Clàrsach
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The Clàrsach (Gd.) or Cláirseach (Ga.) is the name given to the wire-strung harp of either Scotland or Ireland. The word was originally cruit, but clàrsach begins to make its appearance in the sources by the end of the 14th century. Until the end of the Middle Ages it was the most popular musical instrument of both Scotland and Ireland, and harpists were amongst the most prestigious cultural figures amongst Irish chiefs and Scottish kings and earls. In both countries, the harpist enjoyed special rights and played a crucial part in ceremonial occasions such as coronation and poetic recital.
The Kings of Ireland and the Kings of Scotland employed harpers until the end of the Middle Ages, and they feature promintently in royal iconography. Several Clarsach players were noted at the Battle of the Standard (1138), and when Alexander III of Scotland (d. 1286) was in London paying homage to Edward I in 1278, his court minstrels were with him, payments were made to Elyas the "King of Scotland's harper,". Seemingly, Elyas had been deprived of his lands by Edward I, but the English king issued a write to the sheriffs of Perth and Fife which restored to this harper the lands previously held by him. This is one of the many instances of the survival of the old Celtic custom of gifting land to court musicians.
John Major, the Scottish historian, in his Annals of Scotland published in 1521, says Even the King, James I, was a performer on the harp, and indeed the historian Fordun, according to his continuator Bower, said that he touched it 'like another Orpheus', while Major comments that, 'on the harp he excelled the Irish or the Highland Scots, who are esteemed the best performers on that instrument.'The Clarsach was played before Bonny Prince Charlie, in Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh 1745. The harper on his death bequeathed the Clairsach to the Bruce family of Downhall Derry; where it was acquired by the firm of Arthur Guinness Sons and Company, Dublin, where it is now exhibited.
Place names, such as Harper's Pass, and Harper's Field (Fanmore nan Clairsairean) are still noted on the island of Mull. Duntulm Castle on the Isle of Skye retains its Harper's Window, and Castle lachlan in Argyll has its Harper's Gallery. The names remain to remind us of the one-time importance of the harp in these areas, and this seems especially appropriate when it is recalled that the earliest representations of the triangular frame harp, in Europe, are provided by the ninth-century stone carvings of Scotland.
Three medieval Gaelic harps survived into the modern period, two from Scotland (the Queen Mary Harp and the Lamont Harp) and one in Ireland (the Trinity College harp, sometimes romantically called the Brian Boru harp). Artistic evidence from study of the decorative designs on the instruments implies that all three were probably made in the western Highlands. There are at least 15 other early Gaelic harps dating from post medieval times to c.1800; though most are in Ireland and are usually assumed to be Irish, many have no provenance.
The harp was utilized by Irish and Scottish poets and bards, who were seen as potential rabble rousers and rebels by the English colonial powers. Thus Queen Elizabeth I of England outlawed harps, fearing that the music of the harpers would help ferment revolution against the British crown. She infamously bid Lord Barrymore to "hang the harpers wherever found and destroy their instruments." Yet at the same time, the leading English nobles and aristocrats bought Irish harps and employed Irish harpers both in their Irish houses and in England. In the 17th century Irish harpers were appointed to the English Royal Music.
The surname MacWhirter, mac a' chruiteir, means son of the harpist, and is common throughout Scotland, but particularly in Carrick and Galloway.
The playing of this Gaelic harp with wire strings died out in Scotland in the 18th century and in Ireland in the early 19th century. When harp playing was revived in Ireland and Scotland as part of the late 19th century Gaelic revival, the instruments used differed greatly from the old wire-strung harps. The new instruments had gut strings, and their construction and playing style was based on the larger orchestral pedal harp. Nonetheless the name "clàrsach" was and still used in Scotland today to describe these new instruments. In Ireland they are usually called "Irish harp" not "cláirseach".
The modern, gut-strung clàrsach has thousands of players, both in Scotland and Ireland, as well as North America and elsewhere. Notable events include the Edinburgh International Harp Festival, which recently staged the world record for the largest number of harpists to play at the same time.
Since the 1970s there has been a deliberate revival of the older wire-strung instrument, based on Early Music principles and using replica instruments and period playing techniques. The main annual event is Scoil na gCláirseach held in Kilkenny every August. However the early clàrsach remains much less popular than its modern rival.
The Gaelic harp appears in the Coat of arms of Ireland, and on the flag of the President of Ireland.
[edit] Bibliography
- John Bannerman, "The Clàrsach and the Clàrsair", in Scottish Studies, vol. 30 no. 3, 1991
- Keith Sanger and Alison Kinnaird, "Tree of Strings - Crann nan Teud", Kinmor 1992
- Seamus Roch Ryan, "The Sound of Revolution" 2006
- Henry George Farmer (1947). A History of Music in Scotland London, 1947 p. 280
- Roslyn Rensch (1989). Harps and Harpists Indiana University Press, 1989 pp. 125-127
- Francis Collinson (1966). The Bagpipe, Fiddle and Harp. from Traditional and National Music of Scotland, Routledge & Kegan Paul, reprinted by Lang Syne Publishers Ltd., 1983
