Hi JP, this is a slow reply but that's the speed of my brain these
days... our Man with the Modes is conspicious by his absence so I'll
put in my penny worth..

> Is it correct to say the 'standard' tuning is with F sharp...which
> can be changed to F natural on occassion as needs be?

This is what Bunting observed from the 18th century harpers such as
O'Hampsey, but...

Ann makes an interesting point... and its complicated so hang on...

On a big 18th century harp i.e. the Downhill which goes below your
bass G, the next string down is either F or E - there is one string
for those 2 places. Now when the rest of the harp has F#, that string
goes to E and there is no low F# on the harp... but when the f#s up
the harp are retuned to f natural, that low E comes up to F. Now it
has 2 Gaelic names, when it is E it is called Tead leagtha - The
string fallen, and when it is F it is called Tead leagaidh - Falling
string.

Now Ann says, surely this implies that when these names were created,
the "normal" position was F, "falling", and the "changed" position
would be E, "Fallen". And this then implies that the original
"normal" tuning had F in the bass, and therefore f natural all the
way up, and so was the opposite of Bunting's, i.e. all naturals, f
natural, or (thinking of the harp starting on G and sisters on g), G
mixolydian.

As for B flat, that is a further step away, no reason why the
medieval Irish harps might not have used it... but the way I am
thinking, what people mean really when they say B flat is not so much
the actual pitch, but more the idea of a flattened 7th(if youre
starting on C). Translate that onto a Gaelic harp starting on G and
the flattened 7th is F natural... so maybe that is the same thing
from a different point of view?

How does That sound???

Simon

PS if you have not seen, the Scoil 2006 photos are now up... go to
www.irishharpschool.com and click "photos"