The compositions of Turlough O'Carolan, born in 1670, have a special place in the story of Irish music, as does the figure of Carolan himself, a blind itinerant harper living at a time of significant change in Irishhistory.Carolan seems to embody the image of the old bards in whom resided the last vestiges of the ancient music and the lost art of extempore poetry. His music is often seen as a link between traditional Irish melodies andbaroque musicbut more importantly it includes some of the mos...