Loftus Jones & Hugh O'Donnell                                 #baroquemusic, #irishmusic, #violin
Channel: Greg Forbes
Date: 2021-06-08

Loftus Jones  4/4 Allegretto,  A major,   O'Sullivan 64
2:00- 4:30  Hugh O'Donnell (Jig),  Vivace,   A major,  O'Sullivan 127

Violin: Greg Forbes
Harp: Katherine O'Brien
Produced by Patricia Beauchesne 

The whole album is available as a playlist at 
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeLcw_5dGvs-lrQc9z6jkpYjQPMbfMHcs

Carolan's music is a unique blend of the old Gaelic tunes and the popular European Baroque music of his time, a period in which the harpsichord, Baroque flute, and violin were ascendant.  The metal strings of Carolan's diatonic harp rang in the Big Houses of both the old Irish and of the Anglo landed. Most of his compositions are dedicated to these patrons. 

Most of the over two hundred songs and instrumentals that have come down to us were collected in the next century, many via arrangements for the later Egan Harp, pianoforte, violin and flute.  These tunes have been culled from the various collections and manuscripts by Donal O'Sullivan and published in his scholarly masterpiece entitled  Carolan: The Life And Times of an Irish Harpist first published in 1972.  

Carolan composed for solo harp, but the music that was published in his lifetime were largly set for violin and flute players.  In one publication he is designated as  Signor Carolini.  Carolan  was, no doubt,  acquainted with compositions of Corelli and Vivaldi – and thanks to Jonathan Swift, Carolan is said to have interacted with Geminiani.  For all of that, Carolan's distinctive old Irish style pervades, along with his genius for melody and graceful gesture. 

Contemporary harpists have been instrumental in re-adapting Carolan's music.  Some of O'Sullivan's sources are now available online in scanned facsimile at the IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project) or from the Irish Traditional Music Archive. The settings for Baroque flute and violin in this recording start from O'Sullivan's collection. 

Carolan played and composed for diatonic harp -- tuned to what key or keys we do not know.  He used 4 modes: for a harp tuned to a D scale these modes would be D (Ionian), Em (Dorian), A (Mixolydian) and Bm (Aeolian). The accidentals found in O'Sullivan's collection are the substitutions of later musicians who played chromatic instruments.  The pieces usually sound fine with or without.  Here the tunes are organized into Sets, or Suites, in modes based on the same scale: thus, the harp requires no re-tuning between pieces. The choice of keys largely follows O'Sullivan, with some transposed into modes more suitable for Baroque flute in D and F.

And as James Joyce dreamt in Finnigans Wake: "Poof! There's puff for ye, and planxty of it."