Description for Irish Harp Tutor, Level 3
These tutor books are Janet Harbison’s Traditional Irish Harp Method
Today, Irish harp players have the choice of becoming traditional players that interpret, arrange and accompany, spontaneously and creatively as traditional harpers have done for over a millennium - or to play already arranged ('finished') pieces of traditional Irish harp music. From ancient times, our tradition has been ‘oral’ meaning ‘given by mouth’ - or ‘aural’ meaning ‘learned by ear’ (both descriptions are correct!). And it is an improvisatory art that is ultimately flexible, constantly creative, masterfully technical and expressive by the addition of ornamentation and variation.
This is distinctive from the ‘classical’ style of learning and performance - but, like jazz and other improvisatory styles, can also exist in the classical repertoire in ‘fixed’ arrangement. Janet Harbison’s Method is designed to teach traditional players, and is the method that has produced and shaped many of Ireland's most celebrated traditional harp players today.
This is the TUTOR BOOK for Harbison’s Harp Method LEVEL 3 in which you will learn:
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to play some great Carolan arrangements and learn about how it’s done
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how all the chording works in Carolan’s ‘Princess Royal’
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to arrange Carolan’s ‘Planxty Sudley’
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Introduction to Ornamentation
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some great hornpipes, jigs and reels specially chosen to explore ornamentation
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about the ‘Session’ from the inside-out….
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Some great music from the Connellan brothers
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Some fun entertainer’s tunes – such as The Spinning Wheel and Eileen Oge
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How to arrange simple folk tunes
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Your first Slow Airs
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To improvise on 4 - chord sequences
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To significantly improve your accompaniment skills
Tunes featured in this coursework are: The Connellan's Molly Mac Alpin and Caitlin Triail; Carolan's Princess Royal, Carolan’s Draught, Blind Mary and Captain Sudley; The Sligo Fancy, The Fairy Hornpipe, Saddle the Pony, The SwallowTail Reel, The Glenallen / Killavil Reel, Ms McLeod’s Reel, O’Keefe’s Slide, Rolling in the Rye Grass, The Harvest Home, The Wailing Banshee, The Hag at the Churn, The Kesh, The Mug of Brown Ale, The Battering Ram, The Old Leitrim, The Humours of Whiskey, St.Anne’s Reel, The Morning Star, Molly Mac Alpin, Caitlin Triail, Ar Eire Ní Neosfainn Ce Hí, Airdí Cuain, The Bard of Armagh, The Spinning Wheel, Eileen Oge, The Meeting of the Waters
