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"The Trinity College Harp" a history by Brian Manners

€20.00
In stock

Shortlisted for the prestigious NICHOLAS BESSARABOFF 2019 International Book Award, Brian Manners’ ground-breaking book features over 90 new interpretive illustrations from the Book of Kells.

The book is subtitled “Ireland and The Most Exotic Music Instrument in the World” because this is not the harp as we understand it. This is not even the Irish harp as we understand it. The Trinity College Harp (also known as ‘The Brian Boru Harp’), dating from around 1400 AD, is an extraordinary instrument. Anywhere you look in Ireland, you cannot avoid the Trinity College Harp. It is used as the official emblem of Ireland. Its unique Irish shape adorns the coats of arms and passports of four different nations!

Yet for all this...today, bizarrely, most Irish people have never heard their harp play one single note! The Trinity College Harp is a particular type of harp – a Gaelic harp. These types of harps died out in the 19th century. They were a central feature of Irish life for a very long time. This book attempts to bring back to life the world and the music of the Gaelic harps through the prism of the most famous one – The Trinity College Harp – which experts now agree was one of the most technologically advanced musical instruments of its time.

Today it can be seen on display in Trinity College’s Long Room. The book also provides a cultural and social history of medieval Ireland. Richly illustrated throughout, with a translation into Irish on the reverse side, this is a ‘smartbook’ – readers can download an app that will allow them to access explanatory music videos that accompany the book.

272 pages, paperback.

SKU
BH8759
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