Scoil na gCláirseach

Time-
table

SUMMER SCHOOL OF EARLY IRISH HARP

TIMETABLE OF EVENTS

Wednesday 17th August 2016

2.00-4.00pm

Introductory Class
An orientation session for any students new to the early Irish harp.

Taster session - Natalie Surina
A chance to see, hear and try out an early Irish harp. Open to the public.

4.30-5.30pm

Student registration

5.45-6.45pm

Class introduction and orientation session

7.00-8.00pm

Official opening of Scoil na gCláirseach 2016
Guest speaker Colette Moloney

Thursday 18th August

8.45-9.15am
Practice time

9.15-9.30am
Tuning

9.30-10.45am
Classes

10.45-11.15 Morning coffee

11.15-12.30
Classes (continuation of previous sessions)

12.30-1.45 Lunch

1.45-2.45pm
General workshop
The early Gaelic harp traditions:
Their ancient history and modern revival Specialist workshop - Siobhán Armstrong
Reconstructing Irish harp music:
What evidence for historically appropriate accompaniment is to be found in Bunting MS 29?

2.45-3.15pm Tutor concert - Ann Heymann

3.15-3.45pm
Afternoon tea

3.45-4.15pm Practice time in group classes Private masterclasses - Ann Heymann

4.15-5.00pm
Public masterclasses - Ann Heymann

5.15-6.00pm
Lecture - Siobhán Armstrong
Charlotte Milligan Fox 1864-1916:
Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the death of the author of Annals of the Irish Harpers and celebrating other women in early Irish harp history.
Watch video of this event

6.00-6.15pm
Questions and discussion

Friday 19th August

8.45-9.15am
Practice time

9.15-9.30am
Tuning

9.30-10.45am
Classes

10.45-11.15 Morning coffee

11.15-12.30
Classes (continuation of previous sessions)

12.30-1.45 Lunch

1.45-2.45pm
General workshop - Siobhán Armstrong
What’s an historical Irish harpist?
Why would I want to become one? And how?! Specialist workshop - Simon Chadwick
Sources for early Irish harp music:
Raiding the HHSI library

2.45-3.15pm Practice time in group classes Private masterclasses - Ann Heymann

3.15-3.45pm Afternoon tea

3.45-4.30pm
Public masterclasses - Ann Heymann

4.30-5.15pm
Lecture - Simon Chadwick
Medieval Gaelic harp tuning and setup:
An exploration of the evidence for early harp tuning, and a proposed new scheme for stringing and tuning replicas of the Trinity College & Queen Mary harps.
Watch video of this event

5.15-5.30pm
Questions and discussion

8.00pm

Public concert
Chapter House, St. Mary’s Cathedral, James’s St. Kilkenny.
Music & Memoirs of an Irish Harper
On the bicentenary of Arthur Ó Néill, c.1737-1816
Ann Heymann and Siobhán Armstrong, historical harps
Éamonn Ó Bróithe, sean nós singer

Saturday 20th August

8.45-9.15am
Practice time

9.15-9.30am
Tuning

9.30-10.45am
Classes

10.45-11.15 Morning coffee

11.15-12.30
Classes (continuation of previous sessions)

12.30-1.45 Lunch

1.45-2.45pm
General workshop -
Sylvia Crawford & Simon Chadwick
Accompanying harpers’ songs
What to play to accompany a song Specialist workshop - Éamonn Ó Bróithe
Advanced song class
For those who already sing in Irish.
Watch video of this event

2.45-3.15pm Practice time in group classes Private masterclasses - Ann Heymann

3.15-3.45pm Afternoon tea

3.45-4.30pm
Public masterclasses - Ann Heymann

4.30-5.15pm
Presentation - Ronan Browne
Regulators: missing link or codswallop?
Both the early Irish harp and the Irish pipes allow melodic accompaniment. Are there any overlaps in historical style? Early recordings of pipers and their usage of regulators may provide clues.

5.30-6.15pm
Talk - Éamonn Ó Bróithe
“Ciúl na dTéad agus Luas na Méar”: the harper and the Gaelic literary tradition in 18th-century Ireland:
An exploratory foray based on the memoirs of Arthur Ó Néill and the poetic tradition of south east Ulster.
Watch video of this event

7.30-8.00pm
Annual General Meeting of The Historical Harp Society of Ireland

8.00-9.30pm
Informal student platform

Sunday 21st August

8.45-9.15am
Practice time

9.15-9.30am
Tuning

9.30-10.45am
Classes

10.45-11.15 Morning coffee

11.15-12.30
Classes (continuation of previous sessions)

12.30-1.45 Lunch

1.45-2.45pm
General workshop - Róisín Elsafty
Learning a harper’s song:
For those who don’t already sing in Irish. Specialist workshop - Ann Heymann
“Lamentation More, or Chorus of Sighs and Tears”
A hands-on workshop exploring plausible approaches to the instrumental performance of lamentation, using materials collected by Bunting “From O Neil the Harper, and at Armagh from the hired mourners, or keeners and an ancient M.M.S above a century old”
Watch video of this event

2.45-3.15pm Practice time in group classes Private masterclasses - Ann Heymann

3.15-3.45pm Afternoon tea

3.45-4.30pm
Public masterclasses - Ann Heymann

4.30-5.00pm
Tutor concert - Siobhán Armstrong & Róisín Elsafty

5.00-6.00pm
Lecture - Karen Loomis
Lost and Found Bunting at the British Library:
Crammed full of unpublished commentary, anecdotes, and sources for Irish harp tunes, Edward Bunting’s own extensively annotated copies of his published volumes of Irish harp music lay overlooked and forgotten in the British Library for almost a century. See his final unpublished revisions to iconic tunes like Carolan’s Concerto, find out which tunes were attributed to harpers like Arthur Ó Néill and Rose Mooney, and hear in Bunting’s own words what he really thought of the harper Carolan!
Watch video of this event

6.00-6.15pm
Questions and discussion

Monday 22nd August

8.45-9.15am
Practice time

9.15-9.30am
Tuning

9.30-10.45am
Classes

10.45-11.15 Morning coffee

11.15-12.30
Classes (continuation of previous sessions)

12.30-1.45 Lunch

1.45-2.45pm
General workshop - Ann Heymann
“...from the information of Arthur O’Neill &c.”
A hands-on workshop exploring early Irish harp techniques collected and published by Edward Bunting. Includes graces, shakes, double notes, and chords. Specialist workshop - Simon Chadwick
Re-imagining the medieval Gaelic harp traditions:
What is the repertory of the Trinity College harp?
Watch video of this event

2.45-3.15pm Practice time in group classes

3.15-3.45pm Afternoon tea

3.45-4.30pm
Lecture - Natalie Surina
Recreating an 18th-century Irish harp:
The ‘Rose Mooney’ harp from a harpmaker’s perspective.
Watch video of this event

4.30-4.45pm
Discussion

5.00pm
Closing Reception & Student Platform

Tuesday 23rd August

Optional field trip to Dublin
led by Simon Chadwick
(times are approximate)

8.00am

Dep. St. Kieran’s College, Kilkenny

10.30-11.30am

Trinity College Dublin:
• Trinity College harp
• Patrick Quin’s Castle Otway harp

12.00-1.00pm

National Museum of Ireland, Kildare St:
• Ballinderry harp fragments
• Breac Maedóic
• Fiacail Phádraig
• Shrine of the Stowe Missal
• Early Irish treasures

Lunch break at Collins Barracks

2.00-3.00pm
National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks:
N.B. In 2016 we will view the harps here, but they will not be laid out on display for us, we will only have a limited view of them in their storage rack.
• Kildare harp
• Mullagh Mast harp
• Sirr harp
• ‘Carolan’ (Rose Mooney’s) harp
• Hollybrook harp
• Cloyne harp fragments
• Cloyne reconstruction

3.30-4.30pm

Guinness Storehouse Museum:
• Denis O’Hampsey’s Downhill harp

4.30pm

Depart Dublin for those returning to Kilkenny.

7.00pm approx.

arr. Kilkenny

Please note that this timetable is provisional and is subject to change. Updated 14th August 2016.

Previous years’ timetables are archived here:
2015 - 2014 - 2013 - 2012 - 2011 - 2010 - 2009 - 2008 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003