Derek Bell, who died suddenly in the US earlier this week aged 66, was responsible for resurrecting the Irish harp as a respected and popular instrument, particularly through his involvement with The Chieftains.
His classical music background contributed to his mastery of a range of instruments including the piano, and his amiable eccentricity added to his popularity.
He was born George Derek Fleetwood Bell in Belfast on October 21st, 1935. His father was a traditional Irish fiddler, and music was an integral part of life from the cradle.
Far from rushing headlong towards what he called the "heavenly" harp, Bell's primary artistic inclinations were directed towards classical music.
He began playing the piano at the age of nine and readily developed a proficiency with the oboe and the cor anglais (English horn).
It wasn't until he reached his 30s that he ventured in the direction of the harp, under the tutelage of Sheila Larchet-Cuthbert, benefiting from the use of an instrument borrowed from the Arts Council.
His mastery of the Irish harp has elevated the instrument to a level of international respectability, revealing its intricacies to a wide audience whose previous exposure to the instrument may have been limited to hackneyed renditions of naïve tunes.
Derek Bell's primary focus in the early decades of his career was most definitely academic, graduating first with honours from the Royal College of Music in London in 1957, and two years later from Trinity College Dublin where a Bachelor of Music degree was conferred on him.
His first foray towards music media came with his appointment as deputy chorus master of the Northern Ireland Radio and TV orchestra, a position he held from 1965 to 1976.
Academia beckoned in 1970 when he took up the position of Professor of Harp and Irish Harp at the Belfast Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He embarked on his solo career in 1975, touring extensively.
St. Patrick's Day 1972 was the date for his official investiture with The Chieftains, an unlikely alliance of diverse musicians who sought to meld traditional music with classical in a way that would ultimately contribute to demystifying both genres for a vast audience.
Paddy Moloney, founder of The Chieftains, has described Derek Bell's contribution as "central to the sound we wanted to achieve with the band".
His classical background and penchant for creating unlikely and magnificent harmonic variations lent an essential final ingredient to the Chieftains sound, which was akin to that of a chamber orchestra that had had their Bartók sheet music surreptitiously replaced by a swathe of traditional tunes.
Bell's fascination and facility with the hammer dulcimer led ultimately to his quest to recreate the tiompán, an ancient traditional Irish instrument, which he managed to have refashioned in Hungary where they know their hammer dulcimers' kith and kin more intimately that most of us do.
The tiompán was no common-or-garden instrument, but its 132 strings exercised Bell's creative energies sufficiently to enable him to create truly innovative arrangements and sounds with The Chieftains.
Ultimately, it was his multi-instrumentalism which was key to extending the range of the group, his cor anglais and oboe occupying as cosy a position in the band's firmament as his beloved harp.
Derek Bell's clearly academic persona didn't prevent him from furnishing much in the way of surreal humour within the band.
As well as his recent professorship at the Belfast Academy of Music, his lengthy litany of awards inclcuded the Manns Prize from the Royal College of Music for woodwind instruments and the six Grammy awards garnered with The Chieftains.
His catholic taste for performance settings included guest appearances with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the symphony orchestras of Pittsburgh, Moscow, London and Budapest, not to mention his principal oboeist, horn and pianist role with the American Wind Symphony Orchestra. Along with this impressive record of excellence Derek Bell never missed an opportunity to revel in life's absurdities.
He blithely christened one of his solo albums Derek Bell Plays With Himself (released on Claddagh Records in 1981), which caused no end of flap in record company head offices. His moniker of Ding Dong Bell, used largely when in the warm belly of The Chieftains beast, gave him pleasure, too.
Solo recordings were another facet of Derek Bell's life which he rarely flagged with the uninitiated, but many of them were on the receiving end of considerable critical plaudits, particularly from classical critics.
His most recent release was a reissue two years ago of his 1975 recording, Carolan's Receipt: The Music of Carolan Vol 1, but his extensive solo discography stretched to original symphonic compositions including A Pastoral Overture and Comte de St Germain, as well as a number of religious music recordings, and arrangements of Bulgarian and Hungarian classical music.
His emotional affinity for Bulgaria and Bulgarian music led to his recording of Classical Compositions there in 1999, during a freezing winter when he worked doggedly with ice gales blowing through the concert hall.
On seeing players working with old and broken instruments (harp strings were repaired using the time-honoured solution of tying knots in them), he arranged on his return home for complete sets of strings to be sent to the harpists with whom he had played.
Subsequently he expended considerable energy working to improve conditions for musicians and children in Bulgaria.
Derek Bell and his San Franscisco-born wife, Stephanie, lived quietly in Bangor with his seven beloved cats.
On receiving his MBE in 2000 for his contribution to traditional Irish and classical music, he got no end of satisfaction out of suggesting to Queen Elizabeth that his feline collection would be favourably disposed to taking a turn around the front lawn with her corgis. Word is that her majesty turned on her heels at the very suggestion of such a liaison.
His last performance with The Chieftains was in Nashville on September 30th when they played a concert, broadcast live on television. to mark the release of their latest album, The Old Plank Road He died suddenly in Phoenix, Arizona, early this week. He is survived by his wife, Stephanie, his mother and two sisters.
Derek Bell, born October 21st, 1935, died October 2002