> Well, this is in reply to Phyllis's message of 10th January, and it may
> come near a flame or a rant,
*I'll say!* Touchy, touchy!
> but I just could not let a piece of
> pseudo-historical rubbish, even if based on the authority of a back
> issue of -Early Music-, pass unchallanged.
vThe article in question is "Patronage, style and structure in the music
attributed to Turlough Carolan," printed in _Early Music_, Vol. 15, 1987;
the author is Joan Rimmer, who has also written a book entitled _ The
Irish Harp_, published by the Mercier Press, Cork, 1969.
> In addition, to say that the
> decline in the harp in Ireland is a Protestant vs Catholic issue, or to
> imply that you must be a Catholic aristocrat in order to be the patron
> of a harper, is to pass on a nasty little piece of religious bigotry. In
> these tolerant and enlightened modern times; shame on you.
Shame on me? LOL! I don't even know what to say to that <smile>.
Anyway, Rimmer's history fit with other history that I've read, and her
explanations made sense to me; I guess everyone will just have to read the
article and decide for themselves.
> Really,
> Phyllis, you should know from your own common sense and personal
> experience that a persons religious affiliation has little or nothing to
> do with their taste, or lack of taste, in music.
Of course it has nothing to do with musical taste; sorry if you thought I
was inferring that. It's just that no self-respecting Catholic harper
would accept employment in a Protestant household (unless they were
former Catholics who had "become Protestant" for political reasons; see
Rimmer).
> For a start, leaving aside what the Catholics did to the Celtic church,
> the original "Irish Aristocracy" of Celtic origin . . .
Excuse me, I wasn't trying to put any group of people over any other
group of people, based on religious affiliation or otherwise. History is
history. I can't think of any group that hasn't done something nasty to
some other group over the course of history. Also, FYI, I have no
religious affiliation whatsoever, so I'm not trying to align myself
w/anyone, against anyone.
> But not all of the great catholic Norman-Irish noble families were
> removed; more than half of them, for various reasons, allied with the
> English . . . Look at the list of O'Carolan patrons, at least a
> third of them recognisably Protestant, ...... [etc]
Yes, Rimmer says this too, with the qualifications I've already stated.
> Thus I tend to agree with the remarks of
> Hempson, the last of the "old style" wire-and-nails harp players -
> "there's none left who want to listen to the old style of music".
This was part of the rest of Rimmer's article. "Shame on me" for not
mentioning it.
The rest of Peter's letter seems to imply that I'm "evil" for spreading
such history. Oh well <smile> . . . . It must be those evil Catholic
Sicilian genes I inherited from my father, although I understand there's
a tad of Scotts Irish mixed in w/my mother's stolid German <smile>.
I always tell my children that people can't hurt you unless you allow them
to, and that the first step in allowing them to hurt you is to assume they
have malicious intent. I'm really sorry if I upset you, though I still
find it somehow amusing. I suggest you read the original article and take
it up w/Joan Rimmer.
Still shaking my head <smile>,
Phyllis "the evil one" Panhorst phyllisp@unr.edu
"Hey, I was born on 7-6-56, not 6-6-66" <grin>