THE INTERVALS OF THE FIFTH AND THIRD IN GAELIC HARP BASS
The E dyads in the harp bass at bars 13 and (theoretically) 14 are perhaps
demonstrative of an affinity the arrangement has for striking fifths between melody
and bass. This is a feature nowhere apparent in the lute arrangements.
The striking of dyads, either between treble and bass or simply in one hand, is likely
to be an important characteristic of harp arrangements because of an obvious
parallel with the most common context of the appearance of the third between treble
and bass in other basses heavily influenced by magadising technique.
Just as the fifth will obviously appear between bass and treble when the treble note
is the fifth of the theoretical dyad, as seen in the Féachain Gléis, so the third most
often appears between treble and bass when the treble note seems to be the third
of a theoretical dyad, and note the fifth. As evident from studies of other pieces, the
two commonest ways we have found so far of harmonising a melody note which is
the third note of a hypothetical triad are to magadise with the melody or to
provide a fairly straightforward tonic harmony in the bass.
Together with previous evidence, one gets the impression from the tuning test that,
in the key of G, the 3rd of a triad rarely appears in a Gaelic harp bass between the
5th and the 1st notes of a simple struck chord pitched below the G below middle C.
When Bunting adds lán chrobh chords to his notations of this piece, the third is
above that G. When the third appears in the second bar as the bottom of a triad,
the triad is notably played as an arpeggio. This also happens in the bass of the
Lyons' variations on the Cúilfhionn ('Coolin') as notated in Bunting MS29.
Féachain Gléis