To oblige this gentleman, http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=23356, I’m polling the board looking for the name of your favorite O’Carolan compositions.
I’m partial to Planxty George Brabazan & Lord Inchiquin, as well as the evergreen Si Bheag Si Mhor, Blind Mary, Loftus Jones, & Planxty Fanny Power. Mrs Power (aka Carolan’s Concerto) is a splendid tune, as well, although maybe a bit much for a newbie.
I am fond of Hewlett, and Blind Mary.
Carolan’s Concerto, Mrs Judge, Loftus Jones, Eleanor Plunkett, Morgan Magan…all of 'em really, though I must confess I’ve never really latched on to Fanny Power. Planxty Irwin is so overdone, but what a gorgeous tune…
Cheers!
Steve
Maggie Brown’s, also Morgan Mheagan.
–James
Not really much of a Carolan player but Henry McDermott Roe and Mme Maxwell pass through every now and again. Hearing Paul Dooley play Carolan on the wirestrung harp always brings home for me that it is wonderful music when sounding the way it was intended.
Maggie Brown’s - is that the same tune as Planxty Brown(e)? That 's a really sweet melody - I’d forgotten about that one.
Cheers
Steve
‘Carolan’s quarrel with the landlady’ and ‘Carolan’s cottage’ are my current favourites,excepting the old ‘warhorses’.
Re Peter’s comment about wire strung Harps-Derek Bell(R.I.P.) plays such an instrument on some of the tracks on his album,‘Carolan’s Receipt’,and it is a bit of a revelation to hear it ,if you are only used to the sound of the modern ‘Neo-Irish’ Harp.
I do enjoy Carolan’s music-though admittedly,it comes from a different culture than Irish trad. ‘dance’ music.
I’d take Paul Dooley’s harping over Bell’s any day to be honest. And that is not meant t oput down Bell’s playing.
Bumper Squire Jones as played by Mick O’Brien on his May Morning Dew CD. Lovely.
Peter:
<>
I know what you mean, Peter. But we know so little about the way the tunes were intended to sound, apart from the instrument he wrote them for - as far as I know, any harmony you hear on a recording of any Carolan tune is little more than (intelligent) conjecture.
I wonder what the old boy would have thought of my version of Carolan’s Concerto on blues harp…he’d probably be annoyed and amused but may also have felt slightly honoured that his music is still being played in so many ways by so many people in sessions everywhere. Is he the most “played” composer in the world?
Cheers!
Steve
What I really meant was the sound of the small wirestrung harp played with the fingernails.
That aside, there are manuscripts and collections like Buntings that would give an indication of what sort of harmonies would have been used by the old harpers.
A plug: Paul Dooley just has a new Cd with music taken fro mone of the oldest (welsh) manuscripts of harp music. Saw it in Custy’s.
Planxty Denis O’Connor is one that has been recurring to me of late.
Generally though I don’t bother too much with pop fusion stuff… 
Regards,
H.
O’Carolan has more or less disappeared from our Common European Repertoire here in Brullocks, but I used to particularly like O’Carolan’s dream http://www.sosyourmom.com/occ/Gif-111-end/187-OCarolansDream.gif (with thanks to Peter for the lead to that excellent site, I was trying to remember the tune last night and couldn’t think of it to save my life).
I rather like the Princess Royal. One of the first harp O’Carolan tunes I heard, as performed by Maire Ni Chathasaigh and Chris Newman. I think Clannad did a version of it, too, calling it Mrs McDermott. If you bring it down a third (from how it’s written in the gif below), it sits nicely on the whistle in G, but you there are some low notes to bring up. Start on the B… B/A/|GFE etc.
O’Carolan’s Concerto, Blind Mary, Si Beag Si Mhor, and Hewlett are my current favorites by him. 
I am also fond of Planxty Powered Fannies.
Ahem…yes, Joseph…any more talk like that and your fondness for said items will undoubtedly remain unrequited… 
Cheers
Steve
…sniff… 
O’Carolan’s Concerto for me. Actually this is the first song I’ve learnt and played at my first session, and still continue to be my favourite.
Is “March of the King of Leise (sp)” an O’Carolyn tune? If not, then I’ll have to say Hewlett or the concerto. It’s interesting that almost all of us picked those two.
Is there a book with all of his tunes?
