Tag: Old Irish harp transcriptions project

This project was my main focus from Autumn 2019 through to Spring 2022. The idea was to identify, categorise, catalogue and analyse live transcription notations of traditional Irish harp performance practice.

So far, almost all of the live transcription notations I have identified were done by Edward Bunting, done between 1792 and about 1802. I have made a a tune-list spreadsheet which lists all of the live transcriptions I have so far identified, and PDF indexes and text-transcripts of the key transcription notebooks: Queen’s University Belfast, Special Collections MS4.29, MS4.33.1, and others.

Bonny Portmore

Edward Bunting made a live transcription notation of the tune of “Bonny Portmore” into one of his collecting pamphlets in the 1790s.

Two mystery tunes

One of the fun parts of my Old Irish Harp Transcriptions Project is discovering previously unrecognised or neglected live “dots” transcriptions of well-known tunes, most spectacularly with the Fairy Queen. And so the corollary is that one of the most irritating parts of the project is to find clear complete transcriptions of tunes that I cannot recognise from anywhere else.

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”.

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”.

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.