Belfast Harp Festival

The Oxford Companion to Irish History | 2007 | 700+ words | Copyright

Belfast Harp Festival (11–14 July 1792), a crucial event in the revival of Gaelic musical culture. A committee of judges heard some ten harpers (including Denis Hempson, Arthur O'Neill, and Charles Byrne), six of whom were blind. The purpose of the festival, at which premiums were paid to the players according to their prowess and their command of hitherto unknown melodies, was to redeem the last surviving fragments of a generally lost tradition (‘all that remains of the music, poetry and oral traditions of Ireland’). Edward Bunting (1773–1843) was one of three musicians appointed to transcribe the harp melodies: it was this experience which stimulated his lifelong devotion to the collection of Irish music.

A Belfast Harp Society was formed in 1808, but perhaps the most immediate result of the festival was the publication of Bunting's General Collection of the Ancient Irish Music (1797).

Harry White

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