The enormous popularity of Irish Celtic harper, composer and vocalist Turlough O Carolan, 1670–25 March 1738, might be attributed to his talent for melodious creation. Despite not being a composer in the traditional sense, many people regard Carolan as national composer of Ireland. Even in 1792, traditional Irish harpers were still in existence and participated in the Belfast Harp Festival. While some of the original compositions of Carolan exhibit influences from the manner of continental classical music, others, like Farewell to Music by him, do so in the context of a far older kind of Gaelic Harping. In Nobber, County Meath, where his father was a blacksmith, Carolan was born in 1670. Carolan travelled the length of Ireland for nearly fifty years while creating and playing his music. He wrote a song about Brigid Cruise, with whom he was fascinated, in one of his earlier works. The schoolmaster at the blind school which Carolan attended in Cruisetown, Ireland, had a teenage daughter named Brigid. Carolan wed Mary Maguire in 1720. He had just turned 50 at the time. When they first moved in together as a family, they lived in a cottage on a piece of property close to the town of Manachain in County Leitrim. Six daughters and one son were among their seven offspring. Mary passed away in 1733. Carolan created harp instrumental pieces as well as songs that reflected diverse compositional idioms. About one-third of the remaining music of Carolan that are still in existence are related with Irish lyrics. The majority of the current musicians, who have mostly adapted the repertoire of Carolan to the currently fashionable Irish fare of jigs and reels, are unaware of these lyrics. In Ireland at the time of Carolan, modern Irish was widely spoken. Only a small portion of career-activities of Carolan have been historically recorded. Due to this, even among Irish musicians, there is a dearth of authentic data about Carolan and his music. As he travelled from place to place, Carolan is supposed to have usually composed the music first before adding the words. Carolan was frequently invited as an invited guest to live in the estates of affluent hosts in exchange for writing songs in their honour. There are tales that weddings and funerals were postponed occasionally till his arrival. The majority of the compositions of were never even recorded during his lifetime, let alone published. Fiddlers, pipers and the final remaining Irish harper or singers kept them alive In their performance. Beginning primarily with the efforts of Edward Bunting and his associates in 1792, they were compiled and published throughout the late 18th century and later. [Information and Image Credit : Turlough_O_Carolan, Wkipedia] [images : 1. Sydney, Lady Morgan presented the memorial for Carolan to St. Patrick Cathedral ; 2. Portrait of Turlough Carolan ] [Images Availed Under 1. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported ; Author :- Boomur; 2. The Work (Image) is Public Domain in its Country of Origin and Other Countries and Areas where the Copyright Term is the Life of Author plus 70 years or fewer. The Image is in Public Domain in United States as well] [License-Link:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en ]
[Original Source Image URL : 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Turlough_Carolan_memorial_-_Dublin,_Ireland.jpg
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maurice_O%27Connor.jpg ]
Poetic Vibes
