O'Carolan tunes

[bdh]

Carolan's Welcome.

[flanum]

sir festus burke and planxty fanny power do it for me.

[chas]

Not to bring up a touchy subject, but playing a soprano recorder is useful for O'Carolan since it can play in all of the requisite keys. Also, since he lived from 1670 to 1738, O'Carolan was actually a Baroque composer. J.S. Bach, for example, lived from 1685 to 1750. This also means that the recorder is actually MORE appropriate for O'Carolan music than the whistle. If the Clarke is the first pennywhistle (not sure about that) and was invented in 1843, this means that O'Carolan never even heard a whistle, while it's highly likely that he was very familiar with the very popular Baroque recorder.

I play his stuff on the traverso at A415. The flat pitch just does something, and, as you say, not transposing the tunes into D or G does a lot for them.

Another favorite of mine is The Princess Royal/Mrs Maxwell, a lovely A minor tune that taught me (before taking up traverso) to half-hole the Fnatural. Also eminently playable in B minor if one doesn't mind hitting a third-octave D.

Edited to add: Chris Norman and Ken Kolodner do a wonderful set on their first album, with "Squire Wood's lamentation on the refusal of his halfpence" and Constantine Maguire.

That album's a great piece of work -- I think it's the first recording each of them made, and the opening set, which starts with a slow version of Woman of the House, just may be the most beautiful fluting Chris has ever done.

[cloyd]

A cd of "Celtice Treasue" of Carolan tunes was what got me interested in the whistle. I was using the reccorder, and though I may be a heretic, I may play it again from time to time, but the whistle is just more fun.

There are problems with the whistle and Carolan's music. One of them is solved if you get some music software like Fanale (Notepad is available for free to tempt you into buying a more full featured product, and it may do all the whistler wants to do. I bought Fanale Print Music because it allowed me to key in guitar chords that change when the score is transposed, and to key in lyrics). As someone said, often the music that is available is not in a whistle friendly key. Key the music in, and change the key. Keying it in takes a little time, but the finished results are worth it.

Frequently, I find a song I really like, but no matter what the key, it just won't fit the whistle's range. I find myself changing octaves with certain passages. A purist may scream, but it often works.

The most serious change I have made on a Carolan tune is on Carolan's Farewell to Music. I usually find this in G (using G and Am chords) and withing the range of the whistle. It is within the range, but the high c naural just doesn't sound good to me, and it is essential to this song. I chage the key, down to D, (D and Em chords) and then have to change a few of the octaves. Part of the charm of this peice is drastic switches in octaves, and some of these stay the same, and some are modified.

The change that some would really criticize is the initail note. It should be a "B" below the lowest "d". I could hit the higher "b" in the first octave, but it just doesn't sound good. It is a brief introductroy note, and I change it to the lowest d.

I have done similar things with Mrs. Judge, and James Betgah Part One. But even Elenanor Plunkett reguires a few octave changes to play it in D. But it still sounds good.

I often wonder how much changing is considered proper to still stay faithful to Carolan's original music. At the same time, I have found several peices where the same peice has different treatment from differnt sources. I learned Lord Inchiquin one way, and find serveral measures completely different when I get a score from a different web site.

The great thing about Carolan is that you can find just about all of his works on a web site somewhere for free. Adapting it to the whistel can cost you some work.

[pipersgrip]

A cd of "Celtice Treasue" of Carolan tunes was what got me interested in the whistle. I was using the reccorder, and though I may be a heretic, I may play it again from time to time, but the whistle is just more fun.

There are problems with the whistle and Carolan's music. One of them is solved if you get some music software like Fanale (Notepad is available for free to tempt you into buying a more full featured product, and it may do all the whistler wants to do. I bought Fanale Print Music because it allowed me to key in guitar chords that change when the score is transposed, and to key in lyrics). As someone said, often the music that is available is not in a whistle friendly key. Key the music in, and change the key. Keying it in takes a little time, but the finished results are worth it.

Frequently, I find a song I really like, but no matter what the key, it just won't fit the whistle's range. I find myself changing octaves with certain passages. A purist may scream, but it often works.

The most serious change I have made on a Carolan tune is on Carolan's Farewell to Music. I usually find this in G (using G and Am chords) and withing the range of the whistle. It is within the range, but the high c naural just doesn't sound good to me, and it is essential to this song. I chage the key, down to D, (D and Em chords) and then have to change a few of the octaves. Part of the charm of this peice is drastic switches in octaves, and some of these stay the same, and some are modified.

The change that some would really criticize is the initail note. It should be a "B" below the lowest "d". I could hit the higher "b" in the first octave, but it just doesn't sound good. It is a brief introductroy note, and I change it to the lowest d.

I have done similar things with Mrs. Judge, and James Betgah Part One. But even Elenanor Plunkett reguires a few octave changes to play it in D. But it still sounds good.

I often wonder how much changing is considered proper to still stay faithful to Carolan's original music. At the same time, I have found several peices where the same peice has different treatment from differnt sources. I learned Lord Inchiquin one way, and find serveral measures completely different when I get a score from a different web site.

The great thing about Carolan is that you can find just about all of his works on a web site somewhere for free. Adapting it to the whistel can cost you some work.

i love that cd, do you know the version of Mrs.Judge on it? i am looking for that version for music to learn.

[HDSarah]

i just learned Carolan's Dream, and trying to learn a few more.

I love Carolan's melodies, too. Several years ago, I vowed to learn a new Carolan tune every week. Of course I didn't keep it up, but at one time I knew about 30 of them. Unfortunately, I've let them slip from my memory as my focus changed to playing with other people, and the others didn't know many Carolan tunes. I want to resurrect those tunes now.

However, Carolan did NOT compose the tune that is now known as ''Carolan's Dream.'' To quote the Carolan ''bible,'' p.289*:
''Though Hardiman (p.1vi) includes 'Carolan's Dream' in his list of that composer's tunes, it is quite certain that it did not originate with him -- thought it is known to have been a favourite of his and he may have modified it to some extent. Bunting states, on the authority of the old harpers, that is was composed by William Connellan, some details of whom are given at p.20 of Part One. Bunting adds that Carolan was 'heard to say that he would rather have been the author of ''Molly MacAlpin'' [the original name of the tune] than of any melody he himself had ever composed'. ''

So, if we love this tune, we're in good company -- even Carolan himself dreamed of it being his own.

I highly recommend the Donal O'Sullivan book for any serious fan of Carolan. It is the most authentic source you'll find. It's a bit pricey, but well worth it. Yes, you can get the tunes for free on the web, but the book has tune-by-tune notes on all the known history about them and the people for which they were written and named. It can be quite interesting, as is the one quoted above. There are also text sections which give historical background about Carolan's life and times. However, the tunes are often transcribed in odd keys (there are FLATS in some ). Even when the key in the book isn't very strange, I sometimes found, after learning it, that other people played it but in a different key. So, beware, and if you know someone else does play a particular tune and you want to play it with them, find out the key. (Or just have a full sack of whistles in every key, which will transpose for you!)

As for favorite Carolan tunes on whistle (I admit, I learned most of mine on hammered dulcimer, which is my main instrument), I love Blind Mary (Maire Dhall).

*Carolan: The Life Times and Music of an Irish Harper, by Donal O'Sullivan. 2001 (new edition), Ossian Publications, P.O. Box 84, Cork Ireland. ISBN 1 900428 71 7 (paperback), ISBN 1 900428 76 8 (hardback).

[pipersgrip]

thank you for letting me know that sarah, i had no idea that it wasnt his song. i will definitly look up that book.

[cloyd]

The Whistle Collector wrote

love that cd, do you know the version of Mrs.Judge on it? i am looking for that version for music to learn.

I don't know where I got it . . . the version sounds quite a bit like the one one the cd, but then, I'm playing the whistle, and on the cd, it is a piano. At the end, it switches to 3/4 from 4/4. Gosh, I wish I knew how to post graphics on this site . . . I'd scan what I'd done and the arrangement I started with. I got my arrangement off some site as a graphic, but don't remember where; it is in good quality. I just did a google search, and can't find it. But I do have it on my hard drive. I realize that copyrights are a real concern, but with something like Carolan, it usually isn't an issue.

Some people do post graplhics. Any help on this?

[TonyHiggins]

Tabhair Dom Do Lamh was composed by Ruairi Dall O'Cathain, c. 1570-c.1650. O'Carolan and he apparently knew and hated each other. He would have been a bit older than O'Carolan.

I've heard various renditions of these tunes on different cd's. Some of them are radically different from each other. Patrick Ball, a harpist plays Farewell to Music riproaring fast. Jerry O'Sullivan plays it on a C whistle and it's a heart-wrenching rendition (with harp in the background).

I've tried some of the tunes from printed or on-line written sources and found them lacking compared to some recorded versions. Look around; they're out there. Aine Minogue does some really nice ones as well as other slow airs.

My favorites are
Farewell to Music
Mr O'Connor
Bumper Squire Jones
Planxty Burke

Tony

[pipersgrip]

i love playing Farewell to Music slowly, i think it is meant to be a sad song. i am trying to play it faster like the sheet music says also because i like both versions.

[cloyd]

Whistle Collector was looking for Mrs. Judge score. The score on this site is at least a close variation of what is on the cd.

http://www.oldmusicproject.com/occ/tunes.html

It is in the same key as the one I had to start with, but some of the notes are changed (some are only some pick up notes that are different) and some of the octaves are not the same . . . maybe switching octaves is pretty common. The biggest difference I saw was dotted 1/8 notes followed by 1/16's. What I started with was all 1/8's. There is a sheet one and sheet two. Get both.

Hope it helps.

[Whitmores75087]

I love Carolan's Receipt for Drinking.

[pipersgrip]

Whistle Collector was looking for Mrs. Judge score. The score on this site is at least a close variation of what is on the cd.

http://www.oldmusicproject.com/occ/tunes.html

It is in the same key as the one I had to start with, but some of the notes are changed (some are only some pick up notes that are different) and some of the octaves are not the same . . . maybe switching octaves is pretty common. The biggest difference I saw was dotted 1/8 notes followed by 1/16's. What I started with was all 1/8's. There is a sheet one and sheet two. Get both.

Hope it helps.

oh yes, i love this site. this is where i get most of my tunes from.