Seven comments
Carolan’s Favourite
A lovely jig by Turlough O’Carolan. Also known as Mary O’Neill.
C#s?
Shouldn’t the Cs in the first six measures of the first part be sharp? The version in O’Neill’s sounds right to me.
C#s?
I assume you mean the second part, not the first. Harps were diatonic in O’Carolan’s time (levers were invented much later), so if any of the Cs are natural, they all are.
Chromaticism in O’Carolan’s tunes
GaryAMartin-According to Bunting, harps of the time were frequently tuned to include the raised 4th and/or flatted 7th scale degrees. While some maintain that the chromatics in many of O’Carolan tunes were Bunting’s additions it seems to me that he took great pains and pride in researching the music to try to be as accurate as possible-at least that’s the way he presents himself.
C’s
Play them how YOU think they sound best! There is no RIGHT or WRONG.
Carolan’s Favourite, X:2
As performed by Cherish The Ladies
Carolan’s Favourite, X:3
Here is the version of “Mary O’Neill or Carolan’s Favourite Jig” as published by Donal O’Sullivan in O’Carolan. The Life Times and Music of an Irish Harper, Cork, 2001, p. 175, no. 137.
About the Cs, O’Sullivan writes (p. 273) : “The original has a key-signature of two sharps, but the note C is marked natural in bars 7, 8, 15, 16 and 24, and also where it first occurs in bar 14.”
Therefore, I think these C’s must be played natural. Don’t forget O’Carolan’s tunes were written…