Na Píobairí Uilleann

Chairman, NPU

An Píobaire

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9 1 13 20130207 13 IRISH HARPING 1900-2010 HELEN LAWLOR (Four Courts Press, HB, 198 pp, ISBN 978-1-84682-367-1) I N CONTRAST to the last item, the focus of Helen Lawlor’s book is on the fortunes of the harp in Ireland from the end of the nineteenth century to the present day. The book is profusely illustrated with musical examples and other material, the music illustrations being used to elucidate various points that the author makes about evolving styles and genres of harp per- formance in the twentieth century. All the actors in the story are covered, including the celebrated teachers and activists, as well as the various harping societies that have been set up to foster harping in modern times. The author also deals with the question of the place of the instrument within historical constructs of Irish identity. such Carolan songs as were included in Bunting’s 1796 and 1809 collections were pre- sented by O’Sullivan alongside the music in his editions of those two volumes, and Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin did the same for Bunting’s 1840 collection, but this is the first time that all the words have been set to the airs, note-by-note. Along with the settings Caitríona gives refer- ences to all the relevant sources for those wish- ing to increase their knowledge of Carolan or of the history of harping in Ireland. Interest- ingly for readers of An Píobaire, her setting of the tune published in the December issue shows that performance of the song does not require the first strain of the music to be re- peated. The structure of the song is a strain of two lines followed by a strain of four lines. Caitríona will talk about all these matters in our NOTES & NARRATIVES event on March 15th. EXPLORING CULTURAL HISTORY MELISSA CALARESU, FILIPPO DE VIVO & JOAN-PAU RUBIÉS (ED.S) (Ashgate, HB, xvii+376 pp, ISBN 978-0-7546-6750-6) T HIS BOOK consists of a set of essays by various specialists in the emerging field of cultural history. These are grouped under the broad headings of Historical Anthropology, Politics and Communi- cation, Images, and Cultural Encounters, and the latter section con- tains the essay that will be of most interest to readers. This is Clare O’Halloran’s “Harping on the Past: Translating Antiquarian Learn- ing into Popular Culture in Early Nineteenth-Century Ireland”. This essay describes for the reader the changing popular perception of the instrument in Ireland in the century preceding the period dealt with by Helen Lawlor, and is very useful for complet- ing the picture outlined in Lawlor’s work. The music of the instrument is not dealt with, although the use of, and attitude towards it, are described.

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2013-02-06T00:00:00

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