AHJ, Vol. 7 No. 1, Summer 1979

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36 him to just that. He accepted the challenge, and from then on he was 'hooked.' It took him a year to produce the first model, but typically of him, he was not satisfied and continued to experiment with structural design, always with the singular thought that it must be an instrument with a simple design but a quality of tone." Once John Quinn was sure that he had a harp that was a practical instrument, he commenced to make them for selected customers in Ireland, the U.S.A., and Holland. All of this time, he continued to experiment with various woods, tuning blades, and various types of pins, and incorporated his new ideas into the current instrument. He expanded his market to France, Italy, and Germany and became internationally recognized. He was helped by his brother Daniel, who was a piano tuner and had ample experience in the tuning and tone qualities of instruments. When John died in 1960 Daniel Quinn decided to carry on the business, despite ill health and scarcity of materials. Patrick (Paddy) Quinn entered the business in 1966, doing both the managerial work and practical work in harp making and harp finishing, which is all hand-rubbed French-polishing. Paddy's sister, Mary, and her son, John Maguire, joined the family craft about 1972, and now Paddy's three sons are coming into harpmaking as well. The Quinn family's service to the R.I.A.M. goes back to the time of its establishment in Westland Row, about 1856. The Quinn brothers accepted my order for a new harp (in 1973), and about six months later my hand-made Irish harp arrived at SEA-TAC airport, still in tune from the hands of the Dublin harpmaker. The body of the harp is carved from one piece of mahogany, with rounded back and no seams. The neck and pillar are also of mahogany, French-polished to a rich brown. The soundboard is decorated with pokerwork, while the Dublin crest decorates the top of the pillar. The Quinn harp is 43 inches tall and 23 inches wide, and sits upon four little feet. It has 31 strings, of which five are fine wound wire and the rest of thin gut. The strings of the present-day Irish harps are noticeably thinner than the corresponding strings used for pedal harps. It is tuned like the Clark Irish harp, from bottom E to upper G, and has large brass tuning blades set in the neck to raise the pitch of each string. I was introduced to the venerable Sister Angela Walshe, O.P., by M~irin Ni Sh~ when I visited Sion Hill Convent last October. I was charmed by her dignified manner and speech, brilliant and twinkling eyes, small and great stature in white traditional nun's garb. I laughed to think how Paddy Quinn had shaken his head ruefully while he told me how Sister Angela had "pearsecuted my brither, John, until he made her a harp." The visionary, Sister Angela, was Mary O'Hara's singing teacher. • • • • • • • • • Several new harpmakers have appeared lately in Ireland. One is Joe Porter, who makes harps for Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann. These are available at their headquarters, Cult~rlann na hEireann, Belgrave Square, Monkstown, Co. Dublin. Another fine harpmaker is Calm Maher (Calm b Meachair), a former schoolteacher who has been making harps professionally for several years now. Calm has a fine workshop at The Craft Courtyard, Marley Park, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14. His harps, which I have played, are well made and have very good tone. All Irish harpmakers that I am acquainted with prefer to use the traditional gut strings, for best tone, with fine, wound wire strings in the bass. Wire-strung Harps Another whole category of Irish Harp, which, unfortunately I cannot cover now for lack of space and time, is the revival of the wire-strung harp. This very interesting subject deserves serious consideration, and, I might say, special technique. Alan Stivell, of Brittany, and Derek Bell, of Ireland, are the principal artists who perform on the wire-strung harps. Christopher Warren has done considerable research on the subject. A young American woman, Sylvia Woods, who tours and performs with Robin Williamson and His Merry Band, plays the wire-strung harp very expressively. Derek Bell Derek Bell came into my life, musically speaking, during the spring of 1975 when, laid up with a broken leg and unable to drive or play my pedal harp, I had plenty of time to listen to records. Fortunately I had just rewarded myself for completing extended University studies by the purchase of a recording with Irish Harp which I had noticed advertised in Folk Harp Journal: The Chieftains 4, with Derek Bell, harp. Until that time my sole source of inspiration in Irish Harp was Mary O'Hara and, as far as I knew at that time, she would always be apart from us, in the monastery to which she had retired years before. Derek brought me another, fascinating example of Irish Harp - solely instrumental, played expressively and fluently, both as solo and in the company of such jolly lot of musicians as I had never heard before! I was rejuvenated from the efforts of academic research, from the discouragements of attempting to play pedal harp in orchestra, and the confusion in my own mind about the existence of the instrument to which I had devoted so much lonely, academic study: the Irish Harp. Here was someone who really knew Carolan, who could pronounce for me the sounds I needed to hear to believe in the life of Irish instrumental music. It was an important turning point for me. From the anxiety that I would never play the harp again, since I couldn't play my pedal harp and wouldn't play my Irish harp, depressed as I was about the condition of Irish music at that time, I eventually coaxed my Irish harp to imitate the sounds of the lovely air, "Carrickfergus", and then the lively tune, "Morgan Magan", and even the mysterious "Mn~ na hEireann." heard for the first time as Derek played them. I even went out to play these tunes at the Northwest Regional Folklife Festival, on Memorial Day 1975, cast and all, and discovered other devotees of Irish music, right in my own back yard, one might say, and delightful music that I had never heard in all the years of classic music study at the University. By the next winter I received AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
The Chieftains 5, with Derek Bell's exotic Celtic harp featured on the cover, surrounded by the bold companion Irish instruments, and heard the exotic sound of Figure 5 Deidre O Callaghan playing the new Colm Haher Harp (1976) the wire-st~ing hari;i accompanying the Uilleann pipes in Roy Dall O Cathain's tune, "Give me your Hand." There was no turning back; the Irish Harp had found me and I heard it and the other grand Irish instrumental music. Presently came the good news from Sheila Cuthbert that Mary O'Hara had returned to the outer world and had resumed her career with most remarkable success. Now there were two inspiring examples of Irish Harp, the thoroughly womanly Mary O'Hara, and the thoroughly manly Derek Bell. 1976 brought me The Irish Harp Book by Sheila Cuthbert, a masterful collection of music for the Irish harp. 1977 brought The Chieftains 6, with more splen- SUMMER/1979 Figure 6 Derek Fleetwood Bell 1979 did harp music by Derek Bell, as well as his oboe and the delicious sound of his tiompan, which resembles the sound of hammered dulcimer but more jingly, and more Carolan tunes played on a replica of the metal-strung Offogerty harp. On the Chieftains Live recording we hear the familiar "Carrickfergus" and "Carolan's Concerto", but the loveliest is "Carolan's Farewell to Music", a piece I can't describe. Derek Bell's first solo album Carolan's receipt (Claddagh Records Ltd., CC18? was presented to me in appreciation of a little performance I gave of Carolan's music in Seattle, in 1977. I've been studying it ever since for it is a unique resurrection of Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738), recreated by Bell. We were promised Derek's second volume of Carolan pieces for last Christmas, but have seen no sign of it yet. It is to be called "Carolan's Favorite" and includes more of the old brass string harp, occasionally two harps, five numbers with strings, three with Chieftains, one with flute and one with pipes, but always one harp or another strongly solo. Thus far I have heard Derek only through recordings. I hope to hear him live this month in Vancouver, British Columbia on The Chieftains' first tour to the Pacific Northwest. Derek's music has already spoken for him, but one is interested to know where he came from and how. A native of Belfast, Derek holds degrees from Trinity College, Dublin, and from the Royal College of Music, London. He is proficient at the piano, oboe, cor anglais, xylophone, dulcimer and, needless to say, harp: double action harp, gut "neo-Irish" and medieval wirestrung harps, and tiompan. He is, in addition, a composer. He began his harp study, as an adult, with Sheila Larchet Cuthbert, followed by study with Gwendolyn Mason, O.B.E., in London, and later with Artiss de Volt, Sea Island, Georgia. In 1965 he joined the B.B.C. in Belfast as solo harper for the B.B.C. Northern Ireland Orchestra, but resigned this position in 1975 to devote his energies to the much-travelled and highly successful Chieftains. Mary O'Hara So much is currently written about Mary O'Hara, both in the popular press and in critic's reviews that I feel deafened by the clamour of voices rushing to tell us what I have believed for twenty years: that Mary O'Hara is a unique artist of great stature and compelling beauty. In order to avoid oversentimentalizing about a woman I have never met, nor heard perform in person, but have been strongly influenced by these twenty years, I will quote the words of her friend Padraig O'Tuathail in his notes to the recording, "Monday Tuesday" by Mary O'Hara, released in 1977 by Emerald Records Ltd. 9 After 13 years of monastic silence Mary O'Hara is back again on the music scene and in full bloom. She is giving recitals, doing radio and television programmes.and enchanting new friends (and old) with that voice that has sold her a million records. The music critics have given her an enthusiastic 37
Page 2 and 3: You Have The Right To Demand The Fi
Page 4 and 5: THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL The Offic
Page 6 and 7: * * * * * facilities. There are shu
Page 8 and 9: .Jane B. Weidensaul Haydn. 2 Howeve
Page 10 and 11: sliding the wood up and down, the s
Page 12 and 13: 10 Holliger's Sequenzen uber Johann
Page 14 and 15: trary, waiting a little longer will
Page 16 and 17: 14 Business and the Creative Arts A
Page 18 and 19: 16 The role of performing arts to b
Page 20 and 21: REQUIRED READING FOR HARPISTS: ROSL
Page 22 and 23: Scientific Practice by Jane B. Weid
Page 24 and 25: Elaine Humphreys Emmy Hurlimann Kum
Page 26 and 27: of the Society's goals and services
Page 28 and 29: 26 Obituaries A. Z. Propes The harp
Page 30 and 31: THE HARP STUDIO Quality repairs at
Page 32 and 33: -~4"'......,. t-' - .:..... ,.:-
Page 34 and 35: 32 the difficulty and hazard of tra
Page 36 and 37: Figure 1 M~irin Ni Sh~ and Pupils a
Page 40 and 41: 38 Mary O'Hara welcome. "A singer w
Page 42 and 43: 40 AMERICAN HARP SOCIETY, INC. SIXT
Page 44 and 45: 3 :00 PM to 4:00 PM Workshop: The E
Page 46 and 47: REGISTRATION - RESIDENTS (Housing-m
Page 48 and 49: RESIDENTS (Housing-meals package) m
Page 50 and 51: SKETCHES OF NEW MUSIC by Marion Ban
Page 52 and 53: 14. Are beginning harp students acc
Page 54 and 55: 52 Deiro's HARP CENTER Folk & Stude
Page 56 and 57: 54 Octave 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7
Page 58 and 59: 56 BJ\,,, MM. 12a, d, g. 13. Two. 1
Page 60 and 61: Dr. Shirley Meyer Blankenship Artis
Page 62 and 63: WINNING HAND! Iron
Page 64 and 65: Music Camp last summer Lisa's perfo
Page 66 and 67: 64 WRITE FOR OUR CURRENT BROCHURE C
Page 68 and 69: CHAPTER ACTIVITIES Each chapter is
Page 70 and 71: Dubuque are organizing a one day co
Page 72 and 73: FOR THE RHYTHM HARPIStS V-er1fe Mil
Page 74 and 75: Still time to sign up for the Harp
Page 76 and 77: 74 IRISH HARP Books, Music, and Rec
Page 78 and 79: THE MAGAZINE COLLECTOR At last! A m
Page 80 and 81: 78 CECILE CEO SIEBEN, B.M., M.M. 22
Page 82: 80 PENNY HOWK BEAVERS, B.M., Michig

AHJ, Vol. 7 No. 1, Summer 1979

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