EGHI: Phonograph recordings

Might there be an old archive recording somewhere, of an old Gaelic harp player from before the tradition died out?

The old Gaelic harp traditions were at their height in late medieval times, and declined fast through the 17th century ¹. In Scotland, the last native harpers died in the mid 18th century ². In Ireland, the tradition continued longer, with 10 harpers responding to the call for performers at the meeting in Belfast in 1792 ³. As a result of the success of that meeting, harp schools were set up by Irish Harp Societies in Belfast and Drogheda (and perhaps elsewhere), employing as tutors firstly the last of the old native harpers, and after they died, earlier students of the schools became tutors.

The distinctive features of the old Gaelic harp tradition are the use of a harp with brass (or other metal) wire strings, tuned diatonically with no semitone mechanisms, and played with the left hand in the treble and the right hand in the bass. The Irish Harp Society schools in Belfast continued this tradition of early Irish harp playing through the 19th century. The last of the Society school students were old men by the end of the 19th century.

This chart compares the end of the old harp tradition with the beginnings of mechanical sound recording.

1877		Phonograph invented by Thomas Edison ⁴
1878		Edison phonograph exhibited in England ⁵
1879	Mr. Smith (plus two others?) appear at the Irish Harp Revival Festival, the Rotunda, Dublin ⁶.
1880
1881
1882	Patrick Murney still alive ⁷
1883
1884
1885
1886		Wax cylinders patented by Alexander Graham Bell ⁸
1887		Gramophone patented by Emile Berliner ⁹.
1888	Samuel Patrick dies ¹⁰.	A press conference introduces the phonograph to London. Handel chorus recorded at the Crystal Palace ¹¹.
1889		Theo Wangemann tours Europe, recording Bismark & von Moltke ¹².
1890
1891
1892		Berliner commercial production of records and machines ¹³.
1893		Edison machines available for sale to the public at World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, USA ¹⁴.
1894
1895
1896
1897	First Feis Cheoil in Dublin Section 21, Competitions of Archaeological Interest “Irish Wire Strung Harp. 1st prize Ł5 (+ gold medal presented by W.J. Simpson, Belfast)...” Unfortunately there were no entries ¹⁵.	The Feis organisers in Dublin use an Edison phonograph machine to record the pipers playing “previously unpublished airs”¹⁶.
1898	There is “a blind girl in the South of Ireland who plays on the old wire-stringed Irish harp”¹⁷.
1899
1900	Irish harper seen busking in Old Kent Road, London ¹⁸. Likely not playing the old Irish harp with wire strings though ¹⁹
1901		Patsy Touhey starts selling recordings of his Irish pipe playing in America ²⁰
1902
1903
1904		Francis O’Neill makes wax cylinder recordings of pipe and fiddle performances c,1904 in America ²¹.
1905		Richard Henebry records traditional singers in Ring, Co. Waterford ²².
1906
1907		Florie O'Connor recorded in Dublin, 20th August 1907, playing Irish tunes on a MacFall harp, with "classical" set-up (gut strings, semitone mechanisms, right orientation)²³. I don't believe she had any lineage or connection to the old Irish harpers ²⁴. This is, so far, the earliest recording of harp music from Scotland or Ireland, that I have found.

I don’t know of any earlier use of a phonograph to record Irish music than 1897 but I am still looking!

References

1. See my 17th century history page. ^

2. Keith Sanger, 2012, ‘Final Chords’, online at wirestrungharp.com. ^

3. See my 18th century history page. ^

4. ^

5. http://www.phonozoic.net/presentations.html ^

6. Keith Sanger, 2012, ‘Final Chords’, online at wirestrungharp.com. ^

7. James O’Laverty, ‘The Irish harp’, Denvir’s Monthly, 1903 ^

8. ^

9. ^

10. ‘The Irish Harp: A Case of Distress’,Belfast News-Letter Friday March 23 1888^

11. ^

12. http://www.phonozoic.net/presentations.html ^

13. ^

14. Jimy O’Brein Moran, ‘Capturing Diversity whilst creating canon’,in Thérèse Smith (ed), Ancestral Imprints, Cork University Press 2012, p.1-20 ^

15. ‘Is the Irish Harp Extinct?’ Freeman’s Journal and National Press, Dublin, Monday 24th May 1897^

16. ^

17. ‘Is the Irish Harp Extinct?’ Freeman’s Journal and National Press, Dublin, Thursday 5th May 1898^

18. Henry George Farmer, ‘Some Notes on the Irish Harp’, Music & Letters vol XXIV, April 1943 ^

19. Irish harpist busking in London, c.1900 (blog post) referencing Sims, Living London (c.1900-1903) ^

20. Jimy O’Brein Moran, ‘Capturing Diversity whilst creating canon’,in Thérèse Smith (ed), Ancestral Imprints, Cork University Press 2012, p.1-20 ^

21. Francis O’Neill cylinders online at the Dunn Family Collection ^

22. Susanne Ziegler, ‘From Waterford to Berlin and back to Ireland’,in Thérèse Smith (ed), Ancestral Imprints, Cork University Press 2012, p.1-20 ^

23. Tondokumente aus dem Phonogrammarchiv der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Gesamtausgabe der Historischen Bestände 1899-1950, Series 5/2: The collections of Rudolph Trebitsch. Celtic recordings - Ireland, Wales, Brittany, Isle of Man, and Scotland (1907-09). Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften OEAW PHA CD 14 ^

24. I imagine she may have been influenced or taught by Owen Lloyd; See my blog post Continuity of tradition for discussion of whether Lloyd was connected to the old Irish harpers. ^