Clàrsach: Ireland musical instrument

The Clàrsach is Scottish Gaelic word for harp, the equivalent to the instrument in the Irish being clairseach. Since these musical instruments have traditionally been seen as one, they are generally called Celtic harp in the English language. The traditional Clàrsach was a triangular, wire-strung musical instrument needing great skill and long practice to perform, and was often linked with the Gaelic elite. In the Scotland, the kind of harp has a unique history.

source of picture: en.wikipedia.org

The earliest history of the triangular frame harp is contested in Europe. The first musical instrument linked with the harping tradition in the Gaelic world was called cruit. This word may originally have described a varying stringed musical instrument, being etymologically interconnected to the welsh crwth. It has been suggested that the name of this musical instrument was coined for the triangular frame that substituted the cruit and that this coining was of the Scottish origination.

Three of the four authentic harps to stay alive are of Gaelic provenance: the Trinity College Harp preserved in Trinity College Dublin, and the Queen Mary Harp and the Lamont Harp in the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. The last two are examples of small low-headed harp and are both manufactured from the hornbeam, a wood that is not from the Scottish country. All the three harps are dated to nearly 15^th century and may have been manufactured in Argyll in Southwest Scotland.

Gerald of Wales, the Norman-Welsh cleric and student, whose Topographica Hibernica et Expugnatio Hibernica is an explanation of the Ireland from the Anglo-Norman opinion, praised the Irish harp music, though added that in the point of view of many, the scots had now exceeded them in the skill. Gerald refers to the cithara and the tympanum, but their identification with the harp is not certain and it is not known that he ever visited Scotland.

Early icons of the musical instrument are not common in the Scottish iconography, though a gravestone at Kiells in Argyllshire that is traced back to approximately 1500 shows one with a typically large sound box, ornamented with Celtic designs.

In terms of construction, the Irish version and the Scottish version of the musical instrument may be said to be one. The characteristic feature of the Clàrsach and the Irish harp is the metal strings. Historical sources made mention of different kinds of wires including the brass and iron; some students also debate for the use of gold and silver. The wires are affixed to a massive sound box that is carved from a single log, and commonly said to be of a willow, but other kinds of wood including the alder and poplar have been seen in extant harps with a reinforced rounded pillar and considerable neck, verged with thick brass cheek bands. Normally performed with the fingernails, the strings of the musical instrument manufactured brilliant ringing tune. This kind of harp is also distinctive among single row triangular harps in that the first two strings of the instrument tuned in the middle of the gamut were set to the same pitch.

In the Scottish Gaelic, the name of the instrument’s components were: amhach, which is the neck of the instrument, the cnagan, which is the pins, the corr, which is the pin-board, the com, which is the sound box of the instrument, lamh-chrann, which is the forepillar, the teudan, which are the strings of the instrument, the cruidhean nan teud, which are the string shoes of the instrument and the urshnaim, which is the toggle.

The corr had a brass nailed to each side of the instrument, pierced by tapered brass tuning pins. The treble extreme of the instrument had a tenon that is attached into the top of the com. On a low-headed harp, the corr was morticed at the bass extreme to receive a tenon on the lamh-chrann; on a high-headed harp, the tenon is attached into the mortice on the back of the lamh-chrann.

The com was normally constructed from a single piece of willow, hollowed out from behind. A panel of harder timber was carefully slot in to seal the back.

The cruidhean nan teud were often manufactured of brass and prevented the metal strings of the instrument from cutting the wood of the sound box.

The urshnaim may refer to the wooden toggle to which a string was clipped once it had emerged from its hole in the soundboard of the instrument.

The play of the wire-strung harp has been said to be so hard. Because of the long-lasting resonance of the instrument, the player of the instrument had to dampen the strings that have just been played while new strings were being plucked, and this is done while he is playing rapidly. Opposing to the conventional contemporary practice, the left hand of the player played the treble and the right hand of the player played the bass of the instrument. It used to be said that a performer should start to learn the harp no later than the age of 7 if the player wish to become a professional player of the instrument. The rewards were considerable: a grateful and substantial patron, a concentrating audience and the buildup of wealth.

During the medieval times, the wire-strung harp was demanded throughout the territories of Gaelic that spread from the Northern highlands and Isles of the Scotland to the southern region of the Ireland. The Gaelic world of the Ireland and Scotland, meanwhile, while retaining close relationship, were already displaying signs of divergence in the 16^th century in language, social structure and music.

The function of the musical instrument in a Hebridean lordship, as a literary metaphor and as an entertainment, is described in the songs of Màiri Nic Leòid (Mary MacLeod) (c.1615 - c.1705) a popular poet of her time.

There is substantiation that the musical tradition of this musical instrument may have influenced the use and repertoire of the bagpipe instruments. The oral mnemonic system known as ‘canntaireachd’, used for encoding and teaching ceol mor, was first stated in the 1226 obituary of a harp player. Terms relating to theme and variation on the musical instrument and the bagpipe correlate to themselves. Founder of the bagpipe dynasties are also said to be the players of the musical instrument.

The names of a number of last players of harp are noted. The blind Duncan McIndeor that died in the year 1694, was player to the Campbell of Auchinbreck, though also frequented Edinburgh. A receipt for ‘two bolls of meall’ traced back to 1683, is extant for another player of harp, also blind, and called Patrick McErnace, who speciously performed for Lord Neill Campbell. The player of the harp Manus McShire is noted in an account book covering the period 1688 to 1704. A player of the musical instrument known as Neill Baine is noted in a letter traced back to 1702 from a servitor of Allan McDonald of Clanranald. Angus McDonald, a player of harp, collected payment on the instructions of Menzies of Culdares on the 19^th June, 1713, and Marquis of Huntly’s accounts record a payment to two players of the instrument in the year 1714.

By the mid-18^th century, the fiddle player had substituted the player of the harp, a consequence, probably, of the growing influence in the Gaelic world of Low land Scottish tradition.

In the early part of the 19^th century, even as the old Gaelic harp culture was dying out, a new harp was fabricated in Ireland. This version of the musical instrument has gut strings and semitone mechanism like an orchestral pedal harp, and was fabricated by Dublin pedal harp manufacturer called John Egan. It was smaller and curved like the original version of the musical instrument, though the strings were made of gut and the sound box of the harp was much lighter than the original version of the instrument. In the 1890s, an analogous new harp was invented in Scotland as part of the Gaelic cultural revival.

There is now, renewed interest in the musical instrument, with replicas being produced and research being carried out into ancient playing styles and terminologies.