Seán Ó’Riada (harpsichord) ‘Ó Riada’s Farewell’
Seán Ó Riada plays traditional Irish music on the harpsichord
Recorded in Log a’ Ugha, An T6char, Conndae Chill Mhanntain on the lIth August 1971 by loan Allen for Claddagh Records Limited.
Released 1972 by Claddagh Records Limited. CC12
Photographs by Jeffrey Craig. Layout by John S. Perrett.

SIDE ONE
00:00 1. Fanny Power 2.00
02:05 2. Mabel Kelty 2.10
04:20 3. Aisling Gheal 3.07
07:42 4. Kerry Slide 1.35
09:30 5. An Chúilfhionn 4.35
14:17 6. The Three Sea Captains 1.50
16:20 7. Suite : 2.55 Tuime Mhaire, Na Bearta Cruadha, An Brianach 6g (two versions)

SIDE 1WO
19:20 1 CUil Aodha Slide 1.38
21:10 2 Mo Ghile Mear 2.40
24:05 3 An Cailin Deas Rua 2.30
26:42 4 An tSean Bhean Bhocht 2.12
29:06 5 Aon La sa Mhuil1eann 3.00
32:19 6 Sí Bheag a’s Sí Mh6r 1.20
33:45 7 Sean 6 Duibhir an Ghleanna 3.00

An honours graduate of the Music Department of University College, Cork, Seán Ó’Riada was appointed Assistant in the Department in 1963 and Lecturer in 1970, combining his academic duties with composition, broadcasting and performances of his pioneering ensemble, Ceolt6iri Chualann. During this period he carried out one of his main aims, namely the re-building of an authentic tradition among ,the Irish-speaking community of CUi! Aodha where he had gone to live – a tradition in which the language, music, poetry and customs of earlier generations would flower agltin, in a new context, but linked in an unbroken line with the Ireland of Aodhagan Ua Rathaille and Eoghan Ruadh Ua Stiilleabhain.

The Harpsichord
It is a particularly happy piece of planning that Sean 6 Riada played some of the blind harper Carolan’s pieces and the other traditional Irish airs and dances that are presented on this record on an Irish-made eighteenth century instrument (see front of cover). Upright harpsichords though known on the continent in the seventeenth and eighteenth century were not as common as their convenient shape might suggest. Raymond Russell in The Harpsichord and Clavichord (London 1959, p. 50), points out that the disagreeable effect of the jacks plucking directly in front of the player’s face, combined with the intricate arrangement of retaining each jack with a spring instead of gravity did much to defeat its popularity. Sean I remember, also noticed the first of these points when recording for this record..
This harpsichord or clavicytheriam is inscribed ‘Ferdinandus Weber’ on the keyboard and it was Weber who brought the upright form to Ireland. He came to Dublin after his apprenticeship to the Saxon Royal organ builder Hahnel, and opened a workshop in Werburgh Street in 1739. When Handel came to Dublin in 1741 he was a frequent and evidently gluttonous visitor at his house. Weber was so successful as an organ builder and harpsichord maker in music-loving Dublin that he moved to larger premises in Marlborough Street in 1750 and made instruments for such virtuosi as Dean Delany, Lord Momington, Thomas Roseingrave and others in the fashionable world; charging between £22 and £36 for a harpsichord.. Further information about Weber including a translation of his Certificate of Apprenticeship appears in W. H. Gratton Flood’s ‘Dublin Harpsichord and Pianoforte Makers of the Eighteenth Century’ in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquariu of Ireland (V’Ol. XXXIX, 1909, pp. 131-145).
A piece of paper found inside the instrument was dated 1764 and Weber made it for Henry Prittie, later created Baron Dunnalley at the Union of 1800. Mr. Prittie had a town house in Kildare Street and a robust pedimented Palladian house in County Tipperary. The harpsichord probably stood in his Dublin drawing-room in the eighteenth century. oSean Riada’s appreciation of this harpsichord not only as a maker of music but as a superb piece of Dublin craftsmanship was typical of his wide taste and appreciation for all
periods of Irish history. Even though Prittie was not a patron of Carolan and both his houses have since been pulled down. the music that might have been heard in their once splendid rooms is vividly brought back to us though sean’s playing. This performance can therefore act as an eloquent symbol of the awakening interest in a century of Irish history that for unfortunate reasons has been too long neglected.
Knight of Glin

#’FerdinandusWeber #SeánÓRiada