Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. Vol. 2. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Jan Smaczny: The stuff of life' - aspects of folksong in the fabric of art music in the British Isles

continuum, themselves becoming virtual folksongs transmitted orally, in manuscript copies and eventually reaching print. In many ways, the last gasp of the harp tradition as it was understood from ancient times came with the Belfast Harp Festival of 1792. This unique gathering marked an early attempt to record for posterity - a clear forerunner of the work of such as Vaughan Williams, Bartók and Janácek - a repertoire on the verge of disappearance. It took place, appropriately enough for such an Enlightenment-inspired event, during the celebrations of the taking of the Bastille in July. Eleven harpers were involved, ten Irish and one Welsh. Their performances occurred over three days while the youthful Edward Bunting transcribed the musical substance of their performances.

6 The event proved to be a considerable public attraction. It was held in the Belfast Exchange Rooms and visiting members of the public paid handsomely to hear the performances at the rate of half a guinea; a number of prizes were given (the fifty-six year old Charles Fanning was awarded the top prize of 10 guineas) and all eleven players received some money. The experience of the Festival was formative for Bunting and he spent time in the next eighteen years touring Ireland collecting still more music from singers and instrumentalists. Bunting's transcriptions and his subsequent publications are an invaluable document and include information about players, tuning and performance practice. Nevertheless, his volumes of pieces of 1797, 1809 and 1840 reflected the developing fashions of the day and were designed (and increasingly suited) to the piano and its playing techniques. Much the same is true, of course, in Stevenson's and Bishop's arrangements for Moore's melodies which, for obvious commercial reasons, favoured a pianistic accompaniment and the much more classical approach to harmonisation v/hich in many songs tended to distort the inherent qualities of the originals 6 Edward Bunting (1773-1843) was a talented organist from Armagh. Though certainly able, his transcriptions of the harp repertoire are problematic from a number of points of view. He often did not notate the bass parts and failed to recognise fundamental aspects of improvisatory ornamental writing. Recently practitioners of the Irish harp have also begun to question his notation of melodic lines since some of them seem unidiomatic given the nature of the instrument. His extensive collection of manuscripts is held in the special collection of the main library, The Queen's University of Belfast. 33