Turlough O'Carolan
Turlough O'Carolan (1670–1738) was a blind Irish harper, composer and singer whose lasting fame rests on his gift for melody. Though not a classical composer in the later sense, he is often called Ireland’s national composer.
Blinded by smallpox in his teens, he was trained as a harper and spent nearly fifty years travelling Ireland, writing songs and instrumental airs for patrons. Many pieces are planxties—tributes to hosts—and about a third of the surviving music still carries Irish lyrics.
His style ranges from older Gaelic harping to airs touched by continental fashion. Tunes such as Carolan’s Concerto, Farewell to Music, Blind Mary and Sheebeg and Sheemore remain widely played. Most of the music was not written down in his lifetime; it survived with fiddlers, pipers and the last traditional harpers, and was collected from the late eighteenth century onward.
Compositions by Turlough O'Carolan appear on
Sit Down Beside Me
In its inimitable style, Pastance again brings together music from the folk traditions and the early music world.
A Valley Fair
Pastance's then most recent offering is a delightful collection of traditional, original and early music for Celtic harp, recorders and voices.