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The Living Tradition
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| Frank
Harte - "A
Man in Touch" - by Geordie McIntyre Issue 46 January 2002 |
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Frank Harte was born in Chapelizod, a village on the outskirts of Dublin, in 1933. Apart from three years in Boston in the fifties, Frank has lived there ever since, on the banks of the Liffy. He is a retired architect and how he had time for this day job, given his lifetime devotion to song and singing, can only be wondered at. Frank's background and upbringing has clearly shaped his philosophy. His father (one of a family of thirteen) came from "absolute rural poverty"! His grandfather was aged six at the time of The Great Irish Famine in 1847 and his teenage years were "years of starvation". Given this family history, for Frank, traumatic events such as The Famine "are only yesterday". His sense of a living history is acute and this in diverse ways has informed and underlined his music and his attitudes. In addition, Frank's parents were staunch Republicans which compounded his identity with, and empathy for, the struggles and aspirations of ordinary folk and in a wider sense, he says, "I will always be eternally grateful to those who gave us the freedom we have today". As well as immense pride in being Irish, which came "directly from my father", Frank is firm in his conviction and honours a "People's Music" and the contexts, social, political and economic, which gave much of the idiom its birth and enduring values. Perhaps best summed up in one of many quotable quotes from Frank, "Those in power write the history and those who suffer write the songs. and given our history we have an awful lot of songs". Frank's father, by dint of hard graft came to own and run "The Tap", in Chapelizod. In this pub atmosphere Frank naturally heard many songs, particularly of the Parlour/Music Hall variety with the odd "rebel" song for good measure. He remembers buying a broadside from an itinerant seller in the pub at the age of seven. Frank forgets the title, but it was about the 1798 Rebellion. His pal bought "The Wild Colonial Boy." He remembers wishing he had bought that one. Clearly the basis for development, in song, was there. Early on, indeed, he says, "I can't remember a time when I was not singing". However it was a specific event when he was aged fourteen that triggered his passion for collecting, singing and passing on. The event was an agricultural Fair at Boyle in Co. Roscommon when he heard a ballad-sheet seller - a tinker/traveller - singing "The Valley of Knockanure". Here are the first two lines: You may talk and
speak of Easter Week "It was the first song I heard that made me aware we had a tradition of songs telling about the joys and sorrows, the tragedies and battles of a people, in a way I found irresistible." In short, Frank was bowled over. In addition to the content and handsome tune which carries it, the singer had a 'unique voice' - a sharp-edged high register, declamatory style, a voice that carried - it had to - in these pre-electric aid days. It was both functional and effective; it told the story and this for Frank is the 'elemental' prerequisite. This declamatory street-style, high projection is now one of Frank's hallmarks, however, he is equally capable of singing the tenderest of love songs with great sincerity. 'She's Like the Swallow' comes to mind where you have, as in the best of traditional songs, Irish or otherwise a finely expressed sentiment (s) without sentimentality. Frank followed this ballad singer all day and consciously started searching out songs from this point on. Returning to the song content of the 'Valley of Knockanure' Frank states "It was a song that belonged to nobody else except us. It was a song that told a story not of moon in June or one of those mid-Atlantic Hollywood things. it was a song about real people. I was familiar with fairy stories from my mother." This was clearly different. "Jeez, I was fascinated." Frank still has notebooks from these early pre-tape recorder days and points out the effort involved to acquire songs. He acknowledged how hard it is for "the young crowd nowadays to think of how we got the songs". Today it's easier. recently an inquiry via the Internet from the USA asked Frank about recommending sources. He listed ten readily available CDs. Frank, with usual good humour pointed here was an instant hundred plus songs which would have taken Frank ten years to collect in his early days. However, importantly, he also points out that what is missing is the personal association he has had and still has, with the countless singers who have generously given him their time, songs and trust. Here, Frank is highlighting the fact that while print and electronic sources are valuable they are, at best, second best. There is nothing to beat the immediacy, the excitement, the dynamism and the warts-and-all honesty of the 'live' song. Frank is fond of quoting poet Brendan Kinneally: "All songs are living ghosts and long for a living voice" There is no contradiction here. Frank has produced an excellent book and an impressive list of recordings. He has conducted numerous seminars, and broadcasts regularly on the Irish Song Tradition, at home and abroad. The fact is that Frank celebrates and demonstrates the essential oral nature of the tradition, a position he shares, obviously, with Dr Hamish Henderson, the famed Scottish poet, scholar, collector, song-writer and singer. Frank has rarely learned a song from a book, they are, as he would be the first to acknowledge a valuable source of reference, for fleshing out an incomplete song or checking on variants and so on. He consistently honours and acknowledges his debt to collectors and singers, living and dead. This is mirrored in his own generosity in sharing and passing on songs. Frank is fulsome in his praises of Eddie Butcher, Joe Holmes and Geordie Hanna, "great singers now gone." On a wider front, he has known and sang with many past luminaries. His friendship with the "great Bert Lloyd" and the "magnificent Ewan Macoll" comes to mind. Back in Ireland folk like Padraigin, Ni Uallachain and Len Graham, among many others, come in for special honourable mention. This overt appreciation of and indeed active support of other singers and collectors is typical of Frank. Frank, although a dab hand with a larger audience is in my view, an across-the-table singer, preferring the intimacy and interactivity of the session - a crack and a song - to anything else. And by session I mean old style which embraces song, dance and music - song being given equal weight and consideration. His last three CDs, in collaboration with master musician Donal Lunny (See Sources) demonstrate the value of sensitive, understated accompaniment where deemed appropriate. His most recent CD, or rather double CD, * 'My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte' is first class. (Reviewed in TLT issue 44 by Peter Fairbairn). I quizzed him about his choice of 'The King's Shilling' a relatively recent composition (written mid 1970s) by Ian Sinclair of Caithness, which Frank learned directly from Maureen Jelks of Dundee. He chose it for its quality and relevance "it's a good anti-war song". He added that some of the best songs about the 1798 Rebellion were written 100 years after the event. Frank has a large working repertoire from the tenderest to the, well, raucous and is blessed with an extraordinary memory coupled to a fine melodic sense. It is hard to pick a favourite since I have so many. His re-interpretation of the popular 'Cockles and Mussels' which has been somewhat hi-jacked by po-faced parlour singers and innumerable choirs (p.s. nothing against them!) is worth a mention. It's a great song and Frank delivers it in, for me, a suitable manner, with hard-edged tone where the declamatory projection, in the refrain, works a treat. In addition to his
mighty wallet of songs, Frank has a seemingly inexhaustible well of story
and anecdote. Here's just one, or at least the gist of it. Collector to Ozark
Fiddler: Frank to me epitomises what is best in the Tradition; generosity in spirit and deed. His company is inspirational. In the rich and varied Irish vocal tradition he has earned a place of high esteem as a song carrier. His commitment and boundless enthusiasm is undiminished. Nothing delights him more than learning a new song or version or the fresh revisitation of an old one. I look forward to his next two recording projects, one on the theme of the Great Famine of 1848, and the other on the Navvies. Above all, I look forward to joining Frank in another session. Geordie McIntyre
Sources for this Article 1 - Interview in Dublin
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