Life
1869-1945; b. London; blind from birth; trained as a musician; awarded
eleven first prizes for pieces submitted to Feis Ceoil competitions in
Dublin, 1897-1908; took down songs of native speakers in Donegal and devised
Braille alphabet for the purpose later adopted by Inst. for the Blind;
adjudicator of choral music; lived in Cork as Master of School of Music,
1919-1923; returned to Belfast, 1923; employed by state in Dublin to continue
his collection, 1932; produced Gems of Irish Melody, though his
textbook on Irish music never appeared; his widow was the recipient of
the Hardebeck Testimonial Fund. DIH FDA DUB
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Criticism
Patrick Morrissey, ‘Dúchas: A Personal Essay’, Éire-Ireland,
4, 2 (Summer 1969), pp. 117-27.
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Notes
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing
(Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 2, p.76, writes: ‘The sentimentalizing
and bowdlerizing process might have continued unchecked, aided by those
who, like AP Graves, sincerely believed they were still involved in a
rescue mission, had not Carl Hardebeck and the Gaelic League arrived on
the scene. Hardebeck recorded words and music together and based his work
on the assumption, shared by the Gaelic League, that Irish was still a
living language, not a historical remnant. He tried to create a notation
that would do justice to the intricacies of traditional singing. This
marked an advance. But it was the arrival of the recording machine ...’;
[Index 96, no reference], in relation to ‘The Coolun’, the version
presented by Hardebeck in Ceatha Ceoíl V (1902) differs
in many ways from earlier 19th c. versions, 98. Bibl. lists Ceatha
Ceoíl, Pts. I-V (Dublin: Connradh na Gaeilge 1902-03).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)