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A Harp
from 19th Century Ireland: The Royal Portable Harp by John Egan
by Nancy Hurrell
Published in the Folk Harp
Journal, Spring 2003
Since coming to Boston two years ago, I've been involved
with the harp collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. I presented
gallery talks and re-strung harps. One autumn day about a year ago, the MFA
Curator of Musical Instruments phoned to tell me of an Irish Egan harp recently
brought to the museum. It was in poor condition and there wasn't room to
exhibit it in the instrument gallery. Could I possibly help find a suitable
home for the harp? I agreed, thinking perhaps the Historical Harp Society might
be able to help.
At the museum, I could see the harp was indeed in bad shape.
It had been clumsily painted bright green over most of its body! However, parts
of it, the soundboard and neck, still had the original darker more natural
green stain, with delicately painted gold shamrocks. The harp's owner, Heidi
Nitze of New York, had purchased it some twenty years ago at an auction (she
was a professional singer). We know nothing of its former life, although
painted bright green, it's quite possible the harp may have once decorated the
wall of an Irish Pub in New York!
A small harp (35" tall), called the 'Royal Portable Harp',
it has a set of ivory handles or ditals on the inside of the column. On the
neck of the harp is a mechanism with forked discs similar to a pedal harp! I
had never seen anything like it. Suddenly, I wasn't as confident about finding
a home for this unusual instrument. Still, arrangements were made for the harp
to temporarily go home with me.
I was struck by the brass plate, beautifully inscribed:
"No. 2036 J. Egan 30 Dawson St. Dublin; Harp Maker by Authority of the Royal
Warrant to His Most Gracious Majesty George IVth & the Royal Family". Next
to the inscription was etched a royal coat of arms with a lion and unicorn. I
looked up the dates of King George IV's reign, from 1820-1830. Now I could
roughly date the instrument.
I contacted members of the board of the HHS with information
about the harp, and many suggestions were offered! The harp's owner hoped it
would be restored and made playable. I decided to take the harp to the annual
conference of the Historical Harp Society, that summer, so that experts could
examine it. Then I would know the sort of restoration needed. The HHS invited
me to give a presentation on Egan harps at the conference.
According to Grove's Dictionary, Egan made harps from c.1804
to 1841. He lived at 30 Dawson Street from 1815-1835 and had a reputation as
the leading harpmaker in Dublin. This was a period in Ireland's history when
efforts were being made to revive their ancient harp tradition. The Belfast
Harp Festival of 1792 had been the last great gathering of the old harpers. In
1807 the Belfast Harp Society was formed. They started a boarding school for
blind boys and two teachers were engaged to teach harp: Bridget O'Reilly and
Arthur O'Neill. The program collapsed in 1813 due to lack of funds.
A second Belfast Harp Society was revived in 1819, lasting
to 1839. Harps for the society were made by John Egan. He tried to make a 'new'
Irish harp- a revival harp. The first harps Egan made were wire strung, like
the ancient harps. They had a similar high-headed design but the body of the
harps was quite different. Ancient Irish harps were hollowed out of bog oak.
[The Bunworth harp made by John Kelly, 1734 is on view at the MFA, and is the
only pre-revival Irish harp in America.] Egan's harps were lightly constructed,
and the soundboxes had rounded backs, like pedal harps.
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In 1822, Egan's firm advertised as 'Portable Harp maker to
the King'. King George IV was very popular in Ireland at the time. In 1821
George IV visited Ireland; it was the first royal visit since 1619! Egan had
obtained the royal warrant and named his small harp the 'Royal Portable Harp'.
The harps were gut strung and very similar in construction to the Sebastien
Erard's single-action pedal harps of the period. Heidi's harp has 33 strings;
4+ octaves.
Egan produced more than 2,000 harps, including small harps
with blades and double-action pedal harps! However, he is remembered for his
Royal Portable Harp with ditals. Ditals are ivory knobs on the inside of the
column. They are attached to rods connected to the discs in the neck. It
operates like a single-action pedal harp: when one dital is engaged in its
slot, the corresponding discs for that pitch in each octave, would turn. Forks
on the discs pinch the strings to raise the pitch a semi-tone.
Ditals were used on harp-lutes and similar hybrid
instruments made by Barry, in London, in the early 19th century. These
instruments, combining the shapes of guitars and harps, were very popular with
London ladies and their Parisian counterparts. [Several examples are in the
MFA's instrument collection.] And so, for his Royal Portable Harp, John Egan
cleverly combined three concepts: the shape of the ancient Irish harp, the
construction and mechanism of Erard harps, and the dital buttons used on
harp-lutes.
The Royal Portable harps came in black, blue or green and
were supplied with leather cases. There were brass knobs at the top and bottom
to attach a leather strap. The harp was tuned to E-flat and was used for the
art music of the day, especially to accompany singing. The problem was that
dropping the hand to the column to press a lever with the thumb was not
particularly easy. The Egan Portable harp was not meant for the old music which
used gapped scales and didn't require accidentals. It was more suited to the
songs of Thomas Moore, who was actually given a Royal Portable Harp by John
Egan.
The decline of the Egan harp may have resulted from several
conditions: the collapse of the Belfast Harp Society in 1839 combined with the
social conditions in Ireland, of poverty and food shortages, which eventually
led to a steady rise in immigration to America.
Although the Royal Portable Harp was short-lived, the
greater contribution from John Egan is his role in supporting the revival of
the Irish harp. And his lasting achievement is the harp shape he designed. It
is the ancestor of many celtic harps made today. The Clark Irish Harp, produced
by Melville Clark from 1913 to 1950's, is strikingly similar to Egan's design.
In fact, Joan Rimmer states, "The Egan harp proved in the end no more than a
passing fashion…eventually it(its shape) became known as the Irish harp in
the 20th century".
In the course of my research I discovered there were two
slightly different models of the Royal Portable Harp. The Egan in my care had a
fairly straight column, quite thick at the top, exactly like a harp in a museum
in Munich (pictures provided to me by Barbara Poeschl-Edrich). Other Egan harps
pictured in various sources had a very slender, much more bowed column.
In the spring, as part of my research, I looked at two Egan
dital harps in the Boston area: one in the Edward R. Hewitt Collection at
Harvard University, and another at the John J. Burns Library, Boston College.
The harps are strikingly similar to each other in their 'high-headed' shape,
decoration and slender bowed columns. Another striking similarity is the
absence of a royal coat of arms. In fact, on both harps there is a rubbed out
area on the brass plates where a coat of arms might have existed. I wondered if
the royal insignia had actually been removed, since throughout history there
has been a continuing anti-British sentiment in Ireland.
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Beth Sweeney, Director of the Irish Music Center at the
Burns Library, Boston College, had arranged for me to inspect the Egan harp in
the Burns library, which is on loan from a private collector. Upon closer
examination of the harp, I was delighted to discover the harp still had a
stabilizing rod intact, inside the soundbox! When drawn out to the necessary
length and fastened by a brass screw at the back, the rod would have stood on
the floor supporting the harp as it was held in the lap.
It had occurred to me that Boston College might possibly be
a suitable home for Heidi's harp. I was familiar with their famous annual
Gaelic Roots Festival where harp classes are offered each summer. Now, seeing
the splendid rooms of the Burns Library, I told Beth Sweeney about the harp and
asked if B.C. might be interested in acquiring it. Beth was very excited about
the possibility of having two Irish Egan harps on view at the Burns Library!
There was still the question of whether the instrument
would be restored to playing condition or have a cosmetic restoration. The
owner had graciously offered to fund the project. I took the harp to the
conference, referred to earlier in the article, of the Historical Harp Society
in Connecticut in August, where I sought expert advice from harp makers and
technicians. The harp was examined and several cracks in the body and neck of
the harp were revealed to me. The harp was too fragile to be played and would
actually need new body parts to support the string tension, in short, becoming
a different instrument. I felt the harp would be more valuable to music
historians and Irish music lovers in its original state, with cosmetic work
done.
I returned to Boston and followed up on a name that had
been given me of a local company, Art Applications, which specialized in
furniture restoration, and had once worked on an Egan harp. I thought this was
very appropriate; furniture painters and artisans were an important part of
harp decoration late 18th century France. I made my way past the docks in South
Boston and found the spacious, old warehouse where the Egan harp would, in the
next few weeks, undergo a miraculous transformation! I left photos of other
extant Egan harps with Bruce, the painter, and he proposed adding some gilding
around the soundboard as well as restoring the damaged shamrocks. And the
bright green paint would be removed to reveal the harp's original natural mossy
green color.
At this time, consultations began in earnest between Boston
College and the harp's owner. It was decided: Heidi's harp would become part of
the John J. Burns Library at Boston College! The harp, newly restored, looked
splendid! There was a question as to what to do with the strings? A few strings
still dangled on the instrument. The decision was to put on new strings.
I had some previous experience putting new strings on two
18th century French harps in the collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
I knew it was a challenge to remove the fragile old string pegs from the
soundboard without their shattering in your hands! After a few hours, the pegs
were safely out! I noticed at least three different sorts of pegs from
different eras, the oldest being of ebony and beautifully crafted. The old
strings were an interesting mixture of fishing line, cotton twine, garden wire,
and even a few gut harp strings! (They were stored away and documented). For
appropriate string gauges, I had consulted Paul Knoke who suggested I read Jaap
Keppel's article on stringing. An octave thinner than modern harps was
suggested, similar to early 19th century Erard stringing.
Putting the new strings on was quite a challenge! The
tuning pins, over time had slipped out of position and string knots on the pins
were very tricky to accomplish. But the results were so exciting; the harp
seemed to come to life with new strings. Although a cosmetic stringing, the new
strings made the restored harp look complete.
A space was made in the Burns Library for the harp to be
displayed (adjacent to the other Egan harp) and one day in November I delivered
the harp to its new home. It was a momentous occasion for me, coming to the end
of this journey. The harp, which had been my visitor from Ireland for nearly a
year, had now found a new home and was perfect in this setting. It now lives in
a room decorated with paintings and sculptures from Ireland as well as
illuminated manuscripts, copies of Bunting and Armstrongs' books. The library
also houses a collection of Thomas Moore's writings, and recordings of his
songs.
On a snowy evening in December, Heidi Nitze, the harp's
(former) owner came to see the harp in its new home. At last I was able to meet
her. I gently brought a string up to a pitch and she plucked it-the first time
she had ever played her harp! The Burns Library is open to the public and the
harp can be viewed by visitors to this marvelous collection of Irish
literature, music and art.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Armstrong, Robert Bruce. The Irish and Highland Harps.
New York: Praeger Publishers, 1904.
- Knoke, Paul. "An Overview of the Development of the Pedal
Harp", Historical Harp Society Bulletin Volume 8, No. 3 (Spring 1998),
2-11.
- Rensch, Roslyn. Harps & Harpists. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1989.
- Rimmer, Joan. The Irish Harp. Cork: Mercier Press,
1969.
- ."The Morphology of the Irish Harp",The Galpin Society
Journal Number XVII (Feb1964), 39-49.
- Sadie, Stanley, ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Music
and Musicians. New York: Grove's Dictionaries, 2001.
- Yeats, Grainne. The Harp of Ireland. Belfast:
Belfast Harpers' Bicentenary Ltd., 1992.
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