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Grattan Flood - A History of Irish Music, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 13

Grattan Flood - A History of Irish Music, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 13
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periodical Publisher
Browne and Nolan Ltd, Dublin 1913
periodical Editor
[none]
periodical Title
Grattan Flood - A History of Irish Music
volume Number
1
issue Content
10flISTO y OF IRIS h MU5h .11countryman of the Christian Virgin, should be held asCOflCIU SjV 0In Amergin MacAmalgaid mentions the IrishHarp; and, at one Feis there were over a thousand bardspresent_._each oliamh having thirty bards in his train.It is interesting to notice that the last Feis at Tara washeld by Dermot MacFergus, in 560. As a result of theSynod of Drumceat, near Limavady, in 590, the chiefminstrels were prohibited from Pursuing the nomadiclife they had previously been leading, and were assignedapartments in th mansion houses of the princes andchiefs.* The Annals of Ulster chronicle the death ofAilill the Harper, son of Aedh Slaine, who was killed inthe year 634.Another early reference to the Irish Harp is in adistich on the death of St. Coluinba (d, 596), whereinwe read of a song of the Cruit Without a ceis, that is,a harp-melody Without a harp-fastener Eceis], or an airplayed on an untuned harp. Regarding our Irish cmi iSir Frederick Gore Ouseley, Bart., Mus,Doc., says :From us very con sIr it cijon we must assume that Harmonywas known to the ancient Irish. Moreover, the IrishHarmony was, distinctly in advance of Hucbalds (840-9 , o), which Only allowed fourths, and fifths, and octaves,with occasional elevenths and twelfths, whereas the Celtsadmitted major and minor thirds as consonant intervals.Not only were our ancestors acquainted with Har-mony in the sixth century, but they had an acqua;n.tance with discant or primitive counterpoint From a* At this Synod, according to Dallan Forgail, were: TwentyBi8hops, two score priests, fifty deacons, and thirty students; andhe adds that the Bishops and priests were of excellence and worth,and were famed for Singing psalms_...a Commendable practiceIRIsh MUSIC FROM &rn TO 9Th CENTURY.passage in Adainnans Li/c 0/ St. Colutnba we gatherthat the Irish monks sang canticles in counterpoint.St. Adamnan uses the phrase nwdulabiliter decaniare,which clearly indicates discant ; and, in the ancient Irishglosses of the eighth century modulantibus is glossedby donaibhi bindigeddar, that is, to those who makemelody. Hucbald, in the ninth century, describesorganising as modulatio. Furthermore, John ScotusErigena, the world-famed Irish philosopher, who diedcirc. 875, is the first authority to allude to discant ororganum, which subsequently developed into counter-point. This he does in his tract Dc Divisione Naturm(864), as will be seen in Chapter VII.In connection with the subject of ecclesiastical chantit is as well to emphasise the fact that whilst the Irishat the close of the sixth century had a form of musictablature, a knowledge of the diatonic scale, harrnonycounterpoint, and musical form, the plain-song of Romewas in a very elementary stage, and was only knowntraditionally until collected and arranged in anAntiphonczrium by Pope St. Gregory the Great, in 593.Dr. Haberl adds : Whether Pope Gregory made useof the letters of the alphabet or of symbols (points,accents, etc.) to designate the sounds is uncertain; butit is certain that whatever signs he adopted they werenot adequate to determine the intervals with exactness.In fact, not a single authentic liturgical chant-book inexistence goes back farther than the eighth century, orearly in the ninth, as some assert.*From the Book of Lecan it would appear that St. Gregory theGreat was of Irish origin, his deccent being traced from CairbreMusc, son of Conaire II., Ard Righ (Head King) of Ireland,A.O. 212220.
issue Number
1
page Number
13
periodical Author
Grattan Flood, Wm. H.
issue Publication Date
1913-01-01T00:00:00
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anonymous,guest,friend,member

Grattan Flood - A History of Irish Music

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