Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1886-06-02
FAMOUS IRISH HARPERs.
The Mtnstrels Who Made the Poetry
and Music of Ireland World

harp IN ireland is description OF the Teach
Mid Chuarta or Hall of Tara, written, ac-
cording to Petrie, probably in the sixth CEN
tury, and alluding to a custom Of the third,
by which places were set apart in the hall
for the cruitire or harpers. The author of a
poem in A. D. 594 on the death of Colom-
ba, mentions the harp as accompanying his
song; and later still harp was found rep
resented on an old sculptured cross in Ullard
church, county Kilkenny, which from its
style and worn condition is apparently ante
rior to A. D. $780, the date assigned to the
famous cross of Monasterboyce. 1t is OBJ
servable that there are only seven strings in
the Ullard harp, and that it has no fore pill
lar, the first specimen says Ferguson, lin
Bunting's ''Irish Music'0 ''of the harp with
out fore-pillar that has hitherto been dis
covered out of Egypt" adding that this cir
cumstance justifes ''the startling presump-
ton that the Irish have had the harp origi-
nal1y out of Egypt"
There is some evidence of the existence in
1340 of school of harpers under the direc-
ton of a renowned harper named O'Carrol;
and decade later harp was rudely but ac-
eurately engraved on the beautiful f'Fiachal
Phodr1ng" or reEquary in which ST. Pat
rlck's tooth is said TO have been preserved.
Petfle says thirty strings visible in the
engraving, which fact would go far to prove
that that number was in use in Ireland be-
fore 1850. The same author also assigns to
this period the origin of the harp referred to
above, commonly but enormously known as
Brian Boru's harp and preserved in the mu-
scum of Trinity college, Dublin The harp
popularly known as the harp of Brian Boru
is not only the most ancient instrument of
the kind known to exist in Ireland, but is in
all probability, the Oldest harp now remain
ing in Europe. Still, however, it is very far
from being of the remote age to which it is
popularly supposed to belong; and tine legen-
dairy story on which this supposition is
grounded and which has been fabricated to
raise its antiquity and increase its historical
interest, is but clumsy forgery, which will
not bear for moment the test of critical an
tiquarian examination. Petrie discovered
that the arms on it are not those of the
O'Brien, but of the O'Neill sept; that from
its size (thirtv-two inches) and other signs,
it was evidently Ceirnin or religious harp
and that it belonged in all likelihood to one
of two O'Neills in the fourteenth century
bishops respectively of Clogher and Derry.
This remarkable harp is of exquisite work
manship. The upright pillar is of oak, the
sounding board of yellow sallow, the extrem-
ity OF the forearm is capped with silver and
the thirty string holes are neatly ornamented |
with carved brass. The four sounding holes |
were once adorned with silver, removed pre- |
sumably by the fingers of time or thief: |
and the parts of the harp to which it was |
Joined show considerable signs of decay |
The Irish possessed four kinds of harps-
the Clarsech, or common harp; the Ceirnin, |
or small religious harp; the Ciunard Cruit, |
or high h-headed harp, and the Crom Cruit, or
down-bending harp. The first was that used
by the bards and harpers, and is the Irish
harp properly SO called; the second, more ex-
c1usiyely clerical, probably accompanied
Druidical as later Christian hymns. The
Ciunard Cruit and Crom Cruit, though
styled harps, were more strictly of the violin
and guitar types; indeed they may be con-
sidered the parents of those instruments.
The former had ten strings and was played
with plectrum or bow; the latter pos
sessed six strings, two of which were touched
with the thumb. Bunting adds two other
narps to the four given by Walker and COM
monty referred to; the Craiftin's Cruit, a
name derived from an Irish legendary hero
and the Lub, poetical name of the harp.
In the fifteenth century Robert Nugent,
Jesuit, made some useful improvements in
the Irish harp, closing both the open space
between the trunk and arm and right sound !
hole and adding another row of strings, by |
which arrangement the treble could be played |
with the right hand and the bass with the |
left, which was also new departure, since |
Irish harpers, like their brethren Of Wales |
were accustomed to the opposite method.
But those additions, ingenious though they
undoubtedly were, found scant favor, the
old form of the harp being preferred to that
which such innovations gave it. The infiu-
ence exercised by Irish harpers at home and
abroad is worthy of passing notice. Each
Irish ehieftain kept bard or harper i'll his
castle, whose extemporaneous effusions
while his fingers swept the strings, spurred
his lord on to valorous deeds or filled him
with dread of retribution the occasion
required. This influence apparently excited
the jealous attention of the Virgin Queen,
for in 1868 she caused an act of Parliament
to be passed against the Irish bards and
their entertainers.
Long before Ireland's national instrument
hung 'Emute on Tara's walls" it's fame
reached other lands. In 100 the Welsh had
their musical canon regulated by Irish harp
ers; besides there are not wanting grounds
for supposing that Cambria owes the harp to
Erin. As in Wales, so in Scotland and Eng
land, the Irish harps and harpers were re-
nowned. Neither country cultivated |
the harp to any extent; they were content to |
hear its strains awakened by Irish fingers. |
Buchanan states that Ethidius, the twenty |
fifth Scottish monarch, kept an Irish harper |
in his palace; Rory Dali O'Cahan passing |
into Scotland delighted the ears of her James |
and his court by his brilliant execution. |
Denis Henson played before the Pretender |
in Edinburgh; and Echlin O'Kane, after ex- |
hibiting his skill in Italy, France ani Spain,
resided for years in Scotland prior to his
death, and was well known chiefly about
Blair-Athol and Dunkeld. In English, as in.
Scottish halls and leafy glens, have Irish
bards discoursed sweet music to appreciative
ears. mo harpe," wrote Bacon, ''hath the
sound so melting and so prolonged the
Irish harpe" In 1913 the death throes of
the Irish harp began, for in the March of
that year Turlough O'Carolan expired, whose
genius had revived its ancient glories for
half century Others followed him who
shed a bright luster upon it, but it was the
after-glow of the sun that had set Undis
puted prince of Irish harpers, O'Garolan, un-
like many, obtained niche in the temple of
fame, while his harp and his songs were en-.
trancing his people. Posterity has ratified
the verdict. Two only of his successors
have approached him within anything like
measurable distance-Denis Hempson and
Arthur O'Neill. The latter achieved much
fame. but was acknowledged to be inferior to
the former in execution. Hempson attained
the great age of one hundred and twelve
years; his harp is preserved in baronet's
family at Downhill. Vigorous efforts were
made at the close of the last century and be-
ginning of this to rekindle the expiring flame |
of national interest in the harp, but with |
little success. |
Adipose Stage Favorttes.