Triple Harp And Friends — The Music of Turlough O’Carolan: Ancient Irish Airs Meet the Italian Baroque

The blind Irish harper Turlough O’Carolan (1670–1738) lived and worked during one of the most turbulent periods in Ireland’s history. Blinded by smallpox at eighteen, he seemed destined for a blacksmith’s life—until the patronage of Mary MacDermott Roe made it possible for him to study the harp. Within a few years he had become one of the most celebrated musicians in Ireland.

While the twentieth century often placed O’Carolan’s music in the category of “folk,” Triple Harp & Friends reunites his compositions with the historical performance practices of his own era. Bringing together leading specialists in Baroque style, this program illuminates the elegance, wit, and expressive depth of O’Carolan’s music as he might have heard it—alive with the colors of the gut-strung bowed strings of the bass viol and baroque violin, the nuanced, sweet tone of the traverso, and, at its heart, the luminous sonorities of the historical harps.

We like to think that O’Carolan himself would be delighted. We hope you will be too.