Clàrsach - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Clàrsach or Cláirseach is the generic Gaelic word for 'a harp

Harp

The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...

', as derived from Middle Irish. In English, the word is used to refer specifically to a variety of small Irish and Scottish harps.

The use of this word in English, and the varieties of harps that it describes, is very complex and is a cause of arguments or disagreements between different groups of harp-lovers.

By and large, in English, the word clàrsach is equivalent to the term Irish harp, the former being preferred in Scottish contexts and the latter in Irish contexts. The less specific term Celtic harp has also come into use since the mid 20th century but is not preferred by Irish or Scottish natives to refer to their instruments.

The precise Gaelic term for the harp of the Gael is clàrsach Ghàidhealach (Sc.)/cláirseach Ghaelach (Ir.), meaning Gaelic harp.

Gaelic words for harps

The Gaelic

Gaels

The Gaels or Goidels are speakers of one of the Goidelic Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Goidelic speech originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to western and northern Scotland and the Isle of Man....

triangular, wire-strung harp has always been known by the feminine term cruit. (There is evidence that the term may have originally been used to describe a different stringed instrument once common throughout the British Isles, and still extant and known in Wales as a Crwth

Crwth

The crwth is an archaic stringed musical instrument, associated particularly with Welsh music, once widely-played in Europe.-Origin of the name:...

. ) By 1204, however, it was certainly known by the masculine term 'clár' (board) and, by the 14th century, by the feminine form of 'clár', i.e., 'cláirseach'.

Clàirseach/clàrsach is a compound word, feminine in gender

Grammatical gender

Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...

and composed of the masculine noun

Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...

'clár' (board; harp) and the feminising suffix

Suffix

In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...

. The suggestion that it is originally composed of the elements 'clár' (board) and 'soileach' (willow) is a less likely explanation as i) the 'clár soileach' term is a masculine noun phrase

Noun phrase

In grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives....

, leaving the change of gender to feminine unexplained, ii) the /s/ phoneme is absent from the quoted term 'chlár shoileach' (reduced to /h/ by lenition

Lenition

In linguistics, lenition is a kind of sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word lenition itself means "softening" or "weakening" . Lenition can happen both synchronically and diachronically...

), therefore the /l/ phoneme would be more likely to form part of any contraction (e.g., *cláirleach).

The historical Gaelic harp

The early history of the triangular frame harp in Europe

Origin of the harp in Europe

The origins of the triangular frame harp are unclear. Triangular objects on the laps of seated figures appear in artwork of the early medieval period in Ireland, Scotland and other parts of North West Europe. This page outlines some of the scholarly controversies and disagreements on this...

is contested. However three of the four oldest authentic harps to survive are of Gaelic provenance: the Trinity College Harp

Trinity College Harp

The Trinity College harp is a medieval musical instrument currently displayed in the long room at Trinity College Dublin. It is an early Irish harp or wire strung cláirseach...

preserved in Trinity College Dublin, and the Queen Mary Harp

Queen Mary Harp

The Queen Mary Clàrsach na Banrìgh Màiri or Lude Harp, is a Scottish Clarsach currently displayed in the National Museum of Scotland. It is believed to date back to the 15th century, and to have originated in Argyll, in South-West Scotland...

and the Lamont Harp

Lamont Harp

The Lamont Harp, or Clàrsach Lumanach is a Scottish Clarsach currently displayed in the National Museum of Scotland. It is believed to date back to the 15th century, and to have originated in Argyll...

in the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. All three are dated approximately to the 15th century and are considered to have been made in Argyll in South-West Scotland

Distinctive features of the Gaelic harp

The characteristic features of the historical Scottish clarsach and Irish harp are the strings of metal wire, usually brass. There is no actual evidence for precious metal strings ever being used on the harp. These are attached to a massive soundbox typically carved from a single log, commonly held to be of willow, although other woods including alder and polar have been identified in extant harps, a reinforced curved pillar and a substantial neck, flanked with thick brass cheek bands. Usually played with the fingernails, it produced a brilliant ringing sound.

The clarsach is also unique amongst single row triangular harps in that the first two strings tuned in the middle of the gamut were set to the same pitch. By the end of the 18th century, this unison was given in Bunting placed at G below middle C but there is evidence that middle C was previously used as an alternative position. It is possible that the left hand, which played the treble part, never played the strings below the unison; this suggestion arises from study of the information of Edward Bunting and of the Gaelic harp repertoire.

In Middle Irish, the name for this pair of unison strings was 'ni coḃlaiġiḃ' (dative plural); the meaning of the term, its etymology and the correct Irish orthography of the nominative, whether singular or plural, are all unclear. The string name may be related to the middle Irish word 'cobhlach', which appears to have represented a kind of sound but 19th century Irish harper Patrick Byrne

Patrick Byrne (musician)

Patrick Byrne was the last noted exponent in Ireland of the historical Gaelic harp and the first Irish traditional musician to be photographed....

stated that the term meant 'the companions', an etymology which would apparently contradict the ancient spelling 'coblaigib'. In English, the unison strings were called 'the Sisters' but this is not apparently a translation of the Irish term.

Existing examples

Three medieval Gaelic harps survived into the modern period, two from Scotland (the Queen Mary Harp and the Lamont Harp) and one in Ireland (the Trinity College harp, sometimes romantically called the Brian Boru harp). Artistic evidence from study of the decorative designs on the instruments implies that all three were probably made in the western Highlands. Opportunities for the Trinity harp to travel across the Irish Sea from Scotland into Ireland were, many, varied, and extremely colourful. There are at least 15 other early Gaelic harps dating from post medieval times to c.1800; though most are in Ireland and are usually assumed to be Irish, many have no provenance and could equally be of Scottish origin.

Importance in society

Until the end of the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

the Gaelic harp (the historical clarsach or Irish harp) was the highest status musical instrument of both Scotland and Ireland, and harpers were amongst the most prestigious cultural figures amongst Irish and Scottish kings and chiefs. In both countries, the harper enjoyed special rights and played a crucial part in ceremonial occasions such as coronation

Coronation

A coronation is a ceremony marking the formal investiture of a monarch and/or their consort with regal power, usually involving the placement of a crown upon their head and the presentation of other items of regalia...

and poetic recital.

The main function of the Gaelic harp in medieval Scotland and Ireland seems to have been playing to accompany the recitation of poetry in Gaelic or Irish.

Especially popular in 16th and 17th century English courts, the Gaelic harp was played all over Europe in baroque solo and consort music; it was praised by writers such as Francis Bacon.

The historical Irish harp is the national symbol of Ireland and, as such, appears in stylised forms in the Coat of arms of Ireland

Coat of arms of Ireland

The arms of Ireland is blazoned as Azure a harp Or, stringed Argent . These arms have long been Ireland's heraldic emblem. References to them as being the arms of the king of Ireland can be found as early as the 13th century...

, the flag of the President of Ireland

Presidential Standard (Ireland)

Its design consists of a golden Cláirseach with silver strings on a background of azure blue. The design is the same as the Coat of Arms of Ireland, and was based on the Trinity College Harp....

as well as Irish Euro coins and official documents. It also appears on the Royal Standard of the United Kingdom, representing Ireland. An image of a harp was registered as the Guinness

Guinness

Guinness is a popular Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin. Guinness is directly descended from the porter style that originated in London in the early 18th century and is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide, brewed in almost...

trademark in 1862.

1500–1900

Beginning in the early 1500s, the harp in Ireland began to decline. The Crown's treatment of harpers ranged from persistent harassment to imprisonment and execution. Much of the action taken against bards in Ireland was not motivated out of a dislike of the harp, or of Irish music, but because the fear that rebellious songs were stir up passions and incite war. Though it is often suggested that the British monarchy is the prime reason for the instrument's decline, it could be argued that (with several other instruments of the time) it went out of fashion as the baroque era

Baroque music

Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...

advanced and musical tastes changed.

In 1570 (1569-old calendar), Pope Pius V declared the papal bull known as Regnans in Excelsis

Regnans in Excelsis

Regnans in Excelsis was a papal bull issued on 25 February 1570 by Pope Pius V declaring "Elizabeth, the pretended Queen of England and the servant of crime" to be a heretic and releasing all her subjects from any allegiance to her and excommunicating any that obeyed her orders.The bull, written in...

. Regnans in Excelsis

Regnans in Excelsis

declared that Elizabeth I was no legitimate sovereign, and that the citizens of her kingdoms were no longer subject to her. In fact, all who obeyed her were threatened by automatic excommunication. Because of this, Elizabeth I made laws against Irish bards, minstrels, harpers, and the like, whom she felt fired up rebellion.

The Irish harp was not completely banned however. It is known that Elizabeth I had, in her employment at court, an Irish harper named Donogh. Other English families were known to employ Irish harpers in the early 17th century. Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...

praises the sound of the Irish harp as melting and prolonged in his Sylva Sylvarum. Also, in his essays on consort music, he mentions that the sound of the bass viol and the Irish harp sound agreeable together, but that the Welsh Harp and the Irish harp did not (the early Welsh harp being strung with horse hair). Martin Peerson

Martin Peerson

Martin Peerson was an English composer, organist and virginalist...

mentions in two of his publications, Ayres and Dialogues (1620) and Mottects or Grave Chamber Musique (1630), that the Irish harp may play the continuo line if there is no organ. This is the earliest known printed music to expressly reference the cláirseach.

On several websites and in some prefaces in Irish music books, it is reported that Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

ordered all harps and organs throughout Ireland to be destroyed in the 1650s. There are claims that in Dublin alone, the authorities seized 500 harps and burned them. Harpers in cities large and small were forbidden to congregate. However, such claims may be legendary, and deriving from anti-Cromwellian propaganda. It is known that Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell

incorporated the cláirseach into three flags of the Commonwealth. In the early naval Parliamentarian flag, a harp shares half the field along with the Cross of St. George. A golden cláirseach was placed at the centre of the Commonwealth flag, and a harp was incorporated into Cromwell's own standard.

By the end of the 17th century, the Irish nobility had lost much of what remained of their wealth and influence. This gradual reversal of fortunes spread to the harpers; when their patrons became unable to afford their services, harpers were dismissed and sent off to fend for themselves. Some harpers of the period adapted well to an expanded, itinerant role; their lives consisted of traveling long distances to visit a regular circuit of lesser patrons, and handling all of the entertainment themselves—including composing, singing and playing the harp. Turlough O'Carolan

Turlough O'Carolan

Turlough Carolan, also known as Turlough O'Carolan, was a blind, early Irish harper, composer and singer whose great fame is due to his gift for melodic composition. He was the last great Irish harper-composer and is considered by many to be Ireland's national composer...

(1670–1738), the famous blind harper and composer, lived the life of an itinerant harper for almost 50 years. instead their numbers declined and they became itinerant singer-songwriters touring a circuit of lesser patrons, accompanying his songs on a wire-strung harp.

By the 18th century the historical Scottish clarsach was extinct in Scotland, and the Irish harp died out in Ireland in the early 19th century. The last bearers of the tradition, Denis Hampson and others, played their music for Edward Bunting

Edward Bunting

Edward Bunting was an Irish musician and folk music collector.-Life:Bunting was born in County Armagh, Ireland. At the age of seven he was sent to study music at Drogheda and at eleven he was apprenticed to William Ware, organist at St. Anne's church in Belfast and lived with the family of Henry...

at the Belfast Harp Festival

Belfast Harp Festival

The Belfast Harp Festival, 11-14th July 1792, was a four-day event organised by Dr.James McDonnell, Robert Bradshaw and Henry Joy McCracken, following a six year lapse from the last Granard harp festival...

in 1792, allowing it to be written down. Bunting published the music arranged for piano and his notebooks disappeared into the archives.

After the Belfast Festival various attempts were made to revive the playing of the Irish harp. An Irish Harp Society was established in the city and a harp school for young blind boys set up. The project was not a success with only one of the pupils, Patrick Byrne, achieving renown. Regarded by the noted collector Francis O'Neill

Francis O'Neill

Francis O'Neill was an Irish-born American police officer and collector of Irish traditional music.O'Neill was born in Tralibane, near Bantry, County Cork. At an early age he heard the music of local musicians, among them Peter Hagarty, Cormac Murphy and Timothy Dowling. At the age of 16, he...

as the last of the great Irish harpers, Byrne would achieve the distinction of becoming the first Irish traditional musician ever to be photographed. David Octavius Hill

David Octavius Hill

The Scottish painter and arts activist David Octavius Hill collaborated with the engineer and photographer Robert Adamson between 1843 and 1847 to pioneer many aspects of photography in Scotland.-Early life:...

and Robert Adamson

Robert Adamson (photographer)

Robert Adamson, was a Scottish pioneer photographer.Adamson was born in St. Andrews, he was hired in 1843 by David Octavius Hill , a painter of romantic Scottish landscapes. He was commissioned to make a group portrait of the 470 clergymen who founded the Free Church of Scotland. Hill required...

made a series of calotype

Calotype

Calotype or talbotype is an early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot, using paper coated with silver iodide. The term calotype comes from the Greek for 'beautiful', and for 'impression'....

images of Byrne on or around 1 April 1845 in Edinburgh. Some examples of these images are held in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Scottish National Portrait Gallery

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery on Queen Street, Edinburgh, Scotland. It holds the national collections of portraits, all of which are of, but not necessarily by, Scots. In addition it also holds the Scottish National Photography Collection...

. Patrick Byrne died on 8 April 1863 and is buried in Carrickmacross

Carrickmacross

Carrickmacross or Carrickmacros is a town in County Monaghan, Ireland. The town and environs had a population of 4,387 according to the 2006 census, making it the second largest town in the county. The town won the prestigious European Entente Florale Silver Medal Award. It is a market town which...

, Co. Monaghan.

The modern Clàrsach or Irish Harp

In the early 19th century, even as the old Gaelic harp tradition was dying out, a completely new harp tradition was invented in Ireland. This Irish harp had gut strings and semitone mechanisms like an orchestral pedal harp, and was invented by Dublin pedal harp maker John Egan

John Egan (harp maker)

John Egan was an Irish musical instrument maker in the late 18th century and early 19th century who is considered by many as the father of the modern Irish harp. According to Simon Chadwick, honorary secretary of the Historical Harp Society of Ireland, "The ancient Irish harp tradition, which goes...

and marketed to aristocratic ladies. It was small and curved like the historical clarsach or Irish harp, but its strings and soundbox were modern.

In the 1890s a similar new harp was also developed in Scotland for the cultural Gaelic revival.

These new instruments were popular and formed the basis of the 20th century revival in Ireland, Scotland and across the world. In Scotland they are called (in English) clarsach though in Ireland they are usually called Irish harp rather than cláirseach. Irish musician Derek Bell used the term neo-Irish harp. Elsewhere they are called Celtic harp or folk harp or small harp or lever harp. Some have gut strings like the 19th century originals but many now have nylon or carbon-fiber instead.

The modern clarsach or Irish harp has thousands of players, both in Scotland and Ireland, as well as North America and elsewhere. There is an interesting movement in Brittany, started by Alan Stivell

Alan Stivell

Alan Stivell is a Breton musician and singer, recording artist and master of the celtic harp who from the early 1970s revived global interest in the Celtic harp and Celtic music as part of world music.- Background: learning Breton music and culture :Alan was born in the Auvergnat town of Riom...

in the 1950s and continuing to the present day, which claims the modern Celtic harp and also sometimes the historical type, as a Breton national instrument.

Notable international events include the Edinburgh International Harp Festival.

The revival of the early clàrsach and early Irish harp

Since the 1970s there has been a deliberate revival of the older wire-strung instrument, based on Early Music

Early music

Early music is generally understood as comprising all music from the earliest times up to the Renaissance. However, today this term has come to include "any music for which a historically appropriate style of performance must be reconstructed on the basis of surviving scores, treatises,...

principles and using replica instruments and period playing techniques. Pioneers who experimented with historical Gaelic harps alongside modern 'celtic' harps include Arnold Dolmetsch

Arnold Dolmetsch

Arnold Dolmetsch , was a French-born musician and instrument maker who spent much of his working life in England and established an instrument-making workshop in Haslemere, Surrey...

, Alan Stivell

Alan Stivell

, Gráinne Yeats

Gráinne Yeats

Gráinne Yeats is an Irish harpist and singer, a historian of the Irish harp.- About :She was born as Gráinne Ni hEigeartaigh in Dublin, Ireland, and was raised bilingually in Irish and English....

and Derek Bell

Derek Bell (musician)

George Derek Fleetwood Bell, MBE was an Northern Irish harpist, pianist, oboist, musicologist, and composer, best known for his accompaniment work on various instruments with The Chieftains....

. The first person to really specialise in the historical Gaelic harp and to devote their life's work to the revival is Ann Heymann who has created a technique based on interpretation of sources and practical application. This movement is characterised by the use of accurate replicas of the museum instruments, fitted with brass and often silver and gold wire strings, and using repertory and techniques taken from Edward Bunting

Edward Bunting

's manuscripts and other historical sources.

The main annual event is Scoil na gCláirseach

Scoil na gCláirseach

Scoil na gCláirseach is an annual summer school dedicated to teaching the Cláirseach, the historical harp of Gaelic Ireland and Scotland. It is held each August in Kilkenny, in the southeast of Ireland...

(Summer School Of Early Irish Harp) held in Kilkenny every August.

Important CDs featuring historical music played conjecturally on replica medieval harps are Ann Heymann's Cruit go nÓr, Siobhán Armstrong's Cláirseach na hÉireann and Simon Chadwick's Clàrsach na Bànrighe.

Trivia

A small village in Limerick has a harp school that plays yearly in a St. Patrick's Day Parade.

External links

Historical Harp Society of Ireland
An Chúirt Chruitireachta, International traditional harp course held annually in Termonfeckin Co. Louth, Ireland
The Clarsach Society/Comunn na Clarsaich, resource centre for the Scottish harp
WirestrungHarp.com complete resource for the wire-strung harp
Edinburgh International Harp Festival
Early Gaelic Harp Info
The Instruments of Ireland
Irish Harp Centre Castleconnell Limerick Ireland
Association Hent Telenn Breizh studies early harp in Brittany
List of surviving early Gaelic harps
Historic wire-strung harps and harpers listed and described on wirestrungharp.com
Gaelic Modes Web articles on Gaelic harp harmony and modes

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