Grádh gan fhios - Love in Secret. Old Irish harp tune played by Simon Chadwick
Channel: Simon Chadwick
Date: 2021-05-13

Grádh gan fhios (Love in Secret) is an old Irish harp tune. It is said to have been composed by one of the Connellan brothers in the late 17th or early 18th century. Edward Bunting collected this tune from the playing of Hugh Higgins in 1792, and he also got the tune from Arthur O'Neill. 


This is a speculative reconstruction of the old Irish harp performance style, based on Bunting's field transcription from the 1790s. I am using new ideas about fingering and bass. Thanks to Sylvia Crawford for her important work in analysing and understanding the playing techniques - you can get her forthcoming book via http://sylviacrawford.net


You can read my analysis of the original field transcription manuscript on my blog here:
http://simonchadwick.net/2021/03/gradh-gan-fhios.html


The harp I am playing is a reconstruction of the NMI Carolan harp, made for me in 2019 by Pedro Ferreira http://rumor.pt



Some of the equipment used to create this video was funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.