ABOUT THESE ACCOMPANIMENTS

As in the other volumes, the accompaniments in this third volume of Travels With My Harp are suitable for piano and for pedal or lever harp but they were specifically written or adapted for the latter. Since making my first singing radio broadcast in Ireland at the age of sixteen, I accompanied myself on the Irish harp. Over the years my repertoire expanded to include songs from other parts of the world. This volume offers a sprinkling of my favourite songs - songs I have performed many times in concert, on radio and on television, recorded on LP, CD and DVD- video.

It has been said that the Irish harp is the dosest of all instruments to the human voice and I only ever used the harp as an accompanying instrument. The harp’s role for the self-accompanist is to enhance the singing without drawing undue attention to itself. All along, my aim had been to keep my harp accompaniments simple without being dull, interesting without being fussy or drawing attention away from the actual song. I memorised my harp accompaniments and never wrote them down. Now at last I’m committing them to paper.

Over many years I performed my songs on stage and in my television shows. As any professional singer will tell you, one’s interpretation of songs evolves over time and likewise the accompaniments. My recordings of the songs in this book were made at different times, sometimes part of live performances, and what is on the various recordings may not always in every detail accord exactly with what appears on paper here. I’ve avoided over-burdening the user with too many directions. Singing and the interpretation of songs is a personal matter, best left to the individual singer to work out on his or her own. My own interpretation can be heard on my recordings or, as in the case of some volumes, on the separate accompanying DVDs. I’m including a sprinkling of contemporary songs in each volume but most are traditional and are now available on a new (double CD) compilation entitled Mary OHara — 40 Traditional Songs.

Of the hundreds of songs I have recorded, fewer than a third are with harp accompaniment only. Most are with harp, piano and flute - my regular concert line-up - and many with orchestra. For this book, I've selected a cross section of the songs I sang with the harp only.

To help you understand some of these songs more fully, knowledge of the songs' backgrounds may be helpful. I have provided lyric translations for the two very popular 'non-English' songs, one a Scots Gallic song, Na Hao Ri lù (often referred to as either The Ghost Song, or The Child of the Woodlands) and a French Canadian song A la Claire Fontaine.

The Spinning Wheel. At the age of 17, when I first started broadcasting on Radio Eireann, Ireland's national radio station, my repertoire was completely Gaelic. The Spinning Wheel was the first English-language Irish song that I added. It was a 'household' song in the Ireland of the period. It is now, after Danny Boy, possibly the best-known Irish song outside of Ireland.

The English poet Peter Levi (1932 - 2000), an old friend of mine, wrote the words of The Snail for me, at my request and I then set the words to music.

Canada is a country where I frequently went to give concerts and sing on television. It was in that country that I first came across the poignant A La Claire Fontaine though the roots of the song are back in medieval France.

Across the sea from the Scottish mainland, Na Hao Ri lù comes from the Isle of Skye. In my late teens, I was invited by the illustrious Maclean family to the Hebridean Islands to collect and sing some of their beautiful Scots-Gallic songs. This is one of the first songs taught to me by Rena Maclean sitting at her kitchen table in South Uist. While out minding the cattle on the Isle of Skye, a young girl hears the ghost of her mother singing to her. Although we learn that her family is being maltreated by her cruel stepmother, it is, nonetheless, a song of comfort.

England, where I have lived most of my adult life, is represented by the Elizabethan song Greensleeves. Some hold that it is the work of King Henry VIII.

Caleno Custure Me. A phonetic rendering of an old Gaelic song, now lost - "Cailin ó Cois tSúire Mé" (I am a girl from the banks of the river Suir). Quoted by Shakespeare's Pistol in Henry V,vi.4. For more information on this lovely song, see my book A SONG FOR IRELAND (1982, p.25).

One of the most tender love songs in my repertoire is The Riddle Song, sometimes referred to as I Gave My Love A Cherry, and it comes from North America.

The melody of the Lord of the Dance is from an old Shaker hymn (used by Aaron Copland in his instrumental work for small orchestra entitled Appalachian Spring). The original hymn was called: 'TIs a Gift To Be Simple. The late Sydney Carter (1915 - 2004) added new words. This is the song that started me singing again after a 12-year long monastic silence.

The Frog's Wedding, sometimes referred to as The Frog and the Mouse. When I was growing up in the 50's everyone who listened to the radio (which meant everybody) would have been familiar with Burl Ives singing the American version. It was Liam Clancy who introduced me to the Irish version while I was in New York in 1957 recording an album for the Clancy Brothers' Tradition Label.

I have now been retired from singing for some years and I have hung up my harp for good but I hope these harp accompaniments of mine will give you some pleasure and that you’ll find them useful in your work.

A word about accidentals and enharmonics:

A word about accidentals and enharmonics: all Irish harps are tuned to either Eb or Ab. I tune mine to Ab (4 flats) and all my instructions regarding the accompaniments stem from that. In the key of At (a key I was comfortable with, having a high voice), all the levers (blades) are in the neutral position and thus the tone of the harp is at its best - when a lever is engaged, the tone of the string is slightly affected. I have indicated how to get accidentals in a way that I see to be easiest for the player of the Irish harp and similar lever harps. For example, in Greensleeves (p. 17, bar 16) I've made the accidental D# an Eb and in The Snail (page 6, bar 3) the Gb I've written as an F#. By the way my next most favoured key was Eb. And to get from the key of Ab to Eb, simply engage the D lever.