Feb 02 2010
Carolan’s Dream - played on celtic harp
Turlough O’Carolan was an irish harpist who lived in the mid-1600s and wrote pieces for the people he met and stayed with - playing music in exchange for hospitality. Tradition has it that the harp was played last thing at night, before people went to bed. The building I’m playing it in was a bakery built around 1790, serving the local houses. The bread oven is in the stone wall behind me, and the building has a new floor and triple-glazing on the windows. It’s a great mixture of old and new and a great place to play this music. Appropriately, I recorded this piece very late one night, and just went with the first take so the playing has the odd rough bits. I like to think that’s authentic - apparently Carolan never played the same way twice. Bet he never had as much trouble as I did finding divx codecs, either! Only the melodies survive, so I’ve done this arrangement myself and I’m playing it here on a Pilgrim gut-strung harp. The arrangement and video is my copyright. You are welcome to learn and play the arrangement (by ear - I haven’t written it down!) if you like it - but please credit me if you play it in public. If you like it, I’ll post more music. To make the recording I used a Sony 3-CCD camera direct to hard disk, with one audio take, noise-reduced in Cool Edit Pro, with Adobe Premiere Pro to edit the visuals together. If you want a higher-quality file to download and keep on your computer, just send me a message. CD NOW AVAILABLE! Just type “Mark Harmer” into Amazon.co.uk search or if you’re in the UK, see here: tinyurl.com If you prefer itunes it’s at itunes.apple.com
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C’est sublime! Quelle mélodie enchanteresse!
Merci.
bellissimo…è come un sogno…
Beautifully done!
that’s beautiful!!!
Hi there, and thanks for dropping by and really nice to read your comments. There are quite a lot of styles of harp - Paraguayan as well as celtic, jazz and all sorts of others and the instruments are different and sound different too. At our pub session there’s a blues harp (harmonica) player and he’s great so I think it’s nice to hear different instruments and styles and I really appreciate your comment.
@OlgaStrannik: Спасибо!
hi i play blues harp (harmonica) and on a search i seen celtic harp i thought i would listen,thats a beatiful instrument to play and you play it so nice,I havent really heard true harp music ,i thank you for enlighting my mind i will be listening to more beatiful music made with the new instrument ive come to enjoy
Just had a quick go on this tune - really nice suggestion of yours. I’ll see if I can fire up the cameras once I get it going - watch this space!
@MarkHarmer It’ll be an honor to hear it Mark! Thank you for keep O’Carolan’s amazing songs (and so forgotten) alive!
Nice suggestion, Ticlano. I’ve just looked it up and had a play through. I’m sure I could do something nice with that tune so I’ll give it a go and post it up here. Thank you!
Amazing Mark!
I’d love to see you playing Cremonea!
Thanks!
The most beautiful song on the harp I’ve ever heard… ♥ You’re playing very well!!!!
Великолепно. Так красиво звучит арфа.
Hi there - yes it is, and thanks for your nice comment!!
Mark
Is this your own arrangement? Very nice.
Very nice!
I like the harp, I just wish there was more resonance and sound glow
SUPERB!!
really nice…I adore the celtic harp!!
added to favourites, great technique and tone of clarity! just great!
Very beautiful, Excellent
Nice listen
beautiful; calming; such beauty is beyond my skill with words; I cannot write poems that are any where near as hauntingly beautiful as the tune you have so skillfully played on this wonderful instrument.
You can get minstrel harps for as low as $999
That was so amazing! Nicest thing I’ve heard in ages! I think your playing is great and I think it’s great that your helping to keep this song alive. Great work!
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