- Frank Harte
Infobox musical artist
Name = Frank Harte
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Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Frank Harte
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Born = birth date|1933|5|14|df=yesChapelizod ,Ireland
Died = death date and age|2005|6|27|1933|5|14|df=yes
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Instrument =
Genre = Traditional Irish,Sean nós
Occupation =Architect ,Lecturer ,Singer
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Label = Hummingbird
Associated_acts =Donal Lunny
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Awards = TG4 Traditional Singer of the Year, 2003Frank Harte (14 May 1933,
Chapelizod ,County Dublin ,Republic of Ireland – 27 June 2005) was a traditional Irish singer, song collector, architect and lecturer. He was born and raised in Dublin. His father Peter Harte who had moved from a farming background in Sligo owned 'The Tap' pub in Chapelizod. Frank emigrated to the United States for a short period, but later returned to Ireland where he worked as an architect, lecturer at DIT (Dublin Institute of Technology ) in Rathmines, Dublin and in later life fully engaged in songs in many ways.inging
Frank Harte's introduction to Irish traditional singing came, he said, from a chance listening to an itinerant who was selling ballad sheets at a fair in
Boyle, County Roscommon .cquotetxt
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."Harte, Frank. Songs of Dublin, 1978 p.6. Gilbert Dalton. ISBN 0-946005-51-6]
Frank became a great exponent of the Dublin street ballad, which he preferred to sing unaccompanied.He 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." [http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/features/hodgepodge/20010300_europe/harte_frank.html Interview with Frank Harte for Prairie Home Companion] ] . Though considered a stalwart of traditional Irish singing and well aware of it, Frank did not consider himself to be a sean-nós singer.
He claimed he liked to sing out of his love for a song rather 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 .ong 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." [Kelly, John, 'Interview with Frank Harte', Irish Times]
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." Harte, Frank. "Songs of Dublin", 1978 p.6. Gilbert Dalton. ISBN 0-946005-51-6]
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 ,Andy Irvine ,Karan Casey ,The Voice Squad , and musicians alike.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" [Kennelly, Brendan, 'Living Ghosts: 23 Poems by Brendan Kennelly, Audio Cassette, Dublin, Livia Records, 1982]Frank is referred to by members of
Planxty in the biography of the band by Leagues O'Toole, 'The Humours of Planxty' as a source of songs.:"The Little Drummer" was a song passed on by the late, great Dublin singer and collector, Frank Harte. 'He is perhaps the single most important collector of songs,' says Christy.'I remember Christy and myself going up to Frank Harte for songs,' adds Andy. 'I'd known Frank since very early in my career. He was an architect living in Chapelizod and I first met him in about 1963. He was always slightly to one side. It would be
Johnny Moynihan and myself and our clique, andRonnie Drew andThe Dubliners , all more or less of the same age, and Frank was probably seven or eight years older than I was. I liked him a lot.' [O'Toole, Leagues, The Humours of Planxty, Hachette, 2006, p197 ISBN 9780340837979 ]Recordings
Frank recorded several albums and made numerous television and radio appearances, most nobably the Singing Voices [http://www.rte.ie/radio1/singingvoices/ RTÉ Radio 1: Franke Harte - Singing Voices] ] series he wrote and presented for RTÉ Radio, which was produced by Peter Browne in 1987. Frank's first two LPs, though released with six years between them, were recorded in one session 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 byDonal 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. In 2004, Frank's first two albums were re-released on CD, though the first track of his first album 'Traveller All Over The World' was omitted. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZs_jUJhsZ4 Listen to it on YouTube here] ]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 ofAn Góilín Traditional Singer's 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 inEwan MacColl andPeggy Seeger 's 'Singers Club' in 1971 and at the [ [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/martin.nail/MusTrad/MTCintro.htm 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." [ [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/bio/index.jsp?pid=1629 Biography of Frank Harte on Billboard.com] ]
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 ClubFestival in Maryland and Irish Fest in Milwaukee and for seventeen years he was averitable 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 and gave many talks about tradtional song including a lecture entitled "My name is Napoleon Bonaparte - the significance of Napoleon Bonaparte in the Irish Song Tradition" at the Willy Clancy Summer school on the 12th July, 2001.Legacy
Frank Harte died, aged 72, on the 27th of June, 2005 and is survived by his wife Stella (nee Maguire), daughters, Sinead and Orla, and his sons Darragh and Cian. His influence is still evident in singers such as Karan Casey. [cite web| last = Casey| first = Karan| authorlink = Karan Casey| title = Thanks to Mick Moloney/Frank Harte| publisher = Karan Casey| year = 2007| url = http://www.karancasey.com/articles.htm| accessdate =2008-09-29] Frank continues to be remembered fondly in sessions and folk clubs on both sides of the Irish sea.
At the 2005 Whitby Folk Week a tribute to Frank Harte entitled "Through Streets Broad and Narrow" was held at theResolution Hotel Function Room, on Monday August 22nd 2005 at 6:00pm. It featured Ken Hall and Peta Webb, Jim McFarland, Niamh Parsons, Jerry O'Reilly, Jim Mageean, George Unthank, Alan Fitzsimons, Pete Wood, Grace Toland, Brian Doyle, Patricia Flynn, Geordie McIntyre and Alison MacMoreland, The Wilsons, Eamonn O'Broithe, Roisin White, Bruce Scott, Rosie Stewart and others.
In September 2006, the first Frank Harte Festival was organised and held in
Dublin by Jerry O'Reilly and other members of An Góilín Traditional Singer's Club. The second and third festivals were held in September 2007 and 2008, again organised by An Góilín, and the festival is intended to be an annual event taking place on the last weekend of September each year. [ [http://www.goilin.com/ An Góilín - Traditional Singer's Club, Dublin Ireland ] ]In May 2008, the third Frank Harte Memorial Prize was given at DIT, Bolton Street, in association with the DIT faculty of the built environment, RTÉ and the Teacher's Union of Ireland. The prize is awarded to students in their second year of their studies in Construction Technology and Design.
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 ", Hummingbird 1998
*"My Name Is Napoleon Bonaparte: Traditional Songs On Napoleon Bonaparte", Hummingbird 2001
*"The Hungry Voice: The Song Legacy Of Ireland's Great Hunger",Hummingbird 2004
*"Dublin Street Songs / Through Dublin City ", Hummingbird 2004 (first two albums reissued on combined CD)
*"There's Gangs Of Them Digging: Songs Of Irish Labour", Hummingbird 2007Frank also appears on many other compilations, including:
*'Top of the Morning', Pickwick: Dublin, 1979, singing 'Biddy Mulligan'
*'Irish Folk Favourites', Harp/Pickwick, 1990, singing 'Dicey Reilly'
*'Irish Voices', Topic: London, 1996, singing 'The Traveller All Over the World'
*'Irish Songs From Old New England', Folk Legacy: USA, 2003, singing 'Napoleon's Defeat'Bibliography
*'Songs of Dublin', (ed.), 1978, Gilbert Dalton, Dublin and 1993, Ossian Publications, Cork. ISBN 0 946005 51 6
Broadcast
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