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O’Carolan’s Concerto

(Composed c. 1720)

When I was young, the standard narrative in terms of Irish music was that Ireland, being so isolated, had no contact with the baroque and classical music spreading across mainland Europe, and instead developed its own indigenous music, which is, of course, borne out by the unique and highly sophisticated traditional folk music of which we’re still rightly proud. However, as always, history is more complicated than that. It amazes me to think that, for example, Turlough O’Carolan, a blind harper, born in 1670 in Nobber, County Meath, was very much aware of and loved the music of Vivaldi and Corelli. Not only that, but in 1733, the great Italian violinist Francesco Geminiani visited Dublin, even opening a Concert Room and teaching studio. It was he who challenged O’Carolan to compose a piece in the style of Vivaldi and O’Carolan’s Concerto is the result. According to Joseph C. Walker, writing in 1789, on hearing the result, Geminiani, “pronounced Carolan to be a true musical genius.” It would seem that the Dublin of the 17th and 18th centuries was no European backwater but an extraordinarily vibrant and cosmopolitan city. I would love to have seen it!