PORT EVIDENCE
The following notes appear in the Introduction to Bunting's 1840 volume of The
Ancient Music of Ireland.
p19
p27 malairt phonch,c . Malart Phonch, . To reverse the hand,
c Or crossing the hands, the right hand taking the place of the left.
p28 Port, ... Phurt, ... Time of the lessons. {"Phurt" frequently consisted of two
parts, first, Na Phurt, introductory, and Malart Phonck, changing the position of
the hands, the right hand playing the treble and the left the bass.
p34 Malairt, Malairt,† Change of the hand.
p35 Phurt, Phurt,† Spirited.
p35 Port, Port, A tune.
p30 ... (†) from the information of Arthur O'Neill, &c.
p97 "Sarah Kelly."__ This air is by Thomas Connallon. Part of it is played by
crossing the hands, technically called in Irish, Malart Phonche, and shews the
degree of perfection to which the older harpers carried their performances.
Carolan composed the words for it.
The following is an extract from chapter four of the memoirs of Arthur O' Neill.
He composed several fine tunes in Scotland, particularly Port Atholl, Port
Gordon (port means a lesson in music) and several others. The Ports are
uncommon fine tunes. I played them once but now forget them.
The Irish harpers, when assembled in Belfast, in 1792, uniformly made use
of technical terms designating the several notes of the instrument and their
various combinations, shakes, moods, &c., ... Thus, ... the principal times
have their independent and native designations, as Cuigrath, "dirge time;"
Cumhadth, "lamentation time;" Cruaidhchlesadh, "heroic time"; Phurt, "lesson
time," corresponding to the modern terms Adagio, Larghetto, Andante, and
Allegro. So also for the chords, moods, keys, &c. ...
Féachain Gléis