Turlough O'Carolan
Ireland's National Composer

by Linda Brockinton

The thing I like best about the mountain dulcimer is the ability to play many different styles of music. Traditional to classical, there is surely something for everyone. Sounds of many instruments can be heard within the dulcimer from the drones of the bagpipes to the sweet, clear bell sounds of a harp. It is the sweet bell sounds that lead me to my interest in harp music on the dulcimer and finally to Carolan himself.

Many of us know him as O'Carolan, which is simply the way the Irish refer to sir names. If you were a Carolan you were of the Carolan family or O'Carolan. Carolan was born in 1670, the son of an itinerant farmer. His family worked on the McDermott Roe estate where Mrs. Roe educated Turlough and all the children of the people working for the Roe family. However, at the age of 18, Carolan came down with smallpox, which left him blind. So Mrs. Roe had him trained to play the harp, which lots of the blind did in those days, as there was not much work for them. At the age of 21 Mrs. McDermott Roe provided him with a harp, a horse and a helper to guide him. They remained close friends throughout his lifetime and it was there that he returned at the end of his life to die.

The Irish harp in many ways is like the dulcimer. Unlike the English harps, which were strung with gut or hair stings, the Irish harp was strung with brass wire. This gave the instrument a very distinctive sound, clear and bell like. It was usually picked with the nails. The lap harps are set up in a simple scale form, as is the dulcimer. So by fingerpicking you can get the same light, sweet sound as what you get from the harp.

Carolan spent his life traveling the Irish countryside and entertaining folks with his music. His first patron was a fellow harpist. After playing for him, he was told that he wasn't very good at all and that he should try his hand at composing. Carolan had always been a writer of poems and prose so this seemed to come natural to him. While his patron was out, he wrote his first tune, based on an Old Irish tale of a war between two fairy mounds. There are markers today in Ireland marking this famous battle. Supposedly the big fairy king was killed and buried on the little fairy mound and the little fairy king on the big one. Thus his first tune was born, Shebeg Shemore, big fairy mound, little fairy mound. For the next 50 years he traveled, writing tunes for patrons while in route to the next town.

Carolan was greatly inspired by the folk melodies of Ireland and the traditional harp style of playing. However, he was most influenced by the Italian composers. According to his friend and patron Charles O'Conor "Vivaldi charmed him and with Corelli he was enraptured". Although he could neither read nor write music he had an exceptionally good ear. Around 200 of his songs have survived with 70 sets of words. It is interesting that only his melody lines have survived, so it is up to the performer to choose the chords and tempos that he might have used. One book of his original music exists in a Dublin museum. Many of his tunes are in the folk melody and traditional style, but he preferred the Baroque style for most of his music.

When playing the harp, the arrangements work predominantly around the thirds and the fifths. The accompaniment hand will usually play octaves, thirds and fifths. Carolan's work has lots of this as well as melodies echoed from the melody string onto the bass string. With the dulcimer tuned to DAD, you have the first, fifth and octave which lends itself well to all of Carolan's tunes. He tends to use the whole scale, I use the various chord shapes to play across the stings for speed. With the metal strings, the sweet sounds of the dulcimer have the distinct bell like quality that the Irish harps of Carolan's day had.

Carolan was a real character as well as a great musician. His music really seems to reflect his character, which is one of the things I really love about it. If you take the time to research the stories of his songs, you can feel his emotions as you play his music. Every song someone writes is a piece of his or her soul and Carolan was certainly no exception. He wrote love songs, wedding songs, drinking songs, sad songs, just whatever was going on in the town he was traveling to or from. He was sort of the singing newsman, his songs were of real life and real feelings. He was said to be cheerful and gregarious, enjoyed ludicrous practical jokes, loved backgammon and like many harpers, he drank a great deal and often had a bad temper.

After traveling Ireland for over 50 years Carolan became ill. He had his driver take him back to the McDermott Roe estate. On the way "home" he wrote his final piece of music, O'Carolans Farewell which is one of the saddest tunes I've ever heard. Even near the end of his life he could still translate his emotions through his music. After arriving there he slept for awhile, had the butler bring him a drink and he played his final piece. Several days later he died. His friends came from near and far to celebrate his life at a weeklong wake. This wake would have surely made O'Carolan happy, as there was food, drink, merriment and music in his honor.

By the end of the 18th century, Carolan's music had all but disappeared, except for the rare printed collections or manuscripts. The oral tradition of the harp and harpers in general began to decline. But people like Sean O'Riada and Donal O'Sullivan began to change this. Several books of traditional Irish music were published and now people everywhere are playing these wonderful traditional Irish tunes. And now, centuries later, Carolan is acclaimed as Ireland's National Composer and he lives on through his music.

"Sheebeg Sheemore" Tablature Explanation from Linda Brockinton:

I play chord-melody style and have included a chord shape sheet to help you learn your chords and the shapes to look for. The key to the chord-melody style of playing is to look for the chord being used most in the measure. Every measure of music is made up of a chord. When fingerpicking you simply play the notes of the chord separately instead of strumming all the notes at the same time.

Most of the melody will be on the melody string with occasional notes on the middle string. The rest of the notes are just counting the time with individual notes or arpeggios instead of strumming. Lets look at the first 3 measures. In the first measure the chord you are working with is the 2-0-0 or D chord. The 1 in the first full measure is just a quick note moving into this chord. In the second measure we are working with the 0-1-2 or Bm chord. The second 2 is simply marking time and reinforcing the note. In the 3rd measure we have a reverse G chord 0-1-3. Put down the 1 and the 3 and hold it. Just pick the right strings and you have everything you need and then back to the D chord. Put your finger on the 2 and hold it while you play the others. The key to smooth fingerpicking is really simple. Just hold down every number until something else takes its place. This is like holding down the foot pedal on a piano. Choppy playing comes from lifting the fingers after each note is played. The A part is repeated and then right into the B part. The only thing unusual here is the trills in measures 31, and 47. You simply hold down the 1-0-1 A chord and quickly hit the second fret 2 or 3 times. I use my thumb here to keep from releasing the A chord. The birdseye at the top means that you can take as much time as you need for the trill and then continue. Repeat part B and continue on, this is the part that I use at the end for an ending and we will call it Part C. In here there are several harmonics. The 7's are natural but there is one 8 that is a fretted harmonic. On this one you hold down the chord which is 0-1-3, then go to the 8th fret on the middle string (measure 80) touch the string with your pointer and stick your thumb behind your pointer and flick the string. These fretted harmonics can be done anywhere by just holding a chord down and plucking the strings an octave higher.

The zigzag lines at the end are simply a brush across the strings, where you try to get an individual sound out of each string versus hitting all the strings at the same time. For brushes I use the flat part of my pointer finger and more or less rub the strings pulling them towards me and letting them go. So the extra markings we have are H for hammer on, P for pull off, Sl for slide, trills and the diamonds for harmonics. For any further help you may contact me at lindabrockinton@sbcglobal.net.

Listen to Linda play "Sheebeg Sheemore."

About the Author

Linda Brockinton started playing flute at the age of 11. She went on to major in flute performance in college and was a member of the Arkansas Symphony for a short while. She has been playing the Mountain Dulcimer for 17 years and won the Southern Regional in 1999 and National Mt. Dulcimer Competition in 2001. She now teaches dulcimer at festivals across the country as well as private dulcimer and flute lessons at her home studio. Linda is very interested in music therapy and the soft soothing side of the dulcimer. She has published 5 books and 7 CD's, but her favorite is her new book and CD Turlough O'Carolan, Ireland's National Composer. Linda can be contacted through her website, http://www.LindaBrockinton.com.

Article Sources:
The Rediscovery of Carolan by Grainne Yeats on
www.harpspectrum.org
The Complete Works of O'Carolan
www.comtemplator.com
www.irishpage.com
O'Sullivan's 2001 edition of Bunting's 1796-1840

Linda's Books for Mountain Dulcimer:
Traditional Irish Harp Tunes for the Mountain Dulcimer
Hymns from the Heart
A Celtic Collection
A Song in My Heart
A Christmas Book of Poetry & Mountain Dulcimer Tablature Arrangements
Understanding the Harmonious Dulcimer

Linda's CDs:
"Songs of Ireland's National Composer" (Carolan)
"In the Stillness"
"An Old Fashion Christmas"
"Kindred Spirits"
"My Daily Prayer"
"Celtic Spirits"
"Quiet Reflections"