Carolan

Turlough O'Carolan, or Toirdhealbhach Ó Cearbhalláin, (1670 – 25 March 1738) was the last in a long line of Irish harper-composers. He is generally considered to be the greatest of Irish composers. Since his revival in 1970's, his influence on traditional Irish music has been unparalleled, with innumerable interpretations of his work, from Seán Ó Riada to The Chieftains and Planxty.

Blinded by smallpox at the age of 18, Carolan received instruction in the harp, under the patronage of the MacDermott Roe family for three years. Having been provided with a harp, a horse and a guide, he then set out for a life as an itinerant harper. Some 220 compositions are attributed to Carolan – a significant haul given that only 30 or so tunes known to have been composed by Irish harpers before Carolan have survived, mainly due to the fact that bardic tradition was an oral one.

Carolan's compositions reflect an influence of Italian Baroque music, which was becoming increasingly popular among the Irish gentry at the time. His blindness, however, would have prevented him from studying musical form, and the old Irish harp, being diatonic, could not change key. The Italians were writing pieces of some length in which changes of key and contrapuntal devices could be used. If an Italian influence is discernible in Carolan's music, it has to do with the rhythm and shape of the melodies. We know very little about how Carolan played his own music on his simple diatonic harp, but we can easily realise that he had a vast knowledge of the seventeenth century Italian composers, his own traditional music and the old, now forgotten medieval harp music of an earlier age – as is evident in the rich blend of folk and classical styles. Like much of our folk music existing in collections, Carolan's tunes were printed as unaccompanied single lines of music. Bizarrely, some ultra-purists actually believe that that is the only way his music should ever be played. For these people, harmony is a vexed question, but it is clear to anyone who understands the nature of the harp that its very soul is harmony, the harmony of freely resonating strings.

In his day, Carolan's popularity as a bard was unprecedented, receiving patronage of both planter and papist as the titles of his many planxties (tributes) bear testament to, e.g. Planxty Irwin, Planxty George Brabazon, Hewlett, Lord Inchiquin, Fanny Power, and so forth.

His music survived in the folklore tradition by fiddlers and pipers, as the Irish harp had died out by the early ninteeth century. Neale's A Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes ... in Dublin, c.1726 was the first publication of Carolan material, but it was not until 1958 that his entire repertoire was collected in one edition by Donal O'Sullivan, and even then few lyrics were given and some of the tunes were edited to make them fit the treble register. His music remained virtually unknown until the late Derek Bell brought it to a wider audience with a radio performance in 1972. Bell initially recorded with the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra and The Chieftains (who he was to later join as a full member), but his most notable interpretations were solo recordings.

In his lifetime, Carolan's popularity as a bard was unprecedented, receiving patronage of both planter and papist as the titles of his many planxties (tributes) bear testament to, e.g. Planxty Irwin, Planxty George Brabazon, Hewlett, Lord Inchiquin, Fanny Power etc. Considered by many to be Ireland's national composer, he even featured on the Irish £50 bank note from 1972 to 1993. Unfortunately, youtube does not reflect this popularity as I could not find any solo recordings of Derek Bell which I only own on L.P. One of the harps that Bell uses on his solo recordings is a old Irish harp (as oppose to the neo-Irish harp) – a wire-strung harp of thirty-six strings resembling the O'Ffogerty harp of 1650 . The sound of the old Irish harps differs strikingly with the neo-Irish harp; its tonal quality is perhaps very distantly related to that of the harpsichord, but with a haunting bell-like quality that is all its own.

Here is a performance of Planxty George Brabazon featuring Derek Bell with accompaniment by The Chieftains:

Recommended recordings available on the Claddagh Records label:

Carolan's Receipt - Derek Bell (harp)
Carolan's Favourite - Derek Bell (harp)
Ó Riada's Farewell - Seán Ó Riada (harpsichord)