O'Carolan's Concerto: A Song History

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"Carolan's Concerto" is the familiar name of an air by the blind harper Turlough O'Carolan (1670–1738), and the Traditional Tune Archive ranks it as his most famous piece. Its older title is "Mrs. Power": according to the Tune Archive, Carolan made it for Elizabeth Keating, who had married David Power of Coorheen in County Galway, and Grattan Flood claimed it was the composer's own favourite among his works.[1] Donal O'Sullivan gave it the number 154 in his 1958 study Carolan: The Life, Times and Music of an Irish Harper.[1][2]

Eighteenth-century Italian harp with a carved lion's head at the top of the pillar

Harp, Italian, wood, 18th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). An Italian harp of Carolan’s century, shown for the instrument only; it has no connection to the tune.

The "concerto" name tends to travel with a story. In the version retold by Grattan Flood in 1906 and by later writers, the Italian violinist and composer Francesco Geminiani, then in Dublin, sent Carolan a piece of Italian music with faults slipped into it as a test; the harper praised it, pointed out where it went wrong and put it right, and Geminiani hailed his genius. The Tune Archive suggests the anecdote may explain how the title arose, but calls it persistent and of doubtful truth, noting that O'Sullivan examined it critically.[1] The Dictionary of Irish Biography likewise describes any meeting between the two men as much disputed, although Geminiani spent periods in Ireland from the late 1720s and was close to some of Carolan's patrons.[3] Another telling, given on the Ask About Ireland website, makes the tune itself Carolan's reply to a composing challenge from Geminiani.[4] What is not in doubt is the music's Italian accent: Edward Bunting heard in it "evident imitations of Corelli," and the Dictionary calls it the best-known example of Carolan's Italian-influenced writing.[1][3]

The tune first appeared in print as "Mrs. Poer" in John Lee's Dublin collection of 1780, and Bunting later included it in his General Collection of the Ancient Irish Music; the Belfast Northern Star reported it among the airs played at the Belfast Harp Festival of July 1792.[1][3] Francis O'Neill printed it as No. 633 in The Music of Ireland (1903).[1][5] Ask About Ireland credits Seán Ó Riada above all with reviving Carolan's music in the twentieth century and notes that the tune was recorded on the disc Ceol na nUasal; Derek Bell, harper with the Chieftains, described it as a two-part bourrée rather than a true concerto.[4] The Chieftains recorded it on Chieftains 3 and again with James Galway.[1][5] It has also found its way into fiddlers' tune books such as David Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook (1983).[1]

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Sources

  1. Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Carolan's Concerto".
  2. Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Mrs. Power".
  3. Dictionary of Irish Biography (Royal Irish Academy): "Carolan, Turlough (Ó Cearbhalláin, Toirdhealbhach)".
  4. Ask About Ireland: "O'Carolan's Concerto".
  5. Irish Traditional Music Tune Index (Alan Ng): "O'Carolan's Concerto".