The Complete Carolan Songs & Airs: Arranged for the Irish Harp Paperback – December 1, 2012

I bought this book from Amazon. I got it used pretty cheap. It came with 4 CDs. It is a compilation of every Carolan piece (like 228 tunes or some such) with an arrangement for the harp...it is a nylon harp in the recordings...and every tune is on the CDs. It has a lot of detail about Carolan and his history as well. It is all interesting stuff. It is a monumental work in that every piece has a harp arrangement. The arrangements are pretty good, but it is straight out with no fluff. It takes very little license with the original tunes. I consider it to be a reference work more than anything. Caitriona Rowsome wrote the book, arranged the pieces, and played them...pretty impressive. She has a solid history in Irish music it seems and knows her subject well. I very much have enjoyed reading the book, listening to her arrangements and plucking some of them on my wire harp. If you like ancient Irish music this purchase should be a no brainer. My only complaint is that the Carolan in the picture has an awfully small harp...I sort of feel sorry for him. He probably wouldn't be able to play many of the tunes in the book...lol.

This is a wonderful book for any musician/Harper to have in their collection, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to purchase it from Amazon, (great price too!)All of Carolan’s Tunes are contained in this one book and it’s what I’ve been searching for!

Nice work of scholarship. Seriously lacking as a performance edition: glossy paper sucks on sheet music, you get a glare from bright lights (shown in my picture) and pencil doesn't write nor erase well. Typeface is thin and doesn't scan easily. Stiff perfect binding doesn't lay flat.The music is pretty spare (as expected, not necessarily a negative). It's pretty much just the tunes and a sparse chordal accompaniment. No fingerings or chord markings (also not necessarily a negative). No performance instruction or advice. Lyrics are given inline in Irish and in footnotes as translated English.(Sorry I had a nicer, less tersely worded review but it got lost by the submission form)

Like others here, I have to make a trip to the book bindery before I can actually use this thing. But otherwise, great collection.

Excellent!!! As s Harper of over 35+years and a fan of O Carolan, this is the best collection for Harper's available. It's rare, so get it while you can!!!!!!

The reason I chose this book over others was for the accompanying CDs. Guess what was missing? The CDs!!! I will be returning this book and purchasing it from a more reputable vendor who will be honest and will include CDs with editions that are clearly marked “CD Edition”.

It's so nice to have the complete O'Carolan book. Will keep me in new music for years.

Beautiful...wonderful source and inspiration!