Farewell to Lough Neaghe / Bonnie Shaljean
Traditional Harp Music of Britain and Ireland

Saydisc CD-SDL 372
The Meeting House, Frenchay, Bristol
abril de 1988




Nótese, entre otros, el Greatest Hits medieval de la pista #4.


01 - [2:42]
Pibddawns Y Tant
Pibddawns Yr Ysgubau
Pibddawns Y Blodau

02 - [3:52]
Roslin Castle
The Lea-Rig

03 - [4:37]
Captain O'Neil
Colonel O'Hara
Sir Festus Burke

04 - [3:25]
Bryd One Brere
Foweles in the Frith
Edi Beo Thu Hevene Quene
Sumer Is Icumen In

05 - [2:17]
The Late Hour
The Clocks-Back Reel

06 - Meillionen   [3:37]

07 - Maille Bheag O   [4:22]

08 - [3:36]
The Kilburn Jig
Diarmuid's Well
The Wild Irishman

09 - [5:08]
Childgroove
Daphne
'Twas Within a Furlong of Edinburgh Town
The Oak & The Ash

10 - Farewell to Lough Neaghe   [2:51]

11 - [3:47]
Pant Corlan Yr Wyn
Pibddawns Jones
Pwt Ar Y Bys

12 - [5:06]
Her Mantle So Green
In Aonar Seal

13 - [4:01]
Port 4th
Air by Fingal No. 1
Air by Fingal No. 3
Port 5th

14 - When She Cam Ben, She Bobbit   [3:22]

15 - [4:06]
Planxty Drew
Mary O'Neil
Edmond MacDermott Roe
The Maids of Derry

16 - [3:50]
Caismeachd Mhic Iain 'Ic Sheumais
Marbhna Cathaoir Mhic Cába

17 - [3:47]
An Páistin Fionn
Seán O'Duibhir an Ghleanna

18 - [3:08]
Port Priest
Port Atholl

19 - [2:07]
I Was Not...Since Martinmas
An Muileann Dubh
The Highlandman Kissed His Mother

20 - [3:20]
Cumha Mhic Guidhir
Táim I Mo Chodhladh Is Ná Duisigh Mé

21 - [1:56]
Maggy Lauther
Boni Jean Makis Meikill of Me




Bonnie Shaljean, harp & clarsach




FAREWELL TO LOUGH NEAGHE

In putting together the material for this recording, I have tried to create a work which is both historically and artistically interesting, and produces a variety of period, culture, and mood. I have used three harps, which span approximately five centuries and represent some of the breadth of the instrument's voice. Many of the pieces are not commonly known, and some are previously unpublished. I hope to introduce some new works into the repertoire, and to convey my continuing love for the rich musical heritage that flourishes in these nations.

Two of my harps come from the Gaelic tradition, and are known in their native language by the name clarsach. They are strung with an assortment of brass, bronze, and steel and were hand-made for me by Michael Billinge. One of these is of the type played in Ireland and the Scottish highlands from late medieval times to the early 17th century (pictured on the front cover). With its one-piece willow soundbox, intricate burnt carvings and engraved silver boss, this instrument has much in common with the famous 'Brian Boru' or Trinity College Harp in Dublin.

Sir Francis Bacon commented, 'No harp hath the sound so melting and prolonged as the Irish harp', and it was the combination of metal strings and the structure of the sound-box (hollowed out of a single block of willow) that produced this characteristic tone. Over the centuries the clarsach acquired additional strings, growing larger and more powerful.

My other Billinge harp is built in the late 18th-century Irish style. By now the instrument was in decline, for the chromatically-limited clarsach could not compete in adapting to the musical demands of a changing society that had no place for it. Alienated from its powerful Celtic origins its tradition ended, and from the early 19th century harps were predominantly gut-strung.

My third harp is strung with gut, and is are-constructed Erard 'Grecian', the small drawing-room harp which first appeared in 1810. Apart from its fully chromatic 'double-action' system of pedals, it had essentially the same characteristics and tone as Erard's late 18th-century 'single-action' pedal harp. In the Welsh tradition, this type of instrument gradually came to replace the difficult-to-play triple harp as music grew more sophisticated and the availability of pedal harps increased. My Grecian was beautifully rebuilt (retaining its original structural design and specifications) by Pilgrim Harps, the Surrey-based harpmakers. I have re-strung it in a gauge more in keeping with that used in the mid 18th-century, in order to help recreate an 'authentic' sound.


NOTES ON SOME HARPER-COMPOSERS

RUARÍ DALL O'CATHÁIN (c.1570— c.1650), often referred to simply as Rory Dall (blind Rory), was supposedly one of the Catháin chiefs from the County Derry/Antrim region. Whether a chief or not, his Gaelic nobility is undisputed. He spent much of his life in Scotland where he achieved great fame and circulated among the aristocracy. He once played before King James, who complimented him warmly on his art, but the harper dared to reply that O'Neill (the most powerful clan chief in Ulster) was a greater man than the monarch. Only a dozen or so of Rory Dall's compositions are known to survive, and many of these carry the prefix 'Port' in their titles. The exact meaning of the term is uncertain but it seems to be closely associated with ancient harp music, and the pieces appear to be of a school of writing characterised by a much freer structure. His works are therefore of great importance for they are remnants of the older tradition of Gaelic harp composing, which was an intrinsic part of an archaic social order and is now lost.

TURLOUGH O'CAROLAN (1670-1738) was to become the most famous of the Irish itinerant harper-composers. He became blind in his teens as a result of smallpox, which might have been a disaster, as his family was poor and he possessed no particular skills. However, the kindness of the wife of his father's employer, Mrs. MacDermott Roe, changed his life. She arranged that he be trained to play the harp, as well as given a general education, and she maintained him while he was a pupil, later providing him with a horse and guide. He began his travels at the age of 21, and grew to be a familiar and well-loved guest in many of the great households, honouring his patrons with tunes and verses. (Jonathan Swift was one of his friends and admirers.) Carolan was a native Gaelic-speaker, a fact sometimes obscured by his music, which is not contained within any single category. Some of his works have an old Irish sound, some are quite Italianate (Corelli and Vivaldi were favourites of his) and others defy labelling. He was a revolutionary force in Irish harp music, and exerted a huge influence upon the repertoire of those who succeeded him. At the end of the 18th-century it is reported that one harper had acquired more than 100 of his tunes, saying that this was but a small portion of them, and his music dominated the great harp contests at Belfast and Granard. Carolan never forgot his oldest friend, Mrs. MacDermott Roe, to whose home he returned at the end of his life, when he was old and ill. She tended him with great care and he died peacefully.

CORNELIUS LYONS (c.1670—c.1740), a friend and contemporary of Carolan's, was by all accounts a gentleman of education and an exquisite artist on the harp. He was born in County Cork but spent much of his life in the service and companionship of Randal MacDonnell, Earl of Antrim, with whom he seems to have enjoyed a relationship of equals. Bunting (see notes to track no. 20) described him as a 'graceful and elegant genius' and the harper Arthur O'Neill (1734— 1818) says in his Memoirs, 'By all I ever heard speak of him he was gentlemanly, good-natured, obliging and civil . . . particularly to brother harpers'. O'Neill also relates an anecdote wherein Lyons was recognised by a tavern keeper on the strength of his playing alone, even though he was going by a false name and the tavern keeper had never seen him before. Impressively, this is supposed to have happened not locally, but in London. Lyons' most distinctive asset was his skill in creating fine variations, for which he was famed. O'Neill described him as a 'great performer and a very fanciful composer, especially in his variations. . . Sadly, all but a handful of these are lost and only one of his original airs, for which he was also known, has survived.

JOHN PARRY OF RUABON (c.1710— 1782), one of the greatest Welsh harp virtuosos and composers, was for many years domestic harper to Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 1st Baronet of Wynnstay. Parry was blind, and played the demanding triple harp (which has three parallel rows of strings, requiring immense skill). His position with the Baronet brought him into aristocratic society and involved frequent and lengthy visits to London, where he made a name for himself, establishing a highly successful concert career and travelling widely. (Handel and the poet Thomas Gray were but two of his admirers.) Parry also published three important collections of Welsh music for harp which included original compositions as well as arrangements and variations on traditional airs.

EDWARD JONES (1752-1824) was appointed harper to the Prince of Wales in 1788, and became known as the King's Bard when the Prince took the throne. He played a 'new' pedal harp, then fashionable in London, and was admired by many, including the novelist Fanny Burney. However, his best service to the harp was perhaps his scholarship in the field of Welsh music and poetry. He did extensive research, and published valuable collections of this material, including his own harp variations. He wrote that much of this music was taken from 'the most venerable Harpers in North Wales' and attributed the decline of the national minstrelsy to `fanatick imposters . . . dissuading [the people] from their innocent amusements'. Sadly, he ended his life in illness and poverty; but even then, when a friend arrived with a gift of money, Jones was more interested in learning from him the particulars of a certain Welsh air.


THE MACLEAN—CLEPHANE MANUSCRIPT

One of my most important sources for this recording is an unpublished manuscript which was compiled by the MacLean—Clephane sisters at Torloisk on the Island of Mull in about 1816, containing among other things 36 Harp Airs and 10 unnamed Ports. This material appears to originally have come from a collection made by the Rev. Patrick Macdonald of Kilmore, a skilled violinist and lover of traditional music, whose notebooks had passed into the hands of the sisters. The two ladies (one of whom played a Grecian pedal harp) made a finished copy, and this is now known as the MacLean—Clephane Manuscript*. The Harp Airs are believed to have been gathered from the blind harper Echlin O'Catháin (1729—c.1790), who was born in County Derry and may have been a distant relative of Rory Dall's (that region was the homeland of the Catháin clan). Echlin was an excellent and much-travelled performer who had learned the harp from Cornelius Lyons and spent a great deal of time in Scotland. In his memoirs his own assessment of his abilities was that he was 'the fifth best performer on the Harp in all Ireland'.

* For a fuller discussion, see A Missing Carolan Composition?, Sanger, Shaljean, and Billinge, Ceol, April 1983 issue, Dublin; and The MacLean—Clephane Harp Music, Keith Sanger, Notes and Queries No. XV, May 1981 issue, Society of West Highland and Island Historical Research.

EC denotes early clarsach
LC denotes late clarsach
(the remainder are pedal harp)

1.
PIBDDAWNS Y TANT (The String Hornpipe)
PIBDDAWNS YR YSGUBAU (The Brooms Hornpipe)
PIBDDAWNS Y BLODAU (The Flowers Hornpipe)
19th-century Welsh hornpipes written by the harpers Llewelyn Williams (String) and blind John Williams (Brooms and probably Flowers). Both men won first place in eisteddfodau (prestigious music competitions), but while John was awarded a valuable triple-harp, Llewelyn's prize-money was reduced to £1 because of local displeasure over his father's Chartist politics, causing him to publicly sever the strings of his harp in protest. These tunes, taken from Tro Llaw (edited by Robin Huw Bowen), share a common style with traditional hornpipes from all over Britain and Ireland, a fact which demonstrates the harp's use as a 'working' dance instrument, in addition to its usual 'art' associations.

2.
ROSLIN CASTLE
THE LEA-RIG
Two popular 18th-century Scottish airs, the first of which was originally known as The House of Glamis. At Roslin Castle in Midlothian there is a beautiful 15th-century chapel containing a stone carving of King David with his harp. Lea-Rig means a grassy ridge, and it appeared in Thomas D'Urfey's Pills To Purge Melancholy (1698-1720) but may be more familiar as Robert Burns' song My Ain Kind Dearie-O.

3.
CAPTAIN O'NEILL
COLONEL O'HARA
SIR FESTUS BURKE
Three pieces by Carolan. Captain O'Neill is a recent discovery which was given to me by Keith Sanger of Edinburgh, who found it in the MacLean—Clephane Manuscript. At this time it had never been brought to public attention, and Keith (in association with Michael Billinge and myself) subsequently published it in the Irish journal Ceol, its first appearance in modern times. The two works which follow are delightful examples of Carolan's love of the European baroque style of composing, and contrast strikingly with his characteristically 'old Gaelic' lament, heard on track no. 16.

4. [EC]
BRYD ONE BRERE (Bird on briar)
FOWELES IN THE FRITH (Fowls in the wood)
EDI BEO THU HEVENE QUENE (Blessed be thou, Heaven's queen)
SUMER IS ICUMEN IN (Summer is coming in)
Medieval English songs. Bryd One Brere is a love song dating from the early 14th century, in which the bird is entreated to prepare the lovesick singer's grave. The image of a bird, often a dove, at the graveside of one who has died for love is found in English-language ballads and folklore all over the world, and has survived to present days. Foweles, of similar sombre tone, and Edi Beo, a graceful piece in praise of the Virgin Mary, are the earliest two-part songs in the vernacular and date from the late 13th century. There is evidence to suggest that Bryd may also have been intended as a two-part song, but was left incomplete in the manuscript. I have arranged my own 'period' harmony to its single melody line. Sumer is a canon, or round, below which two voices provide a ground (repeated bass motif) which I have imitated on the lower strings. Its composer was probably a monk at Reading Abbey, writing in approximately 1240. Secular music was not in particular disfavour in English monasteries, and the harp during this time was in common use among musicians, so it is possible that all of these songs could have been a familiar part of its repertoire. (Religious stone carvings depicting harps with obviously Gaelic features suggest that the clarsach was also known and played in England.)

5.
THE LATE HOUR
THE CLOCKS-BACK REEL
Two reels of my own which I have written in the Irish style. The Clocks-Back was titled in honour of a harp festival of the same name in Lancaster, held on the autumn weekend when the clocks go back one hour. The Late Hour is the missing hour when the clocks go forward!

6.
MEILLIONEN
An old Welsh air, plus assorted 18th-century variations by blind John Parry of Ruabon (Antient British Music, 1742) and Edward Jones (Musical & Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards, 1784-94). In addition, I have followed the time-honoured harpers' tradition and set two variations of my own. Following the air, the format runs: Parry (I, II), Shaljean (III, IV), Jones (V). As to the title, Jones mentions an old mansion of this name in Caernarvonshire, but adds that it 'literally implies the Trefoil'.

7.
MAILLE BHEAG O (Little Molly-O) [LC]
A newly-discovered set of variations on a traditional air, found in the MacLean—Clephane Manuscript and credited to 'Lyons & others'. These beautiful and previously unknown variations are in keeping with Lyons' style and are among his finest. The only other source of Lyons' music is the Bunting Collection (see notes to track no. 20).

8.
THE KILBURN JIG
DIARMUID'S WELL
THE WILD IRISHMAN
I heard the jig years ago in an Irish pub session in London's Kilburn district, played by an old man who didn't know its name, hence this title. I wrote the first of the two following reels, naming it after a well near Lough Ree which honours the legendary lovers Diarmuid and Gráinne, who were pursued throughout Ireland by her husband Fionn MacCumail (Finn MacCool) and obliged to sleep in a different place each night. The well is said to have healing powers. The second of the reels is a familiar traditional Irish tune.

9.
CHILDGROVE
DAPHNE
'TWAS WITHIN A FURLONG OF EDINBURGH TOWN
THE OAK AND THE ASH
The first three pieces are from John Playford's The Dancing Master, an English collection of popular tunes and instructions for country dancing which appeared in eighteen consecutive editions between 1651 and c.1728. The Oak and the Ash is the air to a 17th-century English song in which a homesick maid regrets having left her native north country. Its melody is based upon the Playford tune Goddesses and also bears strong similarity to Quodling's Delight. Giles Farnaby (1560-1640) composed some charming variations on the latter for virginal, and I have created my own set of variations for harp. These are heard following the air.

10.
FAREWELL TO LOUGH NEAGHE  [LC]
Taken from the MacLean—Clephane Manuscript and credited to Carolan. I have not found this air, or its title, in any other collection. Carolan certainly has a connection with the area in that he composed a tune for the Baron of Lough Neagh (Viscount Massereene) whose seat was at Castle Antrim. However, the ornate melody line bears a strong resemblance to Lyons' style (judging from what we know of his variations). As Lyons served as the Earl of Antrim's harper and companion for many years (and in fact outlived him by two decades), Lough Neagh would presumably have been a familiar scene, and not without sentimental attachment. Moreover, this piece was obtained from one of his pupils. In any case, it is a valuable and eloquent addition to harp repertoire.

11.
PANT CORLAN YR WYN (The valley of the sheep-fold)
PIBDDAWNS JONES (Jones' Hornpipe)
PWT AR Y BYS (An exercise for the fingers)
Taken from the playing of the late Nansi Richards, Telynores Maldwyn (her Bardic title), who learned triple-harp from a family of Welsh gypsies, and later became a fine pedal-harpist as well. The third piece is also known as The Gypsy Hornpipe or Butter And Peas, which seems to be simply a phonetic Anglicisation. I have made an adaptation of it for single-row harp, based on her Welsh triple harp variations.

12.
HER MANTLE SO GREEN
IM AONAR SEAL (By myself alone)
Two Irish song-airs, the first concerning lovers parted by war and reunited after a test of fidelity. The second is an aisling (vision) song, wherein Ireland is embodied as a beautiful but grieving woman. The original Gaelic words were composed by the Kerry poet Eoghan Rua O'Snilleabháin (1748—1784). I was given this song by the fine Cork singer Séan O'Sé.

13. [EC]
PORT 4th
AIR BY FINGAL No. 1.
AIR BY FINGAL No. 3.
PORT 5th
The Fingal pieces are from John Bowie's A Collection of Strathspey Reels and Country Dances (see notes to track no. 18). It was published in Perth c.1789, but some of the music dates back at least to the early 17th century, if not further. 'Fingal' presumably refers to the legendary Fionn MacCumail. The two other pieces appear in the MacLean—Clephane Manuscript as part of a section of ten unnamed Ports. They may possibly be original works by Rory Dall O'Catháin, as Port 7th is in fact one of his known compositions (The Fear of Dying).

14.
WHEN SHE' CAM BEN SHE BOBBIT (When she came in she curtsied)
18th-century variations on a Scottish tune found in many sources, among them Ramsay's Musick (1726), the Sinkler Manuscript (1710) and The Scots Musical Museum (1792). The sung version of it is also known as The Laird o' Cockpen, in which the said lord (supposedly a boon companion of Charles II) pursues a penniless young maid who curtsies, kisses him, and then denies it all. The first set of variations played here (in D minor) are Irish, of a later date, taken from the Hudson Manuscript. An attribution to Carolan is implied, but this is of questionable authenticity and the music does not particularly reflect his characteristic style. Bunting (see notes to track no. 20) gathered some variations between 1792 and 1805, so the piece seems to have been in the Irish harpers' repertoire. The second set (in G minor) are from Oswald's collection (see notes to track no. 19).

15.
PLANXTY DREW
MARY O'NEILL or CAROLAN'S FAVOURITE JIG
EDMOND MacDERMOTT ROE
THE MAIDS OF DERRY
A set of four Carolan tunes. I have taken the final one from the MacLean—Clephane Manuscript, where it exists in a slightly different version from that which has been published. For this reason I have retained the title given in the manuscript, though the piece is otherwise known as Planxty Plunkett. The use of the term 'planxty' seems to have originated with Carolan, as it does not appear to have been known previously, and it refers exclusively to his works (apart from one exception which may be a result of doubtful editing). It has currently become a generic term indicating any piece written by Carolan or composed as repayment for hospitality and patronage, but this indiscriminate usage is a modern trend. In the sources published closest to Carolan's lifetime, 'planxty' only occurs four times. Dr. Donal O'Sullivan has suggested that it was simply appended to a name where the full particulars of the subject were not known. Apart from this, Carolan himself uses the word only once, in his verse and not as a title, apparently synonymously with merriment and celebration.

16. [LC]
CAISMEACHD MHIC IAIN 'IC SHEUMAIS (Battle march of the son of John, son of James)
MARBHNA CATHAOIR MHIC CÁBA (Lament for Charles MacCabe)
Tradition has it that the march was composed in North Uist (Outer Hebrides) by the renowned harper Murchadh Clarsair in the early 17th century. The hero for whom it is named, also known as Donald MacIain MacDonald, won a clan battle against the raiding and plundering MacLeods at Carinish in 1601 by employing clever strategy as well as fighting skills, although his men were greatly outnumbered. Rather curiously, he is said to have referred to his favourite weapon as being a tawny falcon. He lived to become one of the region's first cattle-drovers. The lament which follows was written by Carolan as a sincere and moving elegy on the death of his good friend MacCabe. The only problem was that MacCabe was not dead. He had led Carolan to believe so, in a fit of pique over a practical joke, and then had to witness the great harper's genuine grief beside the supposed grave—doubtless with growing discomfort.

17.
AN PÁISTÍN FIONN (The fair-haired child)
SEÁN O'DUIBHIR AN GHLEANNA (John O'Dwyer of the glen)
Two fine Irish traditional song-airs, both of which exist in numerous versions. John O'Dwyer was the third son of the chief of the O'Dwyers of Kilnamanagh, County Tipperary. In this farewell song he laments the dispossession of his lands under Cromwell, and the verses describe the desolation and ruin of what was once a prosperous home. Emphasis is placed not only upon the loss of property, but also the deliberate destruction inflicted upon nature: the devastated forests, the displaced and hunted beasts whose situation reflects O'Dwyer's own. It seems likely that he went with his cousin Col. Edmund O'Dwyer into exile on the Continent in 1652, although it is possible that he fled to Connaught.

18. [EC]
PORT PRIEST
PORT ATHOLL
Port Priest comes from the Lute-Book of Robert Gordon of Straloch (1627-29) which contains at least one known Rory Dall O'Catháin piece (Rory Dall's Port, called Port Ballangowne in another lute-book) plus others with similar titles (Port Jean Lindsay, A Port etc.) which suggest origins in the harp tradition. This version of Port Atholl appears in the Bowie collection (see notes to track no. 13) and is generally recognised by scholars as being by Rory Dall. In an introductory note Bowie writes: 'The following pieces of Ancient Music were . . . composed originally for the Harp [and] . . . handed down to ['a Gentleman of Note', presumably one of the Robertsons of Lude, well-known patrons of harpers] by his Ancestors, who learned the same of the famous Rory Daul [sic] . . . . These tunes are called in our language Ports.. .' The most undeniable evidence is that of the music itself, which is clearly in the same style as Give Me Your Hand, Rory Dall's best known work. Dr. Colm O'Boyle has speculated that Port Atholl may have been composed in honour of John Murray, who became Earl of Atholl in 1629 and whose love of harp music was such that he employed a personal harper.

19. I WAS NOT . . . SINCE MARTINMAS
AN MUILEANN DUBH (The black mill)
THE HIGHLANDMAN KISSED HIS MOTHER
The first piece is given here as it was designated in James Oswald's A Caledonian Pocket Companion (1743-59), and I shall leave the full title to the imagination. It is followed by two traditional Scottish reels.

20.  [LC]
CUMHA MHIC GUIDHIR (Maguire's lamentation)
TÁIM I MO CHODHLADH IS NÁ DUISIGH Mt (l am asleep and do not waken me)
From The Ancient Music of Ireland compiled by Edward Bunting. As a young man, Bunting attended the great harp festival at Belfast in 1792, at which eleven harpers (ten Irish, one Welsh) gathered to perform in competition. By this time the harp had declined sadly in Irish culture, and most of the surviving players were quite old. Bunting was engaged to circulate among them, and note down their music in order to preserve it. His interest continued beyond the festival and he made several subsequent journeys collecting further material. He published three volumes, in 1796,1809, and 1840, and both these tunes appeared in the latter. Unfortunately they were heavily adapted for the fashionable drawing-room pianoforte, so I have tried instead to reconstruct the older style. The lamentation was taken from the County Cavan harper Catherine Martin in 1796, and Táim I Mo Chodhladh from Denis Hempson in County Deny in 1792. Hempson was 97 at the time of the festival, and had performed before Bonnie Prince Charlie. He married at 86, fathered a child, and was still playing his harp on the day before he died—at age 112. He was a product of the old, vanished school of Irish harping, using long fingernails in an archaic technique, and had learned harp from Brighid Ni Catháin, a Derry woman of the same clan as Echlin and Rory Dall. Hempson seems to have perplexed his 'modern' fellow harpers at Belfast rather than receiving the respect he deserved. One gathers that the feeling was mutual.

21.
MAGGY LAUTHER
BONIE JEAN MAKIS MEIKILL OF ME (Bonnie Jean makes much of me)
Maggy Lauther appeared in 1642 as a song by Francis Semple, full of double meanings and symbolism of bagpipes and the piper's prowess. Robert Burns also gave it words, on the theme of a henpecked husband now happily free. This version comes from Aria di Camera (c.1725-30). '. . . Being a Choice Collection of Scotch, Irish & Welsh Air's. . . '. The variations on Bonie Jean, another lively song, are taken from the lute manuscript (c.1620) of John Skene of Midlothian, transcribed and published by William Dauney in 1838.

* * * * * *

I am particularly grateful to Michael Billinge, not only for the harps but also for his extensive and invaluable help with the research. (He and I have also co-authored a thesis on the early 17th-century Dalway Harp Fragments, which appears in the May 1987 issue of the quarterly journal Early Music). In addition, I would like to thank Keith Sanger for his historical expertise and advice on much of the Gaelic material, as well as on the aforesaid Dalway project. He is also responsible for bringing my attention to the unpublished MacLean–Clephane Manuscript. I am grateful to Captain A. C. Farquharson of Invercauld and Torloisk for his kind permission to use music contained in this manuscript, which is in his possession. Thanks are also due to the concert harpist Sioned Williams, Telynores Gannon, for her helpful comments on the Welsh repertoire. Finally, no one who plays the music of Carolan can overlook the acknowledgement owed to the late Dr. Donal
O'Sullivan, whose massive scholarship is responsible for preserving and communicating so much of the great bard's work, and whose definitive biography I have referred to countless times as a performer.


BONNIE SHALJEAN has a wide-ranging performance background in historical and traditional harp music which includes recordings, publications, broadcasts and travelling throughout Britain and Ireland. She was born in America and trained since childhood as a classical pianist, but took up the harp after moving to England. She is also a fine singer.