w19325
| Title | O' Carolan in Love |
| Contributors |
Derek Ball (composer) Turlough O'Carolan (author) |
| Composition date | 2010 2010/2011 |
| Duration (mins) | 11 |
| Category | chamber quintet string |
| Instrumentation | 2 Vn, Va, Vc, Db |
| Commissioned by | |
| Key signature | |
| First line | |
| First performed | 05 06 2011 Donegal Camerata Conwal Parish Church, Letterkenny |
| Notes | A setting of Carolan's 4 Bridget Cruise tunes with some interspersed planxties. This is a second version of a piece originally written for and dedicated to Orsolya Szabo, Victor Yelamo, and the Donegal Chamber Orchestra. |
| Programme Note | This piece was an arrangement for string orchestra of 6 Carolan tunes, subsequently re-cast for string quintet. I wrote it in honour of my first meeting with Orsi Szabo and Victor Yelamo, the artistic driving forces behind the Donegal Chamber Orchestra. All 4 of the slow airs Carolan wrote for Bridget Cruise are there, and in between them for contrast I have put some more lively tunes, specifically Richard Cusack, Planxty Burke, and a varied repeat of Richard Cusack. Bridget Cruise was one of the great loves of Turlough O'Carolan's life and the story is heartbreaking. As a young man, before he lost his sight (the misfortune which launched him on his career as an itinerant harper), he met and fell in love with Bridget. But the fact that her family ranked higher in the social order was an impassable obstacle, and some sources state that, realising the impossibility of his love, Turlough never declared it to Bridget. The fact of those four lovely tunes must have given her rather a big hint though, don't you think! There is also a story, perhaps embellished in the retelling to some extent, that Turlough met Bridget again near the end of his life, on his way to a religious retreat on Co Donegal, recognising her immediately by nothing more that a touch of her hand. It's a romantic story and my setting of the tunes is equally and unashamedly romantic. -Derek Ball |
This work is associated with the following collection items:
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