Cormac MacDermott (year of birth unknown – 26 February 1618), Irish

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...

er and composer, was one of the best-known Irish harpers and a member of the "Royal Musick" (the official band of musicians) at the English court of

James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) *James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) *James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu *James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...

. He was the only Irish composer at this period known to have written in a European

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

art music Art music (alternatively called classical music, cultivated music, serious music, and canonic music) is music considered to be of high phonoaesthetic value. It typically implies advanced structural and theoretical considerationsJacques Siron, ...

idiom.

Life

MacDermott may have been a native of

Moylurg {{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022 Magh Luirg or Magh Luirg an Dagda, Anglicised as Moylurg, was the name of a medieval Irish kingdom located in modern-day County Roscommon, Ireland. It was a sub-kingdom of the kingdom of Connacht from c. 956–1585. ...

, northern

County Roscommon "Steadfast Irish heart" , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Roscommon.svg , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Ireland , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Connacht , subdi ...

, whose ruling family were the Mac Diarmata (MacDermott) clan. In 1590, he was employed by Sir Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, for whom he undertook at least five travels to Ireland to exchange personal correspondence between 1603 and 1611. In addition, in October 1605, he was appointed to the Royal Musick in London, the first harper since the death of Blind William More in 1565. He was succeeded on his death by his pupil Phillip Squire.

Music

MacDermott's compositions survive in

consort __NOTOC__ Consort may refer to: Music * "The Consort" (Rufus Wainwright song), from the 2000 album ''Poses'' * Consort of instruments, term for instrumental ensembles * Consort song (musical), a characteristic English song form, late 16th–earl ...

form only and

Peter Holman Peter Kenneth Holman MBE (born 19 October 1946, London) is an English conductor and musicologist best known for reviving the music of Purcell and his English contemporaries. Holman, with the ensemble The Parley of Instruments made many of the ex ...

suggested that it was MacDermott who brought this new consort-style of Irish harp-playing to the English court. Holman also published evidence to the effect that the harp used in

William Lawes William Lawes (April 160224 September 1645) was an English composer and musician. Life and career Lawes was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire and was baptised on 1 May 1602. He was the son of Thomas Lawes, a vicar choral at Salisbury Cathedral, ...

's harp consorts was not a gut-strung Italian

triple harp The triple harp is a type of multi-course harp employing three parallel rows of strings instead of the more common single row. One common version is the Welsh triple harp (Welsh: ''telyn deires''), used today mainly among players of traditional We ...

but a wire-strung

Irish harp The Celtic harp is a triangular frame harp traditional to the Celtic nations of northwest Europe. It is known as in Irish, in Scottish Gaelic, in Breton and in Welsh. In Ireland and Scotland, it was a wire-strung instrument requiring great ...

. The original players in the early performances of the Lawes consorts were the MacDermott pupil Philip Squire and later Squire's pupil Lewis Evans, both on Irish harps. In the most elaborate of the ten compositions for harp consort by William Lawes, the ''Royall Consort No. 9'', a theme by MacDermott is the basis of the first movement.Holman (1987), p. 199.

Recordings

* ''Exquisite Consorts'' – recorded by The Harp Consort, Andrew Lawrence-King (harps, direction), Berlin Classics 0011552BC (CD, 1995/2005); includes consort music by William Lawes and Henry Purcell, including the ''Paven'' in Consort No. 9 on a theme by Cormac MacDermott. * ''Cormacke''; ''Allmane''; ''Mr. Cormake Allman''; ''Schoch.a.torum Cormacke'' – recorded by Andrew Lawrence-King on historical harps: Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 05472 77504 2 (CD, 1999). * ''Sir John Packington's Pavin''; ''Allmane''; ''Mr. Cormake's Pavin''; ''Mr. Cormake's Allman'' – recorded by Siobhán Armstrong (Irish harp) and The Irish Consort: Destino Classics DC 1801 (CD, 2018).

Bibliography

* Seán Donnelly: "An Irish Harper and Composer: Cormac MacDermott (?–1618)", in ''Ceól'' vol. 8 (1986), no. 1&2 (July), pp. 40–50. * Peter Holman: "The Harp in Stuart England", in ''Early Music'' vol. 15 (1987), pp. 188–203. * John Cunningham: "'Irish harpers are excellent, and their solemn music is much liked of strangers': The Irish Harp in Non-Irish Contexts in the Seventeenth Century", in Barra Boydell, Kerry Houston (eds): ''Music, Ireland and the Seventeenth Century'' (= ''Irish Musical Studies'' 10) (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2009), pp. 62–80.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mac Dermott, Cormac Year of birth unknown 1618 deaths 16th-century Irish harpists 17th-century Irish harpists 17th-century Irish classical composers Composers for harp Irish male classical composers MacDermot family Musicians from County Roscommon 16th-century Irish classical composers