Essay: The Harping Tradition

History of the tradition, Belfast Harp Festival and Collectors

Harp music was very popular from the…………..century

15th to 18th

The harp dates back to the…………..century

9th

The harp had metal strings that would be………………….with the fingernails

Plucked

The harp had a rich……………tone

Bell

It was an……………….instrument

Aristocratic

The people who paid harpers to compose and perform pieces

Patrons

The decline of the harping tradition was due to the …………………….

Plantations

Few patrons could……………..to pay harpers

Afford

The harpers then became…………….as they went from house to house player folk music 

Itinerant

Ireland’s most famous harper

Turlough O’Carolan

O’Carolan was born in Nobber,Co Meath in………………

1760

He(Turlough) was a …………harper

Blind

O’Carolan composed hundreds of harp pieces such as……………..

Planxty Irwin

The Belfast Harp Festival was organised in ……… to promote and preserve ancient harp music

1792

Eleven harpers played at the event,…………… Irishmen and one Welshman

Eleven

………….…………was the oldest harper at the festival at age 96

Denis Hempson

Hempson played with a long …………………style

Fingernail

19 year old organist ……………………………….notated all the music that was played at the festival

Edward Bunting 

Bunting’s notations saved the ancient harp tunes from ………………………

Extinction

Some of the tunes Bunting notated include Fairy Queen and ……………….

Lord Mayo

Edward Bunting was the first of several collectors to collect Irish tunes in a …………… and informative

systematic 

Francis O’Neill collected Irish …………… music

Dance

“O’Neill’s Music of Ireland” contained over …………… pieces of music

2,000

George Petrie was a painter and a musician who also ……………..thousands of pieces as he travelled

Collected

One of Petrie’s collected pieces include …………………now known as “Danny Boy”

Londonderry Air