The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1907-01-12

found in Ireland by the Christian
world, instruments of percussion, wind
instruments and stringed instruments.
The harp as representative Of that
highest class Of instrumental devel-
opment was used in pagan Ireland as
is evidenced by its folklore. The early
Christian missionaries found solace in
it's soft music as did David of old;
history records them as accompanying
their singing with the harp
Certain it is that music attained
great perfection in Ireland in those
far-off centuries. In S55 Moengall, an
Irish monk, followed over seas in the
renowned memory, and took UP his
lnonastic labors in the monastery
founded by his countrymen about two
centuries and a half before. Theology
and music We're his specialties, and SO
well did he train his pupils that the
monastery OF. st. Call attained the
heighth of it's renown during his labors
there. One of the most cekbrated
European musicians Of the middle ages
received his musical education from
this Irish saint in the monastery of
st. Gall.
In 11S5 Giraldus Cambrensis visited
Ireland. He found country which.
although exhausted from it's struggle
with the Dane, had entered on the
Anglo Norman struggle. No allowance
judgment Of the Irish people. AS
member of an Anglo-Nornan party
sent on diplomatic business into Ire
land, his bias would be evident. but
his admiration for the skill displayed
by Irish musicians is frank and spon-
taneous. 1t is the admiration Of
man who understood the art Of the
musician and had had the benefit of
association with the culture of Eng
land and the Continent. In his COM
mendation he uses the word people"
not musicians" or synonymous terms,
thus bearing evidence to the univer-
salty OF the accomplishment. He
! writes: "1'' only thing to which
find that this people apply a COM
| lnendable industry is playing OH musi-
comparably more skillful than any
other nation 1 have ever seen. For
their modulation OH these instruments,
unlike that Of the Britons, to which
am accustomed, is not slow and
harsh, but lively and rapid, while the
harmony is both sweet and gay.
They enter into a move
ment and conclude it in so delicate
| manner, and play the little notes
sportively, under the blunter sounds
of the bass strings, enlivening with
wanton levity, or communicating
deeper sensation Of pleasure, so that
I, the perfection Of their art appears in
the concealment Of it." This certainly
sounds like the discriminating praise
of q connoisseur.
| No specimen of the harp used by the
musicians Of the middle ages has been
preserved. One said to date from the
fourteenth century is among the treas
urcs Of Trinity College, Dublin, and is
the most ancient. The form and size
of the musical instruments Of ancient
Ireland have become known to us
partly through excavations, but mostly
from the sculptured stories on Irish
mortuary crosses. The harps were
usually smaller than those of the pres
ent day, making them more portable
and accounting, in measure, for their
general use.
The harper, the piper the poet, in
fact, the man of any intellectual at
tainment had firm hold on the af-
fections of the Irisl, race, and honors
We're freely bestowed on them. We
read that in 1851 Margaret O'Connor
Of Offaly invited the learned men Of
ireland and Scotland to grand en-
!