(b Craigmore, nr Garvagh, Co. Derry, 1695; d Magilligan, Co. Derry, 1807). Irish traditional harper. Blinded by smallpox at the age of three, he took up music as a career, this being one of the few occupations open to a blind man at that time. He began to study the harp with Bridget O’Cahan when he was 12, and other teachers were John Garragher, Loughlin Fanning and Patrick Connor. At 18 he began his career as an itinerant harper, and spent many years travelling through Ireland and Scotland. He was noted as a fine performer and for his ability to intersperse his playing with stories and humorous anecdotes. While in Edinburgh in 1745, he played and sang for Prince Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender.
When too old for constant travel, he settled in Magilligan, where he spent the rest of his long life. He still travelled on occasion, and went to Belfast to play at the harpers' festival of 1792. By then he had become a musical anachronism: he was the only harper at the festival still using the playing technique that was a unique feature of the traditional Irish harp up to about 1600, before it had entered on its long decline. Hempson still pulled his strings with long, crooked fingernails. He astonished listeners with the agility and delicacy of his playing, and could execute all kinds of grace notes, trills, etc. with ease and clarity. He was particularly noted for his ability to play rapid passages clearly, by damping the sound of one string while playing the next. As well as clinging firmly to traditional techniques he played Irish music almost exclusively, unlike his contemporaries. Extremely conservative in his tastes, he even disliked the music of Turlough Carolan (1670–1738) on the grounds that it was too modern, although in fact he played many pieces by Carolan. He had in his repertory some pieces of harp music such as the Lamentation of John Scott, Tá mé ’mo chodladh (anon.) and Burns March (anon.), quite different from anything else being played at the time. Possibly these pieces date from the harping period before 1600, about which almost nothing is known. From a study of the music played by Hempson, one can gain valuable clues as to the nature of one of the oldest musical traditions in Europe.
E. Bunting: The Ancient Music of Ireland (Dublin, 1840)
G. Sampson: ‘The Life of Denis Hempson’, Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, i (1904), 59–66
G. Yeats: The Harp of Ireland (Belfast, 1992)
GRÁINNE YEATS