O'Carolan O'Carolan's Concerto Castle Of Dromore Down By The Sallee Gardens Greensleeves John Drury Marble Halls John Reilly Little Prelude Menuet in G Major Etude in A Minor Rondeau Selkie Si' bheag Si' mohr Ash Grove Last Rose Of Summer Minstrel Boy Turlough O’Carolan did not write every piece in this collection but he did pen quite a few of them. O’Carolan, or Carolan, was a harpist in Ireland in around 1600. This although really late, could still be considered Renaissance. The music certainly is in the form begun in the Renaissance. We feel that it is legitimate to perform these pieces on the lute and psaltery. Although the harp was (and unlike the lute, still is) a popular instrument we think the lute was really the “Fender Strat,” so to speak, of its day. Scholars certainly concur that the “lute song” where a lutenist would accompany himself while he sang certainly was a musical form popular in the Renaissance. The lute has the option of forming chords with which a musician could accompany himself. Read more about the history of the lute elsewhere on this site.

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OCarolans Concerto

In this piece as in the majority of the pieces on this album we are employing the Cakewalk Chamber Ensemble to accompany Lonnie’s lute. All of the members of the Cakewalk Chamber Ensemble are graduates of the Chicago Conservatory of Music except the violoncello player, who graduates summa cum laude from Juilliard. Actually, Lonnie attended Juilliard for five and one half years. He majored in landscape maintenance with a minor in kitchen waste removal.

Castle Of Dromore

This Celtic folk song was, to the best of our knowledge, written by Mr. Terrence Traditional. There are two really famous Celtic songwriters. These two artists are Mr. Eamon Anonymous and Mr. Terrence Traditional. This number was written by the latter but probably the more prolific of the two; Mr. Traditional. All jesting aside this is a really nice little lullaby.

Down By The Sallee Gardens

Here without further ado is our version of this old Celtic song. Some attribute this one to Thomas Moore but he doesn’t seem to have the copyright.

Greensleeves

This is our ensemble version of this piece. At the risk of arousing ire we will state that there are those in the “music community” who attribute this song to Henry Tudor, aka Henry VIII. He did write a good bit of music and he was really no slouch at it. We believe it is a good bet that he had something to do with it. We know, for example, that he never cast anyone off discourteously… not even the Pope! To wit: “Get the hell off my island… Sir!”

John Drury

John Drury features Lonnie on the lute accompanied by The Cakewalk Chamber Ensemble. Some people accredit this song to Turlough O’Carolan but there is some conjecture about this one. We like it because it is a lively, fun instrumental. Oh, yeah, and it’s kind of difficult on the lute!

Marble Halls

This song we know is not an opus of Terry Carolan (that’s the anglicized version of Turlough O’Carolan). This was an aire written by an operatic composer named Balfe. It comes from his opera “The Bohemian Girl” The Irish group Enya (yes, we know, she’s lovely to the max but there are others who work with her) also did this song with beautiful lyrics… one of our favourite Enya songs. Wendy plays the alto bowed psaltery on this piece.

John Reilly

John Reilly is another piece credited to Turlough O’Carolan. We think the structure of this piece is really nice.

Little Prelude

Lonnie included this piece played on the lute (it’s usually done on classical guitar) as a puzzle. He always wanted to grow up like Will Short!

Menuet In G Major

J.S. Bach included this work in his Anna Magdalena Bach Notebook. It is very pretty. Lonnie uses the lute and the Martin 12 string guitar on this song.

Etude In A Minor

Ditto Little Prelude!

Rondeau

The Rondeau presented here is our arrangement of Moreau’s Rondeau. Some of you may remember it was used as the title music on PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre introduced by Alistair Cooke. Lonnie used the lute and 12 string Martin for this one too.

Selkie

This is an abbreviated version of the Orkney Islands folk song The Great Selchie Of Sule Skerrie. The full version appears on our cd The Music Of Scotland.

Si' bheag Si' mohr

This one is definitely O’Carolan. This is one of his most recognized and famous pieces. This version is the chamber version and will appear soon as a solo lute piece. It’s in the works now.

Ash Grove

Here is the Heart of Oak version of the old English folk song. We like this song very much ourselves but we include it here for the purpose of dedicating it to our dear friends and co-conspirators in music, Chip and Judy! Wait’ll you hear what we’ll do together in the near future. Heart Of Oak is a growing concern…

The Last Rose Of Summer

This is another really famous song which was not written by O’Carolan. It is very pretty and Lonnie used the lute and the bass bowed psaltery on this one.

Minstrel Boy

The Minstrel Boy is a well known piece about an artist going to war. It really needs no explanation because the meaning is very explicit indeed.