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 descriptives are correct!) and it is an improvisatory art that is ultimately flexible, constantly changing, 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. The Harbison Harp Method is designed to teach traditional players, and is the method that has trained many of Ireland's most celebrated traditional harp players currently.
In the Traditional Irish Harp Tutor, Level 4, you will learn:
- about Denis Hempson and Arthur O’Neill and more about the historical tradition of harping
- historical harp compositions including the Lament for Limerick and about its history
- what is good taste in arrangement, accompaniment and style
- about rolls and more on ornamentation and variation – in melody, rhythm and harmony
- about style and the different types of repertoire
- explore the Romantic Repertoire
- explore more dance music – about the composers and arrangers
- about accompanying songs for you or someone else to sing
- some modern harp compositions –
- to compose
- how to approach the written harp music resources
- about propriety in music ownership – how to acknowledge and attribute
- to improvise with 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
