THE HARPER’S VOICE: Annual Lecture 2020

Cruit Éireann, Harp Ireland’s Annual Lecture 2020, THE HARPER’S VOICE, takes place on live on Zoom this year.
ÚNA MONAGHAN: NEW HORIZONS Challenges in Contemporary Irish Harping
Join us on Zoom at 4:30pm on Sunday 13th December
Register now on Eventbrite at this link.

Úna Monaghan is a harper from Belfast with a background in Irish traditional music and in experimental, contemporary, and computer music, as a composer, programmer, performer, and sound engineer. In this online presentation for Harp Ireland she explores some of the recent challenges and considerations in her contemporary work with Irish harp. As a resonant and multiphonic instrument, the harp presents specific challenges for the design of interfaces for computer sound control. Úna explores her motives, approach, and decision-making in developing new technologies and music for harp and electronics. Questions of rhythm and flexibility in electronics control are particularly relevant to traditional dance music. She highlights the importance of developing performance, composition, and technological plans in parallel. In addition to these ideas on technique and playing, she shares her ongoing consideration of the instrument itself, the history and associations of the harp, and how they affect her approach to harping today.

This lecture is now available at this link: