Surviving Historical Harps

notes

Trinity College harp

Illustration is a reversed montage by Simon Chadwick based on and correcting Armstrong's engraving (1904). Dimensions from R.B. Armstrong,"The Irish and Highland Harps", Edinburgh, 1904 and from Keith Sanger & Alison Kinnaird, Tree of Strings (Crann nan Teud), 1992.

Playing footnotes

1. Arthur O'Neill, ‘Memoirs’ in Donal O'Sullivan, Carolan, the Life, Times and Music of an Irish Harper, Routlege and Kegan Paul

2. Gráinne Yeats, The Brian Boru Harp, online, http://www.wirestrungclarsach.org/blog.asp?blogid=123, 2003 (accessed 9 Dec 2011); Joan Rimmer, ‘The Morphology of the Irish Harp’, Galpin Society Journal, XVII, Feb 1964, p. 41;

Damage footnotes:

1. Joseph C. Walker, Historical Memoirs of the Irish bards. Dublin, 1786, p.60

2. William Campden, Britannia, or a Chronographical description. Payne, London, 1789. Vol IIIb Pl. XLI p.477

3. Abraham Rees (ed), Rees's Cyclopaedia, or The New Cyclopaedia, or, Universal Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences Longman Hirst Rees & Orme, London, 1808. Plate X

4. Dublin Penny Journal, Vol. 1, No. 6, August 4, 1832. Online edition.

5. Edward Bunting, The Ancient Music of Ireland, Hodges & Smith, Dublin, 1840, fp.37, 40, 42

6. The photo postcard is from the collection of Simon Chadwick.

7. Séamus Ó Brógáin, The Wolfhound Guide to the Irish Harp Emblem, Woldhound, 1998

8. Robert Bruce Armstrong, The Irish and The Highland Harps, David Douglas, Edinburgh, 1904

9. Treasures of Trinity College Dublin, Burlington House exhibition catalogue, 1961, p.8 & pl.4

Lamont harp

Illustration and dimensions from R.B. Armstrong,"The Irish and Highland Harps", Edinburgh, 1904. Other dimensions from Keith Sanger & Alison Kinnaird, Tree of Strings (Crann nan Teud), 1992. Sale details from Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol LIII, December 8th, 1918, p.8

Karen Loomis et al, ‘The Lamont and Queen Mary Harps’, Galpin Society Journal LXV, March 2012

Queen Mary harp

Illustration (reversed) and dimensions from R.B. Armstrong,"The Irish and Highland Harps", Edinburgh, 1904. Other dimensions from Keith Sanger & Alison Kinnaird, Tree of Strings (Crann nan Teud), 1992.
Sale date and price from Hugh Cheape, Bagpipes, NMS 2008, p. 13

Karen Loomis et al, ‘The Lamont and Queen Mary Harps’, Galpin Society Journal LXV, March 2012

Ballinderry Fragments

photo and dimensons in R.B. Armstrong,"The Irish and Highland Harps", Edinburgh, 1904.

Cloyne harp

Dimensions from R.B. Armstrong,"The Irish and Highland Harps", Edinburgh, 1904. Illustration is reconstruction by Simon Chadwick, based on photos by Armstrong.

Inscription illustration from Edward Bunting, General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland, Clementi & co, [1809]. Transcription and translation of the neck inscriptions in full, in Alan J. Fletcher, Drama and the Performing Arts in Pre-Cromwellian Ireland: Sources and Documents from the Earliest Times Until c.1642, D.S. Brewer, 2001, p. 210 & 525-6. The forepillar inscriptions have not to my knowledge been fully transcribed and translated; the ones on the left hand side are shown on Bunting's 1809 engraving.

The connection between the decoration on the harp, and Topsell's book, was first suggested by Michael Billinge and Bonnie Shaljean ‘The Dalway or Fitzgerald harp (1621)’ Early Music, Vol XV no. 2, May 1987, p.175

For tuning and setup possibilities, background and other info on chromatic Gaelic harps, see Michael Billinge and Bonnie Shaljean ‘The Dalway or Fitzgerald harp (1621)’ Early Music, Vol XV no. 2, May 1987

For photos of the replica, see Barnaby Brown's article ‘The Cloyne Harp’, 2000. For Bill Taylor's description, see ‘Wire Strings: Reconstructing the Past’, Sounding Strings No. 14, Spring 1998), .doc file at Bill's website