back prev next Irish harp terms from Bunting
from Edward Bunting, Ancient Music of Ireland (Dublin 1840)
Irish malairt phoinc spoken by Gráinne Yeats Scottish Gaelic malairt phong spoken by Tony Dilworth Click the play button to hear it spoken. help This very enigmatic figure is plain enough in the notation - the left (treble) hand plays a repeating three note pattern, which the right )bass) hand accompanies first below, and then above. However it is very unclear how this kind of figure would be fitted in to a musical performance. See Alasdair Codona's discussion of this term. Simon Chadwick 2008 Malairt phonch - To reverse the hand Probably for malairt phoinc, the literal meaning may be 'change of point', taking the second element to be the genitive singular of ponc, 'a point' in a range of possible applications (including 'a dot', 'a detail', 'a moment'). Malairt, in any case, means 'a change, exchange', but the second element might also be phonc, genitive plural, thus 'a change (or exchange) of points'. On p.28, fourth column, the spelling is Malart phonck, and the term is explained as denoting one of the two 'parts' of port. On p.34 Malairt alone is explained as 'Change of the hand'; and on p.97 Bunting tells us about the performance of the tune Saely Kelly (printed on p.27 of the main text): "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". Colm Ó Baoill 2002
Click the play button to hear it spoken. help
This very enigmatic figure is plain enough in the notation - the left (treble) hand plays a repeating three note pattern, which the right )bass) hand accompanies first below, and then above. However it is very unclear how this kind of figure would be fitted in to a musical performance.
See Alasdair Codona's discussion of this term.
Simon Chadwick 2008
Malairt phonch - To reverse the hand
Probably for malairt phoinc, the literal meaning may be 'change of point', taking the second element to be the genitive singular of ponc, 'a point' in a range of possible applications (including 'a dot', 'a detail', 'a moment'). Malairt, in any case, means 'a change, exchange', but the second element might also be phonc, genitive plural, thus 'a change (or exchange) of points'. On p.28, fourth column, the spelling is Malart phonck, and the term is explained as denoting one of the two 'parts' of port.
On p.34 Malairt alone is explained as 'Change of the hand'; and on p.97 Bunting tells us about the performance of the tune Saely Kelly (printed on p.27 of the main text): "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".
Colm Ó Baoill 2002
