Celtic Harp, Vol. 4: O'Carolan's Dream
O'Carolan's Dreamis Patrick Ball's fourth collection of tunes composed by the 18th-century Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan. As on the previous volumes, Ball plays these lovely melodies on the wire strung, an instrument that fell into disuse in the late 18th century and was revived in the middle of the 20th century. The wire-strung harp is louder and has longer sustain than modern gut-strung harps. But because he believed that O'Carolan's music should be played on the same sort of instrument on which it was composed, Ball became one of the first musicians to master it in almost 200 years. This is not just an exercise in early-music correctness. The bell-like tone of the brass strings gives the slower tunes a haunting resonance and the quicker tunes an invigorating clangor that modern harps just can't match. Bands such asthe Chieftainsmay have been among the first to revive the melodies of Turlough O'Carolan, but Patrick Ball has shown us how the music would have sounded when it was originally composed.--Michael Simmons