Celtic Harp 4: O'carolan's Dream

Track Listings
 
1. Butterfly
2. Morgan Magan
3. Carolan's Dream
4. Carolan's Draught
5. Orange Rouge
6. Mabel Kelly
7. Cremonea
8. Coilsfield House
9. Rory Dall's Sister's Lament
10. Valse Pour Les Petites Jeunes Filles
11. Bridget Cruise
12. Thomas Burke
13. Miss Rowan Davies

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
O'Carolan's Dream is 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 as the Chieftains may 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

Celtic Harp 4: O'carolan's Dream,Patrick Ball,Fortuna Records,Celtic Folk,Celtic New Age,New Age / Meditation,Pop,Solo Instrumental

Celtic Harp 4: O'carolan's Dream

Celtic Harp 4: O'carolan's Dream
Carolan's Harp
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • A delicate fusion of classical and folk timbres
  • Good music...odd recording.
  • Carolan's Harp
 Carolan's Harp
Turlough O'Carolan , Andrew Lawrence-King , and The Harp Consort
Manufacturer: RCA
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Similar Items:
  1. Dunstable: Sweet Harmony - Masses and Motets
  2. Luz y Norte [Germany]
  3. Celtic Harp/O'Carolan's Dream/The Music of O'Carolan
  4. Villa Lobos: The Little Train of the Caipira; Antill: Corroboree; Ginastera: Estancia; Panambi
  5. Hovhaness: Symphony Nos. 22 "City of Light Symphony" & 50 "Mount St. Helens Symphony"

ASIN: B000001TZM
Release Date: 1997-02-11

Tracks:

  1. Carolan's Harp: Try If It Is In Tune
  2. Carolan's Harp: Mr. James Betagh
  3. Carolan's Harp: Jigg To The Above
  4. Carolan's Lamentation: Carolan's Lamentn
  5. Carolan's Receipt For Whiskey: Carolan's Receipt
  6. Carolan's Receipt For Whiskey: Bumper Squire Jones
  7. Carolan's Concerto: Docr. Delaney & Loftus Jones
  8. Carolan's Concerto: Mrs. Costeloe
  9. Carolan's Concerto: Susai Ni Cheallaigh
  10. Carolan's Concerto: Sr Arthur Shean
  11. Carolan's Concerto: Planxty Connor
  12. Carolan's Dream: Carolan's Rambles to Teague (Variations On When She Cam Bem)
  13. Carolan's Dream: Fairy Queen By sigr e Carrollini
  14. Carolan's Dream: Ta Me Mo chodladh
  15. Carolan's Dream: Bridget Cruise
  16. Carolan's Dream
  17. Carolan's Dream: I'm asleep & don't waken me
  18. Carolan's Devotion: Miss MacDermott (The Arethusa)
  19. Carolan's Devotion: Carrollan's Devotion
  20. Carolan's Devotion: Mr. Hugh O'Donnel
  21. Carolan's Farwell To Music: O Flin
  22. Carolan's Farwell To Music: Carolan's Cup
  23. Carolan's Farwell To Music: Carolan's Farewell
  24. Carolan's Farwell To Music: Seperation Of Soul And Body
  25. Carolan's Farwell To Music: Charles MacCabe's Lamentation For His Dear And Beloved Friend, Terence Carolan

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars A delicate fusion of classical and folk timbres.......2006-09-30

Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738), a blind, itinerant harper from Baroque-era Ireland, is noted for his enduring compositions, which combine the best of continental Baroque sensibilities with the traditional music of his native land. In "O'Carolan's Harp," noted early music artist Andrew Lawrence King and his Harp Consort offer a graceful, nuanced interpretation of that fusion of elements. Sparkling metal-strung Irish harps join with violins and viols, citterns and gitterns, flutes, bagpipes and occasional drums to produce a glittering period sound tending towards the pensive or quietly mournful, but periodically erupting into bouyant joy. For this recording, The Harp Consort comprises no less than thirteen musicians, including King on harps, David Douglass on violin, Paul O'Dette on theorbo, cittern and guitar, Pedro Estevan on percussion, Belinda Sykes on shawm and bagpipes, and singers Caitriona O'Leary and Nigel Rogers. Other gentle interpretations of O'Carolan's music include Narada's compilation albums: "Celtic Treasure" I and II. For more early music by Andrew Lawrence King and The Harp Consort, try the ebulliently spicey "Spanish Dances" and "Missa Mexicana," or the modal medieval beauty of "Miracles of Notre-Dame."

3 out of 5 stars Good music...odd recording........2005-03-19

No question that there is some really nice music here, but this is one of the strangest recordings I've heard since the first decade of digital. At most volume levels, the quiet, ethereal music is too soft, esp. the solo harp pieces...then, once you find the optimal volume level for that music, the louder and more rambunctious music comes across uncomfortably loud.

With the resonant acoustic, and the variety of instrumental timbres and combinations involved, this may not have been an easy recording to make, but it seems the dynamic range is still unnaturally wide. If the music itself wasn't so enjoyable, my copy would probably be sitting in a used CD bin, but after a lot of "tweaking" with the volume level, I finally found one--and ONLY one--volume setting at which all of the music comes across reasonably clearly, w/o having to sit right in front of the speakers or listen on headphones; so I made a note of that level and put it in the CD booklet.

If you are a person who has a CD changer, and likes to make programs, you can forget including this one in a "mix:" virtually anything you play with it sounds MUCH too loud by comparison.

In case you're skeptical about my review, I am by no means "fussy" about recording quality. I've collected well over a thousand CD's over twenty years, and I can only recall having a similar complaint about a couple of other recordings.

5 out of 5 stars Carolan's Harp.......2004-04-09

This work is a wonderful tribute to a musical genius form the late 1600's / early 1700's. Some have called Carolan the National Composer of Ireland. The arrangements are suprerb, the recording is bright and warm and the material ( like all great art ), remains fresh and vibrant even today. The music is both unmistakeably irish / continental and baroque. If you are thinking about this work ... stop thinking and get it.
Celtic Harp 4: O'carolan's Dream
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Magnificent harp performances
 Celtic Harp 4: O'carolan's Dream
Patrick Ball
Manufacturer: Fortuna Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Celtic New AgeCeltic New Age | New Age | Styles | Music
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MeditationMeditation | New Age | Styles | Music
Solo InstrumentalSolo Instrumental | New Age | Styles | Music
Celtic FolkCeltic Folk | Traditional British & Celtic Folk | Folk | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Celtic | International | Styles | Music
New AgeNew Age | Celtic | International | Styles | Music
FusionFusion | Celtic | International | Styles | Music
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Similar Items:
  1. Celtic Harp 1: Music of Turlough O'Carolan
  2. Celtic Harp 2: from a Distant Time
  3. Celtic Harp 3: Secret Isles
  4. The Christmas Rose
  5. Celtic Harp: Fair Play

ASIN: B0000007UD
Release Date: 1991-10-16

Tracks:

  1. The Butterfly
  2. Morgan Magan
  3. Carolan's Dream
  4. Carolan's Draught
  5. The Orange Rogue
  6. Mable Kelly
  7. Cremonea
  8. Coilsfield House
  9. Rory Dall's Sister's Lament
  10. La Valse Pour Les Petites Jeunes Filles
  11. Bridget Cruise
  12. Thomas Burke
  13. Miss Rowan Davies

Amazon.com

O'Carolan's Dream is 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 as the Chieftains may 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

Album Description

The lilting, crystalline tone of the Celtic harp must be one of the most joyful sounds in mankind's history. The harp originated a thousand years ago in ancient Ireland; it shone through the age of the bards and brought hope during long years of occupation and oppression. As it is a challenging instrument to play well, nearly two centuries ago the wire-strung Celtic harp was abandoned in favor of the easier to play, more subdued gut-strung neo-Irish harp. Patrick Ball would not let that sweet voice fall silent. He brings to audiences world-wide the ancient Celtic harp that "has always been loved and celebrated by the Irish people for its mystical power to enchant them, to draw them into realms beyond thought, and to refresh their spirit." That is exactly what Patrick Ball accomplishes in these five sparkling recordings. Listeners are enchanted by his performances. They are drawn to the emotional portrait that Patrick paints with each piece, romantic, melancholy or jubilant. Although Patrick is a delightful storyteller with words, these instrumental works tell their own stories, requiring nothing more than Patrick's fingernails deftly plucking the brass strings of his beautifully crafted harp. The harp he plays is a re-creation of the ancient Celtic instrument, lovingly crafted by master harp builder Jay Witcher of Houlton, Maine, who has made it his life's work to allow the sound of the great instrument to live again.

Patrick Ball pays his greatest tribute to the legendary Turlough O'Carolan, a blind, itinerant harper who wandered the Irish countryside at the turn of the eighteenth century, playing for wealthy landowners. O'Carolan was witty, a prolific composer and a genius on the Celtic harp. It is little wonder that Patrick Ball has included O'Carolan's brilliant tunes in each of his first four volumes.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Magnificent harp performances.......1998-05-22

This album and its predecessor show Ball in his prime as a harpist. I tend to prefer the previous one because I think the tunes have more variety; this album is almost entirely Irish material, and, while it's well chosen and balanced, it's a more gently rolling landscape by contrast with his other albums' peaks and valleys. Still, the performances and arrangements are superb, and the album is thoroughly listenable even if you're not a big Irish music fan.

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