Flood, W. H. Grattan. The Story of the Harp.

London: The Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd.; New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, n.d. [c.1905]. Small 8vo. pp. xvii, 207. With frontispiece and numerous illustrations in the text. Original publisher’s red cloth, upper cover elaborately blind-stamped with harp and decorative design, titled in gilt on spine.

A very good copy in the original decorative binding. Cloth bright with light rubbing at extremities and slight wear at head of spine. Internally clean with light scattered foxing to preliminary leaves and margins, as usual for the paper stock. Binding sound and firm.

A volume from the attractive Music Story Series, edited by Frederick J. Crowest, intended to provide accessible yet scholarly histories of musical instruments and forms. This work by W. H. Grattan Flood, noted Irish musicologist and historian, traces the development of the harp from ancient Egyptian and biblical traditions through medieval Europe and into the Irish harping tradition. Particular attention is given to the historical significance of the Irish harp, including discussions of Brian Boru’s harp, the Gaelic harper tradition, and the revival of Irish harping in the nineteenth century.

Flood (1857–1928), organist of Enniscorthy Cathedral and author of History of Irish Music, was one of the foremost early scholars of Irish musical heritage. His writings helped popularise the study of Ireland’s national instrument and the cultural history surrounding it.

An attractive and increasingly collectible early twentieth-century study of the harp, especially appealing to collectors of Irish music, musical instruments, and Celtic cultural history.

[L4 7C]