Charity Never Faileth
In the 1840s, Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle introduced "Great Man Theory." This is the story of the world whereby all of history is determined by the actions of Great Men. Martin Luther. Napoleon. Shakespeare. Muhammed. That we, as humans, direct our own history. It's a story-based history. It's not a popular theory today. Herbert Spencer called it childish--that men are merely the product of their environment. Leo Tolstoy wrote in War and Peace that kings don't make history, but are, in fact, history's slaves. History moves and we are merely the pawns that history (or God, according to Tolstoy) uses.
I like story-based history. Not because I believe everything that Thomas Carlyle said (though I wouldn't go so far as to say that we have no control over the fate of the world). But because I like hearing the stories of people. I like learning about people's choices. And whether or not that means anything in the fate of the world as a whole, or it's just drop in the bucket, I think that people's choices effect other people. Perhaps we are merely the slaves of history in the broad sense. But I don't think that means that our actions don't matter within our little microcosm.
Where am I going with this? A story of history that I love. There was an Irish composer in the 17th Century named Turlough O'Carolan. Today, he is called one of the most influential figures in Irish music, and sometimes called Ireland's "National Composer." But in his time, he was considered insignificant. A mere harpist that traveled on a horse and composed for coins. Because he wasn't one of the revered "bards."
His father was a farm laborer or a blacksmith. Documents don't agree. So, that means that Carolan should have been as well. But when he was eighteen, he got smallpox. Though he lived, he was blinded by the disease. And who is ever going to hire a blind laborer or a blind blacksmith? He was, therefore, most likely destined to die a beggar.
But, a noblewoman who knew the family, Mary Fitzgerald McDermott Roe, took pity on him. She put up the money for him to learn the harp, and then bought him a horse and sent him on his way. Carolan was never considered the greatest harper, but he had a poet's mind and composed beautiful music. Almost all of his music is named after the person who paid him to compose it. They don't have lots of a lyrics because it was technically illegal to write music in Gaelic at the time, and no one is really sure that Carolan's English was fluent enough to write poetry in English. But it is beautiful music.
Here is my rendition of one of his pieces, Si Bheag Si Mhor. I do not do it justice, but it's a taste. Look up his music on youtube if you want the full effect.
For a time, a lot of Irish harpers ignored him or worse. Turlough O'Carolan instigated one of my favorite periods in all of music history--Irish Baroque. Traditional Irish music that was influenced by the Mainland Europe styles of the time. And it's gorgeous. But as Irish Nationalism grew, some people started to say, "Oh, you like Mainland Europe, do you? Like England. You like Mainland Europe, you obviously hate Ireland. Good day!" But today, people realize it for its beauty.
And I don't think that Mary Fitzgerald McDermott Roe changed the world. But with her small piece of charity, she made it a better place for Turlough O'Carolan. And by that, she made the world more beautiful.
George Eliot ended her masterpiece Middlemarch, a massively-long analysis of tons of seemingly insignificant people, with one of my favorite lines in literature: "The effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts, and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unmarked graves."
I like story-based history. Not because I believe everything that Thomas Carlyle said (though I wouldn't go so far as to say that we have no control over the fate of the world). But because I like hearing the stories of people. I like learning about people's choices. And whether or not that means anything in the fate of the world as a whole, or it's just drop in the bucket, I think that people's choices effect other people. Perhaps we are merely the slaves of history in the broad sense. But I don't think that means that our actions don't matter within our little microcosm.
Where am I going with this? A story of history that I love. There was an Irish composer in the 17th Century named Turlough O'Carolan. Today, he is called one of the most influential figures in Irish music, and sometimes called Ireland's "National Composer." But in his time, he was considered insignificant. A mere harpist that traveled on a horse and composed for coins. Because he wasn't one of the revered "bards."
His father was a farm laborer or a blacksmith. Documents don't agree. So, that means that Carolan should have been as well. But when he was eighteen, he got smallpox. Though he lived, he was blinded by the disease. And who is ever going to hire a blind laborer or a blind blacksmith? He was, therefore, most likely destined to die a beggar.
But, a noblewoman who knew the family, Mary Fitzgerald McDermott Roe, took pity on him. She put up the money for him to learn the harp, and then bought him a horse and sent him on his way. Carolan was never considered the greatest harper, but he had a poet's mind and composed beautiful music. Almost all of his music is named after the person who paid him to compose it. They don't have lots of a lyrics because it was technically illegal to write music in Gaelic at the time, and no one is really sure that Carolan's English was fluent enough to write poetry in English. But it is beautiful music.
Here is my rendition of one of his pieces, Si Bheag Si Mhor. I do not do it justice, but it's a taste. Look up his music on youtube if you want the full effect.
For a time, a lot of Irish harpers ignored him or worse. Turlough O'Carolan instigated one of my favorite periods in all of music history--Irish Baroque. Traditional Irish music that was influenced by the Mainland Europe styles of the time. And it's gorgeous. But as Irish Nationalism grew, some people started to say, "Oh, you like Mainland Europe, do you? Like England. You like Mainland Europe, you obviously hate Ireland. Good day!" But today, people realize it for its beauty.
And I don't think that Mary Fitzgerald McDermott Roe changed the world. But with her small piece of charity, she made it a better place for Turlough O'Carolan. And by that, she made the world more beautiful.
George Eliot ended her masterpiece Middlemarch, a massively-long analysis of tons of seemingly insignificant people, with one of my favorite lines in literature: "The effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts, and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unmarked graves."
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