This is a project to try and find out about Irish harpers who were continuing to play in the inherited tradition from 1790 through to about 1910.
These people (mostly men) learned from teachers who themselves had learned from teachers and so on in a lineage of tradition back through the 18th century harpers. They played on floor-standing wire-strung traditional Irish harps, using the traditional Irish harp playing techniques and style.
In 1839, the elderly Edward Bunting was living in Dublin and was preparing the piano arrangements and text for his final publication.
Two Belfast gentlemen wrote two different letters to him, about the then-still-living Irish harp tradition.
Continue reading Two letters to Edward BuntingIn the early 1900s, the Belfast carpenter William Savage and his younger brother Robert made a very decorative copy of the medieval Brian Boru (Trinity College) harp. When the harp was finished, brass wire strings were fitted by George Jackson.
George Jackson had learned harp from Patrick Murney, in a lineage going back to the 18th century Irish harpers. I recently started to wonder if some of Jackson’s strings might still be on the harp.
Continue reading “…George Jackson when he was stringing my Harp…”
