Diana Rowan - Harpist: Blog

Harp as Living Myth:
How mythology resurrected the Celtic harp, reviving and reconnecting the
ancient healing art of harp music worldwide

[PLAY MUSIC: Hijaz Ilahi]

The harp is one of the most potent mythological symbols worldwide. Examples
of harp-like instruments appear in almost every culture, due to the harp’s great
antiquity (derived from the bow & arrow, or perhaps weaving loom). Harps
appear prominently in myths, arts, and even sciences in many capacities.
Mythological themes range from universe creation via harp (Finland’s Kalevala),
control of nature through harp (ancient Thracian Orpheus’ harp), healing
through harp (Israel’s King David), and harp as magic talisman (warrior
companion to Irish god Dagda). Pythagoras’ favored lyre illustrated
philosophical and scientific findings. Ancient Sumerian friezes and Egyptian
paintings portray harps and harpists in ritualistic and courtly contexts, and the
Ethiopian krar and begena individually represent the connections and contrasts
between spiritual and secular worlds. Even the constellation Lyra above us
reminds us of the harp’s evocative image.

This paper will outline some of the outstanding ways the harp embodies mythic
resonance, beginning with the harp’s African and Indo-European roots. It then
focuses on harp in Celtic culture (quite a different instrument to the pedal harp we
encounter in orchestras, which has a contrasting history, role and sound), its road
to extinction in musical practice, and how the power of its mythic associations led
to the Celtic harp’s revival in the last 40 years. The paper proposes that one
reason for the strength of the Celtic harp revival is its capacity to inclusively
resonate mythically on a broader Indo-European and worldwide level. Indeed, the
Celtic harp revival has inspired other cultural harp revivals, such as the Turkish
ceng and Chinese konghou. This stems from the harp’s ability to bridge disparate
cultures via a common mythic thread, as well as its documented agency as an
instrument of healing. The harp’s journey today mirrors the trend toward opening
up and re-examining cultural boundaries, cross cultural communication, and our
moving towards increasingly globalized world.

How Mythology Saved the Harp

The earliest harps were created in Africa, where bow-harps and lyres are still
played today. Ancient Ethiopian lyres - called krars and begenas - are the
foundation of the famous Greek, Hebrew and Roman lyres. As mentioned
before, Ethiopian lyres are used to explore the scared and secular - from the
beginning, harps were deemed worthy of handling the deepest subject matter.
In ancient Egyptian mythology we find Thoth, one of the principal gods of its
great pantheon and often named ‘maintainer of the universe,’ creating the harp/
lyre from the tendons on a dried tortoise shell. The harp is portrayed much
more often in ancient Egyptian art than any other instrument. Thoth is linked
with the Greek god Hermes, echoing the ancient connections between cultural
harp myths. Greek mythology itself has two versions of harp creation: Apollo,
the god of light, prophecy, music, and poetry, created the harp when he
discovered that the sound of his bowstring could heal physical wounds and
soothe souls. Another story claims Hermes created the harp by stringing a
tortoise shell and giving it to Apollo as a gift. As mentioned above, since harps
are in practically every culture, one doesn’t need to look hard to find the vast
array of myths and legends associated with the instrument.

As Samuel Milligan discusses in The Oracular Nature of the Early Celtic Harp,
the instrument was also used as a divination tool endowed with magical powers,
and most often made of oak & willow, sacred trees in Celtic mythology. So even
without a specific tale attached to the harp, people ascribed a mythic power to
the instrument. Mythology has interwoven so deeply with the harp that we do
not even need definite stories in mind when engaging with the instrument to
access to magic of it.

Harp myths are important enough to have survived and modified to fit the times.
Carol Wood, in Harp Spectrum, states:

"The harp-playing hero (or heroine) who comes from Celtic lands is very well
represented in French medieval literature. A good many of these French tales
found their way into English, and the prestige of the Celtic harper [we will see late
the great stature Celtic harpers held in their society], if not already established
among the English, certainly came along with these stories. Two of the Breton lays
that have come down to us from Middle English begin with almost the same
twenty-two line opening, an opening which both defines the characteristics of the
Breton lay and pays homage to the harpers of Brittany. One of these lays is “Sir
Orfeo.” 

 

“Sir Orfeo” itself is a variation on the story of Thracian demi-god Orpheus the
harp/lyre player. From my own experience of now living in Sofia part-time
(Bulgaria is where Thrace once stood), the myth of Orpheus remains strong and
is a point of pride for Bulgarians. For example, Orpheus is often used as the
symbol for my conservatory, the National Academy of Music.

Carol Wood, again:

"Take a look at what the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages seems to suggest
in his strange but fascinating work on reputation and renown, The House of Fame.
Chaucer was considering his own standing among the great poets of his day and
even those of the past when he wrote this dream vision in which a golden eagle
(just like Dante's in The Divine Comedy) carries him to the palace of the Goddess
Fame. The palace is carved all over with niches, and all the niches contain
minstrels and tellers of tales. Chaucer describes the harpers first among all these
entertainers. First he names three famous harpers from classical antiquity,
Orpheus, Arion, and Chiron. There are many other harpers there, he says, but he
names only one other; Bret Glascurion, a tenth-century Welsh bard. The important
fact here is that only one harper seems famous enough for Chaucer to include by
name among the most illustrious harpers of all history, and that one harper was
Celtic."

All of this is to demonstrate the interwoven mythological and historical clout
harp once held worldwide.

[PLAY MUSIC: Belfast Set or The Rhapsodist]

Yet the harp died in Celtic culture where, as mentioned before, the harper had
once been been held in extremely high regard. This death was precipitated by
the fact that harps were intolerably powerful symbols - to a mythological level -
during the increasing upheaval between England and Ireland, which started in
the 12th century.

Celtic harpers were bards, and as such, preservers of culture in retelling the
great myths and history of Celtic lands, as well as giving what could sometimes
be biting commentary on current events. They were counselors, diplomats, and
the confidantes of those in power. Harpers were even thought to have magical
powers. Thus, harpers were strong symbols of Irish identity, and a threat to
English control.

Carol Woods, again:

"In 1366, all harpers were expelled from the area round Dublin, because "Irish minstrels,
coming among the English, spy out the secrets, customs and policies of the English." Anyone
who gave a harper hospitality would be imprisoned, as well as the harper, whose instrument
would be forfeited to the king."

Nora Jean Clark, often thought of as the pivotal figure in the popularization of
the Celtic harp on the west coast of the United States (where most of the world’s
high quality Celtic harps are made) reports in The Story of the Irish Harp
(North Creek Press, USA, 2003):

"In 1524 Henry VIII declared “Noe Irish minstrall rymers, ne bardes, shall be messengers to
desire any goods of any man dwelling within the English Pale.” In 1563 Elizabeth I
declared enactments against “Bardes…under pretense of visiting, they carry out privy
intelligence between the malefactors in the disturbed districts.” [The order was] “to
apprehend and commit to prison any malefactors, rebels, vagabonds, and Irish harpers.”"

In the 1570s commissions were founded to “banish all Irish harpers,”
culminating with the 1576 Privy Council in London’s stringent orders again for
complete banishment of harpers within Pale. The fact that constant orders were
being made to be rid of harpers of course actually demonstrates their great
tenacity and popularity. However, Donal O’Sullivan in Carolan: the life, times
and music of an Irish harper writes:

"The battle of Kinsale [1601] marked the end of Irish independence in any form for 3
centuries, and also the end of that system wherein learned poets and harpers had found a
natural place.  As harp scholar Ann Heymann and others have noted:
The native Irish harping tradition was an aristocratic art music with its own canon and
rules, and only tangentially associated with folkloric music. The harping tradition did not
long outlast the native Gaelic aristocracy which supported it. Tunes from the harping
tradition survived only as unharmonised melodies which had been picked up by the folkloric
tradition, or were preserved as notated in collections in which the tunes were often modified to
make them fit for the drawing room pianofortes of the Anglicised middle and upper classes."

Further, as a primarily oral tradition, harp was even more vulnerable to
destruction. Between this, direct attacks against harpers and harps, and finally
the entire collapse of its support system, the long tradition of the Irish harp died
completely.

Losing such a fully-realized voice, European harp symbolism and performance
starkly narrowed to a sweet, simplistic, salon/aristocratic realm; consider the
many Renaissance images of angelic harpists, and later, Marie-Antoinette
isolated at her ornate pedal harp. These images have become so pervasive that
even to this day, people are surprised to hear the bard harpers were mainly men
(as is the case in South America today), and that they once wielded great
influence.

[PLAY MUSIC: Your Soul is a Chosen Landscape]

[START BRIGID PRESENTATION IMAGES]

Mythology literally saved the Celtic harp. In the past 40 years Celtic harp has
experienced a remarkable revival, spurred by interest in Celtic mythology, with
its stories of bards, the great harper god Dagda, harps which caused people to
weep, laugh, war. This revival has reverberated widely, with Celtic harps
touching a profound and popular chord worldwide and interest in other long lost
harps such as the Turkish çeng resuscitated. Harps once gave life to myth; myth
in turn has resurrected the harp.

This revival has led to replicas of historical harps, as well as more fanciful or
practical creations. This revival grew partly through the work of a number of
musicians including very early inklings from Arnold Dolmetsch in 1930s
England, then Alan Stivell in 1960s Brittany, and Ann Heymann in the USA
from the 1970s onwards, who we will discuss later.

Scholarly interest in Celtic harp revival can be found as early as 1873, such as
the event at which harp Professor Mackey, of the Royal Academy of Music in
Dublin, performed on a wire–strung harp exactly copied from the Trinity
College Dublin harp. But in terms of capturing the imagination of the harp
making and playing public, mythology had to enter the picture. Technology now
has allowed the spread of harp to continuously accelerate - there are more harp
players these days than ever before - but mythology provides the impetus, as we
shall hear later from the harp makers and performers themselves.

The folk music revival which started with the left-wing movements of the late
1940s was the root of a general interest in revisiting music and instruments from
the past. We can also look to the Celtic Revival movement as inspiration for the
resurgence in interest in Celtic mythology. According to Foster (2003):

The Celtic Revival covers a variety of movements and trends, mostly in the 19th and 20th
centuries, which drew on the traditions of Celtic literature and art . The revival was complex
and multifaceted, occurring across many fields and in various countries in North-West
Europe, [and is] also called the "Celtic Twilight.”. Irish writers including William Butler
Yeats and, Lady Gregory…stimulated a new appreciation of traditional Irish literature and
poetry. In many, but not all, facets the revival came to represent a reaction to modernisation.
This is particularly true in Ireland, where the relationship between the archaic and the
modern was antagonistic, where history was fractured.

Perhaps the most important seminal figure in the revival of the Celtic harp is
Alan Stivell. He was born in the town of Riom, Brittany. His father Jord
Cochevelou recreated a Celtic/Breton harp, and in 1953, Alan began playing the
instrument at the age of nine. Alan also learned Celtic mythology, art and
history. He became closely associated with the burgeoning Breton roots revival,
especially after the release of his purely instrumental 1971 album Renaissance of
the Celtic Harp, which won one of the most famous awards in France, the prize of
the Académie Charles Cros.[4] The music critic Bruce Elder wrote of the
album:

"People who hear this record are never the same again. Renaissance of the Celtic Harp, one of
the most beautiful and haunting records ever made by anybody, introduced the Celtic harp to
many thousands of listeners around the world. The opening work, 'Ys' [same name as
Joanna Newsom’s second album, and who employs a very shamanic/mythological image] is
a piece inspired by the legend of the fifth century capital of the kingdom of Cornwall, where a
city is cursed to sink underwater."

Incidentally, Stivell’s fellow Frenchman Claude Debussy was inspired to write
one of his most beloved pieces on exactly the same legend (“The Sunken
Cathedral” from Preludes), and the Basilica Cistern which lies beneath us here in
Istanbul has also been called “The Sunken Palace.”

Possibly the single most influential figure in the revival of performing Irish
traditional music was Sean O’Riada, starting in the 1960s. He studied classics at
University College, Cork, so was immersed in the world of myth and legend.
In Harp Spectrum, Grainne Yeats states:

"Ó Riada was a composer and Professor of Irish Music in University College, Cork. Ó Riada
founded 'Ceoltóirí Cualann' (some members of the later Chieftains) and included a good
deal of harp music by Carolan [the last great harper-bard, Turlough O’Carolan
(1670-1738]. Ó Riada took this music from various sources, including Donal O'Sullivan's
massive two-volume 'Carolan, the Life, Times and Music of an Irish Harper' (1958). This
biography brought to life vividly a man who up to then had been a shadowy and indefinite
figure; for the first time, Carolan's tunes were gathered in one place, easily accessible to
anybody with an interest in the subject."

Fundamentally, we harp players would be voiceless of course without harp
makers. Because the harp revival is relatively recent, I had the good fortune to
interview some of the key founding figures of the harp making scene, and will
share their comments below. Many of these harp builders are based in the
United States, for several reasons. The West Coast in particular has fine and
copious wood and woodworkers, while Ireland has been quite significantly
deforested. Secondly, the folk music revival had a large and diverse following in
the United States, and therefore a large support base for experimentation.
Thirdly, people in the United States generally have more disposable income than
Irish citizens (especially back then), and could afford what is often a fairly
expensive instrument. These are just a few of the factors.

JOHN WESTLING, my harp builder:

"In the beginning mystique played a big part. Folks like Sylvia Woods had a record called the
“Harp of Brandiswhere", and of course Loreena McKennitt created a whole string of music
based on fair maidens and knights. Others caught on, and especially with the wire strung
harp, created stories and music with the intent of tying the listener to ancient folk tales,
unicorns, and Mother earth. We were all pretty innocent at the time, and harps were literally
all about just having fun with music and sharing stories and digging up old history that
could be turned into music.  Most of the music was adapted from existing historical work, with little original music developed until the mid 80's. "Celtic" based music was the music of choice. First because it
was written and available, secondly because it was always spun around a historical event, or
a fantasy tale. Of course, one of the biggest taskmasters for the mystique was Robbie
Robinson. In the Folk Harp Journal he was constantly creating articles about harp history
and lore which then was kindling for the creative fire that was just waiting out there.
There is a great quote, rumored to have come from Kim Robertson which went like
this........"If it had not been for Robbie, I'd be sitting in a little black dress in the back row of
the symphony Orchestra!" [this again refers to the large differences between Celtic and
orchestral/pedal harps]
Alfredo Ortiz [from South America] was pretty influential too. I think some of the mystique
really got a boost when he made tapes of music created for his wife, and music created in the
delivery room while his children were born. How could that not affect any woman? They
loved it. [Mother Earth stories]
Folks like Marjorie Taylor took a different path and created this illusion that you too could
play your harp for your unicorn at bedtime, and that harps really did have souls, and you
could talk to them, or that they would guide you through life. Pretty good stuff for those that
were maybe a little off center, and great for the promotion of the harp.
Later, makers like myself started deviating from the traditional harp designs and started
creating spin offs that were more modern looking, bigger, better sounding, easier to play, and
most of all, available. When more great makers like Robert Bunker, Mark Bolles, Chris and
Theresa Caswell, and Ray Moore started producing good harps, the whole thing accelerated.
You could buy a harp that fulfilled your idea of a particular part of the mystique."

GLENN HILL, harp builder:

[For a very personal perspective]: "I have been told that I was a Jewish harp builder in the
south of France in the 1400s; that I descend from both Brian Boru and Robert the Bruce as
part of my Scottish ancestry from the Sterling and Steward families; that my Jewish
ancestry includes the De-Nasi family form Venice Italy, who claim decent from King
David…I just had the honor of carving "King David’s” Laser Beam harp for the Jewish
Children’s Museum in Brooklyn. I in fact just had contact with Yusuf Ulcay who is with
the Bursa Science and Technology Center, about building them a Laser Harp! So, yes, I
have been influenced by Celtic mythology and ancestry, as well as by other ancestry and
mystic systems as well, very, very profoundly!"

ANN HEYMANN, harp maker, scholar & performer:

"I am very indebted to Jay Witcher, and David Kortier (and
sometimes others) [all American harpmakers]. Three main areas of focus (all of which
myth & poetry & iconography play integral roles) for me are:
1. Close copies of extant cláirseachs (myth & poetry brought my awareness to the
possibility of precious metal stringing; though lacking absolute proof, such stringing is
historically plausible and supported by written mythological and poetical sources.)
2. A recreation of a medieval Welsh horse hair strung harp (descriptions of the harp survive
in the written record of history, mythology and poetry.)
3. Designing a harp that remains true to the medieval low-headed form and traditions, but
departs from extant instruments in its 'slimmer hips' so that it can fit in the overhead. (A
practical, modern concession for traveling harpers such as myself). Their decorations are of
great interest to me. I've interpreted them to be not mere whimsey, but a template for the
solar & lunar calendar, seasons and even as a predictor of dangerous tides and eclipses.
This has been very fun, and again I can support it with stories about the bard-harper
determining when to set sail and many other things.
It is a lot of fun. Myth is definitely an impetus."

RUDIGER OPPERMANN, performer & harp maker in Germany:

"I was inspired by Alan Stivell, and his view of the world is a more spiritual understanding of “Celtic”. The revival of our instrument was
mostly pioneered by people who had already a free and unusual spirit, not by the official
harp scene. It was promoted by old time hippies, not by classical musicians and not by
nationalists in Ireland or Scotland. The small harp we play now could also be called French
or German or European harp, because its shape and function had been happening everywhere
in the medieval times, since ca 800 ad. Earlier harps of the same/similar shape you find in
the Tassili (Sahara) and in western Siberia, not in western Europe."

In the above comments, we can see how mythology motivated the revival of the
Celtic harp, as well as several other important themes emerging. These include
the modification of harps for modern purposes (similar to the modification of
myths we saw earlier in order to remain relevant), the worldwide similarities
between harps of different cultures (such as Rudiger’s reference to African and
Siberian harps), and an underlining of the large difference between Celtic and
other traditional harps versus orchestral harps, which embody a modern
approach based strongly on piano.

As most will testify, and many of you have probably experienced, taking up a
musical instrument is a rewarding yet demanding task, especially with an
instrument such as harp which is costly, difficult to locate and often even harder
to find a teacher for. I interviewed several performers to find out how much
mythology affected their motivation in learning harp:

Robin Mills:

"I am drawn to the way it weaves an ever changing blend of culture, time, genre...to the fact
that it's been with us forever, and to the fact that it's beholden to no single genre...I heard a
Scottish singer/storyteller/musician at a very small venue, maybe 30 people in the
room...Tony Cuffe told and sang stories that were magical for me...Under the spell, harp
lessons came in short order."

Anjeli Costa:

"What drew me to the harp from the very beginning was the overwhelming certainty that the
sound of the harp and the harp itself are bridges between the visible world and the invisible
realm where all the magic and wonder already exists. The harp takes me there. Wish I could
be in Istanbul♥"

Susan Mashiyama:

"The harp sounds like it comes from another plane of existence and that the fairies come
around when you play it."

Miko Sloper:

"It is a forward-feeding loop: the stories lead to hearers wanting to play the harp; harpers
want to sing the myths behind the instrument...."

Even the imagery of collateral materials (CD covers, sheet music books, harpist
photo shoots and websites, etc.) reflect this mythological atmosphere, with titles
referring to history, nature and tales, and graphics reflecting a fairytale/folk art
style. From harp makers to performers to even the materials surrounding them,
harps have a deeply mythological foundation.

Let’s explore some concerns or questions that might arise from this strong
association between mythology and harp:

Arnold Dolmetsch enjoyed great success throughout the 1900s as a promoter of
early English music, an was an important early proponents of historical harp.
Margaret Campbell, his biographer, comments that 'standing barely five feet tall,
and dressed in a velvet suit, complete with knee britches, lace ruffles and shiny shoe-buckles,
his appearance made him look more pre-Raphaelite than the pre-Raphaelites themselves'.
Sometimes image can overtake, and a homogenous, restricted version of the
Celtic harp can emerge. This image is so strong that Deborah Henson-Conant
has made a career of going against it by sporting dreadlocks and leather
miniskirts (in addition to being a fine harpist!). 

One danger of such a homogeneous image is that there has not been much
awareness or documentation of other harp approaches such as the West African
kora or Ethiopian begena, which is the focus of my PhD dissertation. Clearly
other dangers include people who don’t fit the harp “image” feeling disinclined to
take up the harp, or people preemptively not listening to harp music on the
assumption it will be Renaissance Faire reenactment.

As Ann Heymann states, reliance on mythology has led to historical
inaccuracies:

"Celtic harp is a very broad term which popularly refers to the modern creation "folk harp". It
has had a lot of use in the U.S., France and Germany. It is used to refer to any non-pedal
harp with any association (romantic or otherwise) to Europe and the British Isles. Those
who embrace this term ignore specifics of the various historical traditions yet use the
mythological associations and history as a way of authenticating their music. So, it depends
very much where you are coming from; it is the difference between "Ren Faires", modern folk
and new traditions, and more historical/cultural approaches."

This is a point well taken, and we must be careful not to claim an ethnographic
perspective on harp (where historically correct instruments, practice and
repertoire are the focus), when in fact we have a more arts-based approach, such
as I and many other harpists do.

Ultimately, we hear over and over the crucial impetus mythology provided in the
wide-ranging scope of the Celtic harp revival.

[PLAY MUSIC: Up High in the Clouds]

What is the wider significance the Celtic harp revival? Perhaps most
profoundly, cross-culturally harps have been used for healing since time
immemorial – scientific studies now prove the harp’s restorative nature.
Audiences of all sorts, whether in the concert hall or hospital, are often deeply
moved in ways they cannot rationally describe; understanding the harp’s power
via mythology as we have explored in this paper explains part of this. The harp
reintegrates us with myth as healer; interpenetrating realities, harp and myth
navigate between the worlds of mythos and logos, demonstrating their necessity
in today’s world.

Folk wisdom, closely associated with myth, already understood the harp’s
healing capacity. David soothed Saul with his harp, ancient Egyptians believed
harp accompaniment at the deathbed allowed a safe and happy journey to the
otherworld, Apollo’s harp healed physical wounds and calmed souls. Harp has
proved particularly effective amongst instruments used for therapy not only due
to its scientifically proven purity of tone, but also because of its cross-cultural
and ancient aspects. Archetypal, the harp taps into our collective consciousness.
Although people are often surprised to see a harp live for the first time, I rarely
get the question “what is this instrument?” - there is always a certain familiarity.
Let’s hear directly from listeners about the healing capacity of harp music:

"I’ve been spending a lot of time at Kaiser Walnut Creek for the past three weeks. The
beautiful harp music offered by one of your musicians turned my whole day around. What a
lovely kindness she offered to all within earshot."

"I so enjoyed your visit [to the hospital] today. I had your wonderful music and the vision of
my favorite place - the beach. I got a phone call from my cousin's son - his sister committed
suicide. Dealing with this news is hard, but when I am overwhelmed, I close my eyes and
remember your music."

Even in these most serious of circumstances, the harp has the power to comfort.
Hospitals across North America and Europe, and no doubt beyond, are now
hiring harpists on staff, remembering mythological times when we knew the
harp heals. The revival of the Celtic harp has naturally led to the revival of
healing harp practice, known across the world and throughout time.

The harp revival has not stopped with Celtic instruments. We now witness the
revival of other traditional harps such as the Turkish ceng, as well as modern/
traditional hybrids designed to represent a culture, such as the Chinese
konghou. The synergy of all these cultures fuels harp revival and development
ever further.

Why has the Celtic harp been so particularly successful in initiating this revival?
Celtic music as understood today has a lot in common with other types of folk
music worldwide in terms of scales, time signatures, harmonies, and so on. It is
quite simple, and thus accessible to all. In fact, Celtic music might not be able to
be claimed as Celtic alone, since there are so many identical features with other
cultures’ musics. Music is after all the universal language.

I would like to end with a quote from my beloved harp maker, John Westling,
who has made everything possible for me:

"I think now that there is a solid place for new music that explores the non-traditional sound
and promotes the mystique of just the soul of the harp.
Mythology has indeed given a healthy rebirth to the harp, and the harp is now
creating many new tales in return."

[PLAY MUSIC: The Roaring Silence]