of the later harper, Arthur O'Neill. We will compare the 1724 setting with earlier and later versions found in Scottish sources, and will discover, when we play it, why it was called an ‘arcanum' or mystery item.

We will recap the work of the previous session. Now we may also work on fleshing out the melody, adding a historically plausible, simple 'lower hand’. We will decide the relative importance of the notes in each phrase, understanding why we might accentuate some rather than others, finally playing with both hands together. 

This moving Jacobite lament was composed for a Viscount Galway, who fought on the side of James III, as he tried to win the throne of England. It has been tentatively attributed to the famous 18th-century Irish harper, Turlough Carolan. The beauty of this composition will help you to develop the sensitivity of your touch on the strings, and to enjoy the resonance of your harp. We will work from the 1724 source – John and William Neals' Colection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes, which I have reconstructed for early Irish harp for you along historically informed lines.

We will recap the work of the previous session. Now we may also work on fleshing out the melody, adding a historically plausible, simple 'lower hand’. We will decide the relative importance of the notes in each phrase, understanding why we might accentuate some rather than others, finally playing with both hands together.

The subject of this anonymous elegy is the Earl of Lucan, the military hero on the Jacobite side in the Williamite wars of the 1690s. One of the thousands of ‘wild geese’ forced to leave Ireland for ever when the war was lost, Sarsfield died fighting for the French in 1693. Taking our inspiration from the words, we will work on phrasing and dynamics to create the right atmosphere for a lament for a hero. We will explore the Neals' printed version, making historically informed choices to create a plausible version for our harps.

We will recap the work of the previous session. Now we may also work on fleshing out the melody, adding a historically plausible, simple 'lower hand’. We will decide the relative importance of the notes in each phrase, understanding why we might accentuate some rather than others, finally playing with both hands together.