Track Listing. 1. Marie's Wedding (descriptive piece) + The Queen of the Rushes (jig) 2. The Queen of the West (hornpipe) + Eleanor Plunkett (air) 3. Bright City + Margaret O'Carroll (waltzes) 4. Loftus Jones (descriptive piece) 5. Chaconne in G (variations 1-3 G.F. Handel) + The Sandpiper (slip-jig) 6. Bean Dubh an Gleanna (air/song) 7. Efterkalken (Swedish waulking tune) + Ben Hill (hornpipe) 8. Aisling an Oigfhear + The Derry Air (airs) 9. Graine's Jig + The Wheels of the World (jigs) 10. Lament for Ó Domhnaill + The Three Sea Captains (set dance) 11. Martin Mulhaire's Reel + The Blacksmith's Daughter (reels) 12. Lúcháir an Léinn (march, jig & air) Click on underscored titles to hear sound samples with Real Player.

We are delighted to announce our release of this recording.

Kathleen Loughnane
Harping On
Irish Traditional Music for the Harp
COPP012
with
Seamus Begley (vocals), Sharon Shannon, Catriona Cannon (accordions)
Mary Bergin, Sean Ryan, and Cormac Cannon whistles & uilleann pipes)
Jacqueline McCarthy (concertina)
Dearbhlaill Standún (fiddle)
Jimmy Higgins (trumpet)
Alec Finn, Brian McGrath, Martina Goggins (accompaniment).

Kathleen, a native of Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, has lived in Galway since 1982. In 1990 she co-founded the group Dordan whose distinctive mix of Irish traditional and Baroque music has received international acclaim. Both with Dordan and on her own capacity as a solo musician she has performed and taught in Ireland and at major festivals in the US, Japan and in Europe, including the Boston College Gaelic Roots
Festival and at the Edinburgh and Copenhagen Harp Festivals. Her arrangements have appeared in various publications and feature on the Harp syllabus of the Royal Irish Academy of Music. With Dordan she has released four CD's, "Dordan-traditional and Baroque"; "Jigs to the Moon"; "The night before a Celtic Christmas" and "Celtic Aire".

Kathleen is widely acclaimed for her arrangement and playing of the music of the Irish harpers and the moods in her playing range from the exuberant life of her dance music to the haunting beauty of her slow airs. In arranging and interpreting the music of the 18th century, her most important reference has been the living instrumental tradition, its technique, ornamentation, and energy. Her own compositions have been
informed by her extensive research into traditional sources.

Press Reaction

The Irish Examiner (October 3, 2002).

There was a time in Ireland when many harp players were submerged in layers of cliché.

Kathleen Loughnane was different, a player of quiet dignity, she saw both the harp’s place in history and its relevance to today’s music. She is perhaps best known as a member of the baroque/traditional band Dordán, but she maintains a strong independent streak.

Harping On, her second album, is a diverse collection of old and new harp tunes, along with tunes borrowed from other traditions and other instruments.

Turlough O’Carolan is represented, naturally; his Loftus Jones is a highlight. Less predictably, GF Handel is there too, along with more recent tune-makers, including Sean Ryan, Tommy Peoples and Martin Mulhaire. Indeed, some of the finest melodies here are from Kathleen’s own musical imagination.

This is nominally a solo album, but Kathleen surrounds herself with friends, among them Seamus Begley and Sharon Shannon. The results are uniformly excellent. Alec Finn, who co-produced, is ever-present. His bouzouki adds an extraordinary variety of textures, even to Handel’s Chaconne in G. Throughout, Martina Goggin adds some unobtrusive percussion via that much-abused instrument, the djembe.

Every tune must have a partner, according to the Loughnane template. Thus The Bright City, a waltz of Kathleen’s own making, is paired to Margaret O’Carroll, a waltz by Sean Ryan. The Handel piece is set alongside An Tonachán Trá/The Sandhopper, a self-modelled slip jig. The Lament for Ó Domhnaill segues into the familiar Three Sea Captains, this time in duet with Jacqueline McCarthy’s concertina. In Aisling an Oigfhear, Kathleen traces the development of this extraordinary melody into the present day quasi-anthem, The Derry Air, the Danny Boy beloved of every maudlin public house singer.

There’s just one song, but it is a centrepiece. Kathleen first heard Séamus Begley sing Bean Dubh an Ghleanna in west Kerry when she was 14. Here, she persuades the big man to re-live the performance, this time to an exquisite harp and bouzouki arrangement. The continuous regeneration of traditional music is emphasised by the presence on a number of tracks of two of her children – Catríona on accordion and Cormac on whistle and pipes.

Her Dordán comrades – Mary Bergin on whistle, Dearbhall Standún on fiddle and Martina Goggin on djembe – join in on Lúcháir on Léinn, a commissioned piece written by Kathleen to commemorate 150 years of student Enrollment at NUIG (National University of Ireland) Kathleen used to describe her debut solo album, Affairs of the Harp, as "a present to myself." Its successor is a present to the rest of us. Pat Ahern

Harping On – Ossian
Harping On is a Dedalus-style amble through the urban and rural geography of Galway, with the odd detour for sustenance both south (Sliabh Luachra) and north (Sweden!). Kathleen Loughnane, founder member of Dordán, is a harpist capable of surgically excising the pretty-please trademarks of the instrument that have long mired it in a curious limbo where nunnery meets confession box. She has the good sense to gather a mighty gabháil of musicians around her who prod and cajole the harp, impishly loping through An Cathair Gheal, tiptoeing in between the spaces of Tommy People’s Gráinne’s Jig and reflecting mournfully on Bean Dubh An Ghleanna. Seamus Begley, Alec Finn, Sharon Shannon and a rake of other bowsies join the peregrinations with elfin glee. A music cartographer’s delight. Siobhán Long

Hot Press
The harp gets a bit of a bad rap in Irish circles, owing to its associations in the national psyche with comely fair-haired maidens trilling their way through saccharine ditties. In Kathleen Loughnane’s hands, though, it’s a precision instrument, swift and sparkling. Alec Finn of De Danann fame co-produced this album with Loughnane, and throughout most of it his bouzouki chimes in with complex countermelodies, its thin, metallic tones contrasting with the fuller sound of the harp. The effect is interesting, but becomes ever so slightly intrusive after a while. The inimitable Seamus Begley contributes a plaintive version of the classic love song ‘Bean Dubh an Ghleanna’, and other guests include such illustrious names as Sharon Shannon, keyboard player Brian McGrath and whistle players Mary Bergin and Sean Ryan. All the same, I found myself longing to hear Loughnane’s deft fingerwork left to hold its own for longer than a few introductory solo notes it’s allotted on the tunes presented here.


What the critics said about Affairs of the Harp (1997)

"Deft and delightful playing... A sublime CD, confirming Kathleen’s place among Europe’s finest harpers"
The Budget Guide to Irish Music 2001

"Kathleen’s deft touches are a sublime pleasure…a choice selection of source material…inspired playing both from the main protagonist and her special guests"
Folk Roots 1998

"Loughnane’s delivery and performance provides a veritable masterclass in harp music.
Rock and Reel - Spring 1998

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