HARP TUNINGS
Edward Bunting was aware that the number of strings on the Gaelic harp varied in his own
time. However, he apparently never found one to have less than thirty strings. His comment
that this was 'the usual number of strings found on all the harps at the Belfast meeting, in
1792' must be qualified by his information that the harps of Rose Mooney, Daniel Black and
Charles Fanning had thirty three, thirty four and thirty five strings respectively.
His statement makes the most straightforward sense of the evidence if we interpret him as
regarding the thirty string tuning as being a minimum stringing and, possibly, a minimum tuning
system. He theorised this stringing as corresponding to that of the O' Neill harp held by Trinity
College, Dublin, which also has enough holes for up to thirty strings.
Donnchadh ó hAmhsaigh (Denis O' Hampsey) was the owner of the Downhill harp which is
presently held in the Guinness 'Storehouse' at St James' Gate, Dublin. It also has enough
holes for thirty strings. Edward Bunting's published tuning chart in the Introduction to his 1840
edition of The Ancient Music of Ireland is for thirty strings and it partially reflects his
description of tuning of the 'Hempson Harp 1702' in MS29 of the Bunting collection held in
Queen's University, Belfast.