O'Carolan's Draught: A Song History
"O'Carolan's Draught," also known as "Carolan's Draught" and in Irish as "Bolgam Chearbhalláin," is credited to the blind harper Turlough O'Carolan (1670–1738).[1][2] In George Petrie's Music of Ireland, which the Traditional Tune Archive dates to 1882, Petrie said he took the air from an old manuscript music book sent to him by Father Walsh, parish priest of Sneem in County Kerry, and he knew a second setting from the collection of the Cork piper Patrick Carew.[1] Petrie remarked that the air appeared to be known only in Munster, and he considered its style and melodic flow proof enough that it was Carolan's work.[1] Donal O'Sullivan gave it number 186 in his 1958 study of the harper and noted that Father Walsh was the model for the priest in A. P. Graves's song "Father O'Flynn."[1]
Robert Charles Dudley, Foilhummerum Bay, Valentia, Looking from Cromwell Fort: The Caroline and Boats Laying the Earth Wire, July 21st, 1865, watercolor over graphite with touches of gouache, 1865–66. The County Kerry coast, shown because Petrie's copy of the air came from Kerry; the scene has no connection to the tune.
The Traditional Tune Archive classes it as an air or planxty in 4/4 time, usually in G major, and points out that its first two bars match the English country dance "Justice Balance," printed in a Thompson collection of 1780.[1] The index irishtune.info likewise files it in G major, under the type "piece."[2] De Danann recorded it on Selected Jigs, Reels and Songs, an album the sources consulted here date differently, to about 1976 or to 1978, and later versions include Máire Ní Chathasaigh and Chris Newman's The Carolan Albums, Abby Newton's Crossing to Scotland (1997), and a reading by Joe Burke, Brian Conway and Felix Dolan on A Tribute to Andy McGann.[1][2] For mountain dulcimer, it is among the DAD-tuning arrangements in Carolan: Traditional Irish Harp Tunes For The Mountain Dulcimer, a 37-page tablature book in which national champion Linda Brockinton adapts O'Carolan's harp music for the instrument.[3]
Sources
- The Traditional Tune Archive: "Carolan's Draught".
- irishtune.info: "O'Carolan's Draught".
- Linda Brockinton: "Carolan: Traditional Irish Harp Tunes For The Mountain Dulcimer".
- Image: Robert Charles Dudley, Foilhummerum Bay, Valentia, Looking from Cromwell Fort: The Caroline and Boats Laying the Earth Wire, July 21st, 1865, watercolor over graphite with touches of gouache, 1865–66. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.