Old Irish Harp Transcriptions Project – Page 7

Lady Maisterton

There is what looks like a live transcription of the tune of Lady Maisterton, in the middle of a load of material copied from printed books into Edward Bunting’s collecting pamphlets, at Queen’s University Belfast, Special Collections, MS4.29 page 206/204/213/f101v.

Planxty Dermot

On Queen’s University Belfast, Special Collections, MS4.29 page 191 there are two tunes written in a very similar style. At the top of the page is “Planxty Dermot” and at the bottom is “Cathal Mac Koo”.

Two difficult sections

One reason it has taken me a long time to get to my next tune is that there are a lot of pages in Queen’s University Belfast, Special Collections, MS4.29 which I have skipped. There is a big section of mostly or entirely Denis O’Hampsey material from pages 164 to 172, which I am skipping because I am concentrating on the other harpers. Then there are two sections which don’t seem to be harp transcriptions. I am less certain about identifying what these are, since my focus has been on spotting the harp style and idiom.

Bob Jordan

Edward Bunting made what looks like a live transcription of a harp performance of Bob Jordan, apparently in 1792. You can see the transcription notation at Queen’s University Belfast, Special Collections, MS4.29 page 162/160/169/f79v.

Molly George

The next couple of pages of Bunting’s transcription notebook (Queen’s University Belfast, Special Collections, MS4.29 p.158-60) are tunes from Denis O’Hampsey, and so I skipped over those to get to MS4.29 page 161 which has a tune titled “Molly George”.

My lodgings uncertain where ever I go

I had a look at the live transcription from an old Irish harper, of “My lodgings uncertain where ever I go”, on Queen’s University, Belfast, MS4.29 page 152/149/158/f74r.

Miss Hamilton’s Delight

I done a video demonstration of the tune “Miss Hamilton”, as apparently noted down live by Edward Bunting from the playing of an old Irish harper about 220 years ago.

Tuning the harp

Edward Bunting wrote down the sequence for tuning the harp, into one of his collecting pamphlets. I have previously used the neatest clearest copy from Queen’s University Belfast, Special Collections, MS4.29 page 156/153/162/f76r, and I published a copy in my Progressive Lessons source book along with a video demonstration of the neat copy. However, in the context of this Old Irish Harp Transcriptions Project, I thought it might be useful to look closely at the initial “dots” version on page 150/147/156/f73r.

Madam Cole

Edward Bunting made a live transcription of the tune of Madam Cole, from the playing of an old Irish harper, probably in the summer of 1796. The transcription is in Queen’s University Belfast, Special Collections, MS4.29 page 149/146/155/f72v. However, the transcription is too fragmentary to reconstruct a performance.

Fairy Queen

There are two separate transcription notations of Carolan’s Fairy Queen in Edward Bunting’s manuscripts. I don’t think anyone had noticed them before I found them while compiling my MS29 index PDF last year, because they are fragmentary and/or hidden.