In January 1603, an edict of the Lord President and Council of Munster required the marshal of the province to “execute by martial law in and throughout the whole province of Munster all Idle men, sturdie beggers, vagabonds, harpers, Rhymers, bardes...”
So things have never been easy for the harpers of Ireland. They were once members of a powerful bardic caste whose poems and songs consolidated the power of the Gaelic aristocracy, but they were seen to be dangerous and rebellious - adjectives that Belfast harpist Ursula Burns, I’d imagine, would be happy with.
“My family are traditional musicians, but I didn’t really want to follow along the traditional line,” she says.
“So I’ve spent 30 years breaking the boundaries, doing performance and comedy and circus and composing for theatre and making up my own style of playing.
“I always thought that it was making something completely new but it was only when I started to research what got lost throughout our history that I realised that some of the elements of what I do were harking back to an older tradition that was stamped out, the bardic side of harping where you are writing about social issues.”
Ursula is s hoping to publish her findings in due course. Her own style of harping is a mixture of Celtic and, er, Paraguayan styles.
Paraguayan? Yep. So what is the musical connection with the country that straddles Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia?
“It was just simply an accident,” Ursula explains.
“My mum bought a flat-packed Paraguayan harp at a chemist’s on the Falls Road.
“I have no idea how it happened but I ended up stringing it up and that’s how it evolved for me.
“I used to write comedy songs just for the money and initially I didn’t love the harp. I was just trying to make a living as an artist but the harp just gelled with me and I could learn it really quickly. And obviously my family are traditional musicians.
“So I just had a bit of a gift for it and all of a sudden, 30 years have passed and I’ve evolved and my technique evolved in quite an organic process.”
Things were tough for harpists in the 17th century and before but today’s harpists are hardly much better off.
Instead of aristocratic Gaelic sponsors, Ursula is basically a one-woman creative multi-tasker.
Her latest album is called The Secret Melodies of Trees which you will find initially on Bandcamp.
“It suddenly occurred to me that I wanted to do something special to mark the anniversary of 30 years of playing,” she says.
“And then I realised that it would be very nice to document my style, my technique and my compositions like Bunting did for the 1792 Harpers Assembly in Belfast, whose original intent was to document the harpers and their tunes, some going back hundreds of years.”
My mum bought a flat-packed Paraguayan harp at a chemist’s on the Falls Road. I have no idea how it happened but I ended up stringing it up and that’s how it evolved
— Ursula Burns
The Secret Melodies of Trees is a thing of beauty, a cross-fertilisation of Irish and Paraguayan harp styles that came about after Ursula was invited to Asunción to take part in a harp festival.
“I went to Paraguay and I was so inspired by what I heard when I was over there” she recalls.
“The Paraguayan style and the shape of their harps and everything is very different. It has a very short attack and they play lots of notes and are very rhythmic and flamboyant.
“They’re joyful about their music, they’re all cheering and shouting and everyone is happy to clap along.
“And I absolutely love that, so when I came home this time last year, I spent the winter completely battening down the hatches and playing for four hours a day. I could barely move my wrists in my wee tiny kitchen.”
Ursula then started composing the tunes on the album, some of which had a weird connection with me.
By a huge coincidence, I happened to be reading a book called The Empress of South America by Nigel Cawthorne which tells the story of Eliza Lynch, the Cork-born mistress of Francisco Solano López, president of Paraguay in the 19th century.
It just so happened that Ursula was staying in Eliza Lynch’s castle.
“It was absolutely beautiful and her gardens are divine,” recalls Ursula who then wrote the tune El Jardin de Eliza Lynch which has a little motif which was the exact birdsong Ursula heard as she walked through the garden.
Another tune that excited me is called Dreaming in Violet as Jacaranda Leaves Fall. I remember being in Plaza del Merced in Málaga when the leaves of the jacaranda tree were falling. It was such a beautiful sight. Ursula’s experience was different.
“I was really nervous about going to Paraguay on my own, I was terrified,” she says looking back.
“I had to drink two good drops of Rescue Remedy to get on the plane.
“Well, oh my god, I had an arduous journey but after three flights, I got there.
“I ended up lying in this hammock, with all kinds of jet lag, and I opened my eyes in Eliza Lynch’s Paradise Garden and I saw jacaranda petals falling.
“I was just like, oh my god, I’m in paradise.”
Another tune on The Secret Melodies of Trees is called The Last Sycamore and its source is nearer home - the destruction by the Department for Infrastructure of over a dozen mature sycamore trees on the Stranmillis river walkway near Cutters Wharf.
In composing the piece, Ursula had to forsake the exuberant style of the Paraguayan harp for something that was pared back, angry and sad, but still beautiful.
Many people, I’m sure, will find The Secret Melodies of Trees if not cathartic then affecting in many ways.
It’s no wonder then that Ursula does “a massive range of work” with people in hospices and hospitals and with people with dementia.
“The reason why I’m saying all this is there’s only me. Next week I start with a dance company. I have all my normal gigs. Next year, I’m touring with a circus company but I’m just balancing my books,” she says.
It was never easy for Irish harpists.
