The Belfast Harp Festival of 1792 was an event of great significance in Irish music history. Edward Bunting, then 19, was engaged to annotate all...

The Belfast Harp Festival of 1792 was an event of great significance in Irish music history. Edward Bunting, then 19, was engaged to annotate all the music he heard; his three volumes of Ancient Irish Music provide a treasure trove of over 300 bardic tunes and their attributions. Belfast-born composer, teacher, broadcaster and performer Philip Hammond (b. 1951) has taken a selection of these tunes and reworked them with complete freedom of style. Mr. Hammond’s large body of commissioned work has come from the Brodsky Quartet, Tasmin Little, Barry Douglas and Ann Murray, amongst others.