Edward Bunting tells us that the wires of the diatonic Gaelic harp were tuned in fairly
simple scales. The harper could not change tuning manually while playing.
Occasionally, these simple diatonic tunings would seem to have been altered
slightly. Two different pitches identified by the same letter could appear in a single
tuning, eg F# and F natural. This might have saved retuning the whole instrument.
The Gaelic song tradition in Scotland is very diatonic. A strong relationship would
have existed between song and the diatonically tuned harp or lyre. There is a higher
level of chromaticism present in the Gaelic song tradition in Ireland which sometimes
makes it difficult to decide where to situate some Irish songs on the diatonic gamut
of the Gaelic harp.
There is evidence for the existence of fully chromatic harps in the Irish tradition and
even more evidence for an influence on Irish song from chromatic English song.
However, the harp tunings provided by Edward Bunting cater for a mostly diatonic
harp tradition and some chromaticism only at the octave, eg the F# being sounded
only an octave below F natural and not a semitone above it. The Gaelic harp/song
tradition in Ireland therefore seems to have been strongly diatonic as in Scotland.
A Gaelic harper of old would have known where to situate particular tunes and their
basses on his wide-ranging instrument. Any harper working with a singer, as per the
historical model of harper and reciter, would need to know how to retune his
instrument so that certain types of tunes, with certain scales and certain melodic
ranges, could be fitted on the harp gamut in a position appropriate to the singer's
vocal range. These articles are an enquiry into the musical system of the Gaelic harp.
simple scales. The harper could not change tuning manually while playing.
Occasionally, these simple diatonic tunings would seem to have been altered
slightly. Two different pitches identified by the same letter could appear in a single
tuning, eg F# and F natural. This might have saved retuning the whole instrument.
The Gaelic song tradition in Scotland is very diatonic. A strong relationship would
have existed between song and the diatonically tuned harp or lyre. There is a higher
level of chromaticism present in the Gaelic song tradition in Ireland which sometimes
makes it difficult to decide where to situate some Irish songs on the diatonic gamut
of the Gaelic harp.
There is evidence for the existence of fully chromatic harps in the Irish tradition and
even more evidence for an influence on Irish song from chromatic English song.
However, the harp tunings provided by Edward Bunting cater for a mostly diatonic
harp tradition and some chromaticism only at the octave, eg the F# being sounded
only an octave below F natural and not a semitone above it. The Gaelic harp/song
tradition in Ireland therefore seems to have been strongly diatonic as in Scotland.
A Gaelic harper of old would have known where to situate particular tunes and their
basses on his wide-ranging instrument. Any harper working with a singer, as per the
historical model of harper and reciter, would need to know how to retune his
instrument so that certain types of tunes, with certain scales and certain melodic
ranges, could be fitted on the harp gamut in a position appropriate to the singer's
vocal range. These articles are an enquiry into the musical system of the Gaelic harp.
Gaelic modes
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