Katy Bustard’s books for Irish Harp – A new resource for harping!

Congratulations to North Coast harper Katy Bustard, who has recently published a number of books with arrangements for Irish harp.

Irish Harp Airs: The Music of Turlough O’Carolan & Other Beautiful Song Airs of Ireland

A collection of our favourite tunes to play at the Causeway Harp School, suitable for intermediate level players.

This book is an ideal resource for players hoping to expand their repertoire to include enchanting Celtic airs, suitable for playing at weddings and events and in health and wellness settings.

Many of the pieces are from the collections of Edward Bunting, collected at the historic Belfast Harp Festival of 1792.  This was a heroic attempt to preserve the 1000 year old harping tradition in Ireland that was in rapid decline at the time.  I have also included songs from Thomas Moore’s Irish Melodies.  Both these collections of music reside in the Special Collections of Queen’s University, Belfast and so have a special significance to harpers in the north of Ireland.

For more information and to purchase Irish Harp Airs, click this link. 

Traditional Irish Music for Small Harps

This book is the culmination of Katy’s fantastic work with beginner players on small harps and is ideal for beginning-lower intermediate harp players who can already read music and who already know basic technique.

Traditional Irish Music for Small Harps contains a wide variety of Irish traditional tune types: Carolan , marches, airs, jigs, slip jigs, polkas, Irish hymns and slow airs. All tunes have 20 and 26 string arrangements for small harp and can be played in the key of G major (with the exception of the 26 string arrangement of Elizabeth Kelly’s Favourite, which has an F natural in the accompaniment).

For more information and to purchase Irish Harp Airs, click this link.