Description for Irish Harp Tutor, Level 4
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 4 in which you will learn:
in which you will learn:
-
More about the historical tradition of harping – about Hempson, O’Neill and more
-
Exploring historical harp arranging and Harbison-adapted arrangements from Bunting
-
First lamentations including the Lament for Limerick
-
Good taste in arrangement, accompaniment and developing style
-
All ornamentation and variation – in melody, rhythm and harmony
-
About style and the different types of repertoire
-
Exploring the Romantic Repertoire
-
Exploring more dance music – the composers and arrangers
-
Accompanying songs for you or someone else to sing
-
Modern harp compositions –
-
Composing yourself!
-
How to approach the written harp music resources
-
Propriety in music ownership – how to acknowledge and attribute
-
Improsiving on Pentatones
Tunes featured in this coursework are: The Adventurous Lad, The Twisting of the Rope, The Foxe’s Sleep, Girls Have You Seen George, Lament for Limerick, The Wild Geese, Carolan’s Farewell, Carolan’s Concerto, Mr Connor, Miss Maxwell, Mrs Anne MacDermott Roe, March of the High Kings of Laois, Drowsy Maggie, The Glass of Beer, Atholl Highlanders, The Silver Spear, The Kesh Jig, Dunphy’s Hornpipe, The Minstrel Boy, The Harp That Once, The Last Rose of Summer, The Lark in the Clear Air, O Danny Boy, Trottin’ to the Fair, Siúl a Rún, P is for Paddy, Walk in Belfast
