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: http://tinyurl.com/carolan

If you prefer iTunes it's at http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=330079997&...

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Irish
• Clarsach
• Music
• Celtic
• Harp
• O'Carolan
• Carolan

[ttillerman2]

I brought your music to Bali on my Iphone. My Balinese girlfriend loves the music but had never seen a harp, hence I went onto You Tube and she now knows what a harp and harpist looks like!

Most mornings we sit on our porch for a breakfast coffee and your music. It's a great way to start the day in paradise! Thank you Mark.

[MarkHarmer]

@ttillerman2 That's so fab! Your comment made my day - and I will think of Bali (although never been there) next time I play!

Thank you for bringing a smile - I even read your comment out to a few people, I was so pleased to see it.

[piano8myhw]

Did anyone else notice the stuffed parrot in the background?

[MarkHarmer]

@piano8myhw You are the first person to notice it in the 4 years the video has been up! I was wondering when someone would spot it. To be honest, even when I edited the camera shots together, I didn't notice it. I don't have the parrot any more - it's a toy one that rather annoying repeated what you said to it and flapped its wings, which was amusing for the first few minutes. Then I used it to get attention at a stall we ran. After that I disposed of it... but it lives on in this video!

[dp17197]

hi just a query ... are you left handed or is this video mirrored???if so is thet a special harp with the levers on the right??because im lefthanded and i had to learn to use my right hand

[MarkHarmer]

@dp17197 Hi there - definitely not reversed - this is a normal harp and the levers are where they normally are. Some people do play with the harp on the left shoulder, and even play the melody with the left hand, but that's quite rare. I do happen to write with my left hand, but consider myself otherwise right-handed and play it in the normal, right-handed way.

[TheNameIsOZZY]

in school today a girl came in and played the harp and im not big fan of this kind of music but wow you guys are awesome.

[ScottishFiddleLesson]

too fast

[zhevox]

Is it me or it sounded like Stairway to Heaven?

[KeltiKyrie]

@MarkHarmer Why is it rare for people to play the melody in the left hand? Is it because it's harder? I know some people have difficulty switching hand position on the flute (right on top instead of left on top). Is it similar on harp? I'm asking because I can switch melodies on harp to either hand with ease & can play flute both right- and left-handed. I know it's weird with flute, but I never knew it was strange with harp as well.

[KeltiKyrie]

@MarkHarmer Holy smokes! There is a parrot there! I've watched this video so many times I've lost count & I have truly never noticed the parrot. How ironic.

[creamcoloredtree]

what would the white mans world be without black people and if you want more aggression listen to metal

[hammersmom]

Back again. :)

[veronica2706]

beautiful