Tag: Recordings

Pop’s two harps
Musical Instruments

Pop’s two harps

Cary KarpLeave a comment

The oldest recognized recording of an autoharp was made in New York City in September 1924, for a 78 RPM disc that was never released. It was re-recorded in January of the following year and distributed a few months later. On each side, Ernest V. Stoneman alternates between the vocal rendition of a song and playing it on a harmonica, accompanying himself on an autoharp throughout.

This disc has the additional distinction of being the first recording of country music to attain hit status. Some estimates judge it to have sold over a million copies within a year after its release. This called widespread popular attention to Stoneman’s pairing of the autoharp and mouthharp, as well as setting a precedent for the subsequent use of that combination, exemplified below.

The development of the autoharp as a melody instrument is also examined here. As described in the US patent issued for it in 1882, “the instrument may be used for accompaniment to the voice or another musical instrument, or the melody may be played at the same time with the accompaniment, as on any other harp.” Lesser known early recordings of the autoharp in melodic use are presented, along with more recent ones.

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The Connemara Fiddle
Musical Instruments

The Connemara Fiddle

Cary KarpLeave a comment

Francis O’Neill provided detailed biographical information about the contributors to his collections of Irish traditional music, in a book titled Irish Minstrels and Musicians, published in 1913. The fiddler Edward Cronin was one of the more prolific of them. He was a native of County Tipperary, born about 1838, who emigrated to Troy, New York, before settling in Chicago. With reference to Cronin’s residence there, O’Neill observed that:

Visits to his home were fraught with pleasure, especially when he played in concert with two young friends from Troy – Patrick Clancy on the flute and Thomas F. Kiley on the mandolin. Clancy, Mrs. Cronin’s nephew, possessed a most wonderful voice, powerful and mellow, and to our unscientific ear the most delightful we had ever heard. On the violin the genial “Tom” Kiley swung the bow with a freedom which many professionals might envy. “The Connemara Fiddle,” as we facetiously termed the mandolin, was his favorite instrument, however. In playing Irish dance music he displayed a facility of execution almost inconceivable. To him “The Flogging Reel,” a lively, three-part dance tune, with its turns and graces, presented no more difficulties than “Home, Sweet Home.”

Kiley’s use of the mandolin is also attested prior to the publication of this chronicle. Spoken introductions on two wax cylinder recordings announce that the tune is “played on the violin, mandolin, and fife, by Messrs. Cronin, Kiley, and O’Neill.” The date of those recordings makes them the earliest association of the mandolin with Irish traditional music that has yet come to light.

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