In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Nancy Hurrell, an acclaimed harpist and harp historian, chats with Gabriella about her book The Egan Irish Harps: Tradition, Patrons and Players.
During our conversation, Nancy Hurrell played Carolin’s Concerto on her 1820 harp, a rare treat for harp and classical music enthusiasts. Carolin’s Concerto is available on Nancy’s CD: The Egan Irish Harp, the first recording of an 1820 Egan Harp.
Nancy introduces us to the Egan Portable Irish Harp and John Egan, the innovative and entrepreneurial musical instrument maker who designed and crafted the harp. Nancy reveals why she opened the book with a dramatic scene with the discovery in 1813 of an ancient Gaelic harp found in a peat bog and its delivery to John Egan for repair. The historical, social and political context in which John Egan invented the harp is vital to its success and Nancy describes how she portrayed this context. Nancy shares her research strategy and how she crafted a vibrant narrative from complex technical information. She also explains why she ended the book with an epilogue about museum objects with historical relevance.
In the politically charged era following the 1801 Act of Union when Ireland's harp symbol was ubiquitous in political imagery, the playable instrument, the Gaelic harp, had largely disappeared. John Egan, a self-taught inventor, conceived a new national instrument, the "Portable Irish Harp," with innovative mechanisms to expand the harp's chromatic capabilities. The template for the modern Irish harp, Egan's design was imitated a century later by several principal harp makers. Antique Egan harps, prized as rare cultural artefacts and art objects, survive in museums and private collections worldwide. This book on Ireland's renowned harp maker, John Egan, and the Egan family firm, reveals the significance of Egan harps in shaping Irish harp history.
Nancy Hurrell is the author of the definitive biography on nineteenth-century Irish harp maker John Egan, The Egan Irish Harps: Tradition, patrons and players (Four Courts Press, 2019). She is a contributor to The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (2014), and her articles are published in History Ireland, Irish Arts Review, Harp Perspectives (Ireland), American Harp Journal, Harpesmag (France), HARP (UK), Folk Harp Journal and The Historical Harp Society Bulletin (US). Hurrell has presented historical harp lecture-demonstrations at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Royal Academy of Music Museum (London), the Royal Irish Academy (Dublin), and the Metropolitan Museum (NY). Hurrell performs on modern harps for special events and historical harps in concerts with Boston early music ensembles. She has taught historical harp classes at the Boston Conservatory and Brandeis University and has published seven books of harp arrangements.
Learn more: hurrellharp.com