The Jews Harp in Irish Music!

How often do you hear the Jews Harp being used to play Irish Music?

I ask, because I just came across this f‘in brilliant piece of music on YouTube, featuring Angus Nicholson on Border Pipes and Allan MacDonald { no mean Piper himself } on the Jews Harp, at The Pipers’ Club of Scotland Concert, back in August this year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3UIkJN7r9Q

play video

I have occasionally seen someone standing at the back of a large session boinging away, if you’ll pardon the expression 😉, but I think they’re pretty rare beasties at Irish Sessions.

Cheers,
Dick

https://thesession.org/recordings/1743

- which you submitted yourself! I had it once.

Yup Nicholas & I still have mine! 😉

I believe the preferred term these days is “jaw harp”.
Not unknown at Scottish sessions but you can hurt your teeth if you get carried away in a loud pub.

The traditional name is “Jew’s Harp”. “Jaw Harp” may be more acceptable in circles which I do not wish to frequent, and I do accept that it is a more accurate name, but ….. I object to being told what words I may use, providing they are not offensive and I seriously don’t think this term is. We all know it has nothing to do with Jewish people and I can’t see it as being derogatory at all.
The big ones DO hurt though!
Bless you all,

Chris.

OED:

Etymology: A variant of Jews’ trump n., q.v.

Jews’ trump | Jew’s-trump, n.

Forms: Also 15 Iues trounk, 18 dial.Jew-trump.

Etymology: An earlier name than the now usual Jews’ harp , and formerly equally common in England. In Scotland and N. of England the instrument is still called simply trump n.1, agreeing with the French name trompe (Littré), which is now however mostly displaced by guimbarde . Although no early example of French trompe in this sense has been adduced, it is probable that the name trump came from France, especially as in the Customs Rates of 1545 they are called Iues trounks , a mistranslation perhaps due to the fact that the trompe of the elephant is also called in English trunk . The first element was certainly Jews from the first; conjectures that this was an alteration of jaws , or of French jeu , are baseless and inept. But the attribution of the instrument to the Jews occurs, so far as is known, only in English, and there is no actual evidence as to its origin.
More or less satisfactory reasons may be conjectured: e.g. that the instrument was actually made, sold, or sent to England by Jews, or supposed to be so; or that it was attributed to them, as a good commercial name, suggesting the trumps and harps mentioned in the Bible. As the instrument was neither a trump nor a harp, the ingenuity which conferred upon it these names may well have distinguished it as the trump or harp of the Jews.

1545 Rates Custome House sig. bvj, Iues trounks the grose iij.s. iiij.d.
1582 Rates Custome House (new ed.) sig. Cvij, Iewes trumps the groce x.s.
1591 News fr. Scotl. (Roxb.), Geillis Duncan‥did goe before them playing this reill or daunce uppon a small trumpe called a Jewes trump, untill they entred into the Kirk of North Barrick‥the king‥sent for the saide Geillis Duncan, who upon the like trump did play the saide daunce before the kinges majestie.
1593 G. Harvey Pierces Supererogation 85 An vniversall reformation be proclaimed with the sound of a Iewes-trumpe.

1596 R. Caranca in W. Raleigh Discouerie Guiana 109 We should send them Iewes harpes for they woulde giue for euery one two hens.

Trump - yes I’d forgotten that one!

Just in case someone lands on this forum thread, just like I did when searching for info about the jew harp in irish trad music, I would like to add that you can here a great example of integration of this instrument in track 9 of this Dave Sheridan album: https://thesession.org/recordings/3831

And just for completeness, here is Cormac Begley’s wonderful 20 minute documentary on the history of the Jews Harp, not just in Irish music but back to its origins in Asia over 5000 years ago. Very surprised to learn it is probably the third or fourth oldest type of musical instrument in the world and may even predate the bodhran 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e0napKY2bk

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PS just before we started learning music from our Dad in the late sixties he got us all one of these to play, and it must have been still a played instrument out in the West of Ireland where he came from. We could get a few tunes out of them.

Another one here with Conor Byrne on the flute: (about 2:30 into it): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy21E2tp3Ek

play video

The OED etymology is very helpful. So, if in English the instrument was first called a trump, then a Jew’s trump, and lastly a Jew’s harp, it might be conjectured:
Trump became Jew’s trump in reference to the trumps in the Bible (perhaps contrasting in a jocular vein the relatively quiet sound of this instrument and the sound of the trumpets that blew down the walls of Jericho?).
In time this reference was forgotten and/or some pedant pointed out that the instrument was not blown, like a trumpet, but plucked, like a harp (as played by King David).