The Harp - it's a new month - March

Month of March - great is the forwardness of the birds;
Severe is the cold wind upon the headlands;
Serene weather will be longer than the crops.
     ___ anon. Welsh poem


March gives us proof that spring has really arrived. The themes here in "The Celtic Spirit" will include observation and sensitivity to subtle messages, spring cleaning and restoring, tribal and individual consciousness, constancy and change, power and its abuses, creaton and increase, public service, creative fire.

I posted this image on a whim - when searching for images of the month of March, which was one of them that came up.
It comes from Arts Council of Northern Ireland and is by
Christy Keeney - Ceramics


 
 
 
Today's essay is called The Harp:
 
"Healer of each wounded warrior;
Comforter of each fine woman,
Guiding refrain over the blue water,
Image-laden, sweet-sounding music!"
   ____" The Book of the O'Connor Don,"  Irish text (trans. CM)

 
 
   The harp is one of the most characteristic instruments of the Celtic tradition. The harp of the Dagda (the Good God of the Gaelic gods) was magical. In it the Dagda had bound melodies that would not sound until he summoned them. It had three properties, or 'strains' that all harpers in ancient times used in their music, each property having a different effect. It had the suantraigh (SWON'tree) or 'sleep strain', which lulled people to sleep. It had the goiltraigh (GOYL'tree) or 'sorrow strain,' which cause people to weep. And it had the geantraigh (GEON'tree) or 'joy strain,' which caused people to laugh.
 
  These three harp strains are still the property of harp music today - music that can lull us into a restful state, bring tears of beauty to our eyes, or enliven us and set the foot tapping. With these three strains, harp music affects the soul: it pours comfort, balm, and rest into the soul laden with cares, burdens, and anxieties, giving it rest with the sleep strain; it plumbs the depths of sorrow and grief, of loneliness and bereavement, with the sorow strain; it reconnects those who are lost, stressed, and humorless with the primal joy of life with the joy strain. The playing of the harp confers a special privilege upon all harpers: the ability to unlock the doors of the soul.
 
"Choose three pieces of music that represent for you the three musical strains outlines above. Play
them when your soul needs rest, relief and uplift."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKF13msGu7o&feature=related 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEIsDc_f5o0&feature=related  
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmB5cZOQAdc&feature=related