ÁIRE NÍ CHATHASAIGH is the most interesting and original player of our Irish Harp today. Players across the world are always fascinated by her ornamentation on the brilliant dance music she plays, and especially by the intriguing mordents on one string, but it would be wise to also listen to her phrasing and to the poetic expression of her playing, which only the truly discerning listener will be sufficiently sensitive to appreciate." - Derek Bell

This book is the fruit of many years’ experience of performing and teaching Irish traditional music to harpers by the pioneer in the field. It represents the first attempt in print to analyse and explain the aesthetic principles which inform the stylistically correct performance of this music on the harp. Most of these ground-breaking arrangements are of traditional Irish dance music, but also included are two songs and some unusual settings of the music of Turlough O’Carolan.

Máire has recorded most of them on her albums The New Strung Harp (which in 1985 represented the first outing on record for the “traditional style” which she had invented for the harp), The Living Wood and The Carolan Albums, and best results can be achieved by listening carefully to the recorded versions while following the written music.

Exceptionally detailed instructions are given for performance and interpretation, and the fingering has been very carefully thought out: if conscientiously followed, idiomatic and fluent results can be achieved by the harper with little experience of this form of music.

Máire taught for many years at the Cork School of Music and many of her arrangements are on the Syllabus of the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin. She has taught many hundreds of harpers to play in her unique style since the mid-1970s and has taught the senior class at Cairde na Cruite (The Irish Harp Society)’s annual Cúirt Chruitireachta (Summer School / Festival) in Termonfeckin, Co Louth, Ireland, since its inception twenty five years ago. (Contact the Secretary of the Society Aibhlín McCrann at aibhlin.mccrann@communique.ie for further details.)

Contents:
Eibhlín Ní Ríordáin’s Slide; Marcshlua Uí Néill; Mairéad’s Mazurka; Julia Clifford’s Polkas; Walsh’s Hornpipe; The Peacock’s Feather; Cuach mo Londubh Buí; Caitlín Ní Aodha; The Sport of the Chase; Fanny Power; Planxty Sudley; Tomeen O’Dea’s Reel; The Bantry Girls’ Lament; Madam Maxwell; The Gander in the Pratie Hole; The Queen of the Rushes; The Boys of Malin; The Old Oak Tree; The Pullet; The Volunteer