Frank Harte

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Frank Harte

Background information
Birth name Frank Harte
Born 14th May, 1933
irish flag Chapelizod, Ireland
Died 27th June, 2005
Genre(s) Traditional Irish, Sean nós
Occupation(s) Architect, Lecturer, Singer
Label(s) Hummingbird
Associated acts Donal Lunny

Frank Harte (b. 14 May 1933, Chapelizod, County Dublin, Republic of Ireland - d. 27 June 2005) was a traditional Irish singer, song collector, architect and lecturer. He was born and raised in Dublin. His father who had moved from a farming background in Sligo owned 'The Tap' pub in Chapelizod.

His introduction to Irish singing came, he said, from a chance listening to an itinerant who was selling ballad sheets at a fair in Boyle, County Roscommon.

“

And the banshee cried when Dalton died
In the valley of Knockanure

"This is a far cry from Dublin street songs, but it was the first song I heard, sung by a travelling man, that made me aware that we had a tradition of songs telling about the joys and sorrows, the tragedies and battles of a people in a way that I found irresistible. From that first hearing I have been fascinated by the idea of the story told in song."[1]

 „

Frank became a great exponent of the Dublin street ballad, which he preferred to sing unaccompanied. He emigrated to the United States for a short period, but later returned to Ireland where he worked as an architect, lecturer at DIT in Rathmines, Dublin and in later life fully engaged in songs in many ways.

Contents

[edit] Singing

Frank was widely known for his distinctive singing, his Dublin accent having a rich nasal quality complimenting his often high register. His voice mellowed considerably by the time of his later recordings, allowing for an expressive interpretation of many love songs such as 'My Bonny Light Horseman' on the album 'My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte'. This is contrasted sublimely by Frank's cogent interpretation of the popular 'Molly Malone'. He also became more accustomed to singing with accompaniment which is not strictly part of the Irish singing tradition and did not come naturally to him.

Though admittedly republican in his politics, he believed that the Irish song tradition need not be a sectarian or nationalist preserve: "The Orange song is just as valid an expression as the Fenian". He believed that songs were a key to understanding the past often saying :"those in power write the history, while those who suffer write the song sand given our history, we have an awful lot of songs."[2]. Though considered a stalwart of traditional Irish singing and well aware of it, Frank did not consider himself to be a sean-nos singer[3].

He liked to sing out of his love for a song than a desire to please an audience: "A traditional singer is not singing for a commercial audience so he doesn't have to please an audience." His repertoire included, amongst many others, songs of the 1798 rebellion, Napoleonic ballads and the street ballads of Zozimus. As well as traditional songs, he also sang numerous music hall songs such 'The Charladies' Ball' and 'Biddy Mulligan' as popularised by Jimmy O'Dea.

Frank won the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil singing competition on a number of occasions and in 2003, he received the Traditional Singer of the Year award from the Irish-language television channel TG4.

The Spanish Lady - excerpt' performed by Frank Harte]

Problems listening to the file? See media help.

[edit] Song Collecting

Frank began collecting early in life and he remembered buying ballads from a man who sold them by the sheet at the side of the Adelphi Cinema and by the end of his life had assembled a database of over 15,500 recordings, which is currently in preparation for transfer to the Irish Traditional Music Archive.

As a young man, Frank encountered many songs in his father's pub, 'The Tap', in Chapelizod saying:

"It was a great mixture of people in Chapelizod - Catholics and Protestants. There was also a fair few of the old crowd knocking around - the Dublin Fusiliers who had come back from the First World War and they all had their input too. They had these songs about soldiers going away to war and leaving the sweetheart behind and they were all tearjerkers. I would also hear a lot of the old music-hall songs and Victorian melodrama songs such as She Was Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage or . . . things that would tear your heart out, bring tears to your eyes."[4]

He once wrote about his song collecting:

"I have been gathering songs around the country for a good number of years now, and seldom have I come across singers who are unwilling to part with their songs. Probably they realise as I do, that the songs do not belong to them, just as they did not belong to the people they got them from."[5]

This was a philosophy that Frank went on to espouse greatly himself, having given countless songs and encouragement to singers in Ireland and abroad for over fifty years. Recipients of songs and information about them include Christy Moore, Karan Casey, The Voice Squad, and others.

Despite his extensive collecting, he firmly believed that songs only existed when sung and to augment the point, he often quoted the poem 'Living Ghosts' by Brendan Kennelly:

All songs are living ghosts
And long for a living voice[6]

[edit] Recordings

Frank recorded several albums and made numerous television and radio appearances, most nobably the Singing Voices series he wrote and presented for RTE Radio, which was produced by Peter Browne in 1987. Frank's first two LPs were recorded in England by Bill Leader with concertina accompaniment on some songs by Alf Edwards. From 1998 he recorded four albums for the Hummingbird record label on which he was accompanied by Donal Lunny on bazouki and guitar. These last four albums covered the huge topics of the 1798 Rebellion, the Great Irish Famine, Napoleon Bonaparte and the Irish navvies abroad. Each album is characteristically accompanied by comprehensive liner notes of meticulous research into each song and the subject in question, though his accuracy and impartiality as a historian is not as unanimously praised as his singing.

[edit] Performance

Frank was a regular at the Sunday morning sessions at The Brazen Head pub, along with the late Liam Weldon who ran the session. He was also an enthusiastic supporter of An Góilín Singers Club. A regular at singers' sessions in Ireland, he appeared at clubs, seminars and festivals in France, Britain and America as well as touring the festivals at Fleadhanna in Ireland. Frank also performed in London in Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger's 'Singers Club' in 1971 and at the Musical Traditions Club on two occasions.

"Harte felt that the traditional singer, unlike the latter type of vocalist, had absolutely no responsibility to entertain or please the crowd that might be listening, because the singer's real purpose is simply to perform the song, the act of the performance being a justification in itself."[7]

He appeared at many American festivals including The Blarney Star in New York, Gaelic Roots in Boston College, The Catskills Irish Arts Week, The Greater Washington Ceili Club Festival in Maryland and Irish Fest in Milwaukee and for seventeen years he was a veritable staple at the Irish Week every July in the Augusta Heritage Festival in Elkins in the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia where he often performed with Mick Moloney. He was also in demand as a teacher.

[edit] Legacy

Frank Harte died, aged 72, on the 27th of June, 2005 and is survived by his wife Stella, daughters, Sinead and Orla, and his sons Darragh and Cian. His influence is still evident in singers such as Karan Casey[1] and, All-Ireland Fleadh winner 2007, Niall Wall. Frank continues to be remembered fondly in sessions and folk clubs on both sides of the Irish sea.

In September 2006, the first Frank Harte Festival was organised and held in Dublin by Jerry O'Reilly and other members of An Góilín. The second festival was held in September 2007, again organised by An Góilín, and is intended to be an annual event taking place on the last weekend of September each year.[8]

[edit] Discography

  • Dublin Street Songs, Topic, 1967
  • Through Dublin City, Topic, 1973
  • And Listen To My Song, 1976
  • Daybreak And A Candle-End, 1987
  • 1798 - The First Year Of Liberty, 1998
  • My Name Is Napoleon Bonaparte: Traditional Songs On Napoleon Bonaparte, 2001
  • The Hungry Voice: The Song Legacy Of Ireland's Great Hunger, 2004
  • Dublin Street Songs / Through Dublin City, 2004 (first two albums reissued on combined CD)
  • There's Gangs Of Them Digging: Songs Of Irish Labour, 2007

[edit] Bibliography

  • 'Songs of Dublin', (ed.), 1978, Gilbert Dalton, Dublin and 1993, Ossian Publications, Cork. ISBN 0 946005 51 6

[edit] References

  1. ^ Harte, Frank. Songs of Dublin, 1978 p.6. Gilbert Dalton.
  2. ^ Interview with Frank Harte for Prairie Home Companion
  3. ^ Interview with Frank Harte for Prairie Home Companion
  4. ^ Kelly, John, 'Interview with Frank Harte', Irish Times
  5. ^ Harte, Frank. Songs of Dublin, 1978 p.6. Gilbert Dalton
  6. ^ Kennelly, Brendan, 'Living Ghosts: 23 Poems by Brendan Kennelly, Audio Cassette, Dublin, Livia Records, 1982
  7. ^ Biography of Frank Harte on Billboard.com
  8. ^ http://www.goilin.com/

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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