New solo traditional Irish Harp music : Ancient airs, live lively polkas, previously unheard O'Carolan harp tunes like the magic 'Separation of Soul and Body' and modern sounding 'All Alive' jig, reels from Cape Breton and legendary fiddler Tommy Peoples.

13 MP3 Songs in this album (46:12) !
Related styles: World: Celtic, Folk: Irish Traditional, Instrumental

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I came across the word Ceis in Eugene OâCurryâs âManners & Customs of the Ancient Irish, Vol. IIIâ where he gave several different accounts of the word from historical settings. There is no definitive meaning. The word probably changed its meaning over centuries. It is a curious word and I take it as the magic or draíocht of the harp.

The Annals of the Four Masters - the history of Ireland â give an account of a story from 400 B.C. of âWhen King Scoriath â father of Moriath - threatened the poet Ferceirtne with the loss of his head, the poetâs words were these :
âI conceal not that it was the Ceis, of Craiftineâs Cruit (harp),
that put upon the hosts a death sleep
Until Labraid and Moriath of Morca were united;-
Beyond all price did she prize Labraid,
Sweeter than all the music was the Cruit,
Which was played for Labraid, Loingsiuch Lorc;
Though the prince was before that dumb,
Craiftineâs Ceis was not concealedâ.

The word Ceis occurs again when the poet Dallan Forgaill composed this on the death of Colum Cille A.D.592 :
âLike a cure of a physician without light,
like the separation of marrow from the bone,
Like a song to a harp with the ceis,
are we after being deprived of our noble.â
OâCurry refers to the same poem :
âA Cruit without a Ceis, a church without an abbotâ.

In an ancient poem of general instructions to the new king, probably Cormac Mac Cuileannain in the ninth century :
âThis world is every manâs world in his turn,
There is no prophet but the true God;
Like a company without a chief, like a harp without a Ceis,
Are the people after their king.â
Commentary found in the Leabhar na h-Uidhre 1106, says : âCeis, that is, a means of fastening; or a path to the knowledge of the music; or Ceis is the name of a small Cruit which accompanies a large Cruit in co-playing; or, it is the name of the little pin (or key) which retains the string in the wood of the Cruit; or it is the name of the heavy string [or bass].â
The Yellow Book of Lecan 1391, has âA Cruit without a Ceis, or a Cruit without a string of knowledge. Or, it was a Cruit without any one of the three tunings (Glésa) which served to Craiftine the harper, namely Suantraigh, and Goltraigh, and Gentraigh, for the sleeping, the crying, and the laughing modesâ.
OâCurry ends the discussion on Ceis declaring âI cannot speak with authority as to what exactly the Ceis was, yet there is good reason to think that it was no material part of the harp after all, but that the word signifies simply the harmonized tones or tune of the instrument.â


LON DUBH/MAIDRÍN RUADH

This tune is especially for Leah Moko Ratana and all my friends in New Zealand I met on an amazing Maori/Irish collaboration tour in 2008.
There are many versions of âLon Dubhâ or the âBlackbirdâ, this one I learned from Dublin piper Sean McKeon on the tour in NZ. He got it from Paddy Glackin who in turn got it from the great Donegal fiddler Johnny Doherty.
Steve Cooney introduced me to the music of Canon James Goodman (1828-1896). One of Irelandâs finest collectors of tradititonal music, Goodman, a piper, was from Dingle, Co.Kerry and got many of his tunes from piper Tomás Dall Ó Cinnéide. This is a 3-part setting of the Maidrín Ruadh or Little Red Fox, familiar to many as it has been taught in primary schools for generations. It is the first section in a suite of music entitled âMaidrín Ruadhâ.


THE HONOURABLE THOMAS BURKE

The Honourable Thomas Burke was composed by the great harper composer Turlough OâCarolan (1670-1738) for the 3rd son of the 9th Earl of Clanricard. The Clanricards resided at Portumna Castle, on the shore of Lough Derg, Co.Galway.
The first printed version of this tune appears in John Mulhollandâs Collection of Ancient Irish Airs, Belfast 1810.



WITH HER DOG AND HER GUN

With her Dog and her Gun is a great title for this romantic tune! It is from the George Petrie collection (1857), with only âA Mayo tuneâ as the source.
This is for Dad who gave me the Petrie collection.


JOE CASSIDYâS/FRANK GILRUTH/HULLâS REEL

Joe Cassidyâs is a composition by the ledgendary Donegal fiddler Tommy Peoples. Joe Cassidy got Tommy started on the Fiddle. I heard it first from fiddler Jesse Smith.
Cape Breton fiddler Natalie Mac Master played âFrank Gilruthâ on one of her recordings I was involved in a few years back. It was composed by Peter Milne, a mid-18th century Scottish fiddler who strongly influenced J. Scott Skinner. It can be found in the Winston Fitzgerald collection of tunes compiled by Paul Cranford.
Hullâs Reel is a popular Cape Breton session tune composed by fiddler and piano player John Morris Rankin. We used to love playing this tune in the band âBumblebeesâ having heard it on one of our visits to magic Cape Breton Island.


TOUREENDARBY POLKA/NELL MAHONEYâS POLKA/MIKE BUCKLEYâS FAVOURITE

Three well known polkas from Sliabh Luachra, west Kerry. I canât remember where I heard these polkas. I probably learned them when I was a kid on the whistle. Thanks to the walking archive that is fiddler Máire OâKeeffe and the Sliabh Luachra jury of Brian OâLeary and Paudie OâConnor for the correct titles.


ACHILL AIR

Do mhuintir an Oileán seo, go háirithe Seán MacConmara. This is for the Achill community especially the people of Dooagh for their fáilte mhór.
This tune appears in the 3rd collection of Edward Bunting published in 1840, crediting fellow collector George Petrie as the source in 1839. It is marked âvery ancientâ and âplaintiveâ.


BEAUTIFUL GORTREE

This reel is composed by Tommy Peoples. Gortree is Tommyâs motherâs home place in Donegal. This is for Michelle.


ALL ALIVE/MALCOLMâS NEW FIDDLE/THE BATTERING RAM

All Alive is attributed to Turlough OâCarolan, according to Petrie, and states it is doubtful this was the original title.
Malcolmâs New Fiddle is composed by ledgendary fiddler and composer of many a good tune, Jerry Holland, RIP. Jerry wrote this tune in the mid 80âs for Malcolm MacPhail, a fiddler from the River Denys area of Cape Breton and it has become common in the Irish session repretoire since then.
The Battering Ram or âAn Reithe Cogaidhâ is a popular Irish session tune that I learned at a harp summer school many many moons ago from the great harper Janet Harbison. A two-part version of this tune was collected about the 1840âs as âMary OâHaraâ. The name Mary OâHara is familiar to us today as she became the most famous Irish harp player of the twentieth century.


LITTLE JOHNâS HAME/SPEY IN SPATE

These tunes are for my friends in the musical village of Teelin, Co.Donegal especially Kitty Sheain Cunningham, Martina and Joe Byrne and Tommy and Dermot Byrne.
I heard Tommy Peoples play this first tune years ago. He got it from a collection of J. Scott Skinner tunes.
The Spey in Spate I learned at a harp summer school in Glencolmcille when I was a kid from two of Scotlandâs finest harpers and now my good friends Mary MacMaster and Patsy Seddon.


IS GALAR CRÁIDHTE AN GRÁDH

Loveâs a tormenting pain. Transcribed from the playing of harper Denis Hempson in 1796 by Edward Bunting. Bunting states that it was composed in 1670 by William Connellan. William and his brother Thomas were harpers from Cloonmahon, near Collooney, Co.Sligo. Their dates span the years 1640-1720, a period of great political and social upheavel in Ireland. They travelled to Scotland as was common for harpers at the time and gained recognition there. Thanks to harper Kathleen Loughnane for her research in her book âThe Harpers Connellanâ. She has recorded this tune on her album with the same name.
This piece is in memory of Frankie McFadden from Derry, who left this world earlier than we expected.


SLIABH NA MBAN

This is for my mum Patricia Kelly and my mumâs mum Nora Bresnihan. Sliabh na mBan means the mountain of the women and it is the name of a mountain in county Tipperary. The Goodman collection is the source for this tune. Although it was collected from a piper it feels like a harp tune and it could well have been as the pipering tradition maintained the music of the harp tradition when that tradition was in decline.


SEPARATION OF SOUL AND BODY

The title of this piece drew me in, having found it in Donal OâSullivanâs âCarolan, The Life Times and Music of an Irish Harperâ. OâSullivan says âThe title and character of this piece suggest it had an elegiac themeâ. The source of this version is the John and William Neale collection c. 1724.


SIOBHÁINÍN SEÓ

This Suantraí or lullaby is from the Goodman collection.