Report on the Harping Tradition in Ireland

2. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HARP IN IRELAND
The Aristocracy
A frame supporting strings rising from a sound-box – that in essence is what a harp
is. This is why there are so many harp traditions around the world. It is not unusual,
therefore, that Ireland would have a harping tradition. What is significant is that the
harp came to have such status in Irish society – or, more precisely, Gaelic society.
Gaelic society was the dominant social structure across Ireland and the Scottish
Highlands up until the 1600s. These two territories were intimately connected. It was
across that Gaelic society that the harp was the instrument of the aristocracy. The
harper performed in various contexts – accompanying the words of the file or poet
that were recited by the reacaire or reciter, and composing and performing instrumental
music also.
This was the entertainment of the Gaelic aristocracy. It was high art, an indigenous
music that had developed over several hundred years, and around which an entire
culture of performance, composition, improvisation, ensemble and craftmanship had
accumulated.
Disruption
With the disruption through English plantations of Gaelic society in the 1600s – the
climax of waves of invasion that had started in the twelfth century – the role of harpers
began to change radically. The roles that were once separate now began to merge.
Harpers were increasingly solo artists – composing, playing and singing – travelling and
visiting the houses of patrons and providing entertainment for a living. They adapted
to the new power system, and were patronised by the courts and houses of English
aristocracy in Ireland as well as the Irish. Others left Ireland and have been documented
as performing at European courts.
The plantation of Ireland ultimately decided the fate of the Irish harping tradition,
but harmonic developments in European music also meant that tastes were changing
too. Turlough Carolan (1670–1738) from Nobber, Co. Meath – today Ireland’s most
celebrated early harper – tried to bridge the gap between the old and the new by
composing works that combined the Gaelic tradition with the new musical style
emanating from Italy.
But along with changes in musical style, musical literacy was also developing, and
would challenge the status of oral traditions. While Carolan was still alive, the first
printed collection of Irish music appeared, published by John and William Neal in
Dublin in 1724.
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