Timeline
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currently being developed,
much more information and several
links will appear here soon
Earliest
origins of harps in Ireland:
Records of harps, Irish harpers
and their music from early times are very slim largely due to the plundering
and destruction of records by Vikings.
MacFirbis MS Book of Genealogies
mentions 3 great Tuatha de Danann musicians
Ceol (music)
Bind (sweet)
Tetbind (sweet-string)
plus a chief harper called Uathne
(harmony).
More information on these legendary
musicians will be added soon
Legends of the Milesians mention
that they were accompanied by harpists on their first expeditions to Ireland
they were.
Unfortunately, there are very few
historic harps preserved in Ireland, but Egypt does have preserved harps
from 2000 B.C., from around the time of Rameses II. Harp players, their
skills and their descendants are likely to have travelled north of the
Mediterranean and across to Ireland.
The earliest harps in Ireland were
either plucked with plectrums or played with bows and the preference was
for brass strings rather than gut.
.
Current Irish names have links to
the performers of these earliest harps.
MacCurtin family were cruit players,
with cruits being ancesters to the modern harps. The Tumpane and Tumpany
families have origins with the timpan players. Timpans were bowed harps
with 3 to 8 strings and were predecessors to modern fiddles.
Tunes composed on Timpans were known
as "dumps".
More info on the earliest harps,
harpers and their music will be added here soon ......
500 BC:
Heccataeus, a geographer, described
Celts Of Ireland singing songs praising Apollo and accompanying these songs
with a stringed instrument that appears to be a form of harp. They used
a scale and tablature with letters named after trees
Early Christian:
Here are some undated references
to early Irish harp music .......
Archbishop Healy says that St. Patrick
taught harper bards to tune their harps to accompany the singing of the
Psalms of David.
Hebrews used poetry and music for
religious worship. The Greeks then cultivated the idea of using both for
arts, mythology and fantasy and used music performed on harps to accompany
words and poetry.
Legends mentions that the use of
harp by the Greeks inspired Irish monks and priests. One of the earliest
documented was St. Kevin at Glendalough who is said to have imported a
small harp from Greece to accompany prayer chants. His harp had few strings
and was probably a lyre.
544:
"Dinn Seanchus", compiled by Amergin
MacAmalgaid (MacAwley), mentions harpers meeting together, as many as 1000
at an event.
560:
The last Feis, a competitive Irish
music festival, was held at Tara Hill.
It was an event arranged by a Dermot
McFergus and would have featured harpists.
590:
The Synod of Drumceat, near Limavady
prohibited minstrels, mainly harpists, from living nomadic lives and they
were assigned "apartments" in mansions of princes and chiefs around Ireland.
592:
This year is said to be the origin
of a unique Irish music technique known as "ground bass" or "peddle point".
The sound is a harmonious bass drone that is added to a voice or voices
and the sound was either provided by harps or a bass voice. When this part
was provided by a voice it was known as croning because the voice purred
and vibrated. A deviation of this caused old women to be called crones
because of their husky mummering voices.
In debates of what is and what is
not "traditional" Irish music it is certain that chants, songs and music
containing the "ground bass" technique is genuinely of Irish origin.
596:
Adamnan's "Life Of St. Columba"
refers to a harp melody being played at his death in this year.
600:
At around this time there appeared
to be two types of harps played.
The most common was the "Cruit",
a small harp also known as a lyre. It had a neck and fingerboard. The instrumenty
only had 6 strings and 4 of these were on the fingerboard. It was played
like an Appalachian dulcimer or zither. Sometimes it was also played with
a bow. The performer was known as a "Cruitire"
The "Clairseach", which was similar
to the harps we are more familiar with today, was also played at this time.
They had 29 - 60 strings with 30 strings being the most common. The basic
tuning was G. Some had fasteners, known as "ceis", that could change keys
to C or D.
612:
The St. Gall's school of music was
founded in Switzerland by Irish harper Cellach, from Bangor, Co. Down,
who's name was latinized to Gallus or Gall.
634:
According to the "Annals of Ulster"
this was the year of the death of Ailill the harper, son of Aedh Slaine.
More information about him soon.
890:
Tuathal, an Irish harp and psaltery
player, became head master of Europe's leading music school at St. Galls
in Switzerland. His name was latinized to Tutilo. Under that name he composed
many "tropes" that were published by Pere Schubiger. These tunes contained
many characteristics, such as "ground bass" that define Irish music today.
"Hodie cantandus" and "Onmipotens Genitor" are two examples.
950
- 1095 :
There was a continual exodus of
Irish harpers to Wales where they found more work.
1100:
The first Eisteddfod in Caerwys,
Wales was held to present the music and songs of Irish harpers and pipers.
This has been the model of traditional Welsh festivals since, which now
present mainly music that has become tradition of the Welsh.
The importance of this first festival
was to draw up rules and code for music. King Griffith of Wales called
upon King Murtogh of Ireland to supply a "professor of music" to teach
Welsh bards scales, orchestration and other music theory used by the Irish.
Murogh selected a talented performer
called Malachy. Malachy worked with some Welsh bards to develop their music
into a structured form. The Eisteddfod then became a presentation of musical
models that the Welsh bards and musicians were encouraged to follow.
Later that year Malachy and the three
Welsh bards he taught presented a similar festival in Ireland, a Feis,
at Glendalough, Co. Wicklow.
From this time, and possibly due
to the influence of this Feis at Glendalough, bishops, priests and clerics
were encouraged to learn harp playing. They travelled with small harps
to accompany and harmonize chants and enhance their prayers and meditation.
Irish missionaries introduced and
taught harp playing and Irish sacred music around England at Lindisfarne,
Durham, Lichfield, Ripon, Malmesbury, Norwich, Penzance, Glastonbury etc.
England ended up approaching the
music different to the Irish. In Britain the harp became a solo instrument
performing lively tunes while in Ireland the harp continued to be used
as ambient harmony to chants and song.
The lively jigs, reels, slides and
hornpipes that many currently interpret as traditional Irish music actually
have their origins in the English and Anglo Irish music styles that developed
from this time.
From this time English and Anglo-Irish
music focused on tunes while Irish music continued to focus on harmonies.
To compare the difference, we can
listen to modern groups performing Irish music. It is likely that the music
styles of Anuna and Clannad are more Irish than The Chieftains and Altan.
1110:
Blind harper, Ferdomnach, Lector
Of Kildare, also known then as "Master Of Harping" was killed. More information
on this man will be published soon.
1137:
Griffith apConan, King of North
Wales, a talented harper who was born in Ireland, died.
1220:
The so called "Brian Boru's Harp",
now housed in Trinity College, Dublin, was not built at the time when Brian
Boru was the hero of Clontarf. It was built in this year for Donnchadh
Cairbre O'Brien, King of Thomond. The harp hosted 30 metal strings compassed
from C below the bass stave to D above the treble stave.
1221:
O'Brien's "Brian Boru's Harp" is
sent to Scotland, to pay a pledge for the return of bard Muiredach O'Daly
of Lissadil, Co. Sligo. O'Daly had fled Ireland to Alba in Scotland after
he killed Finn O' Bradley in a fit of rage after O' Bradley insulted the
bardic profession. O'Bradley was a steward of Donal mor O'Donnell, Prince
of Tyrconnell.
O'Daly's value as a performing bard
in Ireland earned him a pardon in his absence.
It is interesting to consider that
O'Daly's bardic talent was regarded as more valuable to O'Brien than his
own valuable harp.
1225:
Aedh, a harp maker, son of Donlevy
O'Sochlann, Vicar of Cong, died. Aedh's legacy was that he designed and
developed a new method of harp tuning with fasteners that is still used
on Irish harps today.
1229:
O'Brien tried to buy back his "Brian
Boru's harp" from Scotland but without success.
1230:
Old Irish harp tune, Latinized to
be titled "Sumer is icumen in (The Summer Is Coming), is scribed by John
Fornsete, a Benedictine monk of Reading. The tune was made famous when
it was applied by Thomas Moore to his lyrics of "Rich And Rare".
More important, "Sumer is icumen
in", is the earliest known double canon that included the unique Irish
music technique of "ground bass". The effect is quite melancholic and Gothic.
1251:
Coins stamped in Dublin feature
the King's head within a harp.
The harp was already part of the
Leinster coat of arms and became the symbol of all of Ireland by 1266.
1287:
Amongst the deeds at Christ Church,
Dublin is a record describing that land was granted to "Roger The Harper".
Maybe we'll find out who Roger was, one day :-).
1300:
Interesting Dante quote written
this year ....
"The most ancient instrument was
brought to us from Ireland, where they are excellently made, and in great
numbers, the inhabitants of that island having practised on it for many
ages. Nay, they even place it in the arms of the kingdom, and paint it
on their public buildings, and stamp it on their coins, giving it as a
reason their being descended from the Royal Prophet David."
1329:
Clyn, an annalist and Guardian of
the Franciscan Friary of Kilkenny, included the following entry while describing
the massacre of Sir John Bermingham, Earl of Louth, near Ardee.......
"Maelrooney MacCerbhaill (O'Carroll),
chief musician of the kingdom and his brother Gillakeigh, a famous timpanist
and harper, so pre-eminent that he was a Phoenix in his art, were killed
in that company, and with him fell twenty timpanists who were his scholars"
1330:
Edward III pardoned all Anglo-Irish
who took part in the 1329 battle, and this included John the Harper of
Ardee, Co. Louth.
1340:
"Carraig-an-chiuil", the Rock of
Music, now known as Muckross Abbey, Killarney, was founded.
Mor (Donnell) MacCarthy, son of Tadhg,
had a dream or vision to build a Franciscan monastery at a place called
"Carraig-an-chiuil". He dispatched several of his followers or stewards
into different directions to search for this visioned place. One or more
of his followers heard what they thought was enchanting music coming from
a rock at Irrelagh in Killarney. When MacCarthy heard the news he ordered
the building of the monastary to commence there immediately.
1351:
William MacDonogh invited all Irish
poets, bards and harpers to his house for Christmas to perform and all
were rewarded.
1352:
Thierry writes ....
"Every house preserved two harps,
always ready for travellers, and he who could best celebrate the liberties
of former times, the glory of patriots, and the grandeur of their cause,
was rewarded with a more lavish hospitality."
1367:
Statute of Kilkenny made it penal
for any Anglo Irish of English to receive or entertain Irish bards, poets,
harpers and pipers. The fear was that these Irish entertainers were spies
that informed the Irish rebels about Anglo Irish movements.
1369:
Two famous harpists of the time,
John MacEgan and Gilbert O'Barden, both from Ardagh, died.
1371:
Harpist, Amhlaim (Andrew) MacSenaigh,
known as "master of melody died of plague at Tuam.
1375:
Despite the Statute of Kilkenny
one Irish harpist was given license to perform in houses of the English.
His name was Donal O'Moghan and his license was given in reward for being
a traitor to the Irish through providing Irish rebellion plans to the English.
Donal's actions also inspired other Irish bards to become traitors due
to the attraction of good rewards from The Anglo Irish.
1379:
Gillacuddy O'Carroll died. The line
of O'Carolls had become famous for their composition of songs and harp
music. This O'Caroll may have originally composed the song "Aileen Aroon"
1390:
Carrol O'Daly composed the music
and applied the words of "Aileen Aroon" in honour of Eibhlin Kavanagh of
Polmonty Castle near New Ross, Co. Wexford.
O'Daly became described by annalists
as the "chief composer of Ireland"
1394:
According to Froissart, a sumptuous
banquet was given by King Richard II for Irish chieftains and the harpers,
minstrels and bards and they all sat at the same table.
1405:
Carrol O' Daly dies.
1433:
Aedh O'Corerain, described by the
Annals of Ulster as a remarkable harpist, died
1435:
By this time the Statute of Kilkenny
was totally ignored. The Anglo Irish thirst for Irish harp music was greater
than the risk of these harpers slipping damaging information back to the
Irish.
Henry VII commissioned a Marshal
In Ireland with the job of imprisoning performing harpers and seizing their
gold, silver, horses and harps which the Marshal could keep as payment.
1460:
Irish Cistercian monk, Brother Aengus,
of Holy Cross Abbey, Co. Tipperary was welcomed as a harper into the community
of Duiske, now Graignamanagh, Co. Kilkenny. He had won the favour of the
then English Abbot after repairing the Abbey organ which had been unplayable
for many years. In return he was allowed to perform with his harp for religious
worship despite the Statute of Kilkenny.
1481:
A new re-written harsher Statute
of Kilkenny act was passed that totally forbid any English or Anglo-Irish
person from hiring an Irish harper.
Rather than risk ruin most Irish
harpers visited Scotland for work.
1490:
It was reported that Irish harpers
performing at royal functions in Scotland were paid 18 shillings per performance.
1509:
A boom in Irish harp making commenced
throughout Ireland.
1524:
Patrick Finglass, Anglo-Irish noble,
Chief Baron of the Exchequer proposed that all minstrels and bards, including
harpists, resident with the English Pale should have all of their possessions
forfeited and themselves be imprisoned.
This order was followed by most noblemen
except the Earls of Kildare, Desmond and Ormonde who insisted on keeping
their Irish harpers.
1533:
A proclamation was issued in England
to destroy and suppress songs sung in the English language. Robert Cowley,
a Collector of Customs in Ireland, tried to extend the proclamation to
include songs sung in Irish too.
1534:
O'Keenan (Nelan), harper to Silken
Thomas, struck up a song in praise of the lord in St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin.
Geraldine was present who threw down his sword of state and went into rebellion.
1537:
Robert Cowley, a Collector of Customs
in Ireland, wrote to Secretary Cromwell claiming that harpers and bards
were active in extortions, robberies, and other abuses.
1540:
Lord Leonard Grey, Viceroy of Ireland,
was censured by the English Privy Council for plundering bars, rhymers
and harpists. He was replaced by Sir Anthony St. Leger who pursued a policy
of conciliation towards bards, minstrels and harpists.
Pardon was granted to blind harper
Owen Keenan, a minstrel for Gerald, Earl of Kildare resident at Cappanargid,
Co. Kildare. Pardon was also given to his harper son, Cornelius Keenan.
1541:
A Parliament session held in Limerick
passed a bill that made it an offence for any poet, bard or minstrel to
compose songs with subject matter other than praise for God and kings.
Any songwriter breaking that law would have their goods and land forfeited.
At this time bards, minstrels and
harpers were paid with land for their services.
The Limerick bill was largely ignored.
From this time until 1563 harpers, bards and minstrels enjoyed a boom time.
They were free to maintain their cultures of language, hair and dress and
their performances were enthusiastically welcomed by the Lords Of The Pale.
1543:
Henry VIII of England appointed
Ulick MacWilliam de Burgo to become Earl of Clanrickarde and presented
him with the O'Brien "Brian Boru's Harp" that had been seized from Scotland
many years previously by the Royal Family.
MacWilliam is said to have quickly
sold it to a Lady Huxley who then passed it on to a Henry MacMahon of Clenagh,
Co. Clare.
1553:
Edmond O'Flynn of Meylerstown, Co.
Kildare and chief harper for Anglo-Irish nobleman Walter Bermingham received
a royal pardon. O'Flynn's compositions are said to have been numerous but,
somewhow, none were passed down
1561:
The first record of female harpists
and ballad singers.
1563:
Elizabeth I commenced her banishment
of Irish bards and harpists. Publically it was announced that Irish bards
and harpists were extracting "intelligence" from the English Pale but the
real reason was a kind of pornography clean up. At this time, an Anglo-Irish
nobleman would pay a bard around the equivalent of $1000 today to write
and perform a lewd song. The queen announced that any nobleman caught making
this payment would be fined double the amount plus the writer of the lewd
song would be heavily fined too.
As well as earning high fees for
songwriting, the bards of this time did also earn grand fees as intelligence
agents. Many of them served as double agents carrying secret information
from the Anglo-Irish to the Irish tribes, then secrets from the Irish tribes
back to the Anglo-Irish.
Several were caught, imprisoned and
then pardoned on appeals.
1565:
Richard O'Malone, harper, of Donore,
West Meath was pardoned
1736:
O'Brien's "Brian Boru's Harp" was
left in a will to Mac MacNamara of Limerick, a Counsellor-at-Law and for
many year's was Limerick city's Recorder.
1760:
Arthur O'Neill plays the O'Brien
"Brian Boru's Harp", newly strung, through the streets of Limerick.
1778:
MacNamara passes on the O'Brien
"Brian Boru's Harp" to Ralph Ouseley of Limerick.
1781:
Ralph Ouseley presents the O'Brien
"Brian Boru's Harp" to Colonel Conyngham.
1782:
Colonel Conyngham donates the O'Brien
"Brian Boru's Harp" to Trinity College in Dublin.
more to
be added soon :
...............
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