Carolan’s Concerto

Note from the arranger

This gloriously joyful ‘Concerto’ is one of O’Carolan’s best-loved pieces. Legend has it that the piece was composed as a response to a challenge posed by Francesco Geminiani, an Italian violinist and composer who wanted to see who could compose the best piece in the shortest time-frame.

Geminiani’s contribution does not seem to be recorded (maybe that tells us who won…!), but we are lucky to have been left with this delightfully vivacious offering by one of Ireland’s foremost composers for the harp.

There are many variants of this piece in existence; this solo is based upon a less well-known variant often called the ‘O’Sullivan’ version. The version you find here is my interpretation of the music as based on a number of different sources and then arranged to fit nicely under the fingers on a 26-string harp.

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